Outside of WoW, what exactly does Kotick think he has as far as Online bussiness is concerned?
I think the guy has gone completely nutz. Microsoft is right now IMO the leader when it comes to Online service. Xbox Live is a BEAST, and with the integration in W Phone 7 it will continue to grow.
WoW is just a game, Xbox Live is an actual Service
This is a case of talk shit while you can. It's easy to look down upon others when you're at the top. Unfortunately for him, it's just common sense that all things must come to an end. Question is, who's going to pick him up when he falls? Regardless of where you are and who are you, you don't want to burn any bridges even against a hated rival.
Perhaps it's just the fact that Kotick happens to be in this shot, but even the Activision logo looks like that of an evil corporation with plans for world domination.
He already sold off the bulk of his stock if I recall. He seems to be maximizing the company's profit now, with no sign of any long term plans. On the Activision side of things of course, but when you have Blizzard on the other hand. Who cares.
That's the thing. He's just going to rake in massive bonuses, goal meet rewards, etc. Cut costs while milking current properties. Then bail on the company once it the milk starts to dry up.
He'll end up a few hundred million dollars richer, while thousands lose their jobs. But people will finally prove Kotick wrong >_>
Can we forget the Bobby-hating for a sec? Does anybody know what he means by that? Since he pays Sony and MS royalties for online content, he should be dependent on their online infrastructure, not competing with it. Even if you include PC and Blizzard it still doesn't make sense since they aren't competing with major console manufacturers there.
All that picture needs is him petting a cat in his lap.
JKBii said:
Can we forget the Bobby-hating for a sec? Does anybody know what he means by that? Since he pays Sony and MS royalties for online content, he should be dependent on their online infrastructure, not competing with it. Even if you include PC and Blizzard it still doesn't make sense since they aren't competing with major console manufacturers there.
Can we forget the Bobby-hating for a sec? Does anybody know what he means by that? Since he pays Sony and MS royalties for online content, he should be dependent on their online infrastructure, not competing with it. Even if you include PC and Blizzard it still doesn't make sense since they aren't competing with major console manufacturers there.
""We've heard that 60 percent of [Microsoft's] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call of Duty," Kotick told the Financial Times. "We don't really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on Live, but it's not our network.""
Can we forget the Bobby-hating for a sec? Does anybody know what he means by that? Since he pays Sony and MS royalties for online content, he should be dependent on their online infrastructure, not competing with it. Even if you include PC and Blizzard it still doesn't make sense since they aren't competing with major console manufacturers there.
Seriously, though. I'm pretty sure that's the only way for Activision to really "compete" with Sony/MS in online service and I'm pretty sure it's inevitable.
I do remember seeing that a few months ago. The spoiler tags were in jest. I'm just saying it's more evidence that an Activision console is coming. Honestly, I'd be surprised if it wasn't announced along with an Xbox-Live-like online service at next year's E3.
This. Their best asset is Battle.net and WoW. I don't see how that puts them leaps and bounds ahead of anyone especially when Korean F2P games have been booming. I don't think anyone really knows what will happen in the online space.
Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick sneers at California's "beyond absurd" proposal to ban the sales of violent video games to minors. "The argument that video games present some kind of new ominous threat that requires a wholesale reassessment of one of our nation's most treasured freedoms, and to take that freedom away indiscriminately from an entire group of our population based on nothing but age is beyond absurd," he said.
I know, I guess what I mean is it's not a spoiler since it's already out there.
CrayzeeCarl said:
I'm just saying it's more evidence that an Activision console is coming. Honestly, I'd be surprised if it wasn't announced along with an Xbox-Live-like online service at next year's E3.
Yeah, it's a matter of when, not if. Or perhaps more a matter of "what". A new dedicated console might be a harder sell than PCs with the pre installed Activision subscription service on them. Get one free month, while stocks last!
This is a case of talk shit while you can. It's easy to look down upon others when you're at the top. Unfortunately for him, it's just common sense that all things must come to an end. Question is, who's going to pick him up when he falls? Regardless of where you are and who are you, you don't want to burn any bridges even against a hated rival.
If Activsion made a console, which I doubt they would, I wouldn't be interested in buying it. I'm not into their franchises at all, this includes Call of Duty. I don't mind playing COD at friends houses, but not enough to purchase a console.
