Activision CEO: We Need to Fix Our Hardcore Reputation

[theaceplaya]

Tell Kotick to just watch what he says around people. Or at least think about them/clarify. Like stated, there were a lot of things said that sound great to investors, but not to the gaming population.

I suppose it boils down to don't make it look like you're out JUST to make money. Make good games without burning out your franchises, and we gamers will gladly give you our money.

 

[DominicxD]

Wait.
People actually LIKED the Kevin Buttler ad campaign?

His speech at E3 was fucking epic.

The guy may be getting paid to say what he's saying, but he's still a charming guy.

 

[CanadianWolverine]

All this guy is just another person who realizes Activision needs to control their propaganda better. There is little he can do to actually improve the way they do business and the impact that has on the games they publish. He is just admiting they have the image of a wolf when what they really want is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

 

[TOGSolid]

"We Need to Fix Our Hardcore Asshole Reputation"

Fixed that. Acitivsion's problem isn't it's target audience, it's the way it presents itself as a company. Kotick isn't a well liked public figure. In fact, quite the opposite, and match that with the Infinity Ward bullshit and the DLC pricing for MW2 and presto, you've got your universally hated company.

And don't forget the bullshit they pulled with Brutal Legend. No amount of public PR is going to fix Activision. They need to change the way they treat their customers and their developers and I highly doubt that's going to happen.

 

[Yureina]

I'm wondering how long it will take before this guy's efforts at PR get royally sabotaged by another one of Kotick's "brilliant ideas" that he reveals to the public.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

The only way Activision will be getting any more money from me is if they fire Nobby Kotick, take all of his money away from him and force him to play Totemball with Jack Thompson for the rest of his natural life. And cut off all of his limbs too. Even then I probably wouldn't bother buying anything from them seeing as the only two franchises they will have in the future will be Call of Duty and [total shite] Hero, unless they do indeed merge the two and make twice as many titles per hour as they would have done.

 

[Sebenko]

He can start by putting a bullet in Bobby Kotick...

My thoughts exactly.

It's just about the only thing that will help.

I feel for this guy. I mean, he's just been given an impossible task. It would be easier to make [GW Bush/ Hitler/ Justin Bieber] seem [Smart / a good guy / a good musician]. Select as appropriate.

I'm going for "make Hitler seem like a good musician".

 

[The Great JT]

Here's an idea: stop pandering to hardcores. Sure, there's nothing wrong with a game made for a certain demographic or taste in game, but there's so much pandering to that demographic that you're gonna end up alienating new gamers.

 

[Jared]

I can give them one place to start with a certain CEO's greedy comments...

They have ALOT of work to do, and, I dont even know if its possible...but, I suppose if Sony can do it...

 

[gibboss28]

All I can read from that is "We need to make it look like we're giving in to the idea that hardcore gamers actually exist and aren't just a target market we made up which these dumb fucks who call themselves 'hardcore' are actually buying in to"

Or maybe thats just me.

 

[Danpascooch]

I like this guy, I love his hilarious commercials, and he seems to understand how consumers feel.

Too bad Bobby Kotick is going to probably stonewall him every step of the way.

 

[John Funk]

Good step in favor of the supposed 'hardcore' community would be fixing Battle.Net 2.0 for SC2. Give back LAN, give chats, give more map making freedom, get rid of region lock, fix custom games browsing and password protection.

Then again, they probably just will stick those politics to shooters *cries*

You know that we are getting chats and cross-region play after launch, right?

The region locking makes sense when you think about it - what they're doing with the special pricing models for places like Russia/South America, etc. It's already segmented, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was harder to implement normal cross-region play right off the bat with it. But they've said they'll be adding it for sure.

 

[Weaver]

Well, when the core values of your company are:

1) Annualize all franchises.
2) Exploit our consumers with overpriced games and content.
3) Treat all our employees like shit.

Yeah, I think maybe you need to reevaluate yourself a bit.

 

[Keava]

You know that we are getting chats and cross-region play after launch, right?

The region locking makes sense when you think about it - what they're doing with the special pricing models for places like Russia/South America, etc. It's already segmented, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was harder to implement normal cross-region play right off the bat with it. But they've said they'll be adding it for sure.

Oh i know, but it's still unknown when exactly. I remember Blizzard was quite keen on Soon(TM) even prior to merge with Activision.

I don't really see how the subscription based model for Russia/S.America would prevent cross-region gameplay tho. If you remember from a brief beta glitch, you had the message saying "Out of play time", so it is an option implemented core in game. I suppose they would be perfectly compatible.

If i recall correctly the reasoning was 1. Lag 2. Building tighter community. While 1st reason can be acceptable, it is still not the kind of protection die hard fans apparently want. Then again, i should be happy, i wont get my ass beaten by Koreans right away. Second is just silly along with other changes, can't build community by splitting it.

And those are just 2 issues out of many that people have with new b.net. I still think they should go back to sc1/wc3 sort of handling it, till they can provide full service.

 

[John Funk]

You know that we are getting chats and cross-region play after launch, right?

The region locking makes sense when you think about it - what they're doing with the special pricing models for places like Russia/South America, etc. It's already segmented, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was harder to implement normal cross-region play right off the bat with it. But they've said they'll be adding it for sure.

Oh i know, but it's still unknown when exactly. I remember Blizzard was quite keen on Soon(TM) even prior to merge with Activision.

I don't really see how the subscription based model for Russia/S.America would prevent cross-region gameplay tho. If you remember from a brief beta glitch, you had the message saying "Out of play time", so it is an option implemented core in game. I suppose they would be perfectly compatible.

If i recall correctly the reasoning was 1. Lag 2. Building tighter community. While 1st reason can be acceptable, it is still not the kind of protection die hard fans apparently want. Then again, i should be happy, i wont get my ass beaten by Koreans right away. Second is just silly along with other changes, can't build community by splitting it.

And those are just 2 issues out of many that people have with new b.net. I still think they should go back to sc1/wc3 sort of handling it, till they can provide full service.

It's possible, but remember that part of the terms of the subscription models is that they can only play with their own group - Russian people who get that model only play on Russian servers, not the larger European ones. The architecture is set up in a way to fragment it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was just more complicated to fix than they have the resources to do right now - you know, with finishing the game and all.

 

[Weaver]

You know that we are getting chats and cross-region play after launch, right?

The region locking makes sense when you think about it - what they're doing with the special pricing models for places like Russia/South America, etc. It's already segmented, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was harder to implement normal cross-region play right off the bat with it. But they've said they'll be adding it for sure.

Oh i know, but it's still unknown when exactly. I remember Blizzard was quite keen on Soon(TM) even prior to merge with Activision.

I don't really see how the subscription based model for Russia/S.America would prevent cross-region gameplay tho. If you remember from a brief beta glitch, you had the message saying "Out of play time", so it is an option implemented core in game. I suppose they would be perfectly compatible.

If i recall correctly the reasoning was 1. Lag 2. Building tighter community. While 1st reason can be acceptable, it is still not the kind of protection die hard fans apparently want. Then again, i should be happy, i wont get my ass beaten by Koreans right away. Second is just silly along with other changes, can't build community by splitting it.

And those are just 2 issues out of many that people have with new b.net. I still think they should go back to sc1/wc3 sort of handling it, till they can provide full service.

It's possible, but remember that part of the terms of the subscription models is that they can only play with their own group - Russian people who get that model only play on Russian servers, not the larger European ones. The architecture is set up in a way to fragment it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was just more complicated to fix than they have the resources to do right now - you know, with finishing the game and all.

Surely it's gone gold by now?