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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bobby Kotick vs. The (Online) World

 Yesterday, Bobby Kotick announced Activision's supremacy with one breath, then trash talked every independent game developer(except Bungie) in the next.  Today(according to his press release for the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference), Activision doesn't really compete with other online gaming companies anymore, stating instead that Facebook is their biggest competitor.

"Our competitor online [is] Facebook in some respects. Even though they don't create content, they provide it. There are a lot of new social gaming companies that are emerging and take mindshare - not from our consumer, [because they're] a different demographic. But there's the potential that some of the social games will start appealing to our consumers so we're making a lot of investments in that area." -  CVG.com

Some relevant stats on the companies Activision no longer competes with online are necessary here, such as PSN's 50 million registered users, or the fact that Microsoft's Xbox Live made $600 million in  a single year due to players paying so they could play Modern Warfare  2 online(delicious, delicious irony).  But well done.  Its really not hard to be the biggest video game producer when your not competing against other video game companies.  Speaking of the merger with Vivendi, Kotick went on to say:


"There [was] so much built-up expertise at Blizzard when we did this merger - that we're now applying to Call Of Duty, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero - that we otherwise wouldn't have had access to. That puts us in a much better position than many of the very console-dependant companies we used to compete against." - CVG.com

Never mind that the whole Activision vs.Infinity Ward, the studio behind the Modern Warfare franchise, or the recent flop of a Tony Hawk game(no offense Mr. Hawk, they screwed you royal), or even that Guitar Hero is in its fifth iteration.  Considering any game they release not solely on PC just feeds their rival companies(the ones there not competing against, don't forget), Activision can't seem to win for loosing.

9 comments:

razortek said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
HardwareGod said...

I for one hate this man.

Randyz said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Souf. said...

I hate this man also.

glen live said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jackysplants said...

oh god, i just hate bobby kotick. He ruins everything.

mellifluous said...

this dude is terrifying looking.

Come At Me Bro said...

This is sweet!

The Geeks Paradise said...

Interesting article. The whole gaming industry seems to be shaking up at the moment.