Kotick Opens His Mouth About....: an Ongoing Series

[CeeKay]

and crap comes forth!  shocking as it may be, he proves he may even be more full of it than we thought:

"Bungie are a very unusual company," Kotick told the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference. "They're probably the last remaining high quality independent developer. It's very hard to [pauses]... that has sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they're a real company.

someone better break the news to Valve.

and Epic.

and.....

[Eel Snave]

Can someone just tell him to shut up? Kotick, not Ceekay.

[metallicorphan]

yeah he has been quite vocal this week..he has also said something about wanting to sell Video Game cutscenes to us all

Bobby Kotick wants to sell you in-games movies

Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has revealed that he's keen on packaging in-game cut-scenes into a single linear narrative - and selling it to fans as a separate $30 movie.

The idea first popped into Kotick's head when he saw the quality of cut-scenes in Blizzard's StarCraft II.

"If we were to take that hour, or hour an a half, and take it out of the game and we were to go to our audiences, who we have their credit card information a direct relationship, and say to them 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?'"

"Within the next five years, you are likely to see us do that."

 



and then there is this,which is bringing up the old topic on Premium COD,which is apparently now definitely happening
Premium COD in the pipeline

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick - who hasn't hidden his wish for a CoD subscription service in the past - all but confirmed the move.

"They're willing to pay us for it and I think giving multiple entry points to consumers to figure out how to exactly play the game is something that's really important to building our audiences."

don't worry too much,because they have also said that they promise not to cheat fans out of content

he must use up all his spare time thinking of new ways to squeeze the last penny out of us,i know none of that spare time can be spent on his appearance anyway

[Ridah]

Not sure why the gaming community and the media has attached themselves so deeply to Kotick's every bowel movement. He doesn't really make much of an impact on gaming whatsoever outside of the few major IPs that Activision owns.

[jersoc]

Not sure why the gaming community and the media has attached themselves so deeply to Kotick's every bowel movement. He doesn't really make much of an impact on gaming whatsoever outside of the few major IPs that Activision owns.

uh...what? I'm not sure if you know this or not but Activision is pretty big. They basically single handedly forced DLC into existence. So now we get even less finished games because the rest of it is 10 bucks more! WOOO!!!

This is the guy that wants to monetize every fucking thing he can and you want think he doesn't do anything?

Also, thank god Activision and Blizzard are separate.

[Bullwinkle]

Isn't he also basically the guy who killed Infinity Ward?

He's in charge of a massive video game company and has repeatedly shown he has no interest in the medium for anything other than making money.  His statements seem to always refer to gamers as "they" and that rubs people the wrong way.  He's at the absolute forefront of taking the creative out of the game industry (he's made comments that this is his goal, essentially).  He's the reason we have a gazillion "full" Guitar Hero games and Band Hero and DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride.  The last is seemingly unrelated, I know, but it's yet another stupid peripheral.  "They're buying these peripherals, let's cram more down their throats!"

He's an executive making major decisions that affect (y)our hobby.  He has a massive impact.  You should be conserned about his bowel movements.

[metallicorphan]

A new day

A new comment from Kotick,there's no stopping him

this time:SONY,MS and EA will struggle to challenge us in the future because they will struggle to figure out an online future,which Activision have(apparently)figured out already

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has claimed that traditional console companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo face a "struggle" to "figure out" an online future - one which the US publisher has already cracked.

In yet more incendiary comments about rival companies, Kotick said that because of Activision's online dominance, it no longer considers itself competing with "console dependant companies".

"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."

can't wait for Tomorrow

[CeeKay]

can't wait for Tomorrow

tomorrow:  MMO's are dead!

this could be fun 

[Nonnahob]

Almost makes me want to quit purchasing anything to do with these asshats.

[kronovan]

"Bungie are a very unusual company," Kotick told the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference. "They're probably the last remaining high quality independent developer [that I'd like to consolidate into our $ hungry evil empire.]

There...fixed his quote for him.  

[Space Herpes]

I don't get it.  What is he talking about?  All three console companies are selling things on their own separate networks.  Likely future consoles will come with enormous hard drives (or whatever form storage comes in) and you'll be able to download full games off the network.  This, of course, is in direct conflict with some internet companies that want to throttle broadband.  At any rate, I don't see the three console companies struggling.  What I think we've seen this generation is that there is room for 3 separate consoles.  MS just needs to make sure their console is bullet proof and Sony needs to launch at a lower price.  All things considered, I think both companies will succeed.  Nintendo will simply continue to print money (and hopefully come up with a really good online service).

