Head of Activision, Bobby Kotick Is the Devil (Proof)

Tpex

Tpex

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Activision's Bobby Kotick brings cash, but not heart

Opinion: in a world of thoughtful and passionate gaming CEOs, Bobby Kotick stands alone. He doesn't play video games, but he sure knows how to make money off people who do.
By Ben Kuchera | Last updated January 21, 2009 7:50 AM CT

Something that's pretty surprising happens as you cover the game industry: you start to like the bigwigs at the companies you cover. I've had the pleasure of meeting executives from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, and I've never been anything less than impressed with their passion and love for the business they work in.

At E3, Jack Tretton answered every question posed to him at a breakfast with the press, and I had the pleasure of his company for a few minutes afterwards. This is a guy who knows the PlayStation business inside and out, and clearly loves the products he sells. At a Nintendo event years ago, I was lucky enough to speak with Nintendo's Reggie Fils Aime for an extended period of time, and I thought the same thing. Peter Moore, back before he left Microsoft for EA? Charismatic, and very knowledgeable about the titles he controlled. I've since met Microsoft's John Schappert, and he was an open and amiable fellow. Even on the developer level, people like Alex Rigopulos from Harmonix and Kelly Zmak from Radicial Entertainment all love games, play games, and they live and die by their products.

In other words, even though it's frequently my job to write about these people when I disagree with their decisions, I'm happy to report that almost everyone who works in the business loves what they do. Being a game writer has been like crashing in the North Pole and finding out that not only are Santa and his elves real, but they're all passionately devoted to Christmas. That's why I find Bobby Kotick so distasteful—the man is a carpetbagger.

The only reason we care about him is that he makes a ton of money, and yes, that's great for business. I get that. But usually, when you put the devil in charge, you have the good graces to at least keep a smooth-talking demon or two around to deal with the press. With Kotick, he's very brazen about his need to squeeze every last dollar he can out of every franchise under the Activision Blizzard label. He wants to exploit his games. He wants to make sure he has a sequel every year, and don't forget the Wii and DS ports. Why have one StarCraft game if you can have three? Just because people are used to Battle.net being free doesn't mean you can't find some way to make more money from the service.

I firmly believe that EA handed Activision the bottle of special evil sauce because, while Electronic Arts used to be the most hated name in gaming, the tide is turning. At least with EA, the franchises mostly stay the same year after year; Activision's tend to age poorly, like wine made from rancid grapes. This is a company that looked at Ghostbusters and decided it wasn't interested because Harold Ramis most likely wouldn't write a sequel every 10 months.


Kotick doesn't play his games, and it shows. He has a tin ear when it comes to speaking to investors or the press. This is a guy who looks at the balance sheets of World of Warcraft and wants more, more, more... and it's doubtful he even knows the name of Azeroth. Under his control, Activision Blizzard has started to look and feel like the Shire at the end of the Lord of the Rings (and by that, I mean the books' vision). The only difference is I doubt Activision will see any brave hobbits willing to do a little scouring, not when cutting down the trees remains so profitable. I'm going to get out of this paragraph before the Tolkien metaphors get too mixed, but I hope you get what I mean.

Reading the story in Forbes detailing Kotick's business maneuvering, including the asinine editorial assertion that Rock Band is "a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero," left me impressed by his savvy, but not much else. Remember, Harmonix created Guitar Hero, only to have Kotick's Neversoft take over and create not only a somewhat lazy and locked down Aerosmith addition, but a portable version that's more of a sick dare than a solid product. He'll shrug this piece off, as will all of Activision Blizzard, because the money is so good. But you can only slash and burn for so long. Neversoft and Treyarch will continue to clothe the bones that Harmonix and Infinity Ward have left behind in Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, but they'll never be able to make the corpses dance as well as the games' creators. I can't imagine what it's like to give Call of Duty to Treyarch between games—it must be like leaving a child you love dearly with an abusive aunt six months out of the year.

World of Warcraft may look like it will go on forever, but the only thing greater than the loyalty of those players is Kotick's cash-lust. The only question is if the two will ever collide.