This is a case of talk shit while you can. It's easy to look down upon others when you're at the top. Unfortunately for him, it's just common sense that all things must come to an end. Question is, who's going to pick him up when he falls? Regardless of where you are and who are you, you don't want to burn any bridges even against a hated rival.
If Activsion made a console, which I doubt they would, I wouldn't be interested in buying it. I'm not into their franchises at all, this includes Call of Duty. I don't mind playing COD at friends houses, but not enough to purchase a console.
This shouldn't be a surprise because this is where most of his money comes from. World of Warcraft and Call of Duty alone make up something like 3/4 of the business that Activision does, with WoW making up a little over half.
Kotick's sprinting in this direction because he took a look at their balance sheet and smelled the money. As a result, Activision probably has more experience and resources dedicated to getting these large-scale, pay-per-month games up and running than any other developer. Doesn't Acti have like 2000+ people just for WoW customer service? I mean, an organization like that takes lots of time, money, and expertise, of which the only big competitor they would have is Sony, specifically their SOE branch.
From Kotick's comments that past couple of months, he wants to create a few really popular titles that are pay-to-play, WoW style, but continually grow and expand as a result of the pay structure into something that is effectively impossible to create for a standalone game.
It's not a vision of gaming that is loved by everyone, but a large number of people will get a big kick out of it, as WoW subscribers can attest. Plus, with all these resources focused on these large projects, that leaves less room for shovelware/yearly installments of games.
If what Kotick wants is the development of a few special titles behind pay gates at the expense of doing annualized sequels and other unnecessary garbage, then godspeed, good sir.
Otherwise, fuck him, his maniacal grin, his stock options, and his garbage managing style. Eat a bag of dicks, shit them out, and microtransact that shit for $15 a pop, you pasty-ass, overweight wanking motherfucker.
Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick sneers at California's "beyond absurd" proposal to ban the sales of violent video games to minors. "The argument that video games present some kind of new ominous threat that requires a wholesale reassessment of one of our nation's most treasured freedoms, and to take that freedom away indiscriminately from an entire group of our population based on nothing but age is beyond absurd," he said.
Of course he will disagree with the ban. No shit. Every Call of Duty game not sold due to age restriction is a potential loss of income for Activision. I highly doubt he even understands other reasons behind age restrictions.
"But the traditional companies - the Electronic Arts, or Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo or Disney - that make console-based video games, are going to really struggle [in future] to figure out how to get into these online business we're in today."
Kotick claimed that Activision's 2007 'merger' with Vivendi - which saw the French media powerhouse effectively buy the US publisher - has put it in a more secure position than any other games company, largely thanks to Blizzard's infrastructure.
"It was why we sold control of our company to Vivendi," he added. "We recognised that developing all of the capabilities that Blizzard had ourselves would probably put us in a place where we would have... not [only] a decline in our operating margin, but no operating margin. We would invest billions of dollars in all this online capability - and likely actually not produce a great result.
"There [was] so much built-up expertise at Blizzard when we did this merger - that we're now applying to Call Of Duty, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero - that we otherwise wouldn't have had access to. That puts us in a much better position than many of the very console-dependant companies we used to compete against."
Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick sneers at California's "beyond absurd" proposal to ban the sales of violent video games to minors. "The argument that video games present some kind of new ominous threat that requires a wholesale reassessment of one of our nation's most treasured freedoms, and to take that freedom away indiscriminately from an entire group of our population based on nothing but age is beyond absurd," he said.
It's "beyond absurd" because a) it can't be implemented b) it's bad for business. There are cornerstones of the "freedom of speech" issue, like the Wikileaks stuff, but this has nothing to do with that. Freedom of speech, in this case, is just a pretext for being allowed to sell stuff that's easy to sell to kids but possibly quite harmful. And talking about freedom of speech as a "most treasured freedom" in America in the light of the Wikileaks crap is in fact beyond absurd and makes me throw up. Fucking Call of Duty is anything but free speech ffs.
Anyway, marketing stuff to children should be regulated a lot more (or even banned outright), that's all, especially the more advanced marketing stuff should be regulated a lot more. It's evil as fuck, no video game can be as bad.
Leave it to Kotick to make you feel "dirty" for buying an Activision product. I already told myself I wasn't going to buy Black Ops but I'll probably end up getting it anyway :/
