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Activision CEO optimistic despite Call of Duty pre-order dip
Though numerous analysts believe that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will continue the franchise's trend of declining sales, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg sees things differently. "We see purchase intent well above last year and we see engagement with the brand in social media channels all being markedly up, so I'm still optimistic," Hirshberg told Games Industry. "Preorders are a good barometer for day one, but I don't think they reflect the overall demand for the product," he adds. "[They] don't represent what they used to - because of the move to digital and all the ways people can buy the game." Despite Hirshberg's optimism, as recently as last week analysts who had examined the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare pre-order tallies reported that the game was "pacing almost 40 percent behind last year's [Call of Duty: Ghosts] and almost 70 percent behind 2012's [Call of Duty: Black Ops 2]." Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare makes its international debut today. [Image: Activision]
Destiny has already raked in $500 million in sales
Destiny's alleged big budget didn't end up being a big risk after all, as the title has become the highest-selling day-one digital console game release in history. From a combination of pre-orders, digital sales, and retail sales, Destiny has crossed the $500 million sales mark and doesn't look to be slowing any time soon. CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg considers this massive validation for the project: "Since the beginning, we've been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we'd be able to say it did so on day one. We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation and Activision's next billion-dollar brand." However, if you're attempting to play Destiny from a college campus, you might be dealing with a frustrating impediment. Polygon notes that a networking error is blocking the game on certain campuises. Bungie said that it is aware of the issue and is working on a solution. [Source: Activision Blizzard press release]
Ephemeral entertainment and Activision's strategy for success
In a time when the video game industry is down to a handful of mega publishers and even small-scale independent developers have risen to become competitive, Activision stands out for making huge plays and reaping massive rewards. Activision Blizzard is going into this holiday season with one of the strongest publisher lineups in recent memory. It's not just the diversity of the games, but the scale that makes it so impressive: Destiny, Skylanders, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. "It never feels like that from the inside, it's a tough business and each one of these games is a hard slog to get done and bring to fruition," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told us at Gamescom. "In my mind, we still gotta get the ball across the goal line. You can't take anything for granted."
Call of Duty's three year cycle gives creative 'freedom to fail'
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg mentioned during our recent Gamescom interview that Call of Duty's current studio cycle will keep the franchise in a lifestyle to which the audience has become accustomed. Although Call of Duty may be an annual franchise, it had been a tennis match between two studios, but earlier this year it was revealed the franchise was now on a three-studio cycle. "That extra year of development time, particularly with the new consoles and the more powerful hardware, has really paid off thus far to iterate, innovate and try new things," said Hirshberg. "To find out which things didn't work and have the freedom to fail in the creative process, so what goes on the disc is the best ideas."
Activision sees industry-wide pre-order decline
Activision publishing boss Eric Hirshberg says his company's pre-orders are declining. He made the remarks to investors and media on a conference call yesterday, and he also said that the downturn is an industry-wide trend. Hirshberg cited digital consumption upticks as well as wide launch-day availability as factors in the declining popularity of pre-orders. He also said that pre-orders are "just one data point that we look at when determining the momentum of a franchise," and that awareness and "purchase intent" on Activision's Destiny is "at an all-time high and climbing when compared to any other new game intellectual property this distance from launch."
