Age of Kotick

[erztez]

And that's why we need to stop buying Activision crap. I did, you can't imagine they freedom of bitching about SC2 being cut into three parts when you didn't buy it, and so you're immune to return fire from fanboys

Also, I'm GLAD I skipped MW2, watched a mate play and BOY does that thing suck.
And you couldn't PAY me to play Guitar Hero, I still think of a guitar as a piece of wood/plastic with metal strings that make sounds while you pluck them.

Aaaaand I think I just ran out of everything ActiBlizz puts out these days, or am I missing something?

Oh, btw, I cancelled my WoW account a week before the merger came through

Ok, thats scary. I did the exact same things. I did not buy a Call of Duty since the first one, i did not buy a Guitar Hero or anything else Activison published in the last 5 years and i even cancelled my WoW sub. a week before Blizzard was bought. And yes i even avoided SC2 for the same reason.

The only thing we need is approx. 15 million clones of us to make a change.

I'm working on the clones, trust me. Unfortunately, all the best cloning experts were snatched up by ActiBlizz to work on CoD:MW27.
Also, got you beat, didn't even buy the first CoD, found a game box with the CD-key still on it when I moved in

 

[SimuLord]

There are hundreds of thousands of talented business majors in the world that would love a crack at a high-paying, high-profile job like this,

Have you BEEN to business school? I'm an accounting major. The people who are my peers are exactly like Kotick. Wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, possess no imagination or initiative whatsoever, and are taught from Day One to do exactly what Kotick is doing. Reduce risk, provide steady returns, create business models that analysts outside their industries can readily understand.

Bobby Kotick IS the best of the best at what he does. It's just not readily apparent because business school is the art of learning how to get paid shitloads of money to be a professional fuckwad.

("But Fox! You're a business major! Are you saying you're an idiot too?" FUCK AND YES, but at least I'll be a rich idiot. I'd have majored in creative writing if I had a Harry Potter spell to make my student loans disappear.)

 

[Jared]

The problem I see with Kotick, at the end of the dya hes a businessan, wanting to make mney. Im ok with that - But, when he goes aroun flaunting it, and putting it in your face thats when it upsets me

 

[erztez]

The problem I see with Kotick, at the end of the dya hes a businessan, wanting to make mney. Im ok with that - But, when he goes aroun flaunting it, and putting it in your face thats when it upsets me

Oh, I got no problem with rich people flaunting their ill-gotten gains (if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be driving the car I am). It's just that I don't call a press conference to rub the poor bastards noses in it.
Lynch mobs are a nasty bunch, best to avoid them.

 

[erztez]

There are hundreds of thousands of talented business majors in the world that would love a crack at a high-paying, high-profile job like this,

Have you BEEN to business school? I'm an accounting major. The people who are my peers are exactly like Kotick. Wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, possess no imagination or initiative whatsoever, and are taught from Day One to do exactly what Kotick is doing. Reduce risk, provide steady returns, create business models that analysts outside their industries can readily understand.

Bobby Kotick IS the best of the best at what he does. It's just not readily apparent because business school is the art of learning how to get paid shitloads of money to be a professional fuckwad.

("But Fox! You're a business major! Are you saying you're an idiot too?" FUCK AND YES, but at least I'll be a rich idiot. I'd have majored in creative writing if I had a Harry Potter spell to make my student loans disappear.)

Intl. Economics major (doesn't really apply with our education system, but wth) here. I agree, boy do I agree. But even we moneygrabbers know enough to differentiate what we say to the shareholders and to the goddamn public.

Some conversations belong in the boardroom and should never, under any circumstances be allowed to leak. Ever.

Bobby has basically set his facebook status to "hehe gamerz r st0pid, they keep givin me moniez even tho I think they're utter retardz". While he is perfectly justifiable in thinking that, he should have the common business sense to keep quiet about it.

 

[SimuLord]

There are hundreds of thousands of talented business majors in the world that would love a crack at a high-paying, high-profile job like this,

Have you BEEN to business school? I'm an accounting major. The people who are my peers are exactly like Kotick. Wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, possess no imagination or initiative whatsoever, and are taught from Day One to do exactly what Kotick is doing. Reduce risk, provide steady returns, create business models that analysts outside their industries can readily understand.

Bobby Kotick IS the best of the best at what he does. It's just not readily apparent because business school is the art of learning how to get paid shitloads of money to be a professional fuckwad.

("But Fox! You're a business major! Are you saying you're an idiot too?" FUCK AND YES, but at least I'll be a rich idiot. I'd have majored in creative writing if I had a Harry Potter spell to make my student loans disappear.)

Intl. Economics major (doesn't really apply with our education system, but wth) here. I agree, boy do I agree. But even we moneygrabbers know enough to differentiate what we say to the shareholders and to the goddamn public.

Some conversations belong in the boardroom and should never, under any circumstances be allowed to leak. Ever.

Bobby has basically set his facebook status to "hehe gamerz r st0pid, they keep givin me moniez even tho I think they're utter retardz". While he is perfectly justifiable in thinking that, he should have the common business sense to keep quiet about it.

