Activision: "We might have to stop supporting Sony"
Guitar Hero, Call of Duty publisher threatens to pull support unless PlayStation 3 price is dropped
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has said that his company may have to stop supporting the PlayStation 3 if Sony does not drop the price of the luxury console.
"They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony," said Kotick to The Times.
"When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP [portable] too."
According to the report, Activision paid USD 500 million in royalties to Sony last year which, "probably still worked out at 400 per cent of the profit they made".
He added: "I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform.
"It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation."
Big releases from Activision this year include a reinvigorated Tony Hawk title complete with peripheral, DJ Hero, the latest spin-off of the popular Guitar Hero franchise, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which Activision expects to be the "biggest entertainment launch of all time".
Don't think that Sony will take it seriously.
Although he has a point on the pricecut.
"ccording to the report, Activision paid USD 500 million in royalties to Sony last year which, "probably still worked out at 400 per cent of the profit they made"."
Then it's definitely not that interesting to develop for the PS3.
Ultimately this is just a pressure game, but one could understand why he's a bit pissed off...
I think Activision need to realise that Microsoft had a one year head start, and that Sony also had a 5 month European delay after the Japanese/U.S. Playstation 3 release, yet still managed to sell consoles in it's first two years faster than Microsoft did.
I can understand the need for a price drop, but Sony has done pretty damn well considering the odds stacked against them and the sales of MGS4 and COD4 prove that you can sell games on the system.
Multiplatform development is always going to be expensive.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jonathan McEnroe on 19th June 2009 3:09pm
I think its a fairly bold comment to make and can understand how Sony would brush it off as obviously Activision would lose a lot of money doing this, but may be this isn't directed at Sony, but other developers to join forces and put even more pressure on them.
Sony finally have some major titles coming, it would be perfect for them to price cut around November I would have thought.