[Ridah]

Not sure why the gaming community and the media has attached themselves so deeply to Kotick's every bowel movement. He doesn't really make much of an impact on gaming whatsoever outside of the few major IPs that Activision owns.

uh...what? I'm not sure if you know this or not but Activision is pretty big. They basically single handedly forced DLC into existence. So now we get even less finished games because the rest of it is 10 bucks more! WOOO!!!

This is the guy that wants to monetize every fucking thing he can and you want think he doesn't do anything?

Also, thank god Activision and Blizzard are separate.

I find that a stretch. DLC has been around for a LONG time, it's been around on the PC forever and even Dreamcast games had it. If you want to blame anyone for the popularization of the business model of micro transactions and paid DLC, blame Microsoft.

[Ridah]

Isn't he also basically the guy who killed Infinity Ward?

He's in charge of a massive video game company and has repeatedly shown he has no interest in the medium for anything other than making money.  His statements seem to always refer to gamers as "they" and that rubs people the wrong way.  He's at the absolute forefront of taking the creative out of the game industry (he's made comments that this is his goal, essentially).  He's the reason we have a gazillion "full" Guitar Hero games and Band Hero and DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride.  The last is seemingly unrelated, I know, but it's yet another stupid peripheral.  "They're buying these peripherals, let's cram more down their throats!"

He's an executive making major decisions that affect (y)our hobby.  He has a massive impact.  You should be conserned about his bowel movements.

I don't disagree with any of this, but you act like he's the only greedy exec in the industry. He's not at the forefront of anything, he's just the one in the media the most. Is Infinity Ward the only studio to ever be killed by a publisher? Really?

[EngineNo9]

Isn't he also basically the guy who killed Infinity Ward?

He's in charge of a massive video game company and has repeatedly shown he has no interest in the medium for anything other than making money.  His statements seem to always refer to gamers as "they" and that rubs people the wrong way.  He's at the absolute forefront of taking the creative out of the game industry (he's made comments that this is his goal, essentially).  He's the reason we have a gazillion "full" Guitar Hero games and Band Hero and DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride.  The last is seemingly unrelated, I know, but it's yet another stupid peripheral.  "They're buying these peripherals, let's cram more down their throats!"

He's an executive making major decisions that affect (y)our hobby.  He has a massive impact.  You should be conserned about his bowel movements.

I don't disagree with any of this, but you act like he's the only greedy exec in the industry. He's not at the forefront of anything, he's just the one in the media the most. Is Infinity Ward the only studio to ever be killed by a publisher? Really?

Nope, and back when EA were treating employees like disposable crap and killing off studios left and right they were also demonized for their shitty practices.  For the most part, Kotick is the only executive these days that makes such terrible statements like this over and over.

[Bullwinkle]

Isn't he also basically the guy who killed Infinity Ward?

He's in charge of a massive video game company and has repeatedly shown he has no interest in the medium for anything other than making money.  His statements seem to always refer to gamers as "they" and that rubs people the wrong way.  He's at the absolute forefront of taking the creative out of the game industry (he's made comments that this is his goal, essentially).  He's the reason we have a gazillion "full" Guitar Hero games and Band Hero and DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride.  The last is seemingly unrelated, I know, but it's yet another stupid peripheral.  "They're buying these peripherals, let's cram more down their throats!"

He's an executive making major decisions that affect (y)our hobby.  He has a massive impact.  You should be conserned about his bowel movements.

I don't disagree with any of this, but you act like he's the only greedy exec in the industry. He's not at the forefront of anything, he's just the one in the media the most. Is Infinity Ward the only studio to ever be killed by a publisher? Really?

Nope, and back when EA were treating employees like disposable crap and killing off studios left and right they were also demonized for their shitty practices.  For the most part, Kotick is the only executive these days that makes such terrible statements like this over and over.

Exactly.  No one expects the big game companies to be altruistic (well, no one should, anyway), but this dick is sitting on his pile of money like Scrooge McDuck looking down on the people he's supposed to be servicing, acting like we're servicing him.  He keeps making these statements like we're expected to bend over and take it.  At least when EA pockets tons of my money, they smile first and say, "Here's a nice, shiny game."

You know, I look at an old man like Peter Moore.  He's in it for the money, no question.  But he has also played the games he's putting out there, if only for a bit.  I get the feeling if you handed Kotick a controller he'd look at it and say, "How do I hold this again?"  Actually, I'm sure he would slap the controller out of your hand before you got a chance then ask you to pay for a new one that only works with one game.

Even compared with some of the buffoon talking heads I'm remembering from E3 (Reggie and the two grinning idiots from the other consoles), he comes out worse.  I don't think any of those guys are gamers, but they don't insult you and ream you for every penny.  Even Reggie.  I'm sure they're working on getting every nickle, but they have the good sense to not let you know that.

