World of Warcraft: When neither subscription or services are enough...

[MinionOfCthulhu]

Originally Posted by jayrebb

Speaking of Kotick, is someone fucking with his Wiki? I can't believe some of the quotes that come out of this guys mouth.

Kotick received significant criticism for stating, "We have a real culture of thrift. 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." Kotick later stated he tries to promote an atmosphere of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" in his company and, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

lol? I guess he is the fascist version of a CEO wingnut.

FEAR, PESSIMISM, SKEPTICISM (AKA BASHING CREATIVITY) = SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

laugh or cry at this. Im sure its satire but can't be far from the truth.

That's a real quote. Here are some other gems from Kotick.

And then on the second question, Tony, on the pricing, we’ve had for all of our launch titles in the back half of this year, some of which contain peripherals, as you point out, very strong retailer acceptance and support for all parts of our plan, including our merchandising plans, our marketing programs, and our price points."

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

Kotick confirmed that Activision abandoned a number of Vivendi's games because they "don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now."

Although one of my favorite Kotick-related quotes is from an interview he did about Guitar Hero: World Tour, with an interviewer who was actually on the ball.

Kotick: We have a new product coming out in the fall called Guitar Hero World Tour, which is the first time you'll have multiple instruments -- drums, mic, bass, a different guitar ...

Swisher: It's called Rock Band, I think.

Kotick (after a slight pause): We're calling it Guitar Hero World Tour.

This comic? That first panel is a quote by Kotick.

[Gauss]

Originally Posted by MinionOfCthulhu

That's a real quote. Here are some other gems from Kotick.

Although one of my favorite Kotick-related quotes is from an interview he did about Guitar Hero: World Tour, with an interviewer who was actually on the ball.

This comic? That first panel is a quote by Kotick.

I still find it amazing that people who care at all about the direction of gaming can support this guy in any way by purchasing/subscribing to any of his games. I feel like that, even with how Kotick makes no attempt to hide his true intentions, that most people who play Activision-Blizzard games do not know this asshole is at the head of the company, and I think if they did, they might think twice about remaining customers (At least that's what I'd like to think). I feel like those quotes should be on billboards or TV ads or something.

I want to play Cataclysm - I really do - but I also know that by purchasing the game I'm tacitly supporting that guy.

[Aaubert]

Originally Posted by Gauss

I still find it amazing that people who care at all about the direction of gaming can support this guy in any way by purchasing/subscribing to any of his games. I feel like that, even with how Kotick makes no attempt to hide his true intentions, that most people who play Activision-Blizzard games do not know this asshole is at the head of the company, and I think if they did, they might think twice about remaining customers (At least that's what I'd like to think). I feel like those quotes should be on billboards or TV ads or something.

I want to play Cataclysm - I really do - but I also know that by purchasing the game I'm tacitly supporting that guy.

heres my naive hope of the day...

Maybe as the industry is bastardized further, we'll see a separation between the elites and the indies, kinda like the music industry where no one really looks to big labels for interesting/new/non "the man" influenced music.

MMOs have been at a midpoint in this bastardization curve for a while, where companies who couldn't give a flapping shit have bought out idealistic smaller studios creating games "from the heart" (supposedly).

Hopefully, as the mega-studios continue to pump and dump games, indie classics will come out.

/fingerscross.

[Torrid]

Originally Posted by Aaubert

Hopefully, as the mega-studios continue to pump and dump games, indie classics will come out.

/fingerscross.

Actually I feel similar in that I'm dying for a decent indie MMOG to come out. I miss the small community feel and don't want the entire game spoiled before patches come out. Large successful MMOGs can't really provide this anymore. I also want more of a challenge and forced grouping. Of course if some indie did make a great game, it won't have a small user base for a long time, but a year or two is better than nothing.

I've seen several candidates but none are anywhere close to being playable. So sad.

[Senen]

Originally Posted by Torrid

Actually I feel similar in that I'm dying for a decent indie MMOG to come out. I miss the small community feel and don't want the entire game spoiled before patches come out. Large successful MMOGs can't really provide this anymore. I also want more of a challenge and forced grouping. Of course if some indie did make a great game, it won't have a small user base for a long time, but a year or two is better than nothing.

I've seen several candidates but none are anywhere close to being playable. So sad.

Fallen Earth would be the closest thing to what your talking about that I know of. Assuming you like the setting and can get over the work in progress thats part of being a small Company with limited resources. Given what they have the work they have shown is very good. I don't think you will see many companies break out from going this route though as the start up cost for Mmo's isn't exactly cheep.

[ashatumar]

Originally Posted by spronk

what i don't understand is why activision stock price has been flat for 2 years now cmon, all this whoring out should at least increase shareholder value.

only thing I feel bummed about is cancelled my accounts 2 days before this announcement, it feels good to write down "FUCK YOUR RMT SHIT" in the comment box. oh well, I'll resub for patch 3.3 anyways, and I can write that down when I unsub again.

and yes, I paid $10 and bought a panda, thing is motherfucking cute. i paid $10 for basically a flash animation. woo.

