How Much Money Does Bobby Kotick Make?

[Kellerb]

Its good to have a solid hate figure.

 

[JakobBloch]

...are you sure there isn't some modicum of envy at the black and darkened heart of that hate.

No. I'd rather earn my money by not exploiting my customers.

He's not exploiting anyone. If you buy his games with his ridiculous prices, then you're saying that that game is worth the price. If you don't like the price, don't buy the game. The only one you can blame is yourself. He's just being a good businessman by raising prices, because he knows people will continue buying video games.

When you put it that way, I feel the need to agree with you. So really, by doing something that will not effect their sales too badly, but still making the money lost from the willingness of people to buy the game... he's not doing anything wrong?

No, he isn't doing anything wrong. And he's not likely to lose money. He's in a business. His first priority is to make money. Every decision he makes is to fulfill that goal. If he increases prices, he believes that most everyone will still buy the games at the increased price. Even if a few people back down and don't buy at the increased price, the mass majority will, resulting in a greater profit. The consumer has the power. If you don't like the price, don't buy the product. If enough people don't buy the product, he DOES lose money, and will revert the price to get more people to buy.

It's simple economics. Yet, people cry and call him evil, but go out and show their support by buying the game. It's ridiculous.

True. It is capitalism at work. However there is another set of criteria to consider when choosing to buy or not. We are not only dealing with a business here. We are also dealing with a quantity of intellectual property. For some reason the CEO's and boards off these companies are making millions on someone elses bright idea (Not just Mr. Kotick). Some of the money does trickle down to the one actually having the ideas. This is why I buy games.

And this is where capitalism shows its shortcomings. In a capitalistic system altruism and creativity is punished (or at least not rewarded as much) while parasits flourish. In a capitalistic system the on paying is considered to run the greatest risk. The person doing the actual work and having the ideas does not have anything (or at least very little) to loose.

Somehow publishers have succeded in convincing people that they are actually doing the developers a favor by letting them get their vision out to the masses. The whole idea of the partnership has gone the way of the dodos, and while developers labor away for pittance, big business CEOs receive huge bonuses from the shareholders for gouging the developers.

Ultimately this is a bigger issue then just gaming. As some people have pointed out the amount that Mr. Kotick gets is far lower then other businesses but that is not the problem really. The problem is that this system rewards greed. As a result the people who are not greedy suffer. I do not recent Mr. Kotick for making that much money. I recent how he made the money. By feeding the greedy shareholders.

 

[Birras]

I have to love this guy just for how much outright and Evil is. He's Lawful Evil for Game Business. America Bless this man.

Blasted Lawful Evil buisness execs! Big buisness should learn from the indie scene and go chaotic neutral!

But L.E execs are the best, it shows everyone the only way to succeed in the world is to screw other people.

The only people that should get paid to screw people are casino employees and whores. Just look at all the succesful C.N. people in the world! Er...the guy who writes xkcd...Van Gogh (posthumosly)...M.C. Pants...and Weird Al.

I'm pretty sure most of those are Chaotic Evil, and Weird Al is Chaotic Good.

Okay, you can make an argument for guy who writes xkcd and Weird Al, but Van Gogh what simply a C.N. guy affected by Darlan's Silent Insanity, and M.C. Pants wrote songs that taught people to do anything from wearing pants to surviving a zombie apocalypse, escalting him above any of the Evil ratings!

 

[Cryo84R]

You know what it's called when other people get to decide how much you make without being involved with you at all?
Facism.

He's an ass, but leave him alone.

 

[Dioxide20]

He's the American dream come true. We'd all be greedy bastards making millions if we could.

Sounds about right. With that kind of money, I'd be waking up every morning to perfect ham sandwiches and gold-plated fellatio.

:O I LOVE THE WAY YOU THINK! except for ham... i hate ham
lol

 

[Baby Tea]

Quite frankly, no-one deserves to make that much money.
It's disgusting.

 

[Sewblon]

Are those after tax figures? He is scraping together money to make a game about himself beating terrorists to death with his gentiles and curing cancer.

 

[The Bandit]

...are you sure there isn't some modicum of envy at the black and darkened heart of that hate.

No. I'd rather earn my money by not exploiting my customers.

He's not exploiting anyone. If you buy his games with his ridiculous prices, then you're saying that that game is worth the price. If you don't like the price, don't buy the game. The only one you can blame is yourself. He's just being a good businessman by raising prices, because he knows people will continue buying video games.

When you put it that way, I feel the need to agree with you. So really, by doing something that will not effect their sales too badly, but still making the money lost from the willingness of people to buy the game... he's not doing anything wrong?

