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Mr. Freeze

The Antichrist of Videogaming

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Outside of Guitar Hero being more accessible, I fail to see anything bad about this article. And I know I'm alone on that Guitar Hero comment.

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TheMionicDonut said:

Outside of Guitar Hero being more accessible, I fail to see anything bad about this article. And I know I'm alone on that Guitar Hero comment.


Read this: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/activision-if-we-cant-run-a-game-into-the-ground-we-dont-want-it.ars

This is the man who didn't take Ghostbusters: The Game because Akroyd and Ramis wouldn't make a sequel every 10 months.

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What the hell did Blizzard get themselves into? They're not generally the most respectable company as of late, but I think they really screwed the pooch when they got into bed with Activision.

This guy reminds me of Herve Caen, of Interplay.

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I don't think Blizzard had a choice. They were originally owned by Vivendi until Activision and Vivendi merged. Then they sort of became part of Activision.

I wouldn't be surprised if the merger had something to do with Blizzard splitting Star Craft 2 into three games, however.

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Snarboo said:

I don't think Blizzard had a choice. They were originally owned by Vivendi until Activision and Vivendi merged. Then they sort of became part of Activision.

I wouldn't be surprised if the merger had something to do with Blizzard splitting Star Craft 2 into three games, however.


An article somewhere (can't remember link) actually said that Kotick was responsible for that.

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It's been that way for a year or two, but it's almost hilarious how cartoonishly evil Activision has become.

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Mr. Freeze said:


Step 1: Sell the same game again and again once a year.
Step 2: People buy up this bullshit.
Step 3: Profit!!!
Step 4: Keep running the games into the ground.
Step 5: People get tired of playing the same games over and over and stop buying them.
Step 6: Sell all your shares and flee the company.
Step 7: Company goes bankrupt.
Step 8: More profit!!!!

This dude is only in it for himself.

Also, major league timeline.

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The things that Kotick says sound horrible as PR pieces but as business practices they have proven themselves successful. This is the guy who turned Activision from bankruptcy to being one of the most powerful game publishing companies period.

He should have just learned to keep this banter in the boardroom because as far as the public is concerned, he is now considered to be in the league of Jack Thompson or even the Devil. This has to have a least a bit of impact on their sales - enough to make a difference to their profit line, I doubt it, but a bit never the less.

It's basic capitalism, and it is always this soulless. You just don't usually see that fact flaunted so prominently.

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Snarboo said:

It's been that way for a year or two, but it's almost hilarious how cartoonishly evil Activision has become.


As I stated before, it really isn't too hard to see him as a Icon replacement.

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Quasar said:

The things that Kotick says sound horrible as PR pieces but as business practices they have proven themselves successful.


That sentence needs a boldface, italicized "for now" tacked onto the end of it. Their cash cows are going to run dry. What then?

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Mr. Freeze said:

I want another crash to happen SO badly. It would warm my heart like nothing else to see all these idiot publishers crash and burn.

Amen to that

While I can respect Kotick for instilling the business practices that are/will make the company succeed I see this as an act that will take away from any significant creativeness in the workplace, resulting in same old shit over and over again.

For more info see Danarchy's post :P

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Quasar said:

He should have just learned to keep this banter in the boardroom because as far as the public is concerned, he is now considered to be in the league of Jack Thompson or even the Devil. This has to have a least a bit of impact on their sales - enough to make a difference to their profit line, I doubt it, but a bit never the less.

It's basic capitalism, and it is always this soulless. You just don't usually see that fact flaunted so prominently.

I was gonna say something about all the tight-pants Guitar Hero kiddies who won't be reading this article, but I think I agree with you. It shows he's getting cocky. I'm sure you know what that leads to.

Oh, and, as some of you know, Game Informer will sometimes post quotes in their "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" section. Guess what it was this month.

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Creaphis said:

Their cash cows are going to run dry. What then?

They sign up some promising indie developers, allow them some creative freedom to adapt and tweak existing franchises (or resurrect old ones), hype the games for all their worth then resume at Danarchy's Step 1 as if nothing had happened.

