Activision’s Bobby Kotick hates developers, innovation, cheap games, you

Wednesday, October 21 2009 @ 03:31 PM BST

_{by Gavin Stuart}

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has been on fire this week. At the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco he made a number of comments that seem to have been calculated to explode the heads of gamers, developers, and anyone who cares a jot about the industry. In a wide-ranging speech, Kotick – who earned $14m last year – dropped a number of bombs about Activision’s future plans, none of which were designed to make anyone happy apart from Activision shareholders.

Essentially, Kotick is in thrall to the almighty dollar to the expense of all else. Thus: “In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit. Today, we’ll (charge) $100 for a guitar. You might add a microphone or drums; you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.”

This echoes a statement Kotick made last year when he explained the company’s lack of support for some new games, specifically ones that don’t lend themselves to sequels. Activision, Kotick said, has no interest in games that “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises.”

Talking of $100m franchises, Kotick likes the way that World of Warcraft is heading. “The best of all margins – the 25 per cent operating margin business – has the potential as we can see with World of Warcraft to be a 50 per cent operating margin business. What used to be a low 20s return on invested capital business is now growing to a plus 40 per cent return on invested capital business.”

And he’s not just setting his sights on Guitar Hero and WoW fans. Talking about upcoming and expensive Activision titles such as Modern Warfare 2, Kotick said: “if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.”

Having fired these encouraging salvos at the gaming community, Kotick then switched his targets to console manufacturers, who he seems intent on putting out of business by “untethering” Activision games from other-party hardware. “I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is equal the playing field a little more and give you some leverage with first parties when it comes to downloadable content and the business model.”

Maybe the choice quotes of the event, though, came when Kotick talked about Activision’s developers; you know, the guys who actually make the stuff he gets so rich from. You’d think he’d have a bit of respect for them, right? Oh no, Kotick’s goal over the past 10 years has been – you couldn’t make this up – “to take all the fun out of making video games.” How? By instilling a culture of “scepticism, pessimism, and fear” amongst the company’s staff based around the economic depression and an incentive program that rewards “profit and nothing else”.

We’re having a hard time coming to terms with all this. While we tend to expect mega rich corporate bosses to be at least a bit evil, this flagrant display of gamer hate has left us dumbfounded. Activision is a mammoth company, with some of the biggest-selling franchises in the world under its umbrella, but at the end of the day its profits come from the pockets of gamers who don’t want to miss out on some great titles. If any other CEO exhibited as much contempt for his or her customers as Kotick has, their company would surely expect to face negative feedback or even a consumer boycott. But you just know that nothing like that will happen here. Apart from running the negligible risk of a few blogs printing pictures of him with devil horns or a Hitler moustache, Kotick knows that he’s invulnerable. The gaming “community” just doesn’t have the will or the organisation to, say, boycott Modern Warfare 2, and that – even more than Kotick’s comments – makes us truly sad.

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_{Note: This article was written in September 2009}

On this very moment we already have : 122431 Signatures

And PC gamers all over the world are canceling their pre-ordered Modern Warfare 2 !

MW2 petition and sign the PC MW2 Online Petition

No dedicated servers for PC version of Modern Warfare 2

Tuesday, October 20 2009 @ 01:07 AM BST

_{by David Jenkins}

The PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will not feature dedicated servers, according to statements made by developer Infinity Ward.

Instead the game will use a new proprietary matchmaking service called IWNet - a decision that has already caused outrage amongst fans. The announcement was made by Infinity Ward's Fourzertwo on the BASH podcast.

"We've been building up this system on the backend called IWNet to allow matchmaking for our PC users as well, just like you have on the console that's built in on Xbox Live and PSN, but PC never had it, so we're building in our own, you know, matchmaking so you can get in there and play with players your same rank," said 402.

"You're completely reliant on IWNet, and there's no dedicated server or server list, so you rely on IWNet for your matchmaking on your games, but then you also have the private match, much like the other platforms, where you can go in and customise and, you know, turn off air support, turn off this, turn off that, customise the game rules all via private match, and invite people to the server that way," he added.

Even on the podcast the reaction to the news was negative, with Fourzerotwo remaining non-committal about support for custom content and fan-made modifications - while vaguely hinting at plans for patches to add additional features.

Although recent sales have been heavily skewed towards the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Call of Duty franchise began as a PC exclusive and still has a significant fanbase on the platform. Inevitably a petition with already 80,000 signatures has already been established, to try and reverse the decision on dedicated servers.

Sony takes more risks than Nintendo

Wednesday, October 07 2009 @ 06:47 PM BST

_{by Matt Martin}

Sony Amercia's Jack Tretton has said that the company is willing to take more risks than its competitors, although he sees both Microsoft and Nintendo's financial positions as enviable.

"We like to see ourselves somewhere in the middle. We don't have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience, we're willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo," Tretton said in an interview with Forbes.

"We like to say the environment where PlayStation wins is best for this industry, because we have a brand that can play on a worldwide basis - young and old, male and female - where our competition tends to be relegated to either select regions or select consumer audiences."

Nintendo has been catering to the same audience for 20 years, according to Tretton, and reaps the financial benefits of knowing its consumer.

"[Nintendo] know what they do well and they stick to it," said Tretton. "They deliver a casual, youth-oriented entertainment experience, it's very enjoyable after 20 years, and they make money. They print money. Their profitability is their key focus. I think that's enviable."

Microsoft has time to be patient in the long-term with its videogame business, said Tretton, in part due to the amount of money it can afford to pump into the console market.

"I love their money. I mean, they've got more money than God," he said.

"They can afford to be more patient. We're very profit-driven. We're interested in a return on investment in a fairly short period of time. I think Microsoft's will to go at it from a much more steep curve in terms of profitability."

