Activision Blizzard CEO slams EA

[Antissa]

"Great people don't really want to work there," says Bobby Kotick.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has taken a shot at rival Electronic Arts.

In a recent interview with Edge magazine, Kotick said Activision's recent success is the result of allowing its internally owned studios to retain an identity, something EA is currently lacking.

"The core principle of how we run the company is the exact opposite of EA," Kotick said. "EA will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', 'EA New Jersey', whatever. We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that's what makes them so successful.' We don't have an Activision anything - it's Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer.

"That, to me, is one of the unassailable rules of building a publishing company. And in every case except for two, the original founders of the studios are still running the studios today. The only thing that we try to do is to provide a support structure to make them more successful.

"If you do a really good job - and a lot of our studios do - you get to pick what is, in my view, the most difficult thing to pick in the industry: to make original intellectual property."

Kotick also believes EA is struggling to attract talent, which he says will ultimately result in lesser quality titles.

"Look, EA has a lot of resources, it's a big company that's been in business for a long time, maybe it'll figure it out eventually. But it's been struggling for a really long time. The most difficult challenge it faces today is: great people don't really want to work there.

"It's like, if you have no other option, you might consider them. They have some… the team that makes Madden is a really great team, it's been able to manage, capture and keep some good people. But we have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA – that's their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value.

"It's lost its way. And until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it's going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."

Read more: http://pc.ign.com/articles/112/1123599p1.html#ixzz10lP5h6dl

Thoughts? Personally, I think Kotick statements are overly harsh, but he has raised some good points. EA has made some horrible decisions in the past, and ruined well regarded video game franchises that they owned.

What's incredibly ironic about this situation is that Activision-Blizzard appears to be going down EA's same path.

[Bolkonsky]

Has he ever played Mass Effect?

[Inhuman One]

Well to some extent he does have a point. EA assimilates everything they touch. They already killed Bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood that way.

And both the sims and command & conquer are now a mere shell of their former selves. Both series where known for innovation before EA took over the entire company.

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Well to some extent he does have a point. EA assimilates everything they touch. They already killed Bullfrog, Maxis, Pandemic and Westwood that way.

And both the sims and command & conquer are now a mere shell of their former selves. Both series where known for innovation before EA took over the entire company.

[snuggans]

"It's like, if you have no other option, you might consider them. They have some… the team that makes Madden is a really great team, it's been able to manage, capture and keep some good people.

i started laughing when i read this.



no offense to the Madden team but the last game Bobby Kotick played was probably Tetris when he was 10. did a secretary hold up a list of games with biggest profit margins when he was talking about great development teams? to him, that's what more than likely makes a team --and to a lesser extent, its game(s)-- "good".

[Cougar109]

Hell must have frozen over because to an extent I agree with Kotick. While I don't necessarily agree with his reasoning (Though they do love to milk IP's and destroy developers they buy out) EA has been struggling to turn a profit for years now and it's lost quite a bit of quality talent. EA isn't in trouble yet but they're well on their way and Riccitello is going to continue leading them there so long as he controls the reigns.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Only reason why he slammed EA is because 1. EA managed to beat them in court over the whole Brutal Legend thing and 2. Activision mistreated IW so badly that they told him to piss off and ran off to EA instead.
So he is a bit sour when it comes to that.

Yeah EA has done bad things in the past but Kotick really should just shut up because they are not one bit better then old EA was and yeah, atleast EA is trying to improve themself.

The most difficult challenge it faces today is: great people don't really want to work there.

You mean like Respawn ?

[Banana Jelly]

He shouldn't criticize others before he criticizes himself. The irony...



But he is kind of true though.

[Akar]

Kotick is reatrded. THAT IS ALL

[Ascarona]

Hahaha this is like a big stinking lump of talking crap about a lump of whale poo.

[Lt.Bradford]

Is it that time of the month to hate on EA? And Kotick is lauded for putting down on absorbing companies, ruining franchises, etc?

