Activision's president and chief executive Bobby Kotick has warned investors that the upcoming launch of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's next-generation Xbox may not be the gift to the company others are claiming - and that the games industry may have some tough times ahead.
Speaking during his company's most recent earnings call this week, Kotick warned that he has some concerns surrounding the launch of next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony later this year. 'We continue to face the uncertainties of the console transition,' Kotick told investors. 'There are still many unknown factors, such as pricing, launch dates and quantities, the level of first-party support and, importantly, consumer purchase intent in a world where consoles are no longer just competing with each other, but also with new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.'
The legal battle for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard continues, with Microsoft countering one of the FTC's latest moves and the Judge delaying a relevant ruling.
Look, to be honest the FTC should just stop.
MS has A/B and nothing has really changed yet...if you are worried about 5-10 years from now...just drop it cause the future is unpredictable.
Take this week's news, that 4 Xbox exclusive are going Multiplatform.
The FTC and the lawyers behind the "Gamers' lawsuit" against Microsoft over the acquisition of Activision Blizzard are denouncing the recent layoffs within the respective legal battles.
The legal battle between Microsoft and the FTC over the Activision Blizzard acquisition continues. The house of Xbox just scored a major point but the FTC is firing back.
Yeah man I think Microsoft here getting to probe is kinda wrong unless you only have accessed to necessary information not complete access imo.
Maybe Microsoft should also talk and get help from their "congressional influencers" at The Capital. They had plenty to say on the matter before the acquisition. They are mighty quiet after the purchase went through. Almost as if they had a stake in the matter.
You should be careful upsetting Sony too much Microsoft.
You might need them to sell your subpar games soon.
This isn't a major victory. They're essentially being allowed to call witnesses in regards to agreements they reached with Sony and Ubisoft which was initially blocked because Microsoft didn't make the request through the proper channels. This case is dead, there is no way the ftc will be allowed to unwind this acquisition.
Activision needs to just keep quiet & keep pumping out more COD
well I suppose Activision is in a position to know these things I suppose
This is the part that stuck out most for me
"the level of first-party support"
As he's talking about the PS4 and next Xbox, I believe this reference is in relation to the next Xbox (Cause Sony have a ton of 1st Party support).
I'm curious as to what he knows (Or believes he knows).
It's surprising to see Kotick of all people speaking common sense, but it does just show that their is a reason they put this guy in charge. I am hyped for next-gen as a gamer that wants to play the latest and greatest. But I also know that development cost are going to be a lot higher.
The costs want change right away because the new titles will basically be up scaled 360/ps3 titles. After those are out and developers start taking advantage of the systems true potential cost are going to jump. Combine that with marketing cost and you have a combination that is going to see a lot of companies go under if their title isn't a mega success. Just look at the whole Tomb Raider thing.
Well he isn't entirely wrong, we don't know pricing, release dates or all of the games that will be available right away. No matter how you slice it, the install base on these new consoles isn't going to be as appealing as the current ones for the foreseeable future.
We all assume the Wii U is doing poorly for one reason or another, but it could very well be a trend in the industry, I mean who doesn't see the Xbox 360 and PS3 outselling the Xbox Infinity and PS4 for at least a year?
I think if people have the choice between a $99 Xbox 360 or $199 PS3, those are going to look very appealing to parents and a lot of people in comparison to possible $400-$500 new consoles.
It'll be interesting to see how it all works out, I love gaming and hope everything rebounds, but we've never launched a console generation with so much competition from things like tablets and phones.