Activision lays off 30 from recently purchased 7 Studios

Wednesday, October 07 2009 @ 06:43 PM BST

_{by Kath Brice}

An estimated 30 employees of 7 Studios have been laid off by owners Activision, according to reports.

The music game studio was acquired by Activision in April this year as it worked on DJ Hero competitor Scratch the Ultimate DJ, an acquisition that resulted in the game's original publisher, Genius Products, pursuing legal action against it.

This legal action culminated in 7 Studios being ordered to return all source code and tools to Genius.

Activision denied buying the studio with the sole intention of delaying the release of a competitor's game and gaining access to its technology, saying at the time the buy out would "bolster its development capabilities."

However, today Kotaku reports around 30 employees of the studio are thought to have been laid off - a number that represents approximately half of the entirely of 7 Studios.

"Since the completion of its acquisition by Activision, 7 Studios has realigned its business to focus its development resources on the music genre. As a part of this realignment, the studio is reducing its workforce to better reflect Activision's upcoming slate of music-based games," said an Activison representative.

GameX Industry Summit 2009

Wednesday, September 23 2009 @ 02:10 AM BST

About the Summit

GameX Industry Summit is co-located with GameX (Games & Media Expo), and is scheduled October 24-25, 2009 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. GameX Industry Summit is presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) chapters in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Game industry professionals will convene for two days of games-focused lectures, panels, roundtables and keynotes from the best and brightest minds in the games business. In addition, GameX Industry Summit attendees will have access to GameX, the only major game convention in U.S. supported by a major media sponsor, NBC Local Media in Philadelphia – WCAU TV/NBC 10.

Infinity Ward: We are constantly doing new stuff.

Wednesday, September 23 2009 @ 01:45 AM BST

^{by David Radd}

Infinity Ward, creators of the Call of Duty franchise and the acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, have quickly become one of the most successful development teams on the planet. Still, their success has come from a singular IP, causing Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford to rhetorically ask, "Can you give me something I haven't seen before?"

Today, Infinity Ward community manager 402 responded and left the door open for Infinity Ward to do something else somewhere down the line.

"When we feel like we can't innovate any further in the Call of Duty franchise, then we'll do something else. A lot of that mentality went into Modern Warfare 2. That's why it's Modern Warfare 2. It is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but you'll never see that in game. We never call it that. It's because we think of this as a new IP. This is our Modern Warfare 2 game. So we are constantly doing new stuff."

"We're doing stuff in this game that you've never seen before, which is awesome," he continued. "We're going to new locations in single player that you've never seen before. We innovate in our own way. But yeah, eventually we'll do something else, and it will be fun and it will be awesome and it will be fresh and it will be great."

While many would assume that work on Modern Warfare 3 has already begun, 402 claims this isn't the case. "Right now, 100 percent of the team is dedicated on Modern Warfare 2. Honestly we have no clue what our next game is. I'm planning on taking a nap for three months. And then maybe I'll wake up."

While seeing something new from Infinity Ward would be great, right now the Modern Warfare incarnation of Call of Duty is only in its second iteration and is a long way from having grown stale. And considering how huge the franchise is for Activision, you can bet the publisher isn't ready for Infinity Ward to pursue a brand new IP just yet.

2009 Golden Joystick Awards

Saturday, September 12 2009 @ 03:19 AM BST

It's time to choose your winners...

Cast your vote in the 2009 Golden Joystick Awards.

Gaming's biggest and brightest awards ceremony in Europe needs YOUR suggestions.

Game Developers - Game Job Opportunity

Sunday, August 23 2009 @ 02:25 AM BST

GameDev.net - GameDev.net was created with the sole purpose of providing a public site where game developers could freely exchange information. It is powered by game developers, real people with real experience and education in their fields. This site contains technical articles that have been written by literally hundreds of people across the world on various topics and varying skill levels. The site also includes news on the latest happenings in the game development world.

GameJobs.com - GameJobs.com is the leading employment site serving the interactive entertainment industry. GameJobs.com helps connect game industry professionals with new career opportunities, and HR managers with a comprehensive solution for attracting qualified applicants.

Gamerecruiter - The number one recruiting firm in interactive entertainment, GameRecruiter offers unparalleled experience and professionalism for both candidates looking for a job opportunity and employers seeking the industry’s leading talent. With a 2-decades-long history of recruitment specializing in unique and unadvertised opportunities focused exclusively in games, GameRecruiter has earned an international reputation for recruiting the technical, production, and executive staff who build game industry companies and make game history.

International Game Developers Association (IGDA) - The International Game Developers Association is the largest non-profit membership organization serving individuals that create video games. The IGDA is committed to advancing the careers and enhancing the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.

German Trade Fair for interactive games and entertainment

Wednesday, August 19 2009 @ 11:20 PM BST

gamescom 09: Celebrate the Games!

A new era for gamers, retailers and exhibitors starts in August, 2009 in Cologne Germany: the gamescom opens its gates for the first time.

As a game trade fair, games festival and business platform, it is the place to be if you want to try out new games, socialise, celebrate or just simply be astonished. Nearly 400 exhibitors from all over the world will present their innovations in the area of interactive entertainment electronics. This is the world and European premiere of numerous computer games which are just waiting for you to test them.

And the above photo shows... INFINITY WARD - ACTIVISION is also present on this gameshow !

Opening times for public visitors:

Thursday, 20/08/2009	10:00 a.m. – 20:00 p.m.
Friday, 21/08/2009	10:00 a.m. – 20:00 p.m.
Saturday, 22/08/2009	09:00 a.m. – 20:00 p.m.
Sunday, 23/08/2009	09:00 a.m. – 18:00 p.m.