Activision Publishing CEO says perception of the company is different from reality

@TomeOne

I wish I could upvote you more than once.

@TomeOne

If a guy does this, he's an a-hole. If a company does this, we call it business? Are we not supposed to call them a-holes?

@Reaver Zero
I wish I could upvote you more than once.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

Exactly...and they operate like a soulless, heartless corporation who's only goal is the bottom line.

See, everyone wants to make money. But there are some developers like Miyamoto's team and Bungie who ALSO care deeply about the artistic side of the industry. They have a passion for creating art and sharing it with the world.

Activision doesn't care about that. They just want to get as rich as they can as fast as they can...and will do so at any cost.

@smoothy

Guess what? Activision is a publisher, not a developer. You can't put that on the publisher. And I find that most the games do get a lot of effort put into them. Just to tout some recent ones, every Call of Duty has been critically acclaimed, Transformers: War for Cybertron pretty much revived the Transformers game series, DJ Hero is great and has a great soundtrack with some revolutionary artists, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is the best Spiderman game since Spiderman 2, Blur was good, and I could go on.

@Smoothy

Also, talking about Miyamoto's team is not exactly the right thing to say for innovation. don't get me wrong I LOVE Miyamoto and his creations. But...

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/new-super-mario-bros-ds-walkthrough.jpg

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/new-super-mario-bros-wii-walkthrough.jpg

http://vscdn.giantrealm.com/giantrealm/screwattack/2010/07_08/53177/53177_Super_Mario_Galaxy_2_Music_-_Boss_Theme_1_low_1278619012.jpg

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

What I meant was, look at Nintendo. Look at Microsoft. Look at Sega. There are publishers who actually CARE about the product they publish. Who realize that to create a sound, long term business, you need a sound, long term plan. Activision takes talented developers, crams unrealistic time frames down their throats, pay them unfair wadges and then..to top it all off...annualizes their products to the point of over saturation. Rinse and repeat. They have ZERO respect for the artists that make them their money and ZERO respect for the artistic process by which those artists need to function correctly. They think developers are slaves...to be hired and fired at will.

As an artist myself...this is why I deplore them and why I think most people do as well.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

Butt....

You linked to bunch of pictures for games that pretty good. What was your point?

@lessthankris

My point was that Activision isn't the only one's with annual games. I don't see anyone whining that Mario isn't innovative every year. I didn't say they weren't good.

@smoothy

I don't see who you are to say MS, Sega, and Nintendo care more about their products than Activision. They all have found a business model that works for them, and they ALL rehash ideas every year. Activision always gives them a huge budget to do with what they will, they are letting devs see their potential.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2
Actually when you work at Activision that "huge budget" you're told what to do with. They really do treat their employees like slave. They don't allow for fun while you're on breaks. So like most companies who the developers often mess around during breaks Activision prevents that. They also force unfinished games out the door simply because of time restraints they set to be ridiculous.

Nintendo doesn't have yearly iterations. Microsoft tries to limit the yearly iterations. Bungie doesn't have yearly iterations. Also, it's not just yearly iterations Sega doesn't have yearly iterations either. Neither does Atlus, or many other publishers. Only EA and Acti do. EA's even willing to let some yearly iteration be delayed a year or so to make the product better, not Acti. It's the fact that when one game is still in development they've already planned the next 6 to be release all year after year, and sometimes multiple times per year (Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk). They have publicly announced their buisness plan is to release the same game over and over untill it does poorly, fire everyone, then keep going with it untill it's deemed 100% unsaveable. Then find a new product to do that to. Sometimes even w hen a game still makes them money they hold out on paying the entire team, fire them for insubordination, not give them the money they're owed, and be stuck in a law suit with them.

Not only that many studios loathe Activision after working with them. HMX hates Acti, Double Fine does, the studio who did the Ghost Busters game, and even a lot of their current staff. To name a few. Also why wont their current staff leave? Because to work at Acti, last I heard, you have to sign a contract saying you'll work there for X ammount of time.

@The Aquacharger
Plus to add if you're not in America Activision wants you to pay more for their games. I remember reading somewhere they want basically the equiv of 90 USD.
Kotick him self has said he wants game prices in America to be higher too.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

I'm sorry you keep getting downvoted by a bunch of 15 year old kids who know nothing of business and the 20 somethings year old who work at a dead end 9-5 job.

Unlike them i understand what you are trying to say, its a business. period. all the internet kids (see: above sentence) see is how COD, GH and other franchises get milked and milked but the funny part of it all is that its THEM who buy the games and make them more and more into what they complain about: A COMPANY.

everyone GROW THE F UP... if you don't like Activision then don't buy their games (cliche, yeah i know) but guess what?!?! YOU STILL ARE. idiots

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

"Now for the promised strange and, yes, disturbing comments on Kotick's part. What may have been music to bean counters' ears still has ours ringing, as he described tailoring developer bonuses to "really [reward] profit and nothing else" and how an air of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" is promoted within the company with the goal of "keeping people focused on the deep depression." You know, so they focus on profit and nothing else. It's all to plan, though, seeing as Kotick confided that, "The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." "

I think that kinda speaks for itself. If Activision really wants a better public image they need to stop trying to "take all the fun out of making video games". Anything else is just BS.

