Activision games to bypass consoles

Gamespot: During a 45-minute presentation today at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick covered a substantial amount of ground. For one, the executive explained how he expects Activision games--specifically Guitar Hero--to bypass consoles in the future offered a few other suggestions of the company's direction in the future.

[patterson]

What a douche.

[Biggunz]

Activision would do themselves a favor if they found a new CEO.

[Dragun619]

Yea, Seriously,

First he threatened to drop support for PS3 because of the $400 price tag

Second he raises the price tag for Modern Warfare 2,

Then he had the nerve to disrupt and try to prevent the release of Brutal Legend by filling a suit claiming that they still owned Brutal Legend even though they clearly dropped the game during the merge with Vivendi.

Now,Bobby Kotick suggests that their future plan may involve a Guitar Hero console and how he describes as a good idea.......what?

Activision is being runned by greedy idiots like Robert Kotick, Next thing you know it they will release a guitar hero game where you have like 30 songs and the rest you have to Buy as DLC or they start to release like 10 different GH games each year.

And if they do release a guitar hero console, It would instantly fail, Why would anyone buy a console made to just play Guitar Hero?
Its like they think business is easy, Threatening sony,Charging ppl more money, jeez the moment they join the console business there just gonna get slaughtered, Maybe then they would understand the Sony's position on dropping the price tag for the PS3.

Its No wonder the original developers for Guitar Hero left Activision for Harmonix, to make Rock Band. Activision CEO's are douches.

[Maddens Raiders]

....I guess my comment will sound awfully trite next to yours but oh well....

..see I don't give rat's a$$ what Kotick says or Activision does as a whole I don't give a shyt about Modern Warfare or Guitar Hero....

[Genesis5]

Alright. Good luck with that. Here's one person that won't be buying one. Ever.

[Persistantthug]

Releasing a "console-less" Guitar Hero is feasible. Have you ever seen those 16bit emulators in the store or at Flea Markets.....The ones that have multiple games on it, but its all in the controller.

Guitar Hero could be something like that, where all the data could be on a removable flash card and the Guitar Hero main assets are in the the guitar that you can hook up to your TV.

Definitely possible since Guitar Hero isn't a technical marvel or graphics intensive or anything.

[Bobby Kotex]

You don't know me. Stop talking trash.

[thebudgetgamer]

so i always had a soft spot in my heart for activision. this guy is killing it.

:(

[randomwiz]

2 things I learned from this.

1. Kotick hates consoles

2. No xbox 720, ps4, or wii2 in 2011

[BattleAxe]

If he's taking the fun out of making video games and only giving employees incentive for producing profit, then I forsee alot of poor quality games comming out of activision.

I'm glad that Sony is concentrating on quality titles. EA is doing better these days and Ubisoft is a good publisher/ dev also.

[Winter47th]

Where's Dexter when you need him.

[Prototype]

I'm seriously debating to cancel my Modern Warfare 2 preorder because of morons like this. Everyone wants money and yes sometimes there's certain corners to cut, this is going beyond stupid.

Next is "Call of duty" consoles

[Armyless]

-

Edit: And there's a party at Harmonix right now too, I bet!

[CyberCam]

Bobby Kotick:
"He showed the audience a clip of Call of Duty: World at War, saying his friends in the movie industry all react by pointing out how unreal the mouth movement looks. The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player. "

Has he & his movie friends even seen any Uncharted 2 Among Thieve footage?

I'll tell you this, just watching Cloe's mouth move along with that sexy accent in her voice... makes me very "emotionally attached" to her, I instantly "rise" up when I see her speak!

[D4RkNIKON]

Bobby Kotick go away!

[v1c1ous]

let's all take a breath.....count to 10....and think about this logically.

this gen has shown us the power of CASUALS.

while as a hardcore gamer his comments insult me, he is not that far off.

Activision could theoretically release stand alone guitar hero peripherals that can be played on your tv, and the casuals + few hardcore gamers still looking for their next GH fix would still buy it and make this a profitable idea.

[Christopher]

Dumbest statement ever.

Consoles are popular because they don't rely on networking and are a specific design method of delivering content so that variance won't vary by PC specs. PC streaming is hardly mainstream, no matter what a hardcore gamer will tell you, and would only lead to shrinking their customer based greatly if they focused on this rather than putting their games on consoles.

