Activision Blizzard not willing to spend enough money on their games ?

_{by Claire Claws}

Call of Duty: World at War got released on November 11th 2008. And it is almost 2 months since, but the game is still in same crappy state as it was on day one.

Still no 1.2 patch, no communication and frustrated players. Why?

Development costs for video games can now reach $25 million to $50⁺ million per title, making the industry more like Hollywood since a few hit games can deliver substantial profits. A game publisher like Activision Blizzard can cut costs by using the same technology in multiple titles. And it has the money and marketing muscle to launch BIG ad campaigns. Estimated Activision Blizzard revenue for 2008 : $2.9 billion.

In December 2007 the game giants Vivendi and Activision announced a surprise $18.9 billion merger agreement that would combine some of gaming's largest brands. Now Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft are all under the umbrella of the largest new third-party game publisher; Activision Blizzard. And in July 2008 Activision Blizzard announced its intention to purchase 146,500,000 shares of its own stock at a price of $27.50 per share.

In August 2008 the Activision Blizzard shares started to drop from a $30⁺all the way down to today´s price: only $8 per share ! And that's a real dangerous bummer for any company.

Is this one of the reasons why Activision Blizzard recently decided to allow in-game advertising in their next CoD title : Modern Warfare 2 ?

So lets meet the fresh CEO/Director/President of Activision Blizzard Inc. :

^{Robert A. Kotick}

The goal at Activision Blizzard, according to Kotick, is to build "an institutional-quality, professionally managed video-game company."

But the Financial Analyst Colin Sebastian, who recently lowered his estimates on slower Guitar Hero sales, lowered his projections again as a reaction on Activision discounted the retail price of the Call of Duty: World at War from $59 to $49. Colin Sebastian said: "While this move may be part of an annual promotion, we believe a $10 discount on one of the industry's top holiday releases highlights has the risk of lower software pricing moving into the new year." Less profit, again not a good thing for a WallStreet player.

Despite Kotick's long tenure in the gaming business, he has a demonstrated preference for hiring from outside the gaming industry. The company's top management is filled with veterans of the consumer-products industry. Both publishing chief Mike Griffith and Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tippl had long careers at Procter & Gamble before joining Activision. Brian Hodus, chief customer officer, hails from Cadbury Schweppes.

Statement from Kotick : "If you want to run an institutional-level company, having people who know how to run businesses is in many respects a lot more valuable than having people know how to make video games . "

Kotick also does not immerse himself in game development. Activision runs on the so-called city-state model, giving its studios autonomy to develop games while also being held accountable for cost control.

"The people who make games here are the best in the world at making video games, " Kotick said in a interview " and it would be totally presumptuous of me to try and insert myself into the process somehow. "

Well he does... and same goes for the rest of the management at the company's top.

For years now the Call of Duty Development costs have to be paid from a budget. Maybe this budget looks huge on paper, but it is clearly not enough to hire plenty of people to get Call of Duty: World at War finished and fully tested on the preset release date.

Former development employees named budget as the why some things couldn't be fixed sooner or promised features got cut out.

So what does this all mean for us... the customers?

Well if a game needs a patch because of some unexpected errors and there is only just small amount of budget-money left... then you can forget a quick patching.

CoD2 had a budget problem and it seems CoD: WaW is suffering from the same problem.

So those few gamedevelopers, who are still working for the studio after the day of release, then try to get ALL errors fixed with just the 1 patch. Just because this is the cheapest option. But the buyers have to wait (and can be months) till finally they come up with fixes for all errors made and bugs found by the CoD community.

(CoD: World at War also has the "Master Server problem". It is unknown from which budget things like extra hardware and higher annual costs must be paid. Infinity Ward had same problem with CoD4 and they had make some unexpected changes and get a hardware server placed in their office.)

So, when the developers don't get enough financial resources to make a ready and steady to play new CoD title with some great novelty features, when after all these years it is still considered to be very normal to release a new CoD title with major bugs and script/hardware errors and when you give the task of communication with the buyers of your products to twenty year old boys...

How serious must we take this Mister Kotick ? He surely doesn't take us buyers serious.

Can be our Mister Kotick is forgetting something. The last few years the financial markets showed very unrealistic results. The sky was the limit and everyone was a financial hero. But in reality it was just a Credit Card Fairytale and now the clock struck 12. So it would be wise to start with making those marketing slogans reality. If not... it can be game over soon.

So Kotick, if you want to run an an institutional-quality, professionally managed video-game company you could start with having some top products to sell. I personally would invest a bit more game-development and direct communication and less in made-up marketing one- liners. Fix any problems as fast as it takes. Try to be a bit nicer to your customers. We want to pay $59. So give us a game that is deserves to be bought for 59 dollars.