@PR0F3TA
I'll be honest with you. Other then Call of Duty 2 and Guitar Hero 2 I never bought or owned an Activision product because even when they weren't this terrible company they are now, their products I didn't enjoy.
And try to learn some more about someone before disclaming them. As someone who has friends in the game industry I frequently talk with them about game companies and their practices. Atleast if you look at say THQ a company whose current talks are about lower game prices from 60 USD to 40, Acti wants them raised. While Acti is cutting their dev costs by re-using engines, firing developers, and just overall cutting the budget.
I understand it's a buisness. I choose to avoid their products. They've yet to release a game I've liked remotely enough to buy. And the reason people will always comment on their trashy ways is to help spread the message. You think EA learned because a few sales were lost and no one openly complained? No, it took years for EA to ditch their old model due to constant internet complaints and due to those complaints about their buisness practices people who don't often look up what a company does learned how bad they were and started to boycott them too. I had a friend who pays no attention to any of this and even he said EA was evil and listed their practices and what was wrong with them.

@sonicspike41
Thanks was trying to find that quote.

@The Aquacharger

No problem.

Also, I think the only Activision games I've owned are either games they published that were made by third party studios, or older games like THPS 1-4 (I own Underground, but even that game feels a little too out of place in the series). I stopped buying Guitar Hero games after GH3 because of the quality.

Sure it's a tough world in business with lots of harsh calls to be made and profit must remain the top focus, but that doesn't mean you can't have room for fun too. I thought it was well known that happy employees are productive employees and depressed/stressed employees are counter-productive employees who tend to make more mistakes.

Oh I enjoyed THPS2 and UNderground 1 but never bought them for unkown reasons. So, 4 games Activision's made in their career I've enjoyed, to update my self.

@smoothy Weird how Bungie's next game is being published by Activision

@PR0F3TA
Obviously everyone that disagrees with you is an idiot or immature right? They couldn't possibly have some logic to their thoughts about how a company could be damaging to the industry as a whole.

It's just business right? Like tobacco companies selling products they knew caused cancer. It's just business. How naive some people must be to criticize anyone for raping people for profit regardless of the ethical costs.

Business ethics? What's that about? Nothing matters in this world as long as you can sleep on endless piles of money right? Sorry your Christmas sucks this year kid and your power got shut off cause your dad got laid off, but the Club didn't give us the profit we desired. I realize that your studio made bank with another publisher that allowed for time, QA and publishing but when given a shoestring budget, they couldn't deliver. It sucks but that's just business.

Or maybe, just maybe Activision's persuit of the almighty dollar, to eek out every last cent of profit is cancerous in and of itself. The results speak for themselves. Activision's approach to publishing is a pillage and burn approach. Up to this point, new studios have taken up the torch to bring innovation when others have been slashed and burned but it is a short sighted approach.

These are the same type of a-holes that tried to kill Star Wars and Family Guy because it didn't make business sense. A ledger does not account for potential and talent. Perhaps if Activision were to look past it's own ass and numbers it might realize this. Till then......boycott.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

I understand what you're trying to say but the images I get from Activision are employees working hard to meet deadlines and getting fired later on for not doing well enough when they seem perfectly fine.
Meanwhile I see developers like Naughty Dog and Santa Monica under Sony doing yoga classes and relaxing and all this shit on breaks between coding and all sorts, while Sony pay for this.
I also saw EA take a huge risk and publish lots of new IPs which I assume costed them a lot of money at first and is just another thing I couldn't really see Activision ever focusing on...

@PR0F3TA

As a small business owner who knows tons of other small business owners, I can promise you that profit is only one component of a successful business, and often not even the most important component. If your primary focus is on maximizing profit, then you lose focus on the areas that actually make your company valuable. In the long term, I actually think focusing on maximum profits is detrimental to many companies.

@Tradio
No

@Tradio

WTF how does that make a lick of sense?? They own Rock Band, you know, the game that GUITAR Hero tried to be like. Why would HRMX want to go back to making the same game they already make but better

@Invigilator
You know, it is possible to enjoy a specific IP while still finding the business practices deplorable. And even then, WoW long predates Activision's purchase of Blizzard.

P.S. - I actively boycott all Activision purchases and titles no matter how much I want them.

@riffusMAXIMUS
I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Ok, so I play WoW still, but I was playing that long before Blizzard sold their asses to Activi$ion so I can be let off for that... I hope ;)

@Misterlee

I'll go you one better. I quit WoW when Activision bought Blizzard. And yeah, haven't bought an Activision product new in ages. Feel dirty buying the odd game second hand even, so I pretty much don't.