Kotick Admits Activision's Spider-Man Games "Sucked"

Geo Da Sponge

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(If you count from 2009 or 2010, this might also include 2004's Spider-Man 2, as well).
They better not be including Spider-Man 2, because it was on of the best open world games ever. Even Yahtzee agrees. For those who haven't played it, it's a lot like Prototype, except that it's actually fun to play and has a decent way of travelling around the map.

Insanum said:
I liked Spiderman two, But i forever hate the words;

"OH NO, MY BAWOOON"[/I]

*twitch*
I hate those words, but for entirely different reasons; I would always feel morally obliged to save the balloon, even if there were more important things I was in the middle of. Which was odd, because I didn't care about people getting mugged, having their purse stolen or even when there was an all out gang war in the middle of the street.
 

manythings

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Maybe my memory is faulty but as I recall Neversoft made the first spiderman not activision. Also it was a great game with a decent pace and story. In the second one the boss fights just seemed to be to stringent in their rules about how I am allowed to hurt them.
 

Sonicron

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This almost sounds like Kotick has had an 'Ebener Scrooge' experience. I'm still sceptical, but if he really starts cleaning up his act we will know for sure that the three ghosts of quality control exist.
 

Joa_Belgium

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Interpretation is everything here. What Bobby Kotick wants to say, is: "I hate my Spider-Man games because they don't roll in wheelbarrows full of money like Call of Duty does."
 

UnravThreads

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Kotick seeming human. What's next? Thompson admitting he loves GTA?

Spider-man 2 was absolutely brilliant. I can remember playing it on my PS2 when I had it. All that swinging around, killing bad guys etc. They did really, really well with that game.
 

Jon Etheridge

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Spiderman 2 was the only one to get the swinging down right imo. Left trigger for left web, right trigger for right web. Simple, easy and fun.
 

Jaebird

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He's saying Spider-Man 2 sucked!? It completely changed how you should go about doing a Spidey game in an open, sandbox world. But what do I know? This is the man who said yes to DJ Hero and no to Brutal Legend.

Ultimate Spider-Man had a well written story, and, at the time, counted as canon in the comics (it was later revised by Bendis near the end of volume one; but my point still stands). And Web of Shadows, in my opinion, has a great combat system that made sense to the web-slinger. Preferably, the aggressive yo-yo part of it. Sure the story was like Revenge of the 90's bullshit, but it was fun at times.

With all nerd-rage aside, Bobby Kotick at the end of the day is an attention whore. 'Nuff said.
 

John Funk

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Jbird said:
He's saying Spider-Man 2 sucked!? It completely changed how you should go about doing a Spidey game in an open, sandbox world. But what do I know? This is the man who said yes to DJ Hero and no to Brutal Legend.

Ultimate Spider-Man had a well written story, and, at the time, counted as canon in the comics (it was later revised by Bendis near the end of volume one; but my point still stands). And Web of Shadows, in my opinion, has a great combat system that made sense to the web-slinger. Preferably, the aggressive yo-yo part of it. Sure the story was like Revenge of the 90's bullshit, but it was fun at times.

With all nerd-rage aside, Bobby Kotick at the end of the day is an attention whore. 'Nuff said.
Hey, in all fairness, DJ Hero was actually completely awesome.

katsabas said:
John Funk said:
Wait, what does StarCraft II from one developer have to do with another developer making another game in an entirely different franchise?
Since Activision and Blizzard are merged and Blizzard develops Starcraft, I would say it has an immediate effect upon the quality of other games like Spiderman.
That's... not really how development works, especially since Blizzard self-funds and publishes, so it isn't like its games take away resources from the other studios working under Activision Vivendi.
 

Jaebird

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John Funk said:
Jbird said:
He's saying Spider-Man 2 sucked!? It completely changed how you should go about doing a Spidey game in an open, sandbox world. But what do I know? This is the man who said yes to DJ Hero and no to Brutal Legend.

Ultimate Spider-Man had a well written story, and, at the time, counted as canon in the comics (it was later revised by Bendis near the end of volume one; but my point still stands). And Web of Shadows, in my opinion, has a great combat system that made sense to the web-slinger. Preferably, the aggressive yo-yo part of it. Sure the story was like Revenge of the 90's bullshit, but it was fun at times.

With all nerd-rage aside, Bobby Kotick at the end of the day is an attention whore. 'Nuff said.
Hey, in all fairness, DJ Hero was actually completely awesome.
And, that's your opinion. Still doesn't change the fact that Kotick is an attention whore.
 

Whispering Death

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I think he's just waking up to the current gaming reality. The market has become more condensed around "tent-pole" breakout hits just like hollywood has.

The tent-pole strategy has been successful in gaming for a long time, Valve with Half-Life, Blizzard with Starcraft; but you could also put out games like "deer hunter" or "[insert random subject] Tycoon" and make tons of money too regardless of quality.

But as the consumer has evolved in experience with the genre, their literacy with respect to gaming quality has increased as well. Therefore, the tent-pole strategy of making a few high-investment high-quality games has become very successful.