Something interesting. I recently met with someone that worked on the Vivendi/Activision merger. I asked them about the revenue generated by WoW, they said that Guitar Hero revenue was more significant.

Google gives me a merger press release around Q4 2007 - so keep the subs at that time in mind.

Food for thought.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by ashatumar

Something interesting. I recently met with someone that worked on the Vivendi/Activision merger. I asked them about the revenue generated by WoW, they said that Guitar Hero revenue was more significant.

Google gives me a merger press release around Q4 2007 - so keep the subs at that time in mind.

Food for thought.

That's not even possible. Look at the quarterly and yearly reports. WoW's maintained nearly a 200% operating profit for years, which is insane by any standard.

[Desidero]

How much do you think it actually costs to create a Guitar Hero game once the initial code is done? It's like one step up from Flash shit on the internet. They can reuse everything (even the characters are the same from game to game) and spend a week making new outfits/creating notes for songs. Their only real cost is the license for the music.

I don't know the numbers obviously, but I'd imagine they make a boatload of money for each copy sold. Plus they rake in a lot of cash for those shitty plastic guitars.

[titan_atlas]

Originally Posted by Desidero

How much do you think it actually costs to create a Guitar Hero game once the initial code is done? It's like one step up from Flash shit on the internet. They can reuse everything (even the characters are the same from game to game) and spend a week making new outfits/creating notes for songs. Their only real cost is the license for the music.

I don't know the numbers obviously, but I'd imagine they make a boatload of money for each copy sold. Plus they rake in a lot of cash for those shitty plastic guitars.

This ^ . My guess is Guitar Hero requires manpower consisting of 7 retarded kids lured away from Mc D's, a publicist to deal with bands for new songs, and a monkey to choose the colors for the in game outfits. Profits are probably screaming out of this franchise in the 1-2k% levels.

[Antarius]

Preface: Bad analogy incoming


This thread reminds me of the penis size argument.

"Women say that size doesn't matter, it's more about technique (not how big your sword is, but how you slay the dragon)"

Which of course implies that it is impossible to both be good in bed and also have a big penis, which is obviously a logical fallacy, but one that many people still perpetuate, and if it makes people with small penises sleep better at night, more power too them.


Replace big penis with big income, and replace skill in bed with skill in game.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by Desidero

How much do you think it actually costs to create a Guitar Hero game once the initial code is done? It's like one step up from Flash shit on the internet.

And that's exactly why Kotick is in love with franchises. With stuff you can pump out yearly or even bi-yearly with minimal investment.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

There wasn't any screaming and gnashing of teeth over that. Is it because you're not getting something else with the money, so you can pretend that the money is for the something else and the pet is "free"?

Exactly. I'm pretty sure a number of people (nop, scratch that, in the case of CCG pets, a majority of people) purchased stuff just for the pet. But in all cases, the pet was supposed to be an ancillary reward for real stuff. When you purchased the CE, you had far more than the normal box. Attending the Blizzcon/WWI was a reward in itself.

Note my title? When neither subscription nor services... You've sold us things that cost (your subscription pays for the recurring workload on servers & infra; this service pays for the little extra)... now it's time to pay for the purely virtual. And keep paying for the rest, of course.

[Etoille]

Originally Posted by ashatumar

Something interesting. I recently met with someone that worked on the Vivendi/Activision merger. I asked them about the revenue generated by WoW, they said that Guitar Hero revenue was more significant.

Google gives me a merger press release around Q4 2007 - so keep the subs at that time in mind.

Food for thought.

revenue =/= profit.

One of the primary things being the LICENSING/royalty fees to the bands/license holders whose not only songs but images/likenesses are used - that shit ALONE is not small.

No Doubt is bringing a lawsuit over this right now as well.

Its not just production costs. The amount of mother may I bullshit and legal masturbation over licensing ALONE is srs bsns.

[Cybsled]

As long as Darth Kotick doesn't pull a SOE and start forcing Blizzard to release bullshit "expansions" (ie, armor dyes, extra bagslot, and noob zones for $29.99), then I think things will be fine.

Even that douchebag should understand that if it's not broke, don't fucking "fix" it.

[Flight]

Been warning you all about Kotick for a while; this shit is typical of him. Expect hikes in sub rates next year and more shit like this.

And laff@ the people who argued that he won't try and make any money out of BattleNet. I suspect it will be central to his gouging strategy. Quite possibly taking it to a social networking site and publishing entity a la Steam.

Originally Posted by Cybsled

Even that douchebag should understand that if it's not broke, don't fucking "fix" it.

Unfortunately, innovation is not typical of him at all. Stick with what works and screw every last drop of blood out of it is more his forte. Unfortunate, because it means their new MMO and the future of WoW will cater even more to the masses. If a 10 year old can't play it and do well it won't be in.