It's like this, Activision is doubtlessly a great company to work for until they come for you. I'm sure Infinity Ward thought they were great with those huge bonuses they thought they were going to get, before the thugs showed up to eject them....
Of course none of this matters since this is a "dog and pony show" at a public convention.
Activision has a bad reputation, and is currently one of the most maligned groups in the game industry. Having taken that title from EA... which in part managed to get some relief from their criticism BECAUSE Activision started becoming the focus of people's ire (or so it seemed to me).
Truthfully, getting some of your employees to come out and say "oh yeah this is great, your wrong about our bosses" in a public event, where they probably got to hand pick who is representing the company to begn with, doesn't really mean much.
If a company like Activision wants to see it's reputation change, it's going to have to change in a way that is meaningful to us consumers. That's going to mean tangible results we see with things like games and pricing, our concern about developers largely coming down to the games themselves. I mean it's nice to put on the show, but when you've got bad blood about Activision running point on a $10 price hike for PC games, not to mention being a pretty substantial offender when it comes to DLC like overpriced map packs and such.
If Activision wants to overcome consumers viewing it as a ridiculously greedy, evil corperate empire, then it needs to stop acting like one. Nobody begrudges Activision making money, I mean it is a business, but the extent to which it's been stooping has gotten kind of crazy.... and as far as Bobby Kotick goes, no amount of damage control is liable to redeem him in the eyes of the customers that Activision seems to be becoming concerned about. If Activision wants to convince people that it's not a bad place to work, or has "turned over a new leaf" that's going to probably mean getting a new "face" for the company. As long as Bobby's face is the one we see when it comes to Activision and it's policies, I really don't think we'll see any radical changes in how people view the company. I mean there is no way the things he has said over the years can be undone. Maybe he makes a lot of money, and is a good manager, but he's a PR nightmare.
In the end though I think the bottom line is that the same trends that have been fueling Activision are liable to continue. Sure the company would like to have a bette reputation with the consumers, but in the end it's reputation has not affected it's bottom line or abillity to move units so far. Other than endorsements from hand picked employees at industry events and such, I'm not sure we're even going to see all that much of an effort to change their reputation.
