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[Storm Rider]

Check this interview out, it's insane.

The overall theme of the presentation was how making the most profitable third party publisher depended on creating "a company culture infused with skepticism, pessimism, and fear."

When he wasn't promoting the company's games or technology, Kotick was celebrating its laserlike focus on the bottom line. He pointed to changes he implemented in the past as being particularly beneficial, such as designing the employee incentive program so it "really rewards profit and nothing else."

"You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly," Kotick said.

He later added, "We have a real culture of thrift. 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."

Considering Activision's recent habit of pumping out yearly sequels regardless of quality and bundling as many games with overpriced peripherals as possible, it's not really surprising to find out he has this sort of management style. What's really shocking to me is what obvious contempt he has for the creative process of making video games, to the point where he would actually say things like this on the record. It isn't covered in this article, but I saw in a different summary of the same presentation that Activision properties are so locked into the yearly-sequel demand that any ideas for any game that can't be put in on time and on budget are cut and saved for the inevitable following sequel.

Of course, now that EA is actually fostering good, healthy relationships with developers under Riccitello, they're having financial problems while Activision rakes in the cash.

[KvP]

Over at yon Obsidian, an independent game developer, some of the staff weighed in on the comments about a week ago.

In this kind of economy I can see his point. You shouldn't be going to work for a publisher with the expectation that you're going to be playing video games all day; you should be trying to make money.

Which isn't to say that there shouldn't be fun benefits to working at a publisher, but in the end your goal is to deliver products that make a lot of money for your shareholders.

"During a 45-minute presentation today at the Deutsche Bank Securities"

This explains the motivation for every single thing he said.

Industry perspective!

[Ikrik]

Oh man, don't even get me started on Activision.  Here's some more.

1.  When they merged with Vivendi they dropped almost every single one of their games: 50 Cent, Wet, Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend and a few others.  All these games were picked up but they dropped them because they didn't have the potential for yearly sequels.

2. Bobby Kotick hates new IPs.  New IP's don't normally sell well.  

3.  Modern Warfare 2 is 10 pounds more expensive in Europe than a normal game is.  It's still selling like crazy.  When asked about game prices Bobby Kotick said "I would raise them higher if I could."  

4. Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition: $120, Tony Hawk Ride: $120, Guitar Hero 5: $200, DJ Hero: $120.

5. After they realized that Brutal Legend wasn't something like Guitar Hero they refused to fund any more money on it.  When they dropped it EA decided to pick it up.

6.  After EA picked it up and Brutal Legend started getting heavy attention, Activision attempted to sue Double Fine Studio.

7. Bobby Kotick doesn't even play video games and has never played a video game he has produced.  He sometimes tries to deny this.

8.  There's a quote of him saying that his goal was "to take the fun out of making video games."

9.  Bobby Kotick couldn't care less about you.  At all.  The only thing he cares about less than videogames is you.  

That's been boiling inside me for quite some time.  After I heard a lot about Kotick and what he's been doing I've decided to never pick up an Activision product ever again.  Not as long as Bobby Kotick is in charge.  

The one really sad thing though is that Bobby Kotick made over 15 million dollars last year.  So he can say whatever he wants because, for the next little while, people are going to buy Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk.

[JD]

Man I don't even remember the last Activision game I bought.

[Alex C]

I just don't understand the "a company culture infused with skepticism, pessimism, and fear," part. Oh, I understand that at times the gaming industry has had a lot of overlap and shared history with things like the dotcom boom, and so there's been some spectacular failures and wastefulness in the industry's past. Stories of guys playing around with nerf weapons on the company dollar abound. I mean, shit, we've all heard about Romero and Ionstorm Dallas. So I can understand why someone would want to send the message to shareholders that he runs a tight ship that will be ran like a business rather than a retreat. But at the end of the day, there's a million ways he could have span that message so he didn't sound cartoonishly evil but he didn't.

As for the other stuff, honestly, it doesn't hit me as really that bad. Making money has never been the same thing as making people happy.

[Storm Rider]

Industry perspective!

It's good that they're taking it in stride, I guess, but I would think the people who are actually making games would be more upset that the one of the most powerful men in the industry holds the work that they do in such low regard that he's willing to say this stuff publically, whether it's in a financial context or not.

Also, I believe the last Activision game I bought was Call of Duty 4, and I am going on the record and saying it's the last one I'll have bought as long as they're run like this. I won't be missing a whole lot.

[Melodic]

Bryan, it was a financial meeting. It's not like he's going into the GDC and saying "none of you should be having fun making me money". Hell, if it wasn't for Activision, EA would probably still have a shit reputation.

[Storm Rider]

Dude, whether or not it was a financial meeting, it's still something that is reported on. He knew that what he said in there would reach people beyond the immediate audience. He's a bad person, not an idiot.

[Melodic]

I'm not arguing whether or not he's a douchebag, I'm just saying that it's impossible to take offense from what he said without decontextualizing it.

[JD]

Also, I believe the last Activision game I bought was Call of Duty 4, and I am going on the record and saying it's the last one I'll have bought as long as they're run like this. I won't be missing a whole lot.

What about Modern Warfare 2?

[morbid79]

Sadly I have MW2 on pre-order, but I sure won't be touching any of the new Blizzard cash grabs - why release one game when you can release it as three?!  Another Kotick special.  This guy is working his way to be more hated than good ole Jack.

[Blyss]

**scratches off any Activision titles he might have been looking forward to.

I refuse to support a fucking asshole making more money.
 

[Ikrik]

For me it's not about not giving an asshole more money, I'm sure I'm going to do that regardless.  For me it's choosing not to give a huge asshole money when all he has for me is contempt. 

It'd be like me handing him $60 bucks for my game and him looking me up and down and going "white male, 18-24, nope...I think I want $500 for this."  It's about not supporting a man whose games are some of the highest selling games out who has no respect for his consumers and wants more money. 

And as for his statement that only games that sell really well get rewarded?  What he's also saying is that games that perform badly get punished.  Activision recently released Wolfenstein, and half the development team for the multiplayer portion got laid off the day it was released. 

[snalin]

He also suggested a day in the not-too-distant future where players'Facebook profiles will be integrated into Guitar Hero, letting them make songs to share with friends, post high scores or favorite songs on their profile pages, and so on.

Make songs to share with friends? Like take a song you like and turn it into a guitar hero-playable one?

Sounds strangely familiar

And, yes, what a douchebag. You notice it when the devs. had fun making a game. The fun shines through.

[Storm Rider]

Also, I believe the last Activision game I bought was Call of Duty 4, and I am going on the record and saying it's the last one I'll have bought as long as they're run like this. I won't be missing a whole lot.

What about Modern Warfare 2?

That's going to suck, because by all accounts they're making a fantastic follow-up to a great game. But I feel like I got my fill of Modern Warfare's style of game with the original game, and there's certainly plenty of games coming out around it that I can buy instead. I can only hope Infinity Ward eventually leaves en masse like they did with EA during the days where they made Medal of Honor so that I can buy their games again without supporting Kotick and his ilk.