Kotick: Activision's Spider-Man games have 'sucked'

by JC Fletcher on Jan 19th 2010 10:00PM

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick didn't just talk up the DJ Hero franchise in his recent Game Informer interview. According to Destructoid, he also disparaged the quality of his company's Spider-Man games.

"Our Spider-Man games have sucked for the last five years," Kotick said, inadvertently revealing that he must not have played either the 360/PS3 or DS Web of Shadows games. "They are bad games. They were poorly rated because they were bad games."

As for why they sucked: "We went away from what is Spider-Man," Kotick said. "It's about web-slinging. If you don't do web-slinging, what is the fantasy of Spider-Man?" Since this is Activision, we can speculate about how the company will focus on web-slinging: By packaging a special "web shooter" controller with the game in a big $120 box. And, of course, a new developer will be involved with whatever happens with the franchise since next-gen Web of Shadows dev Shaba Games is no more.

Source

Tags: activision, bobby-kotick, DS, Microsoft, Nintendo, spider-man, spider-man-web-of-shadows, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (74)

I wonder if he'd say the same thing about TH: Ride?

This disgusts me, bad mouthing his own employees after he fires them. He is as much responsible for those products as the devs were. Just because he saw how successful BatMan was he remembers the Spider Man games his studios created.

Maybe just maybe he's hinting at future NATAL support, imagine for a minute a game like mirrors edge in first person where you're swinging from rooftops and flagpoles in a free roaming city like Spiderman 2: The Game. Then throw in a competent narrative that pleases the hardcore then some varied combat and mission situations, and voila!

What Arnie said.

I remember the Spider-Man game on the Sega Genesis as being rather fun to play, but those were the days of 2D games.

3D games sometimes don't work out quite as well.

Sonic the hedgehog is a prime example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1ZtVwzS1KQ

Video games have changed a lot since your time mr caveman.

@BxGT

Har Har

The 32x verison was pretty cool too, except the terrible music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2QmZdFvJZw

Yeah, but Web of Fire is pretty hard to find at times.

Probably doesn't help it was released at the end of the 32X lifecycle, and only 500k consoles were ever produced anyway.

Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety were both fantastical too. MC was the first and only video game I've purchased from my local comic book store... Who can pass up that smexy red SNES cart?

Separation Anxiety was awesome. I also really liked Spider-Man 2 for the Playstation, being able to unlock the other Spider-Man from the Secret Wars was pretty freaking cool. It even had Spider-Man Unlimited which while others might not of liked, I thought was decent.

Would you say that our crazy third dimension frightens and confuses you?

"As for why they sucked: "We went away from what is Sonic," SEGA said. "It's about Speed. If you don't do Speed, what is the fantasy of Sonic?""

All he needs is the Batman (Arkham Asylum) treatment.

Spider-man 2 was amazing.

...until you started a mission. But yeah, the web-slinging part was EPIC.

I'm hoping he means Spiderman 2 on PS1. Yeah, that game was pimp.

No, Spiderman 2 on PS2.

"I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU DON'T STOP WHINING ABOUT THAT FUCKING BALLOON..."

-Me Playing Spiderman 2

Yeah. To be fair it came out JUST OVER 5 years ago it pretty much nailed web slinging. Web Of Spider-Man was good enough to be considered okay. Regardless this guy doesn't know what he is talking about.

Oh, wow. No, that was poor, saved only by BC

I came here to say just that, I had so much fun in spider-man 2 just web slinging around the city.. and climbing the highest building and jumping off could make you dizzy :) good times

Odd...Kotick has been speaking sense. First, he says "we're sticking with DJ Hero, and we're going to get it right". Then he says "fewer games, better games." And now he follows up with an admission that their Spider-Man games suck?

It's like he's turned over a new leaf!

He's probably taking his new years resolution to heart.

Let's see how long it takes for him to break it.

I wanna believe him...but to me, it feels like being in a cage with a sleeping dog who has rabies. Everything's hunky-dory NOW, but you just know that sooner or later you're gonna get bit.

I think he's honestly getting concerned about the anti Activision backlash that has been brewing over the past couple of years. Let's be honest; with all the negative PR they've been accumulating they really need to do something to appease the core group of gamers.

Despite what some say, Kotick is anything but stupid. I could see him recognizing they've got a PR crisis about to come to a head, and I'd imagine the backlash against MW2 really brought it to his attention.

Damn. I don't want to vote him up, because he's being pretentious. But if I vote him down for being a douche, he'll take it the wrong way.

Are you the one who sent me a friend request that I haven't accepted? I usually don't accept them unless they say who it is.

Damn. Now I feel like a moron. Thanks, Bobby. I'll rectify that sometime tonight.

Maybe if developers had fun while making games, they would be of better quality. But who at Activison would dare make the process of game making unjoyable?

They haven't been worthwhile since Neversoft's Spider-Man game on PS1/N64/DC IMO... Spider-Man 2 was awful unless you were just screwing around with web swinging.

Seriously though, Neversoft Spider-Man was the bee's knees, you should get them back on it. Ditch the Guitar Hero for more Super Hero, and maybe a bit of Cowboy Hero (GUN 2) while you're at it.

I don't remember any Spidermen games in the last 5 years anyway. Unless that was Spiderman 2....That was cool

I personally thought Spider-Man 2 did many things right for a movie video game. It was essentially the Arkham Asylum of it's time (take that statement with a grain of salt).

Also, I'm not sure Kotick knows a good game when he sees one. If a franchise doesn't have an udder, it's not worth his time.

atari and snes was really nice

Web of shadows wasnt horrible -blinks-
don't hurt me.

Other than the sucky camera, it is a fun game. The web swinging is pretty awesome in it too.

Yeah, I loved Web of Shadows!

You guys are defending Web Of Shadows? There was some fun to be had in that game, but the controls and camera were filled with so much suck. That was a serious case of a game with a great foundation that needed about 1-2 years more development.

Bull. Ultimate and WoS were pretty awesome. They nailed the web-slinging and had decent stories. He's just saying this to justify them not selling too well.

Activision really doesn't make much of anything that doesn't suck, honestly. They have their moments, but he should apply this attitude to 75% of their catalog.

It true, when I think "Activision" and "good game", I can only come up with "Call of Duty", but that was pre-MW2.

What!? The one on Playstation was awesome, ya know, the one with Mysterio, Rhino, Scorpion, and than at the end Carnage and Doc Ock combine to make crazy boss. Yeah that game was awesome...

Of course, they had help from the guys at NeverSoft.

Hmm, maybe I should read the article first...the one I'm talking about is the one released in 2000...

The only way Kotick judged if a game "sucks" is if it meets his own threshold of profitability status, gameplay and the fun factor are nothing.

Yeah, Ultimate and 2 were both really good. 2 had a lot of pointless filler missions, but they were mostly skippable. And most important, the webslinging in 2 was just fantastic---I mostly ignored the missions and played it as a racing game, and as a racing game, it was ab-fab.

spider-man 2 is the best spider-man game. atleast the web swinging was perfectly done.

I think what Kotick meant to say was that Spider Man games have 'not made me tons of money'.

SM2 had the best web swinging engine by far (i picked up the game at Gamestop last summer for about $5 just to swing around haha)

Web of Shadows is by far the best overall Spider-Man game tho. It has its problems, but its a great game if you love Spider-Man.

Now, I don't automatically get offended by everything Kotick says. But this right here is kind of a shitty thing to say. Even though he's right, it's just shitty.

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Kotick: Activision's Spider-Man games have 'sucked'

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