Thu, Feb 28, 2008 | 11:41 GMT
One beellion dollars needed to fight WoW, says Kotick
Activision boss Bobby Kotick has said that he thinks it would take an investment of half a billion to a billion dollars to combat WoW, and even then success wouldn’t be guaranteed.
“We don’t think that even if we made the $500 million or billion-dollar investment to get a product out [to compete with WOW] that we would even be successful doing it,” he said in an investor meeting.
“When we first started looking at it, it appeared to us like a game in an insurmountable product category… EA, Microsoft, Sony and scores of venture capital investments had been put to work unsuccessfully in trying to develop massively multiplayer games as a product opportunity,” Kotick said. “When you… Look at all the money that’s already gone to these businesses that have failed, there didn’t seem a likelihood that even a well-managed company like Activision would have the prospect for profit any time soon in this category.”
The answer to the riddle of how to compete with WoW was, obviously, to merge with Blizzard. Bet companies like Funcom and Mythic are encouraged by his words.
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13 
Posted in: Activision Blizzard, MMO, Mac, PC, Trade
Tags: Bobby Kotick, world of warcraft
13 comments
#1
Mikomi
28/02/08, 12:26 pm
The img you’ve choosed is not from WoW, but probably from EQ2
#2
frod
28/02/08, 12:28 pm
looks like wow scenery
#3
patlike
28/02/08, 12:39 pm
He’s being funny
#4
Mikomi
28/02/08, 12:43 pm
The cat looks like a Kerra, never seen anything similar in wow. the sword is wow-alike.
#5
patlike
28/02/08, 12:44 pm
It’s WoW. Deffo.
#6
patlike
28/02/08, 12:45 pm
“Screenshots from patch 2.3.” Released on November 15 last year.
#7
Mikomi
28/02/08, 12:45 pm
Where’s the cat in wow? A concept, perhaps?
#8
patlike
28/02/08, 12:50 pm
Honestly no idea, I’m afraid. It really is from WoW, though.
#9
Mikomi
28/02/08, 1:02 pm
I trust you. But believe me when i say it reminds me more of EQ2 (and the kerra race)
If i focus on the design it’s clearly wow, but the first look fouled me.
#10
frod
28/02/08, 1:44 pm
seems to be a bunch of crazy mask wearing trolls.
#11
patlike
28/02/08, 1:45 pm
Cat trolls. Mutant cat trolls.
#12
Michael
28/02/08, 5:34 pm
The image is from the Zul’Aman instance in WoW, I believe; the trolls have armour sets based on different animals form. You can get both that helmet and that weapon.
As for the article itself… doesn’t really surprise me, to be honest. To say WoW is big is like saying that EVE Online is epic. It goes without saying, and its going to be a very long time before WoW falls from the top.
#13
patlike
28/02/08, 10:05 pm
Thanks for clearing that up. I played WoW for a weekend and switched it off. Life-stealing madness.