Activision: 'We're Taking Some of the Biggest Risks'

"The reality is that this is a group of people that lives, eats, breathes games."


Although the Call of Duty publisher is often accused of sticking to what works when new ideas could be found, Activision's CEO stands firm on the fact that the company is actively taking creative risks.

"Our strategy is to do a few things and do them exceptionally well," CEO Eric Hirshberg told Edge. "I think that sometimes people misperceive that as somehow being risk-averse, and yet we’re taking some of the biggest risks in new genres and new business models and new IPs than anybody."

Hirshberg cited Skylanders as an example of a risk, saying the franchise is not only a new IP, but a new genre of play that was still unproven 18 months ago.

The Skylanders and Call of Duty titles have both graced top-sales charts at one point or another, and Activision hopes that its faith in Bungie's upcoming shooter Destiny will prove fruitful as well.

"I think Bungie is a pretty special group of creative people and they’ve had a very good track record of games that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful," Hirshberg said. "[You] can see the ambitiousness of the concept and in order to bring that concept to life it’s been a big investment.

"It's a partnership that takes both an Activision and a Bungie to bring to life."

Activision will release Call of Duty: Ghosts this fall, followed by Destiny next year.