What is this opposite day? Kotick's being a hypocrite here. EA has been doing a farely well job with turning its leaf and has put out some real quality non-milked products (Madden and NCAA this year are great, Mirror's Edge a few years back, Mass Effect 2) while what's Kotick wanting pay for cutscenes and pulling another CoD out. Bobby Kotick has done nothing but create articles for you to make fun of and you people are agreeing with him?

Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to being Mr. mainstream and enjoy Reach...

[Musthavename]

Bioware is a pretty MASSIVE exception to everything he's said. Also, when did IW and Treyarch have an identity? Not recently anyway, they're just the "spam out CoD games for Activision" studios.

I think he's just sore about those IW guys forming Respawn (iirc...) and getting with EA.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

EA snaps back

Electronic Arts has fired back at Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick after interview comments made about EA in Edge magazine were published this morning. Kotick said EA isn't allowing its studios to have an identity and said talented developers don't want to work there.

Jeff Brown, EA's vice president of communications, didn't hold back when asked for comment, taking aim at Activision's Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft franchises in the process.

"Kotick's relationship with studio talent is well documented in litigation," Brown said, referring to Activision's latest lawsuit with developer Infinity Ward over the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise and previously with Double Fine over Brutal Legend.

"His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."

Activision acquired the World of Warcraft franchise after the company merged with Blizzard parent company Vivendi Games in 2007. With Guitar Hero, Activision stated last year it was reducing the number of music titles released in calendar 2010 in anticipation of a declining market.

There has been little to no effect from the lawsuit with Infinity Ward over Call of Duty to Activision's bottom line, however. Modern Warfare 2 has sold over 20 million copies worldwide to date, and Activision is planning on marketing its latest title, Call of Duty: Black Ops, with the publisher's largest game launch this November.

Read more: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/...#ixzz10lZtOStk

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1123641p1.html

[Banana Jelly]

Good. I rather choose EA over Activision anyday.

[Akar]

Good. I rather choose EA over Activision anyday.

[Omar Nelson B.]

did a secretary

Out of everything you wrote, this is what I picked out. So....Bobbert is doing the help now?

[Pious Agnost]

"His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."

pwnt

[VOP2288]

His statements may have been relevant years ago but I think EA has actually been on the rise over the last few years - they've turned out some solid games (a thing they lacked for most of the late 90s and early 2000s).

Actually, it would almost seem that Kotick is a bit confused and is talking about Activision...I don't recall EA gutting BioWare but I do recall Activision gutting IW b/c Kotick wanted Modern Warfare 20 by 2013 and a good number of people in IW said "yeah...we want to move on"

[Thanatos]

Thoughts? Personally, I think Kotick statements are overly harsh, but he has raised some good points. EA has made some horrible decisions in the past, and ruined well regarded video game franchises that they owned.

What's incredibly ironic about this situation is that Activision-Blizzard appears to be going down EA's same path.

Considering that EA's received a new CEO, and that CEO even stated that EA screwed up big-time in the past and has tried to make amends with new refreshing IPs like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, it's not very accurate at all, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very suspicious of EA, but at least I'm willing to finally give them something resembling a fresh start.

Also, the fact that this is Kotick of all people making these points, is just too deliciously ironic to bear. "Great people don't want to work there," Mr. Kotick? "There" meaning EA? Compared to where, hrm? Because the last time I checked, you were busy running around quite like a headless chicken, spouting out statements that would make even Satan's PR office facepalm in embarassment:

"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."

"I think we definitely have been able to instill the culture, the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like we are in today. And so, while generally people talk about the recession, we are pretty good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

"And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further."

... right, Bobby-boy. You just keep doing what you know best. And by that, I mean whoring everything people could possibly hold dear on the altar of the almighty dollar.

Lastly, Acti-Blizz has already gone down the path EA took a few years ago, then tripped over a rock, bumped its head, and then decided that going even deeper as fast as it could was the best idea possible. At its height of evil, EA was the Easter Bunny compared to what Activision is doing now.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Don't forget that he also stated that Bungie was the only talented developers left.
The sooner Activision-Blizzard goes out of business the better things are for gamers.