[naednek]

Not sure why the gaming community and the media has attached themselves so deeply to Kotick's every bowel movement. He doesn't really make much of an impact on gaming whatsoever outside of the few major IPs that Activision owns.

 They basically single handedly forced DLC into existence.

Nah you're thinking of Kathode when he worked at Bethseda...  remember horse armor in Oblivion? 

[kronovan]

I get the feeling if you handed Kotick a controller he'd look at it and say, "How do I hold this again"

Exactly, whenever I see a picture of him I can't but help think - "now there's a guy who'd rank DNF in any Mario Kart race" 

[mytocles]

Nope, and back when EA were treating employees like disposable crap and killing off studios left and right they were also demonized for their shitty practices.  For the most part, Kotick is the only executive these days that makes such terrible statements like this over and over.

Is it too much to hope that he goes the way of the last stupid-ignorant-big-mouthed CEO (or maybe BP will hire Kotick and get him out of our business?)  At least BP recognized the toxic nature of Tony Hayward's ad-libs - why doesn't whoever is in charge of Kotick muzzle him? 

I'd guess they either agree with what he says, or they at least want us to keep talking about him - as in the theory, "there is no such thing as bad publicity."  Though never guaranteed, that theory has lasted a long time - and seems to hold true more often than not.

[metallicorphan]

well,a new week and Kotick is busy busy busy

these are all from CVG,taken from an interview Kotick has done with Edge Magazine

West and Zampella probably 'never successful again'

Activision boss, Bobby Kotick has claimed that fired Infinity Ward founders, Jason West and Vince Zampella will "have a really hard time ever being productive or successful ever again."

"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," he said. "The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.

"You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit - you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."

and with West and Zampella signing up for EA,guess who is next in Koticks firing line

EA are Struggling

"[EA's] been struggling for a really long time," he told Edge.

"The most difficult challenge it faces today is; great people don't want to work there. It's like, if you have no other option, you might consider them."

"EA will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', EA New Jersey', whatever," he said.

"We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that's what makes them so successful.'

"We don't have an Activision anything - it's Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer. That, to me, is one of the unassailable rules of building a publishing company. And in every case except for two, the original founders of the studio are still running the studios today.

so,who's next on the list....ahh Tom Schafer

Schafer called me a prick,but his game wasn't good

Kotick claims he made the right decision to axe Schafer's game, Brutal Legend from the publisher's schedule, because it didn't turn out "particularly good".

"Tim Schafer. The guy comes out and says I'm a prick. I've never met him in my life - I've never had anything to do with him," he told Edge.

"I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it."

"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."

When asked in an interview whether Kotick can really be blamed for wanting to make as much money as possible, Schafer replied: "Well, he doesn't have to be as much of a dick about it, does he?"

"I think there is a way he can do it without being a total prick. It seems like it would be possible. It's not something he's interested in."

FWIW-I quite enjoyed Brutal Legend,i just didn't like those Stategy parts with the concerts..everything else though was great

[Autistic Angel]

After Activision canned Brutal Legend, EA bought out the project and financed its completion, only to have Activision turn around and file a lawsuit to prevent its release.  The suit never had a chance of winning; it was purely a ploy to prevent the game from being released.

*That's* why Bobby Kotick is a total prick.  It's not about his desire to make as much money as possible, but about going out of his way to hurt people in the process.

-Autistic Angel

[metallicorphan]

Schafer fights back

Koticks Insults are 'sad'

"It's sad that instead of just insulting me personally, he goes after the product of my hard-working team - a group of people he almost put out of work a while back," he said to Eurogamer.

"But what's even sadder is that it took him two months to think of a comeback."

[Bullwinkle]

Schafer fights back

Koticks Insults are 'sad'

"It's sad that instead of just insulting me personally, he goes after the product of my hard-working team - a group of people he almost put out of work a while back," he said to Eurogamer.

"But what's even sadder is that it took him two months to think of a comeback."

And that's why Shafer rules (and Kotick is a prick).

[metallicorphan]

EA fights back

EA hits back against Kotick attacks

EA has hit back at Bobby Kotick in response to the Activision boss's comments that EA was "struggling" and "great people don't want to work there."

"Kotick's relationship with studio talent is well documented in litigation," an EA spokesperson told CVG this evening.

"His company is based on three game franchises - one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."

the 3 franchises are said to be
1-World of Warcraft
2-Guitar Hero
3-Call of Duty

[The Grue]

EA fights back

EA hits back against Kotick attacks

EA has hit back at Bobby Kotick in response to the Activision boss's comments that EA was "struggling" and "great people don't want to work there."

"Kotick's relationship with studio talent is well documented in litigation," an EA spokesperson told CVG this evening.

"His company is based on three game franchises - one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."

the 3 franchises are said to be
1-World of Warcraft
2-Guitar Hero
3-Call of Duty

EA quote is awesome.

