Take the Fun out of Gameing.

[thomas.berubeg]

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has been on fire this week. At the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco he made a number of comments that seem to have been calculated to explode the heads of gamers, developers, and anyone who cares a jot about the industry. In a wide-ranging speech, Kotick – who earned $14m last year – dropped a number of bombs about Activision’s future plans, none of which were designed to make anyone happy apart from Activision shareholders.

Essentially, Kotick is in thrall to the almighty dollar to the expense of all else. Thus: “In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit. Today, we’ll (charge) $100 for a guitar. You might add a microphone or drums; you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.”

This echoes a statement Kotick made last year when he explained the company’s lack of support for some new games, specifically ones that don’t lend themselves to sequels. Activision, Kotick said, has no interest in games that “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises.”

Talking of $100m franchises, Kotick likes the way that World of Warcraft is heading. “The best of all margins – the 25 per cent operating margin business – has the potential as we can see with World of Warcraft to be a 50 per cent operating margin business. What used to be a low 20s return on invested capital business is now growing to a plus 40 per cent return on invested capital business.”

And he’s not just setting his sights on Guitar Hero and WoW fans. Talking about upcoming and expensive Activision titles such as Modern Warfare 2, Kotick said: “if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.”

Having fired these encouraging salvos at the gaming community, Kotick then switched his targets to console manufacturers, who he seems intent on putting out of business by “untethering” Activision games from other-party hardware. “I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is equal the playing field a little more and give you some leverage with first parties when it comes to downloadable content and the business model.”

Maybe the choice quotes of the event, though, came when Kotick talked about Activision’s developers; you know, the guys who actually make the stuff he gets so rich from. You’d think he’d have a bit of respect for them, right? Oh no, Kotick’s goal over the past 10 years has been – you couldn’t make this up – “to take all the fun out of making video games.” How? By instilling a culture of “scepticism, pessimism, and fear” amongst the company’s staff based around the economic depression and an incentive program that rewards “profit and nothing else”.

We’re having a hard time coming to terms with all this. While we tend to expect mega rich corporate bosses to be at least a bit evil, this flagrant display of gamer hate has left us dumbfounded. Activision is a mammoth company, with some of the biggest-selling franchises in the world under its umbrella, but at the end of the day its profits come from the pockets of gamers who don’t want to miss out on some great titles. If any other CEO exhibited as much contempt for his or her customers as Kotick has, their company would surely expect to face negative feedback or even a consumer boycott. But you just know that nothing like that will happen here. Apart from running the negligible risk of a few blogs printing pictures of him with devil horns or a Hitler moustache, Kotick knows that he’s invulnerable. The gaming “community” just doesn’t have the will or the organisation to, say, boycott Modern Warfare 2, and that – even more than Kotick’s comments – makes us truly sad.

I suppose I shouldn't be suprised, but still... this attitude is scary.
http://www.geeks.co.uk/7282-activision%E2%80%99s-bobby-kotick-hates-developers-innovation-cheap-games-you

 

[Phlegmak]

I'm highly interested in an elaboration of the bolded quote below.

Oh no, Kotick’s goal over the past 10 years has been – you couldn’t make this up – “to take all the fun out of making video games.” How? By instilling a culture of “scepticism, pessimism, and fear” amongst the company’s staff based around the economic depression and an incentive program that rewards “profit and nothing else”.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Well most games companies exploit people who think it's "cool" to make games anyway, by paying them less than real world programmers. I don't know about the going rate for animators and artists in (say) broadcasting however.

Which is a shame.

 

[Lillefix]

We can probably blame it on the French. French companies do have a habit of making their employees jump out of window, as far as I've heard.

