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GamersFirst welcomes World of Warcraft to 'the free-to-play revolution'
Sarcastic, genuine, or merely self-promoting? An open letter from GamersFirst's Joshua Hong to Activision-Blizzard's Bobby Kotick following World of Warcraft's surprise move to an indefinite free trial could be all three. "I wanted to congratulate you on taking your first big step to join the Free2Play® revolution," Hong writes. He certainly isn't shy in expressing what he sees as GamersFirst's great accomplishments in the market: "Having created this market in the western hemisphere, it's very encouraging for us to see the last bastion of the subscription-only online gaming business joining the Free2Play movement... Given our recent success in reviving APB Reloaded, which launched as a subscription-based game we transitioned to Free2Play, we know that the first steps are often the hardest. But the proof is in the metrics, as APB now has more than three times the active player base than when it initially launched as a subscription product. We also plan to repeat this success with Fallen Earth." Hong continues the letter by "extending [his] friendship and support" to Blizzard, inviting Kotick to the free-to-play party at Gamescom, and hoping that the company's entire library will be made free in the future.
Guitar Hero, Call of Duty franchises lead Activision's 'better-than-expected' Q3 2009
Look, just feign surprise, it makes these financial posts so much more exciting: Activision today reported net revenues of $755 million (on a non-GAAP basis) in the quarter ending September 30, 2009 -- that's $55 million more than the suits hoped to stack, according to previous projections. While the blockbuster adaptation of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen might have played a part in this outpouring of our money, we're gonna go with Kotick's explanation: "Our performance was driven by positive audience response to Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero 5, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, and the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, as well as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft." In fact, the CEO called Guitar Hero the year's "#1 best-selling third-party franchise in North America and Europe" through September, claiming that U.S. sales of music games increased 72 percent year over year in September. Last year's big-band-box edition, World Tour, and Call of Duty: World at War combined for total, world domination, becoming this year's "#1 and #2 best-selling third-party titles" in North America and Europe through September, according to Activision. Additionally, World at War DLC map pack sales continued to climb last quarter and have now surpassed 7.5 million purchases. Needless to say, the publisher is not backing off of its prior financial outlook. Activision anticipates annual net revenues of $4.5 billion (on a non-GAAP basis) at the close of the year. Did you remember to feign surprise?
Activision CEO made nearly $15 million last year
Say what you will about Activision CEO Robert Kotick -- and from what we've seen in previous posts, you will -- the guy knows how to make money. Not just for Activision as a whole (which raked in close to $1 billion in Q2 this year), but for himself as well -- according to a recent Forbes profile on the controversial CEO, Kotick made $14,950,102 in 2008.Kotick caught some flack last week for joking about wanting to increase the price of Activision's releases. Now, it seems we know why -- he's only making $15 million a year. He desperately needs that extra scratch to upgrade his Azimut 62E Luxury Yacht to an Azimut 116 Luxury Yacht. Those meanies at the Santa Monica Yachting Club just won't stop picking on his puny seafaring vessel.[Via GamesIndustry]
Activision: A Decade of Denting Wallets
Flipping through the decade-long Activision highlight reel assembled by IndustryGamers, we couldn't help but clutch our wallets a bit tighter after every page. For the past decade, we've been regularly stuffing wads of cash into the mega publisher's piggy bank, which has swelled to nearly $3 billion, according to IndustryGamers. In return, we've actually enjoyed countless hours and precious moments of quality gaming. Fair trade? While our mental image of Activision is something akin to an Akira Project–like, colossal monstrosity -- an unrestrained beast, repeatedly re-gurg-i-ta-ting its acquisitions all over us -- the company is very much in control and has secured a variety of deft business deals that continue to produce games we simply can't resist (aside from the ones we do). True, there's only so many toy instruments one can squeeze into a modest living room, but we'll make some room for a plastic turntable on the coffee table, and the Real© Call of Duty is out again this year, and ... you get it. We're already loosening our grips and opening up the wallets again.But make no mistake. We do so while gritting our teeth. What was Kotick's recent joke about hiking up the price for Modern Warfare 2 in the UK and the exorbitant costs of Activision's peripheral-packed games in all markets? Oh, that's right: "You know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further," the CEO quipped. Nobody's laughing but you, Rob.
Sony's Stringer dismisses PS3 price-cutting threats by noisy Activision CEO
We can attest that Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, is a pretty nice guy. But all the PS3 price-cut chatter from industry analysts and gaming execs seems to have the man riled as he tries to keep Sony afloat. Responding directly to Robert Kotick's threat to stop developing Activision titles on the PS3 (and PSP) due to the console's relative high price, Stringer told Reuters, "He likes to make a lot of noise. He's putting pressure on me and I'm putting pressure on him. That's the nature of business." When asked about the logic of not cutting prices, Howard said, "I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make -- how's that for logic." True, until the 45nm Cell processor launches allowing for a cheaper, cooler running slim PS3 later this year, right Howie... wink, wink?[Via GameDaily]
Survey says: Activision exploring MMO monetization for Call of Duty franchise
Way back in March of ought eight, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick wondered aloud during a conference, "[What] would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment -- how do you monetize that?" And it seems as though the company is working on that very question, if a survey spotted by Destructoid holds any truth to it. Referring to a handful of features (such as "new in-game content like map packs and betas," and "team-management services," among others), the survey asks participants "How likely are you to purchase or subscribe to this online service when the next Call of Duty game comes out?" The survey goes into much gorier detail but, from what we can tell, it smells like Activision is testing the waters for that MMO-esque monetization that Kotick spoke of so long ago.