[Bob]

Indeed.

[Bullwinkle]

Eurogamer put up an interesting article titled "Oh no, what's Bobby said now?"

It doesn't side with Kotick, per se, but it cuts him a little slack.  However, reading the article, I found that the only evidence that Kotick gives a shit about video games is a press release telling us he does.  The article claims he is hurt by that impression which people have of him, but I have yet to actually see him care about the industry in a way that isn't "this makes me money."

Also, they talk about the Infinity Ward scandal being a two-sided story (and of course it is), but the complaints an insider has about IW is that they were divas and only wanted people they liked working for their team.  Also, they were leveraging power they'd earned to get what they wanted.  ????!!??  Isn't that what you're supposed to do?  If you had the power to create a work environment and team that made you happy, shouldn't you do that?  As for the diva thing, they also kind of earned that.  Let their hubris implode, but yeah, they made one of the most succesful franchises in gaming history, they get to crow about it.  Deal with it.

I guess Kotick is upset because he saved them from EA, and they turned on him.  I get that.  But also, Bobby, you turned into EA on them.  One of their big complaints was that EA wanted to make Medal of Honor a yearly franchise.  And then you forced them to do that with Call of Duty and handed their baby to another team to do so.  And you're shocked they're so pissed?

I don't know, I just don't see how he hasn't learned to shut the hell up yet.

[metallicorphan]

those first few comments made me LOL on that EG page

[CeeKay]

Kotex on... what really happened with Brutal Legend.

[TiLT]

This seems to be a trend with Kotick. He distances himself from decisions so that when things go sour or plain wrong he can say "I didn't know about this". It's such a classic tactic that I'm surprised anyone buys it.

[CeeKay]

Kotick on... the App store.  good, no Activision shovelware!

[CeeKay]

Kotick Threatens to Move UK Operations; World Largely Indifferent.

[TiLT]

Whine whine we now have to pay taxes like everyone else whine whine

[kronovan]

Somehow I don't think Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer is going to be swayed much by his threat to pull out of a 600 employee biz. I'm also betting that Chancellor will be less impressed than anyone by Kotick's verbal diarrhea. A shame is it happens though, as the Slough area probably offers a better quality of life than a lot of dev studio locations.

[Razgon]

Somehow I don't think Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer is going to be swayed much by his threat to pull out of a 600 employee biz. I'm also betting that Chancellor will be less impressed than anyone by Kotick's verbal diarrhea. A shame is it happens though, as the Slough area probably offers a better quality of life than a lot of dev studio locations.

yeah - only ever heard of one company with that kind of pull, the danish company Maersk. Whenever Maersk-Mckinnney Møller says he wants the taxes on his company done his way, the government nods its head and salutes. Then again, he has 60.000 employees, which is kinda a lot for a 5 million inhabitants country.

[Victoria Raverna]

EA fights back

EA hits back against Kotick attacks

EA has hit back at Bobby Kotick in response to the Activision boss's comments that EA was "struggling" and "great people don't want to work there."

"Kotick's relationship with studio talent is well documented in litigation," an EA spokesperson told CVG this evening.

"His company is based on three game franchises - one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."

the 3 franchises are said to be
1-World of Warcraft
2-Guitar Hero
3-Call of Duty

EA quote is awesome.

One of the 3 franchises killed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110209-718584.html

Due to declines in the music genre, Activision said it will disband its "Guitar Hero" business unit and discontinue development on the game this year.

[metallicorphan]

more shit for Activision

Activision loses price fixing appeal

The European Union has rejected an appeal by Activision to have an antitrust fine for price-fixing reduced.

The European Commission had fined Nintendo and seven distributors including Activision €167.8 million (£142.4m) for colluding to artificially raise the prices of games and consoles between 1991 and 1998.

In 2009, the lower EU court halved Activision's €1 million share of the fine to €500,000 (£424,276) due to its "passive role" in the affair.

what's half a mill though to them?surprised they even tried to appeal

[Razgon]

So -those money are getting back to those that bought games between 1991 and 1998? Meaning, ME?!?!

[CeeKay]

So -those money are getting back to those that bought games between 1991 and 1998? Meaning, ME?!?!

only if you have the orignal receipts 

[Bullwinkle]

So -those money are getting back to those that bought games between 1991 and 1998? Meaning, ME?!?!

only if you have the roignal receipts 

Roignal was for the PC, wasn't it?

[CeeKay]

So -those money are getting back to those that bought games between 1991 and 1998? Meaning, ME?!?!

only if you have the roignal receipts 

Roignal was for the PC, wasn't it?

no, it was for the Ja-goo-are.  it was the game that too up 5 cartridges.