Every merger has a few casualties, and it looks like some of Sierra Entertainment could suffer cuts as a result of its parent company Vivendi's merger with Activision. Several future projects of Sierra - which now houses High Moon Studios, Massive Entertainment, Radical Entertainment and Swordfish Studios - could be on the chopping block.

Mark Fritz at Variety said, "I've had numerous sources tell me that development teams on all of Vivendi's games now have to essentially pitch their projects to Activision executives." He likens the situation to the merging of two film studios: "Just like when a new executive teams takes over at a film studio, some projects in development get killed and others get changed as the new folks in charge start establishing their own tastes and corporate priorities."

All of Sierra's 2008 projects - such as Prototype and Ghostbusters, set for release in the fall - are supposedly safe. Projects in earlier stages of development could be scrapped, however. It's tough to feel sad when unannounced projects get shelved but the point is, we may be seeing a lot less from Sierra and its subsidiaries in the near future. As far as the rest of Vivendi is concerned, we at least know no one's going to touch Blizzard - unless they try to make a Lost Vikings golf sim or something.