I'll grant that, and I'll also grant that speaking as someone who's had writing published, turning a 25-word idea into an 800-word column on a deadline is easier said than done so I don't fault Shamus for doing so.

/sorry, Shamus!

 

[Albino Boo]

I tell you what Kotick got hired for and that is to increase Activision retained profit. The shareholders feel, quite rightly, that a company with a $4 billion turnover should be making more than 120 million in profit. That's only around 3% profit so its hardly being greedy. Kotick is there to do the unpopular things, to cut costs and to increase revenues from the existing business. There is no amount of PR is going to disguise this, so he will ignore it all the hate until he steps down to spend more with his share options. He will stay there for about 3 years and the next guy will be all touchy feely and have the shiny PR. His replacement wont have to do the nasty things and will have freedom to do the things that is suggested in the article.

Hey, I'm not saying what Bobby's doing is wrong for Activision(it is in the long term, but that's beside the point I'm trying to make).
I'm saying that those PR guys are getting paid to spin stuff like "We want to charge extra for multiplayer" so that it sounds GOOD.
Bobby should do what every good CEO does, shut up and only show his face in public to promote new products.

Look what I'm saying is that Kotick wants all the flak to be aimed at him. He wants to be Mr Nasty so all the blame attaches to him and not the company. If all the hate is focused at Kotick it makes his successors job much easier of changing the image of the company. That's the strategy what the PR guys are getting paid the big bucks for.

 

[SimuLord]

And you couldn't PAY me to play Guitar Hero, I still think of a guitar as a piece of wood/plastic with metal strings that make sounds while you pluck them.

You could pay me to play Guitar Hero. Hell, you could pay me to play Big Rigs all day if the money was good enough. But then I'm lazy as hell at heart.

 

[Buizel91]

Every time i see his name, this comes to mind


Can't think why though =\

 

[Lord Honk]

I just hope that by the time I graduate from uni the game industry will have hit rock bottom with only a way back up, I really don't want to enter a ship that's sinking.

I know there's hope out there, with many strongstanding developers and fresh, indie blood flowing, but after being so desperately optimistic the last few years it seems that bright, or at least modest, future I longed for is being replaced by a strong resentment to finish my studies just yet.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Mr. Kotick's biggest flaw is how out of touch with his customer base he truly is. And this eventually is something that will come and bite him on the ass. Karma has its way.
Stifling game development to franchise-only elements is a surefire way to burn a customer-base out. Eventually people will tire of CoD XLI and look for something else. Or on the other hand, the smarter customer goes where the talent is, not necessarily where the franchise name is. So if your business gaffe's have forced out some really good developers, they'll go somewhere else to make a game and the customer base will follow them. Or maybe just the smart ones. Even now you can see the decline of the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero phase. Beat a series to death, and don't be surprised when you realize it truly is dead.
Look at the whole DDR craze, its gone pretty much the way of the dodo other than at arcades.
I guess my whole point is, this guy's and idiot and eventually things will turn on him, hopefully Activision doesn't go down with him because there is talent there.
And one can't milk Blizzard forever... they're bound to die out some day, just like everything else.

 

[erztez]

Look what I'm saying is that Kotick wants all the flak to be aimed at him. He wants to be Mr Nasty so all the blame attaches to him and not the company. If all the hate is focused at Kotick it makes his successors job much easier of changing the image of the company. That's the strategy what the PR guys are getting paid the big bucks for.

The sad thing is...it ain't working. Sure, good ol' Bob is catching SOME of the flak, but as per my previous posts, I, and some like me, are refusing to buy ANY Activision product. Firing Bob won't make a difference, people like Tippl(the current COO) are still there. Just because you remove the tumor doesn't mean the cancer's gone.

 

[Atmos Duality]

My problem with the man is that despite all of his outward greed (which is apparently the sole driving force in a capitalist economy...so greed clearly isn't evil [*rolls eyes*]), he could be putting this motivation to good use...but doesn't.

He could be trying to finance the next level of gaming...but he won't. Fuck, if it weren't for their addiction to sequels, they could very well make even more money by exploring niche markets.

But no. The one and only market that matters to Kotick (and his company, by extension) is the mainstream. In short, they don't want to expand the market, they want to milk it dry before their competition can.

He fires his (wildly profitable) developers just before a contract ends so he doesn't have to pay royalties to them. He wants to sell features of a game you already fucking paid for (I'm not purchasing the opportunity to buy the game, am I?).

He hates the consumer enough to (essentially) continuously brag in public about how fucking rich he is. Worst of all, is that he can attribute his success to the same gullible fucks the world over.

Bobby Kotick is the only CEO I have ever seen who wants to deliberately devalue his products so he can set the future industry standard.

And in the world of corporate greed, I'm unsure if the man is either a hack, or a psychotic genius. He's a scary force in the gaming world though, and his sort of attitude is exactly the sort of thing that turns me away from new titles.

 

[erztez]

...And one can't milk Blizzard forever... they're bound to die out some day, just like everything else.

