This Just In: Bobby Kotick Is a Moron

[Yoshi]

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has dismissed the likes of Valve, Epic, Ninja Theory, Level-5, Insomniac, Foundation 9, Gearbox, Sucker Punch, Rebellion and Terminal Reality - by calling Bungie the "last remaining high quality independent developer" in the world. Yep. Wow.

Activision, of course, has embarked on an exclusive ten-year publishing deal with Bungie for its new 'action universe' - widely assumed to be an MMO.

"Bungie are a very unusual company," Kotick told the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference.

"They're probably the last remaining high quality independent developer. It's very hard to [pauses]... that has sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they're a real company.

"When they started the process of looking for a new partner, they'd been in business with Microsoft. They had a vision for a product they wanted to create that needed certain skills and capabilities - that Microsoft had some of.

"But as they started to go and look at the obvious candidates, they realised that no company other than Activision had the skills that they needed to be successful for the vision of that product. These are things that you never would have envisioned five years ago.

"Blizzard had 2,500 people in customer service and support just for World Of Warcraft. How you train them, how you manage them, how you organise them... how you use CRM tools in delighting and satisfying the expectations of your audiences.. it's something no other company [Bungie] talked to [could offer]."

Activision's alliance with Bungie provide the studio with its first such partnership since it split with former owner Microsoft in 2007.

The studio's Halo Reach topped the official UK Chart this morning - outstripping Halo 3's opening week sales figures.

Meanwhile, Kotick has expressed a wish to sell repackaged in-game cutscenes to gamers as $30 movies.

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My memories of "fuck EA" are fading more quickly every time this douchebag opens his mouth.

[kingoffighters]

I am not a fan of Activision milking the shit out of any good franchise they have. Shareholders and return on investments make videogames shit.

[bbobb]

Why is Ninja Theory on that list? What exactly makes people think they're any good? The so-so game Heavenly Sword? The yet to be released but said to have major control issues Enslaved? The horrific DMC reboot they're doing? I don't get what people see in them.

[Yoshi]

lol I almost commented on Ninja Theory also, but I already beat them up in the DMC thread.

[bbobb]

Everyone everywhere seems to be all "HELL YEAH NINJA THEORY RULES" for some reason since the DMC reboot announcement and it makes no sense whatsoever.

[dave is ok]

This has nothing to do with Bungies publishing deal with Activision. NOTHING.

Also, Halo MMO confirmed. 20 dollars per month

[Yoshi]

I need to go figure out what the last Activision game I bought was, so I can make accurate "I've been clean for X month/years" statements.

[Frogacuda]

Meanwhile, Kotick has expressed a wish to sell repackaged in-game cutscenes to gamers as $30 movies.

This kind of shit is what makes me roll my eyes at Kotick more than any half-thought out opinion on independent studios. It's like he thinks gamers can't see through these retarded ploys for more money and no product. That's barely an interesting unlockable.

[Yoshi]

I personally agree with you, but I've listened to a lot of the 198X pod casts, and they talk about "experiencing" games. They actually watch YouTube videos for games they don't have time to play, which is retarded to me, but apparently people do it. Maybe paying for the privilege would cross the line, but when you have people swearing by MGS or Final Fantasy, you have to wonder how much gameplay matters to them.

[Changeling]

A Kotick thread?! What the fuck is this shit?? Keep this shit at GAF. This thread needs to DIAF.