Or maybe I'm just being a downer, the clichéd crying Indian looking over the dirty fields of Activision's future. It's possible this could go on forever, and Kotick will extract his pound of flesh from gamers by a thousand tiny cuts. But we'll be the worse for it, and the idea of looking at those beady eyes every time I write about the man gives me enough incentive to hope for someone—anyone—to come in and love the children that Kotick wants to beat until they work harder. Until then, the company will have to be happy with a nearly infinite cash stream, delivered by a man who seems to proudly refuse to handle a controller.
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http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/01/activisions-bobby-kotick-brings-cash-but-not-heart.ars

CAPITALIST PIG DOGS! :mad:
 
furnic said:
???

why, because he runs a company and makes a profit?
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because he runs the company like a @sshole, and doesn't give a damn about the customers, only how much money he can get from them

valve makes a profit? EA make a profit? They don't go around screwing their customers
 
Tpex said:
because he runs the company like a @sshole, and doesn't give a damn about the customers, only how much money he can get from them

valve makes a profit? EA make a profit? They don't go around screwing their customers
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i recall trying to activate and download patches etc for HL 2. Not fun.
 
alf101 said:
i recall trying to activate and download patches etc for HL 2. Not fun.
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Well dude they didn't do that on purpose, the whole new steam/source system had teething problems, activision couldn't care less
 
I can't imagine what it's like to give Call of Duty to Treyarch between games—it must be like leaving a child you love dearly with an abusive aunt six months out of the year.
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Oh come on... World at War was pretty good. :p
 
Tpex said:
valve makes a profit? EA make a profit? They don't go around screwing their customers
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You seem to forget Spore, the countless DRM issues associated with EA-published games, the way EA has been milking the DLC concept with Dragon Age, and the "uber" in-game items, the way they've offered a collector's edition in the UK without the tin box, the cloth map or anything that would otherwise make it a proper collector's edition, and removed the "proper" one, forcing UK residents and other nearby countries to purchase/import from foreign sites, i.e. the one Polish site.

EA is one of the worst publishers in history when it comes to customer empathy, consideration and courtesy. Ever. Possibly second only to Activision Blizzard.

EA does not care about customers. They easily haven't cared for 5-8 years now. BioWare is the only sanity left under EA's ownership.
 
Lycanthrope said:
You seem to forget Spore, the countless DRM issues associated with EA-published games, the way EA has been milking the DLC concept with Dragon Age, and the "uber" in-game items, the way they've offered a collector's edition in the UK without the tin box, the cloth map or anything that would otherwise make it a proper collector's edition, and removed the "proper" one, forcing UK residents and other nearby countries to purchase/import from foreign sites, i.e. the one Polish site.

EA is one of the worst publishers in history when it comes to customer empathy, consideration and courtesy. Ever. Possibly second only to Activision Blizzard.

EA does not care about customers. They easily haven't cared for 5-8 years now. BioWare is the only sanity left under EA's ownership.
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Ok my bad, I don't really follow EA games, I just saw that article about "DICE, PC games shafted or something"
 
Tpex said:
Ok my bad, I don't really follow EA games, I just saw that article about "DICE, PC games shafted or something"
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lol... It's fine.

Anyway, Valve, as a publisher, have their issues too - as do most publishers. My biggest gripe is the account-locked games and not being able to revoke your ownership. Puts a rather hefty dent in the collector's value of any games you like to pretend are still worth something.

Generally speaking, there are few publishers I like, (off the top of my head CDProject Red and Deep Silver are more customer-centric ones, although Deep Silver tends to publish really bad games and are quite fond of their out-dated Tages DRM, so I guess only CDPR is a figurehead of what a publisher should be and stand for :p) but Activision Blizzard is currently a publisher headed by someone I thoroughly detest to the point where even EA have, in the public's eyes, the potential to be redeemed...

Such is business :)
 
Lycanthrope said:
lol... It's fine.

Anyway, Valve, as a publisher, have their issues too - as do most publishers. My biggest gripe is the account-locked games and not being able to revoke your ownership. Puts a rather hefty dent in the collector's value of any games you like to pretend are still worth something.

Generally speaking, there are few publishers I like, (off the top of my head CDProject Red and Deep Silver are more customer-centric ones, although Deep Silver tends to publish really bad games and are quite fond of their out-dated Tages DRM, so I guess only CDPR is a figurehead of what a publisher should be and stand for :p) but Activision Blizzard is currently a publisher headed by someone I thoroughly detest to the point where even EA have, in the public's eyes, the potential to be redeemed...

Such is business :)
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jaaa..... I really thought blizzerd was a really good and true publisher till this crap happend....
 
Tpex said:
jaaa..... I really thought blizzerd was a really good and true publisher till this crap happend....
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I liked the way one satirical article described Blizzard - they've mastered the art of dangling a carrot in front of their customers. And it works, they rake in a fortune all based on "good enough" and the promise of just-a-bit-more :p
 
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