A whole lot of you played Destiny's beta
Destiny's beta phase was what you might call successful, according to a Bungie press release. The company says that 4,638,937 players participated in the testing period that began on July 17th. "Hosting a beta at this scale is an incredible feat, so we're thrilled to see the phenomenal response. But the beta is just a taste of what's to come," said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg. "This is the biggest beta of this console generation by a wide margin and the largest console beta ever for a new video game IP to date." [Source: Bungie press release]
Call of Duty now takes three years to make, three studios keep it annual
Activision has announced a new three-year development cycle for upcoming Call of Duty games, starting with this year's release. This move, which will still see individual Call of Duty games coming out annually, cements Sledgehammer Games as one of Activision's primary Call of Duty developers alongside Infinity Ward and Treyarch, which are respectively responsible for Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Each studio's game will take three years to develop, staggered for release on an annualized schedule. "This will give our designers more time to envision and innovate for each title. Simultaneously, it will give our content creators more focus on DLC and micro-DLC which, as you know, have become large and high-margin opportunities and significant engagement drivers," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said during an annual earnings call today. "Finally, we'll give our teams more time to polish, helping ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our fans – each and every time." Hirshberg went on to say that Activision "needed a third studio capable of delivering the level of excellence required for the West's biggest interactive entertainment franchise" and that Sledgehammer Games fits the bill. "They demonstrated their skill on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and on their past highly-rated games." This year's Call of Duty game has yet to be officially announced. Sledgehammer's last game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, launched in late 2011 and was well-received by critics. [Image: Activision]
Activision Publishing CEO on Call of Duty: Ghosts investment, pre-order pacing and death threats
After dropping the mic and cutting to the first multiplayer reveal for Call of Duty: Ghosts yesterday, Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg, spoke with Joystiq about the franchise's first console cycle refresh as a cultural icon. Earlier this month, Hirshberg noted that the transition to a new generation of consoles had negatively impacted pre-order sales. Yesterday he expanded on that thought, explaining that much of the hesitation is because players have not yet decided on their next platform or even if they will join the next-generation at launch. Hirshberg also took a moment to respond to overly aggressive (and downright scary) players, such as those that threatened physical harm upon Treyarch's studio design director David Vonderhaar after announcing slight tweaks to weapons and skills in Black Ops 2, calling their actions "unacceptable." Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available "across all the platforms" on November 5, Hirshberg says.
Activision bullish about Skylanders in face of Disney Infinity
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, says the company isn't changing its sales projections on the Skylanders franchise, or this fall's Skylanders: Swap Force, in the face of Disney Infinity. "We're still bullish on our projections. We feel like it was only a matter of time, given the scale of the success of Skylanders, that other competitors entered the genre. That's to be expected," said Hirshberg. "I get this question a lot on Call of Duty. We have tough competition every year. We have tough competition in every category we play in, it's a part of the business. We try not to focus on it. We try to focus on making the best games we can and exceeding the expectations of our fans and bottling magic." Skylanders has surpassed $1 billion in lifetime sales since launching in 2011. Disney Infinity will launch this August.
Activision claims CoD XP was second most-watched livestream ever
Activision used online broadcasting to reach beyond the crowds of attendees during its weekend-long celebration of all things Call of Duty with Call of Duty XP. "We had some pretty amazing metrics," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg told IndustryGamers. "Livestream, the company that broadcast the event for us, indicated that it's the second most viewed event in history." The first was apparently live coverage of the Royal Wedding (not to be confused with the Canadian Royal Wedding), while the third was a speech given by President Obama. So there you have it: Call of Duty is almost as important as noble marriage and more important than the president. Now if only someone could figure out how to make a game where the Royal couple saves the US President from Makarov and stream it online then -- nevermind. Forget that. It'd probably break the world.
Black Ops sold over 23 million units, over 18 million map packs in first nine months
There are quite a few folks with either an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Just over 23 million, in fact, as of numbers tallied following the first nine months of sales by its publisher. Activision revealed as much during an analyst call this afternoon, showing continued sales growth for the Call of Duty franchise versus install base numbers for the two HD consoles combined. If that weren't enough, it looks like a huge chunk of those who purchased BlOps were interested in adding to their multiplayer map variety. Activision's numbers show the latest CoD entry as having moved over 18 million map packs since launch (which, priced at $15 a pop, works out to 270 million dollars in gross earnings), 7 million more than MW2 and 9 million more than WaW. Though the company isn't projecting any map sales yet for the next installment in the CoD franchise, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said on the call, "There's plenty of runway this year, with 20 percent-plus expected growth in the HD console install base alone," referring to the company's expected sales of Modern Warfare 3 this holiday and beyond.
Call of Duty XP (drop)kicks off with the Dropkick Murphys
While Call of Duty XP attendees are preparing to experience the sheer power of Kanye West's performance on the second night of the event, Boston's own Irish-tinged punk rockers, the Dropkick Murhpys, will warm things up on Friday, September 2. Activision announced it this morning via press release, where CEO Eric Hirshberg noted, "The addition of the Dropkick Murphys just makes XP that much more memorable." And it's true! Listening to blistering-fast working class punk rock, while scarfing a Burger Town combo and running through paintball recreations of Modern Warfare levels, is exactly what we'd call "memorable."
