Ex-Visceral boss: Switching to Activison is "fantastic"

Former Visceral bossman Glen Schofield, has told Joystiq that moving with colleague Michael Condrey's to form Sledgehammer Games for Acti has been a "fantastic" experience.

The new studio was announced in November.

"The transition has been fantastic. We haven't looked back once," he said.

"I had a great time at EA, we made some excellent games, and I'm proud of the work we accomplished there. Activision offered us the opportunity to start a studio from scratch, create the culture, hire the team and build a state of the art game making facility. Instead of inheriting an existing studio like I did with Visceral, we were now able to create a brand new space, and more importantly, a new culture.

Schofield added that Activision's studio structure rivals EA's "city state" development ideal.

"Operating Sledgehammer under Activision's independent studio model feels great," he said.

They have given us full support to build a world class studio and implement the development methodologies we believe will lead us to success.

"They leave game-making to the game makers. It's a simple philosophical difference with some other companies' approaches. It's empowering and doesn't force processes into teams that slow down decision making."

Schofield said he's not at liberty to say what the new studio's working on, but that the title will be "something that surpasses" the previous titles he worked on in terms of "critical and commercial success".

"We believe the game will be quite unique and will bring something new and exciting to our fans.

"Sledgehammer has been given the time to develop a game that will make the company proud. [Activision] hired us for our track record and vision and they are supporting our plans, ideas and creativity 110 percent.

"It's refreshing - the trust that they have given to us - and we don't take it lightly."