Activision Blizzard expects to rake in more money this quarter
Activision Blizzard officials took time out of their busy schedule counting money to let the world know that the conglomerate is not only filthy rich, but expects to stay that way. The company notes that its financial take for the most recent quarter is tracking ahead of its own expectations, thanks to what it calls "better-than-expected" sales of its games at retail.Prior guidance had the company pegged to bring in a hefty $860 million in revenue for the period, though it's unclear how much this figure will inflate in the wake of "strong" sales of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero titles, as well as World of some such. Actiblizzard CEO Robert Kotick noted that this "bodes well" for the company's upcoming releases, which include a salvo of games "inspired by theatrical feature films," colorful prose we're sure was inspired by the bulge in Kotick's wallet.
Forbes profiles Kotick, calls Rock Band 'shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero'
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is the cover story for the latest issue of Forbes magazine, and the article's got one helluva quote -- and it's not even from the man himself. While you might balk at the businessman's lack of gaming credentials (read: he doesn't play games), this is the line, written by Forbes itself, that'll cause more than a few raised eyebrows: "EA also teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars."The decidedly negative tone without attribution is uncharacteristic for the magazine, and also feels a bit ... off? We know the Harmonix-RedOctane schism can be a bit confusing, but when the creators of the hit franchise are the ones making Rock Band -- and doing the multi-instrument thing first -- is that really the best choice of words? [Via geoffkeighley]
Activision: Maybe music companies should pay us
Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick is readying his guns in an attack against music companies citing they should be paying for the right to be included in titles such as Guitar Hero."When you look at the impact [Guitar Hero] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant," Kotick told The Wall Street Journal. "You sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."The shots come soon after Warner Music head Edgar Bronfman called music royalties for rhythm games too low considering the games are "entirely dependent" on the content provided by music companies.Kotick was quick to point out that gamers are purchasing games for enjoyment of the title and not necessarily for the music included. "The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included," he said. "They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them."If Kotick and Bronfman continue this dance what do you think the chances we'll see each as bosses in the next Guitar Hero title?[via CVG]
Activision's Bobby Kotick speaks at All Things Digital
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, took the stage at the All Things Digital conference, and spoke a little more about the Activision Blizzard deal. Kotick fesses up that a lot of the merger was about Blizzard's people. While a pessimist might read this as "we can't compete with them, so join 'em," what I see is a deep level of respect for Blizzard and its creation. Kotick said, "the merger is really our mechanism to get access to Blizzard's talent, capability and infrastructure." This isn't really a surprise, and reinforces what Kotick's had to say about being considerate of Blizzard's culture. As has been said before, Kotick doesn't seem like a bad guy. What he's doing is acknowledging the good work Blizzard's done in the past. He straight out says that, "I've never seen anything quite like World of Warcraft, not just as a gaming experience, but as a social experience, as a business." That's not the kind of sentiment issued by someone who doesn't like what they just bought (Ed: But would someone who just spent $18.8 billion on anything not like it?). While Kotick doesn't say directly much about the future of Blizzard, things are still looking good for our favorite Blue team.
Guitar Hero: World Tour on stage debut
At Wall Street Journal's D6 All Things Digital event yesterday, Activision CEO Robert Kotick took the opprotunity to showoff Guitar Hero: World Tour. In the midst of introducing the upcoming game Kotick started to describe World Tour as, "the first time you'll have multiple instruments," before D6 co-host Kara Swisher quickly shot back "it's called Rock Band I think," which sent the crowd into a frenzy of laughter.Whether Kotick meant it was the first time Guitar Hero would have the peripherals or if he was trying to pull a fast one on an audience he expected to have limited gaming knowledge is unknown. What we do know is the people playing the game for the demo, including skateboarder Tony Hawk, could not look more bored.Come on people. You're rocking out! A little passion please.
Activision execs reap payday from recent mega-merger
Just in case you weren't feeling a particularly strong sense of class envy today, the Financial Times is reporting that Activision's two top executives will be receiving "change of control" payments to the tune of $40 million, as part of the deal that will see Vivendi merge their Vivendi Games unit into Activision. Both Robert Kotick, Activision Chairman and CEO, and Brian Kelly, co-chairman, will receive bonuses totalling $10 million each as well as 363,637 shares of the newly formed company, worth about $10 million on the market today.While some industry analysts have looked at the deal as an attempt to catch up with EA's runaway growth, particularly in the MMO sphere, one mustn't ignore the immediate financial windfalls for the men at the very top of the company as a motivating factor. One can only hope they'll be down counting their money in time to start developing some more MMO properties for the new year.[Via The Escapist]