Entire studios, and even entire publishers, are propped up by a couple massive hits such as Modern Warfare 2, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero. All games that were innovative, expensive to produce, and high quality in execution.

Just grabbing a movie license and making a game "good enough", as he talks about with Spider Man, doesn't work anymore.
 

katsabas

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John Funk said:
That's... not really how development works, especially since Blizzard self-funds and publishes, so it isn't like its games take away resources from the other studios working under Activision Vivendi.
Well, how does it work then?
 

John Funk

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katsabas said:
John Funk said:
That's... not really how development works, especially since Blizzard self-funds and publishes, so it isn't like its games take away resources from the other studios working under Activision Vivendi.
Well, how does it work then?
It works as in, "different studios make their own games." Blaming Blizzard making SC2 for the failure of other studios to make good Spider-Man games is like saying, "Well, Naughty Dog was making Uncharted 2, so that means Santa Monica's God of War 3 is going to suck!"

They're different studios making their own games. The quality of one has literally no bearing on the quality of the other. I really, really can't see where you're coming from here.
 

katsabas

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John Funk said:
It works as in, "different studios make their own games." Blaming Blizzard making SC2 for the failure of other studios to make good Spider-Man games is like saying, "Well, Naughty Dog was making Uncharted 2, so that means Santa Monica's God of War 3 is going to suck!"

They're different studios making their own games. The quality of one has literally no bearing on the quality of the other. I really, really can't see where you're coming from here.
I thought that Blizzard and Activision were a single studio since they merged. And since the main source of profit was WOW, GH and soon Starcraft II, I also thought that these titles could be standing in the way of a good SM game. Looks like I was wrong. Thanks for the clarification.
 

John Funk

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katsabas said:
John Funk said:
It works as in, "different studios make their own games." Blaming Blizzard making SC2 for the failure of other studios to make good Spider-Man games is like saying, "Well, Naughty Dog was making Uncharted 2, so that means Santa Monica's God of War 3 is going to suck!"

They're different studios making their own games. The quality of one has literally no bearing on the quality of the other. I really, really can't see where you're coming from here.
I thought that Blizzard and Activision were a single studio since they merged. And since the main source of profit was WOW, GH and soon Starcraft II, I also thought that these titles could be standing in the way of a good SM game. Looks like I was wrong. Thanks for the clarification.
Ah, I see the confusion. You're mixing up "developer" with "publisher."

Blizzard Entertainment was owned by Vivendi Universal as part of its Vivendi Games umbrella. Vivendi Games and Activision merged (with Vivendi given a controlling share), rebranding the new publishing entity as Activision-Blizzard (since Blizzard was far and away the biggest name in the Vivendi side of things). Activision-Blizzard is a publisher, and has many different development studios: Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Red Octane, et cetera, just like EA has Harmonix, BioWare, and Mythic, or Sony has Naughty Dog, Team ICO, and Santa Monica.

All of these studios are separate entities that make their own games; the only thing they have in common is that their games are funded and published by the same corporation. Blizzard is actually a special case in that it self-publishes its own games (look at the box for Wrath of the Lich King, you won't see Activision's logo anywhere on there), since it's kind of off doing its own thing.

But even within the same publishing umbrella, different development studios are still different development studios.
 

katsabas

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John Funk said:
Ah, I see the confusion. You're mixing up "developer" with "publisher."

Blizzard Entertainment was owned by Vivendi Universal as part of its Vivendi Games umbrella. Vivendi Games and Activision merged (with Vivendi given a controlling share), rebranding the new publishing entity as Activision-Blizzard (since Blizzard was far and away the biggest name in the Vivendi side of things). Activision-Blizzard is a publisher, and has many different development studios: Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Red Octane, et cetera, just like EA has Harmonix, BioWare, and Mythic, or Sony has Naughty Dog, Team ICO, and Santa Monica.

All of these studios are separate entities that make their own games; the only thing they have in common is that their games are funded and published by the same corporation. Blizzard is actually a special case in that it self-publishes its own games (look at the box for Wrath of the Lich King, you won't see Activision's logo anywhere on there), since it's kind of off doing its own thing.

But even within the same publishing umbrella, different development studios are still different development studios.
Ok John, thanks bunches for lifting the fog!
 

GamingAwesome1

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Am I the only one here who thought that all the Spider man games sucked from the get-go?

I completely agree with Kotick on this one (I never thought I'd say THAT).
 

AceDiamond

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toapat said:
The Rogue Wolf said:
What is the name of the parasitic alien brain worm that has infested Bobby Kotlick, and where can I go to worship it?
its called Blizzard entertainment.

a company that paid over 18 billion dollars that would have otherwise gone into wallpapering houses to buy 2 large game developers for shits and giggles.
Remember, whenever something good happens regarding Activision-Blizzard, it's Blizzard, whenever something BAD happens, it's Activision.

GamingAwesome1 said:
Am I the only one here who thought that all the Spider man games sucked from the get-go?

I completely agree with Kotick on this one (I never thought I'd say THAT).
You take that back, Spiderman on the N64 kicked large amounts of ass.