Sledgehammer's action-adventure Call of Duty isn't dead yet
Sledgehammer Games is currently hard at work on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, in conjunction with Infinity Ward. But what of the game Sledgehammer was originally supposed to have been working on, the one meant to "extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre?" Well, Sledgehammer isn't working on it now, but it may put its momentum back into that project following MW3, if Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg's feelings are any indication. "Right now Sledgehammer's 100% focused on Modern Warfare 3," Hirshberg told IndustryGamers. "We haven't announced the future slate or future plans for the studio. They were originally working on an extension of the Call of Duty franchise into an action/adventure genre and that's a game I still want to play." His personal interest in playing it may not be enough to get Sledgehammer focused 100 percent on the action-adventure project, however; when asked if the genre change was a good idea, Hirshberg said only that "it remains to be seen."
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg on True Crime, Bizarre Creations, the 'Hero' franchise, and transparency
When Eric Hirshberg stepped into the role of CEO of Activision Publishing last July, the company had just begun an ugly, public battle with the founders of Infinity Ward, having fired the creators of the company's Call of Duty cash cow just four months prior. Frequently villainized in the press, the appointment of Hirshberg seemed to indicate that Activision was eager to turn its brand identity around. Hirshberg cut his teeth as CEO and chief creative officer of marketing firm Deutsch LA making ad campaigns for brands like PlayStation -- you may not recognize that name, but if you've seen a Kevin Butler commercial, you know his work. And as Activision Publishing narrows its focus and energies into a few key brands, notably the aforementioned Call of Duty, tasking a marketing man with running a game publisher starts to make a lot of sense. Last month I had the opportunity to speak with Hirshberg in his office at Activision headquarters in Santa Monica. It was less than a week after a massive leak upended the company's carefully prepared marketing plan for the latest in the blockbuster Modern Warfare series and, for Hirshberg, it was a chance to connect with that audience. "We woke up with a marketing crisis," Hirshberg told me, "and wanted to go to bed with a marketing win." Throughout our conversation, Hirshberg mentioned the need to be transparent with consumers, so I challenged him to explain some of the company's more controversial decisions since he's been CEO: the cancellation of True Crime; the closure of Bizarre Studios; and the very public retreat from the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero games.
The Modern Warfare 3 leak, from Activision's perspective
"Friday was a really interesting, a really kind of cool day," said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, as he reflected on last week's massive Modern War 3 leak and the company's response. "Cool" was a word I was not expecting out of the man in charge of shepherding an enormous marketing campaign that had just been knocked off of its horse. "No one wakes up and thinks, 'I hope there's been a leak and our timing gets all messed up,'" Hirshberg mused as he and I discussed the incident this week at a meeting at Activision HQ, but "if members of the government and the military aren't safe from this stuff, it's a part of our world now." "And while it's definitely not cool to steal other people's intellectual property, and while it's definitely not cool to leak stuff that's not yours, there are ways that you can respond that actually turn the lemons into lemonade," he added. "And that's what we tried to do on Friday."
Black Ops 'First Strike' DLC sold 1.4M units in first 24 hours
During an investors call today, Activision announced that 1.4 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops' "First Strike" map pack were sold "in the first 24 hours" of its February 1 debut on Xbox Live. At $15 a pop, that's $21 million in gross revenue in a single day -- on a single platform! Notably, Activision Publishing's Eric Hirshberg pointed out that those sales were a "20 percent increase over Modern Warfare 2's 'Stimulus Package DLC'" launch. He added that First Strike, which was also released on PSN and PC in March, "continues to outsell the Stimulus Pack by more than 20 percent." But hey, let's give our old friend the Stimulus Pack a break -- after all, the poor thing had to suffer the full rage of the internet when it became the very first Call of Duty DLC priced at $15! First Strike had it easy.
