According to a report in Variety's Cut Scene blog, games that have been under development at Vivendi Games' Sierra label may soon be facing the ax. Development teams will have to pitch their titles to Activision brass after Vivendi's merger with the company is complete. While games set to release in 2008, like The Bourne Conspiracy and Ghostbusters, are expected to get the green light, titles not as far along in development face a very uncertain future.

"Vivendi's Blizzard label is, of course, quite safe from all this. The merged company is going to be called Activision Blizzard, after all. So long as World of Warcraft keeps printing money faster than the Fed, they'll be left alone by Activision's execs to do as they please," says Cut Scene. "But the future of the rest of Vivendi Games is quite uncertain. Even though Vivendi proper will retain a majority stake in the merged entity, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will keep that title and his president of publishing president Mike Griffith remains in charge of all non-Blizzard games."

"Activision obviously made the deal to get its hands on the biggest MMO, and really the biggest game, in the industry," the report continues. "Everything else is basically an afterthought. Which leaves all of those making the afterthoughts in an uncertain position."