[GrandTheftZamboni]

@Armyless

"I bet he finds himself 'unemployed' before the holidays..."

Maybe that's what he is trying to accomplish. He must have a very nice severance package in his contract. If I were a shareholder, I would be pretty pissed off with his behaviour by now.

[Anon1974]

Bobby and Gabe Newell seem trying their damnedest to out douche each other. And then there's the dark horses, Cliffy B, Jaffe, and who could forget the ole assgrabber..Itagaki.

Who will be the douchiest of them all?

[RememberThe357]

Do it, and get Uncharted 2. This guy is an asshole.

[mythamp]

Maybe Sony intentionally made this guy say "PS3 Price Drop required now." Sony already had the Slim ready and needed the buzz to start in the market. Just a thought, maybe this guy is a pawn rather than a sleazeball, I could be completely wrong though.

He is the next Simon Cowell of the gaming industry. Guy we love to hate, but everything happens as he says it would.

[AKNAA]

I think as long as modern warfare 2 doesn't live up to activision's expectations in terms of sales, I'm sure all the blame will go to this guy, which of course will be bye bye dumba$$!

[Prototype]

Already planned on it however this guy runs his mouth one more time I'm gonna cancel my preorder and get Modnation Racers instead.

It's almost to the point I'd rather promote Final Fantasy 13 than MW2 and thats saying a lot...

[morganfell]

He is the anti-Insomniac guy. He is anti-alot guy actually. There are quite a few prominent studios whose philiosphy is,

"You should have a great place to work and love your job. When you do, then you will help us make a better game."

koTICK defies this idea and wants the equivalent of a game development sweatshop. I just picture people chained to their computer desk.

And why does this guy seem like he is 4 feet tall? I keep thinking of him as the tyrant dwarf king or some mad little dictator.

And yes bobby, thanks to you I canceled my Prestige edition preorder.

[Ju]

Thx, Kotik. While I started to enjoy CoD4 lately, I won't buy any Activision game from now on until this guy is removed.

Taking the fun out of making video games ? Are you insane ? I hate playing databases. Get a live.

And you greedy shareholder, give me a break. Try to make some money elsewhere, like in real estate (oh, wait a minute)....

[-EvoAnubis-]

Wow...I don't know what to say, except that I flatly refuse to support a company that believes even half of this bullshit.

[ChozenWoan]

That's why I'm not getting CoD6:More of the Same.

To Quote Robert Krotch:
' "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. '

Translation:
We have severely limited the budgets of our studios to the point they have to beg for toilet paper funding on a daily basis. Thus we've gonna spend more on marketing than on development of games to maximize how much goes into the CEO's pocket.

[Timesplitter14]

It's like they're TRYING to be evil

[jack_burt0n]

That picture is something else even looking at him makes me feel f**king ill.

[PandemicPrawn0]

This guy's in the wrong industry.

"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."

The executive said that he has tried to instill into the company culture "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" of the global economic downturn, adding, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

Sound like a fun guy to work for.

[Armyless]

that this clown is NOT a gamer!

[Ju]

Might help if you put "manic-depressive" into your resume...wth.

[lordkemp007]

I would love to smash one of his cr#p guitars right off his smug visage, then soundly drop kick him right in the stones.

( and i consider myself a peaceful chap.)

[PandemicPrawn0]

EA don't look so bad now eh?

If Activision Blizzard keep these kinds of practices up I can't see the company going anywhere but down.

Game developers need to take risks to push the industry forward, if all these guys are gonna do is keep milking the guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises then consumers will vote with there wallets.

[mirroredderorrim]

Hate train. I'll be a coal-car.
http://images.lazygamer.co....

[dgroundwater]

Ok I'll just say it. Anyone who cares what his paycheque looks like is either heavily jealous or completely ignorant.

Obviously he has a bloated income. There aren't enough hours in a day to do the work proportionate to that kind of money. However, the choices he makes and deals he seals do affect hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

In other words, he's much smarter and hard working than you and I are - and he deserves to make boatloads of money. He still reeks of jerk, just don't think he's getting a free ride, because he is not.

[Biggunz]

For somebody so smart you would think he would know when to shut up.

