A short history of Activision Blizzard

[Ravioli]

A good read, shows how disgusting Activision and Kotick really is.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252

Kotick noted that in the past he changed the employee incentive program so that it "really rewards profit and nothing else." He continued, "You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly. ... 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.

I will laugh when some pshycopathic gamer stabs Kotick to death on the street one day.

 

[ktimekiller]

everything that guy does and says is so full of schemes

 

[StarBob]

I've never heard about any CEO of any company being such a prick. If this was a more mainstream consumer company I'm sure he'd prolly get fired by the board for giving the company such a terrible reputation. CEOs have been fired for less. The thing is, since he's heading the most popular franchises in gaming history... and making retarded amounts of money for these people... he's like a hero to them. Not to mention gamers seem to be apt to spending no matter what. That's why all those charge-for-nothing WoW features sell like crazy and people are willing to pay $15 for a few new maps. Gamers are stupid spenders.

That's why I like Steam though... it's like the Wal-Mart of the gaming world... except less oppressive and friendlier to the little guys. It's the new way to get games and still save money. They chose high volume rather than milking the guys with the money. Actiblizz will either stay on course and keep milking the rich (which I don't think is sustainable - but that is a long story) or dial back the "micro" transactions and go to a legitimate price point on new games instead of upping it every 10 seconds.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Buy indie games n' shit.

 

[organizedcrime]

Does this guy even think when he says something? He sounds like he belongs on Fox News for the sheer lack of tact in his words.

 

[YROC]

I will laugh when some pshycopathic gamer stabs Kotick to death on the street one day.

Krynn's sig implies Krynn might do it himself.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Pff, what kind of half-assed justice is that. You have to stab him, and then offer him a bandage as optional paid content. But then after he pays for it you reveal that it's a time-limited exclusive that won't be released for corporate douchebags for another 2 months.

 

[bbson john]

somebody kills Kotick please

 

[Deleted member 56031]

wow i knew things were bad to see all of it put together like that is quite unreal, and it doesn't even mention $15 map packs or the Real ID system! O_O

I assumed blizzard was for the most part immune to the aggressive business model activision employs but clearly i was wrong (then again if it was up to kotick the starcraft 2 trilogy would have been released already and SC3 would be worked on by treyarch :|). It's a good thing blizzard games don't really interest me personally as now I just want to kill all support i would have had for this company (which was already quite low), i feel quite upset at how activision treats people

My brother on the other hand loves blizzard and nothing will stop him from getting diablo 3 (SC and WC are more of a meh to him, he's more a TBS player than RTS), so i cant really convince him to change his mind :|

 

[bbson john]

I think what is happening is that Blizzard make games as it used to be, but it has been activision who design the selling strategy. The games are good, yet the method of selling was an ass. Thus, the quality of the game may not be affected, but we have to pay for everything.