No, he isn't doing anything wrong. And he's not likely to lose money. He's in a business. His first priority is to make money. Every decision he makes is to fulfill that goal. If he increases prices, he believes that most everyone will still buy the games at the increased price. Even if a few people back down and don't buy at the increased price, the mass majority will, resulting in a greater profit. The consumer has the power. If you don't like the price, don't buy the product. If enough people don't buy the product, he DOES lose money, and will revert the price to get more people to buy.

It's simple economics. Yet, people cry and call him evil, but go out and show their support by buying the game. It's ridiculous.

True. It is capitalism at work. However there is another set of criteria to consider when choosing to buy or not. We are not only dealing with a business here. We are also dealing with a quantity of intellectual property. For some reason the CEO's and boards off these companies are making millions on someone elses bright idea (Not just Mr. Kotick). Some of the money does trickle down to the one actually having the ideas. This is why I buy games.

And this is where capitalism shows its shortcomings. In a capitalistic system altruism and creativity is punished (or at least not rewarded as much) while parasits flourish. In a capitalistic system the on paying is considered to run the greatest risk. The person doing the actual work and having the ideas does not have anything (or at least very little) to loose.

Somehow publishers have succeded in convincing people that they are actually doing the developers a favor by letting them get their vision out to the masses. The whole idea of the partnership has gone the way of the dodos, and while developers labor away for pittance, big business CEOs receive huge bonuses from the shareholders for gouging the developers.

Ultimately this is a bigger issue then just gaming. As some people have pointed out the amount that Mr. Kotick gets is far lower then other businesses but that is not the problem really. The problem is that this system rewards greed. As a result the people who are not greedy suffer. I do not recent Mr. Kotick for making that much money. I recent how he made the money. By feeding the greedy shareholders.

The nature of altruism is to be punished. Anytime you give something for free, you're committing a sacrifice. You're asking yourself to be punished. That's really the definition. If you expect to be paid for your altruistic acts, then it can't possibly be called altruism, now can it? Creativity, however, isn't punished in capitalism. At least not outside the entertainment industry. When someone opens a small business, they're basically both the developer and publisher of their creation. That is, in my mind at least, creativity. I suppose you're referring specifically to authors, musicians, film makers, and game developers though.

I do agree, however. The relationship, should it exist at all, should be a partnership, with profits split fifty-fifty. With gamblers, for example, anytime a man puts up a stake for a player the profits are split fifty-fifty. Should the player lose, the loaner suffers the loss. I think that's how the developing/publishing relationship should exist... But, it's irrelevant. Publishers are already out of date in the music industry. We might not see it in our lifetime, but it's really only a matter of time before all publishing (with, maybe, the exception of books) dies out. With the ability to digitally distribute products, they're really no longer needed. I don't fault the publishers, though, however sketchy their practices are. The developers sign the contracts, they agree to their terms. It's hard for me to feel sympathy for someone who willingly lets himself be exploited.

 

[Lord Thodin]

If i was pulling in that kind of money Id force everyone at Activison to wear Tuxedos. Everyone. Everyone must look fancy.

 

[Kojii Doom]

Silly Activision.

 

[antipunt]

And the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

 

[asiepshtain]

As they say, "don't hate the player, hate the game."
Permalink

Oh, trust me, I hate the game!
I hate it so fucking much!

 

[Asehujiko]

America Bless this man.

And please keep him the fuck away from the rest of the world.

 

[Kollega]

What. A. Douchebag.

Blasted Lawful Evil buisness execs! Big buisness should learn from the indie scene and go chaotic neutral!

Indie guys are Chaotic Good. Mostly.

 

[tehroc]

He's the American dream come true. We'd all be greedy bastards making millions if we could.

Speak for yourself. Not all of us are slaves to the dollar...

 

[Cixelsid]

I remember all the propaganda during the 80s and 90s about how piracy would lead to overly priced software. The corollary to that statement, of course, was that buying software would decrease the price of it. This always seemed counter intuitive to me, it seemed to me that an increase in demand and a controlled supply of product would lead to cases such as Bobby Kotick; charging exorbitant prices while making millions.

 

[nova18]

I dont see why anyone NEEDS that much money.
Then again, if someone offered me that much, just to sit on my throne, pissing people off and playing Satan, you know I would take it.

Also lets take a second to look at the pic.
Look at the background.
Flames.
He is sitting in his throne, next to a wall of flames.
I dont need to watch the Omen to figure this one out.