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."

If only more consumers would see some of his ignorant statements he would be out of a job.

[PiTCHBLaCK]

LOL Activision, CEO Dude is Crazy, Good night Activision.

[PiTCHBLaCK]

This Guy thinks he's God or something, Threatening Sony, then
saying this BS.

[dgroundwater]

Yes because only God could ever threaten Sony.

[cmrbe]

500 million a year on royalties. I wonder what they will think if Sony Music don't support GH anymore.

So basically he wants us to buy another console for 1 game?. Is he serious?.

[NMC2007]

LOL@Nerd Rage

[ForROME]

Its Official, I will not buy any activision game going forward, BoyCott time till they remove this ignorant fool

[Dawn_Of_Ashes]

I cant stand this douche. I dont even know why people still take him seriously. He is probably one of the biggest troll of the gaming industry after hiphopf4ggot

[GiantEnemyCrab]

That's it! no more Activision for me! Right after MW2.. ;)

I don't want to punish great devs like Infinity Ward just because they aligned themselves with a company represented by this guy.

I'm actually happy to hear no more Guitar Hero on consoles because right now it's hard to avoid it with so much of the stuff. I know GH fans would disagree but I've never been a big fan of these music games. I'd rather play the real thing.

[nnotdead]

cop out. you're saying "i will never buy an Activision games again. unless of course its a really cool game i like." great boycott. only buy the games you want.

trust me, IW will not suffer because of a few hundred angry gamers. the game will sell millions upon millions of copies.

[Skynetone]

i guess the royalties he pays sony/ms can know go to his fat wife

but interesting he allso said:

Typically, console makers give publishing partners about two years' notice when it plans to introduce new hardware, Kotick said. But so far, the console makers haven't given him specs or white papers on new hardware

late 2012, then

[Sketchy]

when he says Guitar Hero to bypass console, is he talking about one of those toys you can get at your local drug store. The joystick you plug into the T.V. with the atari games in its. Except, in this case, it will be a guitar.

[JackBNimble]

Ya like Hannah Montana...... good move KoDICK! hahaha GH sucks anyway.

[saint_john_paul_ii]

ok its official. Activision is run by monkeys.

[thebudgetgamer]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

:)

[v1c1ous]

Activision console 2011 anyone?

[SuperStrokey1123]

And to think i just about gave in to my wants to buy MW2 new instead of used. This makes me feel better for keeping with that decision... Get rid of bobby suckdick and ill come back activision but until this its just used games for me from you guys.

[xc7x]

haha

[FuckinUsername]

Guitar Hero Without a Console!
Oh wait its a guitar..

Tony Hawk Without a Console!
Oh wait its a skateboard!

Call of Duty Without a Console
Oh..Wait we can't sell those in the UK unless you have a gun liscence...

[Bathyj]

Wow. Activision really suck.

Compare their working environment to somewhere like Naughty Dog.

Why would you want to suck the fun out of making games? Way to encourage robots, not artists. Lucky for them they're only publishers, not developers.

And lucky for them they have a couple of huge franchises going for them because with their current attitude, without CoD and GH they would probably be screwed and not quite so vocal.

[biggame901]

Activision seriously needs to remove this fool before he completely ruins the company. He needs to be permanently removed from the gaming industry. Period.

[Nikuma]

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."

This guy makes me sick.

[R4mpage]

This is just plain stupid, I'm not supporting this kind of behavior. I'm boycotting Activision until they get rid of Robert Kotick. If any of their games interest me, Ill buy it used.

[InFAMOUS1]

NASTY!!!!!!!!!

Every time this guy opens his mouth I want to vomit. I understand business is business, and its all about the bottom dollar, but he just has zero class in delivering. This article reminds me of what Kanye West pulled at the VMAs. Bobby Krackhead is nothing more then a greedy egotistical pompous #%^$$%@#$^@#%^@#$^@#$% who needs to be removed from his position... Its no trouble to tell activision is not a gaming company, they are simply a company. If they actually cared 1 bit they would listen to the install base and get rid of this douche once and for all

I was going to cancel my preorder of MW2 prestige tomorrow after seeing the pics of the NVGs being made, but now I'm just canceling it all together. I'll buy it used! F&$K YOU ACTIVISION

[PS360PCROCKS]

wtf? don't let your employees have fun making games? No wonder every game anymore is a retread, nobody F'ing cares!! Besides IW :)

[Shadowstar]

"...explained openly why he wants a company culture infused with skepticism, pessimism, and fear."