I'm reminded of what happened to the Amiga games market when Commodore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - publisher's dropped the platform like a red-hot turd. This would be something of a role reversal - but - what if the console manufacturer's struck first and shut Activision out of their market segment before Kotick has console-independent products ready to ship?

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DuckReconMajor said:

Oh, and, as some of you know, Game Informer will sometimes post quotes in their "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" section. Guess what it was this month.


As usual, GI is incredibly behind on... well, everything. Unless you mean the minuscule quote in last month's (October) issue.

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DuckReconMajor said:

I was gonna say something about all the tight-pants Guitar Hero kiddies who won't be reading this article, but I think I agree with you. It shows he's getting cocky. I'm sure you know what that leads to.


It's going to lead to a golden parachute and Activison's bankruptcy. Followed by Kotick thinking "Without my great leadership, no company can do good!"

You can't cure stupid with words.

DuckReconMajor said:

Oh, and, as some of you know, Game Informer will sometimes post quotes in their "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" section. Guess what it was this month.


MORE LIKE GAME MISINFORMER DOHOHOHO

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Gamasutra has a great article up about Infinity Ward's latest debacle: Infinity Ward - You're Doing It Wrong

The issue here is that Infinity Ward have recently announced that the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will have no dedicated server support and no support for server mods. In it's place will be a new IW.net system that acts as a glorified console matchmaking service with no alternative. LAN support is unknown at this point, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is taking a cue from Blizzard and removing LAN support entirely. People are pretty pissed, and Infinity Ward's handling of the situation leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm posting this here because it's Activision related and recent. Not that I planned on buying Modern Warfare 2, but I suppose for some people this is a huge deal.

I wouldn't be surprised if this too was Kotick's meddling.

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If there was another crash, it would hurt smaller developers way more than the big publishers. Big publishers can borrow money and make layoffs, and have franchises that guarantee cash flow, whereas smaller developers working on original IP would be screwed.

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Jonathan said:

If there was another crash, it would hurt smaller developers way more than the big publishers. Big publishers can borrow money and make layoffs, and have franchises that guarantee cash flow, whereas smaller developers working on original IP would be screwed.

Possibly. But usually, the smaller the company, the more investment they have in other things. So it's not like most of them are just going to disappear since they are often funded by other means. That is especially true in the case of independents. But if there is another crash, those franchises are going to crash along with them because that's the whole point of a crash to begin with...all the big names go down in flames and no one cares anymore. The smart ones don't limit themselves to consoles though...when the console market goes pop, the smart ones shift to the PC, which will never crash and burn.

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Necros20 said:

Maybe this is why Id Software ditched Activision as its publisher.


Can you imagine DooM coming out every 10-12 months? That would give some of us nightmares.

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Eponasoft said:

Possibly. But usually, the smaller the company, the more investment they have in other things. So it's not like most of them are just going to disappear since they are often funded by other means. That is especially true in the case of independents. But if there is another crash, those franchises are going to crash along with them because that's the whole point of a crash to begin with...all the big names go down in flames and no one cares anymore. The smart ones don't limit themselves to consoles though...when the console market goes pop, the smart ones shift to the PC, which will never crash and burn.

The 1983/4 crash happened because of an industry gold-rush caused an avalanche of and low quality products, leading to market oversaturation and customer dissatisfaction. An exact repeat of the eighties crash might have the effect you envisage, but it won't ever happen because circumstances have changed.

Console makers learnt their lessons from the crash, and they control publication on their platforms to prevent oversaturation and protect their own profits first and foremost. Also, games, and home computing in general, in the eighties was considered by many in mainstream business to be a fad at best. Nowadays, the situation is very different, and even in a lean period, big games publishers would be able to attract financial support and investment, because their long term prospects are good.

And franchises do matter. As I said, the first crash was a result of oversaturation vs demand. That situation is exactly when franchises are most valuable, because they have an established audience and a more guaranteed return. The lack of risk compared to original IP is exactly why companies like EA and Activision love them so much.

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Mr. Freeze said:

Can you imagine DooM coming out every 10-12 months? That would give some of us nightmares.


Zenimax's acquiring of Id doesn't seem so bad now does it. :p

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