Kotick: LucasArts Profits from The Old Republic, Not EA

[Greg Tito]

Kotick: LucasArts Profits from The Old Republic, Not EA

Activison Blizzard's CEO is not afraid TOR will steal money from World of Warcraft.

The cash cow of WoW is showing its age a bit. Back when Bobby Kotick's Activision merged with Blizzard in 2008, the MMO was riding high with more than 12 million subscribers and TV spots all over the Super Bowl. In the last year though, customers have been departing Azeroth for greener pastures, with Activision reporting dethrone Activision's shooter franchise [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114124-World-of-Warcraft-Slips-Further], while simultaneously betting heavily on BioWare's The Old Republic delivering the final death blow to WoW. Bobby Kotick isn't buying it. Due to how licensing deals with LucasArts have worked for him in the past, he thinks any money TOR makes will benefit LucasArts more than EA, and he scoffed at the Star Wars game stealing subscribers from his own MMO.

Activision and LucasArts have had a long relationship - Force Unleashed, LEGO Star Wars - so Kotick doesn't believe that the licensing contract will allow EA to make as much bank off TOR as pundits are predicting [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113189-The-Old-Republic-Will-Be-the-Last-Subscription-MMO]. "We've been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don't really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts," he said. "Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars."

Kotick also isn't very impressed with all of the so-called WoW-killers which have emerged over the years. "If you look at the history of the people investing in an MMO and achieving success, it's a small number," Kotick said. Whether it's Age of Conan, Rift or even The Old Republic when it comes out on December 20th, Kotick is betting that WoW will still reign supreme come 2012.

At least, until Blizzard's new MMO - codenamed Titan - is announced.

Source: Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/29/us-media-summit-activision-idUSTRE7AR1ZY20111129]

Permalink

 

[VincentX3]

Stealing Money

It made me lol, being the multimillion dollar company they are.
Instead of it being Friendly competition they just call it stealing money.

Shame on both of them.

 

[Jandau]

The thing about WoW is that it has transcended being a game in a way. It's played be people who aren't gamers, it's played by girlfriends who run healer to their boyfriends tanks, it's played by whole families. WoW is a cultural phenomenon as much as it's a game. Now, we could argue how and why it got that way, but the fact is that it's there and it's not going away any time soon. It's slowly dying away, but far older and smaller games are still around and kicking, so it'll likely not die in the forseeable future.

MMO makers should stop trying to make games that aim to "dethrone" WoW, since that just can't happen. They should focus on making games, making them good and getting people to play them. Ignore WoW, maybe steal an idea or two if it's any good and leave it at that. You can't win against WoW because it's more than a game.

For the record, I don't play WoW. I used to, but haven't for the past two expansions. I don't have a stake here, just calling it like I see it.

 

[Otaku World Order]

I don't know how many people will still be asking for a Star Wars MMO now that Galaxies is dead, but then again how much of that Clone Wars crap made money?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

See, even if Kotick is speaking the god's honest truth, I don't believe him.

But if it's a choice between Kotick, Lucas and EA getting shafted...can I line them up in one line? Preferably with Ubisoft at the end of it.

 

[Fensfield]

Honestly, I have to admit I've no particular love for either. Quite frankly, from what I've seen of ArcheAge, I hope that becomes the next big game if anything does - its form and ideas seem much healthier for the industry than yet another quest-locked railroad of a spoon-feeding, endgame-obsessed gear-grind - although I'm sure someone'll correct me on that somewhat, but anyway.

Really, I think the industry needs to dial it back some. "AAA" MMOs are all very well but to be honest I think what's really needed are lots of innovative, smaller affairs that can survive as niche experiences. My favourite MMORPGs still remain Ragnarök Online, the online Phantasy Stars, and Mabinogi. All three brought something unique (for their time, and so I felt), tended not to pander too horribly to their player-bases' short-sighted tantrums, and were designed to operate with an enthusiastic niche rather than diluting themselves across a chase for the massive profits of a game they would never match anyway.

Besides, I don't really think one can make a game as successful as World of Warcraft deliberately. That kind of stupidly large success seems to come by accident though it does seem possible to deliberately hold onto it. I'm sure Blizzard figured the thing would be big but..

Well anyway. Distasteful Kotick, too.

 

[krellen]

The game (SWTOR) is mechanically virtually identical to World of Warcraft, so EA and BioWare (and LucasArts) are betting that people always wished WoW was actually set in Star Wars.

 

[Worgen]

I'm still looking forward to how guild wars 2 is going to impact everyone else, since it sounds like its got a huge budget, no monthly fee and gets rid of the holy trinity.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Having played SWTOR beta, its ok but more or less a straight WoW-clone with voice-overs. Its hard to get into though, since the lore is TOR and not the contemporary setting. While I was a fan of KOTOR, I felt the setting was better as a one-shot rather than full-scale. Having played TOR I feel my opinion is justified. I don't see why there should be Chiss in the setting, being 1000 years previous to the "first-contact". Yes, there is a bit of artistic license and all... but still.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

I actually tink This game has a chance. I recently got to play the SWTOR Beta and for someone who is new to MMO's I liked the game alot, heck I would say I loved it. Now even though I never played an MMO I played every Bioware game to memoery and I see its features a lot more than I've seen WOW's. It reminds me exacetly of KOTOR which is the games predisscor.

The game has qualtiy and really good story and while the MMO grind is still kinda their its to a lesser effect and I feel I did the missions more to move the story along rather than to get X item.

I really don't care if it kills WOW all I know Bioware made a quality game that like all MMO's usally feel a like WOW and added their great stroytelling skills to it to help remove the grind.

I pre-ordered this game day one and I believe that it will do well enough, if it will be the WOW killer I don't know. But its 2 time Game of the yea winner Bioware making the game and the worst they ever did was make a good game instead of a great one.

 

[Sixcess]

He's right of course. To paraphrase the most recent Jimquisition, you don't beat WoW by being WoW, and voice acting, cutscenes and ultra-linear storylines aside, TOR is WoW.

TOR's going to have a huge opening then slip to the second tier along with all the rest. It's not enough of an MMO to win over the serious, subscription paying MMO fanbase so it won't even hurt the other MMOs as much as some people are predicting.

At this point WoW is its own worst enemy. Mists of Pandaria's announcement trailer on Blizzard's own Youtube channel is running at almost 50% dislikes and that can't be attributed solely to fanboy hating. For the first time it feels like Blizzard have really made a mistep, but that's still only the first cut of the thousand that'll be needed to kill the 800lb gorilla.

 

[Worgen]

I'm still looking forward to how guild wars 2 is going to impact everyone else, since it sounds like its got a huge budget, no monthly fee and gets rid of the holy trinity.

This is not true.

Guild Wars 2 did NOT get rid of the holy trinity, they consolidated it. Anyone can tank, heal or DPS. But make no mistake, the holy trinity is still there.

Dps is still there but tanking and healing are... different, tanking for instance is less about keeping the focus of a mob and more about controlling a mob by stunning it or distracting it in some way, and it doesn't really have healing, its got support, most of the heal effects that heal others are just aoe rege... screw it, I'm lazy and I have a project to do, here is a link.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/

In short, its kind of got its own trinity but its not the one that all the others have and its much much more flexible.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

SWTOR will not kill WoW. WoW is only crumbling by the pathetically low standards of people desperate to see WoW crumble. SWTOR is a damn good game that will probably do well. Both games put other MMOs to shame.

None of these facts have any relation to anything Bobby fucking Kotick says. I don't know why he feels entitled to talk about WoW at all considering it was developed completely independently of his company's input and even now Blizzard operates pretty much autonomously by all accounts.