What the hell? What kind of ridiculous company wants that? One that wants people more focused on the idea that they might lose their jobs rather than on what they're doing. That sort of culture lowers productivity. I'm glad I'm not working at Activision. So glad.

[djfullshred]

Haha, go ahead and work on that future plan there chief. In the meantime I am buying games that they are already making for my console...games made by other companies that put out better products I might add. ;-)

[The_Nameless_One]

Is he completely off his rocks?????

How do they still let this guy speak.

[Jeff257]

Damn. He needs to be replaced. If he continues on this track he will run Activision into the ground.

EDIT: I just wanted to add a comment to his statement that there is nothing in games right now that have good enough mouth movement or facial animation to establish a compelling emotional attachment to a player. Well obviously the man has not seen the work Naughty Dog did for Uncharted 2. You cannot look at a trailer for that game without noticing how good the lip syncing is and see the expressions on the character's faces. You cant sit there and look at those and not be swept along emotionally with these characters. Just because he doesnt have devs pushing tech further for this gen doesnt mean there arent devs out there who cant push games further than thought possible before.

[Ju]

Well, you know, maybe not in his company, where the only incentive is making a profit.

For some others the incentive is to go the extra mile to show off something extra ordinary, and the emphasis for those is having fun and pushing the boundaries. Maybe those companies already have what he is dreaming of.

[ZBlacktt]

quote:

"Typically, console makers give publishing partners about two years' notice when it plans to introduce new hardware, Kotick said. But so far, the console makers haven't given him specs or white papers on new hardware, nor have they consulted him on design decisions, leading him to believe their current priority is instead to reduce the cost of each system. "

Awh, that means they don't like you dumbass! This guy is a total clueless idiot. He is going to make so many enemies no one will care for his crap. I hope they have a strong board of directors to fire his ass before the ship really starts to sink. He speaks so C0cky as if he doesn't need MS or Sony. Well then, go on with your bad self.

[DiffusionE]

I thought he learned to keep his yap-hole tightly shut after his retarded MW2 comments. Y'know, pirating each and every game made by Activision just to spite this guy sounds like a damn good idea right now.

[TheDeadMetalhead]

Remember when Activision was good?

;_;

[Ju]

No.

Well, not true. I still think about that olymics game on the C64. Well, you know. The time before I was sexually active. LOL.

[gwcommander]

I'm sure he is laughing and living it up right now but at most companies if you make some huge mistake, and i hope he makes it, its a good way for him to get the boot. I think he is saying what a lot of CEOs and such are thinking, but usually they keep their mouths shut. But seriously this guy looks like ronald mcdonald. or is it just me.

[DARK WITNESS]

i really don't know what to say...

I can't think of any exec who has cheesed me off as much as this guy is starting to do.

Well i am still not supporting activision for anything..

If people stopped buying their games, maybe we would see the end of him, but millions will anyway, and he will be smiling away thinking we are all mumpets.

everyone is in it for money, sure... but he is taking it to a whole new level.

he is not a gamer, he certainly does not care much for his customers.. stop supporting this moron, and his company !

[nutcrackr]

it would not have a chance without the console base to work from. They would require a system that would cost an additional $100 and play one game... nobody is going to go for that crap.

[dib8rman]

When did he enter the games industry?

It's like reading that image where the army guy is using his M16 like a bow n arrow. He's doing it wrong.

Consoles were made to be better than Arcades, platforms made it easier for an ecosystem to exist. Creating Standalone kills the ecosystem, in business that's slow poison.

Without competition Activision would have to work harder than Nintendo to churn out games that surprise and captivate new consumers. Not having competition sounds nice, but in the entertainment business the customer is king, and your competing indirectly with tuns of other forms of entertainment even tossing a ball is competing with Activision.

Consoles are supposed to be home arcades, no one wants to bring an Arcade into their house, those things are huge. People always just wanted an Arcade feel on a television of their preference.

[Trevorthenerd]

This guy needs a good kick in the balls