Activision: EA is Struggling, Smothering Devs

[Guest]

I believe whenever a CEO starts talking up their company and running down the competition, it usually means that their company is in the crap and about to hit the wall. Koticks took one of the greatest franchises to hit any platform and gutted it, drove a top notch team of developers into the arms of his competitors, spawned a new competitor, and worse still, alienated tens of thousands of his core customer base. The man has publicly stated that he doesnt care about games and gamers......wtf??? a ceo of a games company doesnt care about his customers??? If the shareholders had any sense they would drop kick kotick into the deepest darkest pits of hell.

 

[Guest]

At least EA isn't wrenching its fan base for moolah like Activi$ion

 

[aznguy0028]

Every time someone believes what Kotick says, god punches a kitten

 

[xerroz]

loool why is this guy still talking? He shouldve been fired by now

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

The thing about EA's DRM is the fact that the last few games have barely had any. Don't want to play online? Fine, then we won't track your achievements... that's pretty much it, oh and put the disc in the drive. Because nobody's had to do that for the last 15 years or so. They use positive reinforcement by literally giving you a few extra in-game items basically by being online, as well as the achievements thing. But it's ultimately the user's choice as it should be. I'd say they're making plenty of headway in the right direction.

Meanwhile everyone else is flipping to more or less Ubisoft's insane permanent internet connection required. Even though in 2008 they released Prince of Persia (2008) with no copy protection at all. Not even the disc was required. That was hailed as awesome that a company finally got it. Except clearly they didn't.

 

[killbits]

Publisher involvement/support (or lack therof) neither helps nor hurts a strong independent developer, in my opinion.

Activision and EA have both put out some great games and they've both put out some absolutely terrible games. Same goes for Ubisoft, Bethesda, Microsoft, any other publisher you want to throw out there. I don't care what publisher puts out what game.

It's the developer that really determines the quality of the game. And even then, quality may vary greatly from game to game. Obviously some devs have reputations for putting out consistently good games, but very seldom will I play a game blindly just because it's from a good developer. id, valve, and gearbox come to mind.

 

[Darkerson]

Thats real rich, coming from that ginger haired douche bag...

 

[antilycus]

sorry but Infinity Ward makes crap games. Treyarch knows how to make em. I think it's great that Activision let the developers switch between em, but MW2 was a load of crizap. World at War is still a much better game across the board.

 

[zambonithug]

I can't help but agree. During Warhammer Online's development, it looked good enough to recruit any number of players from World of Warcraft. But they needed funding, turned to EA, lost creative control, and churned out an MMO that still feels like a Beta years after release.

 

[feeddagoat]

Still don't like EA's churning out constant sports sims. f they released patches that updated rosters rather than total new games and only launched a new game when they could bring something totally new. Still see them as that evil corporation tbh but mainly for the reason they fail to try. The last year or so has been good with dead space and rockband (TBH I didn't like the music list on it not that GH's was much better mind!) and I have lots of love for bioware but I still see them (EA) as the company that churns out the same old stuff. I guess its just the trend of the majority of companies anyway and should developers not take part of the blame too?

As for Activision they are just taking the piss. MW2 was a horrible game. Yes it played alright online tho even then it wasn't totally without problems. There are so many fps gamesw with an online mode that it isn't a selling point. BF2 (not BF:BC2), CS:S even COD4/WaW all had online so if thats all MW2 brought it means that there is no need for MW2 to exsist! It was a game for the sake of a game.

 

[lonelypauly]

He looks like a retarded version of Tony Blair.

 

[bustapr]

I guess this guy hasnt heard the news that EA Redwood is now Visceral games and still has all the main devs and is making kick ass games. Infinity Ward can be called infinity ward all they want but without the main guys, its just not Infinity Ward. Everyones already talked about this in the comments lol. And besides, I dont see EA milking the same cow every year. The gave Dead Space 2 around 2 years to develope, and knowing Crysis would sell like mad, they still waited for the game to be finished(4 years) instead of releasing the same game that has to be patched every week. EA is a publisher that buys alot and changes some things, but they ddo it in a good way(viscral games is awesome), and the Activision-IW case is proof that Activision doesnt know how to manage or treat their devs.

 

[porschedream]

MASS EFFECT, DRAGON AGE, DEAD SPACE, enough said

 

[eaclou]

http/forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=919958&page=3

 

[vvhocare5]

did he spray that bald patch on top of his head?

 

[Tamz_msc]

Oh... Wait till Crysis 2 multiplayer pwns COD: Black Ops.

 

[eccentric909]

This guy has only been a giant jerk, and ever since acquiring Blizzard has become even "jerky-er". If it weren't for Blizzard raking in gigantic wads of cash for him, he'd have never been able to purchase IW, either.

This guy is a bane on the video game industry.

 

[Guest]

This coming from a companys that releases popular online games and lets microsoft rack in all the money.

 

[HavoCnMe]

EA's approach to FPS games is way above Antivision's. JMO

 

[Guest]

Just seeing that damn smile, of him at the top makes me want to punch him in the face