470°

Kotick: I’d be jailed for doing what West & Zampella did

New light has been shed on the severity of Activison’s allegations against its former employees Jason West and Vince Zampella.

The ongoing lawsuit between the ex Infinity Ward duo and its former employer is being held behind legal tape, but Activision CEO suggests the crime scene is particularly gruesome.

“The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I would have never expected them to do,” he said.

“We’re a public company, we’ve got ethic obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.”

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develop-online.net
NewsForMe4960d ago

Didn't both sides breach the contract?

Christopher4960d ago (Edited 4960d ago )

Neither has been proven, so no word on that.

His comments are purely speculation and have no substance considering he's selling his side of the aisle's case. West & Zampella could come out and say the exact same thing about how Activision handled everything, but they're too busy working on developing a new game rather than wasting time throwing Activision under a bus.

rroded4960d ago

cant wait for the courts ta settle this in favor of IW activision is the scumist company in the games buis right now.

Tapey4960d ago

Activision might be an unlikeable company but I have no idea why people hold Infinity Ward in such high regard considering how terrible Modern Warfare 2 was. Yes Kotick is a money-grabbing ass but West and Zampella basically gave their fanbase the middle finger with MW2, and have somehow got away with it. It's absolutely mind boggling that they could crank out Modern Warfare 1.5, with a disgustingly short singleplayer campaign, terrible co-op and a hilariously broken multiplayer component and people will champion them.

It's made even worse by how arrogant these developers are, both trash talking Treyarch regardless of all the great things they introduced to the COD franchise, to treating their playerbase like idiots and pulling important features from the game just because they couldn't be bothered putting any effort in. I will be shocked if their new game under EA is any good.

Rhythmattic4960d ago

Kotick is lower than scum, he is what I would call a "Scrotum Gargler"

StanLee4960d ago (Edited 4960d ago )

All you little twats calling Bobby Kotick scum; what do you know about running a multi-billion dollar for profit company successfully and doing what's in the best interest of your company? How is Activision scum for releasing iterations of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty each year when consumer demand continues to be high? How is he scum for raising revenue, marketshare, share prices and his company's visability since he's been CEO? How about you little dipshits stop whinning about things you know nothing about on the internet for a change?

Ju4960d ago (Edited 4960d ago )

Yeah, he did a fine job. If you declare greed as one of your principals in your business strategy, that is. No other CEO is as outspoken as he is and yet manages to make money with their companies. Activision is sure not the only one who has achieved this. Others with a lower profit margin, but this does not disqualify them of being a successful company.

jony_dols4960d ago (Edited 4959d ago )

@Stanlee. What the hell do you know about running a multi billion dollar company? Bobby Kotick is a trash talking, arrogant fool, he is effectively driving away business from
Activision.

Is that what your idea of a professional is? How often do you hear the CEO of McDonalds trash talking about BurgerKing? Or hear the chairman of Texaco bitchin about BP. These companies compete angainst each in advertising and prices, like any other other professional business, not bickering like a jealous 4 year old.

I for one has made the decision to buy Medal of Honor instead of Black Ops. Many other gamers are consciencely not going to buy Black Ops because of Bobby Kotick. His little opinion pieces are going to end up severely tarnishing Activisions reputation and reduce profits.

Activision and Bobby Kotick both know that the companies profits peaked with MW2, both the COD and GH franchises are diminishing in popularity, and future enteries into the series will never sell as well as the originals, hes grasping at EAs coat tails, who he knows has fresh and innovative IPs and well established franchises.

Rhythmattic4959d ago (Edited 4959d ago )

StanLee

You are right.

He is a Business man, wanting to make money for his shareholders, which in turn , pays his most likely ridiculous pay cheque..

As for His ethics ??

The guy said they were friends in the infinity ward days..... now recently stating they have backstabbed him...

They probably did, and when all 30 or more walk out on him , do you really think it was the Love ??

PS. Twat do you mean, Stan Flap ?

Leio4959d ago

@StanLee

Thats make him a decent CEO but a scumbag he still is.

And what do you know about running a multi billions company you litle twat ?

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 4959d ago
DORMIN4959d ago

Protip for Kotick: Be more like Kevin Butler

Chuk_Chuk4959d ago (Edited 4959d ago )

“We’re a public company, we’ve got ethic obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.”

hold on, stop right there. who are you to talk about ethics?

kaveti66164959d ago

Take an ethics class. Even though we feel that Kotick is an unethical dick, he hasn't actually done anything unethical. Seeking profit is not unethical.

JoelR4959d ago

The way this whole thing has come down has not been good for anyone involved and would have been much better handled internally but both sides decided the media should be involved... I am embarrassed to be in the industry with this stupidity going on.
I have never been sure West and Zampella weren't in secret negotiations with EA. Their new company formed and had a contract to fast not to suspect otherwise. In that case then yes West and Zampella would be in breach of contract at the very least and in the extreme case could be charged with any number of white collar crimes. OTOH we will see at trial the evidence for wrong doing on both sides - then we can decided who is guilty and who is not.

Guilty until proven innocent is not the western legal way.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4959d ago
DelbertGrady4960d ago (Edited 4960d ago )

Kotick would never be jailed. He's constantly equipped with the "one with the devil" and "get outta jail freecard" perks.

@ZombieAutopsy - That's the official story. In reality Kotick tried to sell their souls as DLC. He's like Highlander. In a couple of years he will have harnessed enough power to run Activision completely by himself, developing and releasing a new COD on a monthly basis.

ZombieAutopsy4960d ago

Weren't they just looking for a different publisher because their contract was getting close to being up and Activision didn't pay them what they were suppose to???

I guess yea they should of waited to look for a different pub but when you are getting screwed out of what I can only imagine being millions of dollars I wouldn't wanna wait either.

outrageous4960d ago

They had signed a deal with the release of MW1 and then after the game started to do well, wanted to not only renegotiate the contract but thought they could actually walk away with the franchise...O_o

EA has a big role to play in this as it was them that started all the problems by telling those two morons to go over to EA and they would be paid a fortune. They actually worked for EA and then left to make COD at Activision. I hope these two Infinity Ward bone heads lose everything and are not allowed to market or sell a game in the same year as a COD game...meaning NEVER. Kotick was right, if he pulled something like that he'd be in jail.

Urmomlol4960d ago

Did Kotick really just say something about ethics and obligations?

L - O - MOTHERFUCKING -L

theonlylolking4960d ago

You better be jailed for just being the boss of activision.

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160°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.

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theverge.com
darthv7214h ago

Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.

solideagle1h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Cacabunga29m ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

purple1013h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos2h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

XBManiac2h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."

That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.

purple1011h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

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130°

Why Monopolies In Gaming Must Not Be Allowed

As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.

thorstein12h ago

Shouldn't be allowed in any field.

Inverno8h ago

And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.

jwillj2k47h ago

Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.

MrCrimson6h ago

tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.

Zenzuu8h ago

Monopolies shouldn't be allowed regardless. Not just for gaming.

MrCrimson7h ago

They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -

50°

Mugen Souls Retro Review – Sexy Demon Space Adventure

Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.

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pslegends.com