Kotick Itching to Sell Cutscenes As Films

[Guyovick]

Making cut-scenes into a movie is not a good idea. As many people have already pointed out there would be huge gaps where the game play is. Also, most cut-scenes have no where near the narrative value that even the crappiest of movies have. This problem is the basis of the Unskippable video series.

Take the Starcraft 2 cut-scenes for example (an Activision-Blizzard game). The CGI work is amazing but the characters are one dimensional (at best), the dialogue is terrible, and the plot is merely in-between-mission filler material. These aspects do not add up to a good movie.

 

[Omnific One]

Ummm... movies are between $9 and $13 dollars usually... why would someone pay $20-30 for 90 minutes (the minimum length of a blockbuster)? On top of that, the storyline would be disjointed as hell. The cutscenes are all on Youtube. What the hell.

 

[elilupe]

May a gypsy curse be placed on Kotick and all his descendants for this.

 

[Electrogecko]

Did I just read $20 or $30 to own about 2% of a game?

 

[Raykuza]

Is he greedy? Yeah. Is this idea good? Hell no. Does someone need to stop this crazy, crazy man? Absolutely. But I am in support of killing cutscenes that unnecessarily remove control from the player. Perhaps developers will begin to consider ways the player can move the story forward with their actions rather than being shown what is happening through short movies.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

This would be a massive blow to the quality of games. To make a cutscene compilation stand up on its own as a movie, you would have to make anything that happened during the actual gameplay redundant. Good thing this is probably just Kotick mouthing off again.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Well, I'm kind of torn on this. Yes, we can all agree that Bobby Kotick is a corporate tool that only sees dollar signs when he looks at a game. And I wouldn't pay anyone, let alone him, $20-30 for just an hour or so of cutscenes that I could really get free with an entire game.
... but on the other hand, I would enjoy watching all the purty Starcraft II cutscenes together, or any other game with awesome cutscenes that I wouldn't actually play. Lower the price quite a bit, like around $10, and I might consider it. And it would certainly sweeten the pot to do something like, add some bonus scenes to kind of bridge the gaps left by the actual gameplay that would undoubtedly be there.

And also, "enthusiast consumers" = fanboys, lol. It's like the PC term for it.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

That seems lazy and an excuse for money grabbing.

Bobby Kotick... MONEY GRABBING?! No way!

 

[Talendra]

What happened to respect for your customers? I knew he was talking out of his ass. I honestly do not care if they do it though, it is not something essential to the game, infact it is an alternative. I do not expect many sales though...

 

[Stormz]

If he means just pack them all together as a film and not TAKE them away from the game and make you pay, then I suppose it isn't that big a deal, but if he means that we should have to pay an extra 30 bucks to get the cutscenes INGAME then that's unfair and stupid.

 

[Souplex]

We're already halfway there. Pony is selling films as games with Heavy Rain and Metal Gear 4.

 

[A random person]

We're already halfway there. Pony is selling films as games with Heavy Rain and Metal Gear 4.

I predicted you'd say that.

Also, doesn't Youtube present a massive, nigh-insurmountable challenge for them?

Edit: Nevermind, forgot to read OP. I'd much rather have long cutscenes with the game (including the Metal Gear games *nudge nudge*) than separate.

 

[Rutskarn]

Here's the importance of craftsmasnship and PR:

Kotick, could you please make tender love to a live garbage disposal?

Pretty much the Only company I'd pay to watch a movie from is Valve.

Now those guys know how to make a good movie:

Valve, can I please give you money for a movie?

 

[Caradinist]

The cinematic trailer IS that gamble. The money generated by game sales should be more than sufficient, especially for a company like Activision.

Too much reaching for the cookie jar, this plan clearly won't work.

 

[Silver Patriot]

If by taking cutscenes out, he means ruining the story of games and makeing a movie full of holes where game play should be he is made of fail. If on the other hand, he is talking about making a movie to complement the story of the game using the same technology and visual style as the games cutscenes, he might actually have a decent idea. It could give the teams making the cutscenes more freedom to play around as well as more revenue for the companies. And if he wasn't a greedy f**k that money could go back inot new projects, or finance pricecuts on games for us...
Oh well...

This right here is the only way I could see this not failing on every level.

 

[The Random One]

Eh, I'd buy it.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Of course they will not simply sell the cutscenes, would be a lot of scenes with no real connection. Will try to do in a way that most think to be coll and support. Much like Dead Space Downfall.

The industry is this: someone at EA says that in future we will be paid for demos and gamers revolt. But wait a minute, Capcom is already experimenting with the concept of selling incomplete games since the SNES.

They think with the brain and we think with the bowel.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

I'm sorry, but WHAT THE #$%*?!?!?!

So let me get this straight...

Video Game: $60
Cutscenes for the video game: $30

So if you played the full game, you would expect to get the cutscenes or the whole game would not make ANY sense. But what if the cutscenes were removed from the game and a separate movie collection was sold? Even between missions, what are you supposed to do? Swap discs and fast forward to the right chapter for cutscenes?

Or perhaps he's going for "buy the game" and then buy a shorter, non-playable version of the same game, so you can get watch the same cutscenes. But you also get exclusive cutscenes that would take place in between. So now you have the chance, for a mere thirty dollars, to watch the protagonist... I dunno, use the restroom?

I'd wager the greedy lunatic truly wants us to pay $60 for the game and then "unlock" the cinematics for an extra sum.

**I was just thinking, with Bungie now under Activision I can only imagine the plotting going on in Kotick's money-groping mind.

 

[archvile93]

Kotick would charge you for the air you breathe while you play if he could.

You mean he doesn't? Then who the hell have I been sending all my money too?

 

[lacktheknack]

Bobby, you have just plunged from "evil" to "just plain useless".