 

[bhsup]

If you don't want to pay the price, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing anyone to spend their money on all the games and accessories. Go without if it offends you that they make money.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Don't have any kids then VRWC

 

[illram]

I can understand fleecing the customers since no one is as much a slave to the product as video game nerds, but threatening your employees publicly like that seems... not so smart.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I was talking about this yesterday, how game designers don't finish games any more (ETW, anyone?) and sell the Beta version, effectively making the customer the Beta tester without knowing it. Then they release patches or hope that we figure out how to mod it and finish the game ourselves. This would be like selling a car with no muffler and broken power steering, and hoping that we have the tools to finish the car. And, of course, not being told of this until we've bought the car and maybe driven it once or twice and figured out that its crap.

No responsibility, because its all about the almighty dollar. Probably the same reason products don't last as long in general any more, because what good is it to the manufacturer if he only gets to sell you one in your whole life?

 

[bhsup]

I don't right now, but even if I did, having kids does not mean you automatically have to get them WoW or every console in the world. You wanna spoil yours, go ahead.

 

[Defiant47]

If you don't want to pay the price, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing anyone to spend their money on all the games and accessories. Go without if it offends you that they make money.

That's what I do (the not buying part)

 

[Defiant47]

I don't right now, but even if I did, having kids does not mean you automatically have to get them WoW or every console in the world. You wanna spoil yours, go ahead.

Hahaha!

"You're not gonna buy food for anyone? What about when you have kids?"

"I don't right now, but even if I did, having kids doesn't mean you automatically buy every food in the world and the most exquisite and expensive dishes ever. You wanna spoil yours, go ahead."

Buying a console or two as a reward and to make them feel happy =/= buying every console in the world and spoiling them endlessly

 

[bhsup]

Food is a necessity. Gaming consoles are not. And I am not saying I wouldn't get any, but they don't need every new awesome expensive game.

 

[Defiant47]

Food is a necessity.

I knew you'd go for that rebuttal, even though it's entirely irrelevant

Gaming consoles are not. And I am not saying I wouldn't get any, but they don't need every new awesome expensive game.

Well children can be fickle things. They can easily be made happier by a newest game or something. The fact that you're not buying every new awesome expensive game doesn't mean that you won't buy a few -> thus supporting these companies no matter what they do.

 

[Kraznaya]

Guiltless pirating here we come.

 

[MobBoss]

I
Well children can be fickle things. They can easily be made happier by a newest game or something.

If this is how parents make kids happy, then they are lousy parents.

The fact that you're not buying every new awesome expensive game doesn't mean that you won't buy a few -> thus supporting these companies no matter what they do.

I do have an xbox 360 in the house, but it serves as our DVD player for movies and such as well. My solution to the kid thing is to give my kids an allowance for doing chores and such. What they want to buy with their cash is their business.

 

[Oerdin]

If he wants to charge more for his games then that is his right but don't cry any crocodile tears when everyone decides to just download it for free. The reality is everyone has that option because it is fast, easy, and virtually impossible to get caught so instead of charging people more for less (which is the RIAA's failed policy) they're going have to accept smaller margins to convince people to stay legal. That's just reality.

 

[illram]

Why do you think that it is harder to get caught pirating software than downloading music or movies? It's the same thing.

 

[Fuzzz]

Any game I can't play out-of-the-box or for which I have to pay a monthly fee, I do not buy. The fact that I already bought the game and then have to pay extras to create an account/keep playing it, is over the top for me.
If this trend continues -and I think it will- I guess I'll stop playing games altogether and I can finally install Linux on my pc.

 

[schlaufuchs]

I don't think I've bought a new game since 2005 or 2006.

Games made in 1998 are just as good today as they were 11 years ago. If it aint broke, why fix it? The entire video game market has become broken and denigrated. Developers have lost the whole idea behind making video games. It's only thanks to great game developers such as Firaxis and Paradox that I don't completely lose my mind.

 

[Souron]

For myself, I haven't caught on to this MMORPG hipe for precisely the reason that I don't want to pay a monthly fee. I also tend not to by expansions, because though they cost about the same as a new game, the added enjoyment is much less. Activision clearly is not going to be marketing for me.

My hope is in free software games.