Activision CEO says competition putting out "less than adequate" products
Bobby Kotick partially blames the lack of quality games for the softness in the market
Following Activision Blizzard's earnings announcement, the publisher held its investors call to discuss its results and the industry at large. Chief Executive Bobby Kotick was asked by an analyst about the challenging marketplace this year and why sales have been down at retail.
"You have a very difficult macroeconomic environment, when you look at the things that can generally have an impact on the consumption of entertainment - unemployment data is very concerning, and when you look at the challenges in Europe there are a lot of things that are going to affect the macroeconomic outlook. We are also at the late end of the cycle, and the late end of a console cycle is always going to have its share of difficulties," Kotick began.
He then proceeded to lay some of the blame at the feet of his competitors, which he said are not necessarily doing the industry justice by shipping less than stellar games.
"I also think you've had, unfortunately, a stream of products that are less than adequate from some of our competitors. The demand in the marketplace is for great quality products. If you look at the success we're having it validates that there is an opportunity for great quality products but I think at this stage in the cycle, it's challenging for anything other than great quality products," he said.
Kotick added that other sectors, particularly mobile, are having an impact on how much money consumers are willing to spend. Beyond that, many gamers are happy to keep playing online games for longer stretches of time instead of rushing out to buy new products.
"There's also a lot of competition for entertainment dollars - you look at mobile games and what's happening there and the pricing there that's having an impact," he continued. "And I also think that a lot of the games we make, like Call of Duty, that are multiplayer games offer a lot of replayability, and when you have the opportunity for replayability in an economic environment like this, you're going to spend more time playing the games that you have."
"But I will say that if you look out at the next five years, there's a lot of reason to be hopeful and enthusiastic, but the next few years are going to be challenging," Kotick concluded.
I cannot remember the last Activision game I bought new...... They have relied on sequels too much...
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Kevin Patterson on 3rd August 2012 9:30pm
Unlike several serial loss making industry bosses, who are best ignored.
Acyivision's move into mobile seems exquisitely timed and will put the skills they have gained from MMOs to good use.
Doesn't matter how "successful" people in other companies (who are best ignored) can consider this man. His market policy of monopolizing genres is terrible for other companies, it closes the door for humble funding small developers to compete and are a "boot to the head" for creativity. I'm surprised there is still people, even inside the industry, who fails to see thins.
Activision went through the Game Crash 83 and seems they didn't learn a thing... EA is not better in that matter though...
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Alfonso Sexto on 3rd August 2012 10:03am
I wonder what they will do when the CoD bubble does pop?
Judging by their current form, shift most of their studios to work on Skylanders DLC.
Activision really understands how to monetize the console industry with some pretty damn clever ideas. Call of Duty Elite is a pioneering services, and Skylanders is outright brilliant. You just wait till they make a cartoon of that game and this already hugely successful franchise will be making unbelievable profits.
Furthermore, they actually do put good money into their franchises, even their movie games, to make them better. Amazing Spider-Man was developed by Beenox, and actually turned out pretty good. War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron both have real effort put into them, despite not being in a huge franchise.
They are even finally making some real changes to Call of Duty, with a whole new game mode in Black Ops 2 that plays out like an RTS/FPS combo, letting you direct troops and deploy units from an isometric view then hop down into first person control at will.
Yes, they have a lot of problems, but they do actually try to make quality products.
You are nothing if not predictable.
If you want to know what kind of leader Kotick is, eliminate the revenue from Blizzard and see what kind of shape Activision is in.
Let's see how all that pans out as the current economic situation isn't exactly
getting better for some out there who'd normally be buying a good deal of these products but can't.
Just make good games, I say...
For comparison just take one look at how the film and music industry does things - one or two tentpole releases a year sure, but they are constantly nurturing smaller talent as well as that's where your next big thing will come from.