I keep telling people that WoW is reaching the end of it's shelf life, and SC2 is already rotten.
Hell, ActiBLizz is telling people that WoW is going to start winding down in a few years.
Why does everyone think that WoW and CoD and GH and...'eh, no idea...are enough to keep a monster like ActiBlizz afloat?
It's a rule of any organism, if you don't grow, you die.

 

[Xocrates]

Cutting up the three acts of a single-player game and selling each at full price.

Et tu, Samus?

Why do people keep insisting on this point? This is bullshit, and you know it.

SC2 is out, we know we didn't get a third of a game as SC2 is indeed pretty damn big for an RTS. Whether or not we'll pay full price for the "sequels" is something we DON'T KNOW, as Blizzard has never been very clear on it though it implied they would probably be priced as expansions.

All Blizzard did was announce 2 expansions in advance. They did nothing that other more well regarded developers hadn't done before.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Have you BEEN to business school? I'm an accounting major. The people who are my peers are exactly like Kotick. Wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, possess no imagination or initiative whatsoever, and are taught from Day One to do exactly what Kotick is doing. Reduce risk, provide steady returns, create business models that analysts outside their industries can readily understand.

Which boils down to "encourage investment, give stockholders good dividends, fuck everyone else"... Which is fine from a business/investment POV but not so good if you're a consumer or employee.

But you're right... what sounds like distilled stupidity and greed to gamers is good copy for people who've seen the numbers thrown around about the size of the industry these days and looking to invest for a good return. If the people who own shares of the company don't give a fuck about games and the people looking to become the same don't either, then why should the execs hired to run the company for the benefit of those people?

End of the day, though, doesn't matter if you tell people you're sodomising the goose that laid the golden egg because it'll make it so that it can lay those eggs faster, it's still pretty rough on the goose.

 

[RDubayoo]

He really dropped the ball with the IW fiasco, but he made up for it. Guess who they have in place instead of IW now? Bungie. So much for attracting good talent to Activision. Now they can create original, sequel worthy games.

And with a competent CEO, Activision would have IW AND Bungie.

How do you like him now?

 

[Gizen]

Very nice article. Consumers who play games need to realize that at the end of the day we need to acknowledge that Kotick is on our side when representing the video game industry. Drama always happens and the drama that gets Kotick that resentment is only internal that really doesn't affect the consumer directly.

What? How does it not affect the consumer to pay more for less? It affects the customer very directly.

Do people know that Kotick and Activision is on our side for the Supreme court case ensuring that video games are protected under free speech?

Just because you and the devil see eye to eye on one particular issue, does not make him your 'friend'.

Sure Kotick wants to advertise the Call of Duty series but you'd be damned sure that Kotick will easily prop up the real mascots of the video game industry like Mario and show dissenters that statistically that M rated games are the minority compared to E rated and T rated games.

So not only do you admit that Kotick doesn't have our interests at heart and is only looking out for himself, but even if that wasn't the case, those arguments are not gonna help our case in the supreme court. The case going before the supreme court is not to determine how much of the games industry is rated E, M, or T, it's to determine whether or not video games are a harmful substance to be regulated and censored, or art to be left alone like TV and movies.

But at the end of the day you have to know who your allies are and for that despite being drama creator Kotick is on our side.

No, he really isn't on our side. He's like a vampire, saving you from getting hit by a truck so that he can drag you into the shadows and bleed you dry.

 

[erztez]

Cutting up the three acts of a single-player game and selling each at full price.

Et tu, Samus?

Why do people keep insisting on this point? This is bullshit, and you know it.

SC2 is out, we know we didn't get a third of a game as SC2 is indeed pretty damn big for an RTS. Whether or not we'll pay full price for the "sequels" is something we DON'T KNOW, as Blizzard has never been very clear on it though it implied they would probably be priced as expansions.

All Blizzard did was announce 2 expansions in advance. They did nothing that other more well regarded developers hadn't done before.

Actually, no.
They announced a full game, then (after Activision made them their *****), they announced they were splitting it into three games. Does it really matter if other two thirds of the game are full price, or slightly less? (Remember, it's ActiBlizz we're talking about here -you know, the guys that price WoW ExPs HIGHER than the original game- they're gonna be full price).
Also, SC2 is not "pretty damn big for an RTS". It's got a "pretty damn long campaign for an RTS", no LAN, crappy matchmaking system, no lobby, castrated multiplayer units/buildings...oh, and it's got FUCKING FACEBOOK INTEGRATION (the ultimate sin of them all).
Also, the fact that this fuck-you to the consumers happened more then a week ago doesn't mean it's still not exactly as true as when they announced it, their BS excuses about "wanting to develop more content" notwithstanding.

So, before you run to their rescue, remember who they have to bow to.

 

[erztez]

No, he really isn't on our side. He's like a vampire, saving you from getting hit by a truck so that he can drag you into the shadows and bleed you dry.

Actually, I was thinking more of the guy who saves you from a beatdown in prison, just so he can take you to his cell and show you how stuff REALLY works there...
Also, about being on the same side as ol' Bob...hey, the Taliban actually were on the same side as me during the Soviet occupation of their country. Didn't agree with them then, don't plan to start now.