Activision CEO Kotick Slams EA
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"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://ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1123593p1.html#ixzz10koaa5wy
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://ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1123593p1.html#ixzz10koaa5wy
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Bobby Kotick has hit back at Brütal Legend developer Tim Schafer – who famously called the Activision Blizzard CEO a "total ? " in a Eurogamer interview.
Double Fine boss Schafer told Eurogamer in July: "His [Kotick's] obligation is to his shareholders. Well, he doesn't have to be as much of a ? about it, does he? I think there is a way he can do it without being a total ? . It seems like it would be possible. It's not something he's interested in."
Activision hit the headlines last year when it tried to prevent EA from releasing Brütal Legend.
Brütal Legend was originally a Vivendi game, but was dropped after Activision merged with Blizzard Entertainment.
"The guy comes out and says I'm a ? ," Kotick told the latest issue of Edge magazine.
"I've never met him in my life – I've never had anything to do with him. I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it.'
"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."
Kotick also insisted his infamous "taking the fun out of videogame development" quote was just a quip.
"That was a joke! The fact that there are people – and it's a small vocal minority – that actually think that I meant it... How do you combat that?"
He added: "This is my dream job. I've been playing games since I was 18 years old. I could have bought any company, but I bought a bankrupt game company, and I've been doing it for 21 years. This idea that I'm not passionate about videogames is ludicrous. But you say something and it gets taken out of context."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-27-bobby-kotick-slags-off-tim-schafer -
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has defended his decision to fire Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West, insisting: "We didn't have any choice!"
Ex-Infinity Ward bosses Zampella and West were fired amid a high profile lawsuit that eventually led to the formation of Respawn Entertainment.
The newly created developer signed with Kotick's bitter rival EA, and work on a new game has begun.
"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," Kotick told Edge.
"The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.
"You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."
Kotick revealed he knew Infinity Ward staff would leave en masse following the split, but insisted all will be fine in the end.
"There's 70 really talented people at Infinity Ward who are focused and engaged – and in the last six months, we've had something like 5000 resumes, so it's not like there's a shortage of interest in working there.
"It's one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"
Activision is yet to reveal what game Infinity Ward will create next, but the internet reckons it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-27-cod-creators-betrayed-me-kotick -
Brütal Legend creator Tim Schafer has hit back at this morning's scathing criticism from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
Kotick criticised Schafer's ability to meet deadlines and labelled Brütal Legend a poor game in an interview with Edge.
The slur was a response to a Eurogamer interview from July in which the Double Fine Studios boss called Kotick a "total ? ".
That was the result of Activision's high-profile effort to prevent EA from releasing Brütal Legend, a game dropped by Kotick's company after it merged with Vivendi.
Speaking exclusively to Eurogamer, Schafer responded to Kotick, calling his comments "sad".
"It's sad is that instead of just insulting me personally, he goes after the product of my hard-working team - a group of people he almost put out of work a while back," Schafer said.
"But what's even sadder is that it took him two months to think of a comeback."
Schafer's just announced that old LucasArts pal Ron Gilbert has joined Double Fine to work on an unnanounced game.
Kotick, for his part, insists his comments are taken out of context by the vocal minority, and in fact loves games and the people who make them.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-27-schafer-hits-back-at-kotick -
lol @ all the shots being fired, I didn't know video game development was grimy like that lol......
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Kotick's hubris is destroying Call of Duty, says EA.
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, slinging mud 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/112/1123641p1.html#ixzz10lSlT7my -
Lmao these white boys bugging out
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"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."
...and with that, EA wins. This is the second time EA has ethered Activision in the press with a classic statement. The first time was when EA was asked to comment on the lawsuit Activision filed against the former heads of Infinity Ward...
"We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners."
LMAO! I like to see these CEO's and executives go at it in public. -
wow now game companies are beefing now. smh
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Damn somebody might get capped. These white dudes going at it.
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You know we pop them thangs
If you scared get a dog
If you gully get a gun -
I heard the CEO of Activision caught the CEO of EA's homies at a club in west hollywood and had his NBA Elite chain snatched