Activision Publishing CEO says perception of the company is different from reality
As co-CEO at ad company Deutsch LA, Eric Hirshberg was partially responsible for turning the PlayStation 3 from something that freaked us out into a platform for the VP of Awesome. Now, HIrshberg is able to comment on a similar turnaround at Activision. As the CEO of the publishing group, he says that "some of Activision's reputational challenges are not based in the reality of the company that I've experienced here so far. ... What I can tell you is since I've been here there's not a day or an hour that goes by without a conversation or focus on creative excellence in delivering great gaming experiences to our fans. That's what this place is focused on and about." Yes, Activision may have put a "for sale" sign on UK racing studio Bizarre, laid off staff at Neversoft and Radical Entertainment and elsewhere, and weakened studio after studio, but Hirshberg says all the cuts are indicative of just how tough this business can be. And even in a tough business, says Hirshberg, "we do everything we can to make the relationships with our developers work, and to find a commercially viable use of their talents, and it's only when we've exhausted every other opportunity that [shutdowns and layoffs] happen." The video game industry, he says, is "a high stakes game when everyone's trying to get into that upper echelon of performance and there's no middle class," which means, presumably, that Activision has to be judicious when choosing who gets to keep working. That may be true, but Hirshberg's going to need more than that if he wants to turn Bobby Kotick into PlayStation's KB.
Activision: Kobe Bryant Black Ops ad controversy is 'hypocritical'
Last month a live-action ad for Call of Duty: Black Ops debuted, depicting Jimmy Kimmel, Kobe Bryant and seemingly everyday people waging war in a desert battlefield. Some people were upset to see the Lakers star wielding an assault rifle, especially ESPN -- there was a discussion criticizing Kobe for his participation in the commercial. "He's smiling while wielding an assault rifle in combat while we have troops overseas at this moment doing that same thing for real, in combat," ESPN's Skip Bayless said of Bryant. Activision isn't sweating it, though. In an interview with IndustryGamers, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg criticized any network who would complain about the content of the ad, yet accept the money to air it on their network. "I'm going to put it in air quotes, which you can't see, but the 'controversy' surrounding Kobe Bryant I find very hypocritical. Those same networks that are now questioning Kobe's inclusion in this had no problem accepting the ad and approving the ad, and accepting the dollars to run the ad on their networks. Are they being irresponsible to their fan base by running the ad on their networks? Because if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander. I find that to be very hypocritical." Hirshberg also added that the core audience Activision was going for with the ad really seemed to enjoy it, so at the end of the day he considers it a job well done. "The thing that I'm most happy about and relieved about is it seems to be getting an almost universally positive response from the gaming community." He's right -- at least, when it comes to that Joystiq site, anyway.
Activision still pushing Shred, believes Tony Hawk (the man) has staying power
Tony Hawk Shred's bad start at retail still has Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, doing damage control. In a recent interview with IndustryGamers, the executive stated that Tony Hawk, as a figure, has "relevance and tremendous appeal for people." Hirshberg described him as a "lasting icon," and explained that the company needs to make "smart moves in terms of innovation to see if [it] can recapture people's imaginations" with the game franchise. While Hirshberg feels it's too early to say that Shred fell crotch first onto the metal handrail it was trying to grind, Activision will "keep the pedal to the metal" through the holiday season, hoping to score a hit with kids and potential gift-givers. Clearly that Vans boost across the asphalt (proper metaphor!) does not include any focus on making sure the game gets reviewed and placed on Metacritic. Developed by hard-hit Robomodo, it has only one professional review listed across three platforms. NPD results will be out this Thursday, so we'll see then if Tony Hawk Shred picked up from the 3,000 sales it had in October. %Gallery-99321%
Activision will 'never' charge for Call of Duty multiplayer, Hirshberg says
"Are we going to be charging for multiplayer? The answer is no," Activision's Eric Hirshberg, CEO of the Publishing division, told IndustryGamers in what we could only hope was a Stuart Smalley staring-in-the-mirror moment. "The experience you have out of the box, connecting with the online community to play Call of Duty is absolutely integral to the experience, and we'll never charge for that. It's not going to be something we'll attempt to monetize; it's part of the package." As if his point wasn't clear, Hirshberg further insisted that he could say "unequivocally" that Activision will "never, ever charge for the multiplayer." Earlier this month, statements from both Hirshberg and CFO Thomas Tippl hinted at vague plans to better monetize the franchise next year with more digital content, which in turn renewed speculation about the long-considered Call of Duty subscription model.
