Acti boss – “We might have to stop supporting Sony” next year [Update]

Redh3lix: What about it?

I haven’t bought an ActivisionBlizzard game this generation.

I hve played CoD4 though, and I wanted to buy it (for SP).

Sorry Lutz, you stated you only ever purchased Spider man… do you not own a Call of Duty game? (!)

Uh oh…

What did I miss..?

And yet other third party publishers such as the appropriately comparable EA have claimed to do well on the PS3 for some time now.

But then, Activision don’t have any internal studios or shared resources. The pay through the nose for all the talent they’ve bought up rather than investing in internal development. They don’t have as many evergreen sellers as EA and they certainly don’t take the same approach to original IP and development as EA do (as evidenced in the Double-Fine thing).

So, it’s clear that companies work differently and get different results. If the results are less than ideal, most companies look to themselves to make a change, including Sony.

Making threats and expecting the world to revolve around you is only going to get you so far.

Anyway, saying something like this doesn’t seem to be a good idea for maintaining good public relations with Sony. Even if ultimately they don’t stop supporting the platforms and Sony do/don’t drop the price, he must’ve known that this would be absolutely pounced upon by the gaming sites and fanboy-argued to destruction for days.

All of which generates seriously bad press for Sony regardless of how likely any of it is to happen. Which makes Sony pissed. Which makes Sony less likely to actually do anything to help Activision out in the future.

Redh3lix: No, I don’t own a Call of Duty game. How dare you insult me.

(Or Guitar Hero. Neither are my thing)

Blerk, the only thing to properly damage relationships aren’t bad press. Not thinkign long term anyway.

They won’t remember this next-generation. And more to the point, there’s not much Sony can do to spite Activision.

“All of which generates seriously bad press for Sony regardless of how likely any of it is to happen. Which makes Sony pissed. Which makes Sony less likely to actually do anything to help Activision out in the future.”

But it seems Activision is giving fuckloads of dosh for what appears to be a relatively small return compared with other consoles. So surely Sony has to play ball no matter what?

Ow… my head. Regained consciousness after Lutz’s comment.

Mike: Do you have any comparrison figures?

Conversely, Mike, clearly Activision would ahve stopped supporting PS3 a long time ago, if it wasn’t actually useful for them.

There’s over 20 million sales.

He’s just worried, if the platform isn’t relevant, that they won’t be able to sell as much.

It’s not like the install bases are shrinking.

No Lutz, I don’t. Just look at the NPD software sales for the last 18 months though.

@PuD: Yeah, that’s also true.

Sony doesn’t have to play ball at all and would suffer considerable damage to be seen bullied by a publisher – particularly a publisher who, by their own admission, isn’t doing that much to represent the platform. First Activision then who? EA? Ubi? Take 2? No. It’s not a sensible option to open the floodgates to other manipulative attempts.

Sony might prefer to rely on Singstar and its better margins (to Sony) than Guitar Hero. They may court EA and keep Rock Band options open. I’d be far more concerned about losing family-friendly, evergreen, huge sellers like Madden, Tiger Woods and FIFA than the rated-18 stuff like COD if I was forced to weigh up options.

And all third parties pay royalties and costs to all platform manufacturers. Sony is not the most expensive out there, they’re simply the only one quoted in the example. The licensing and royalty system has been a part of the console industry since the 8-bit days. The more succesful you are, the more royalties you pay over – but it’ll still be the same per-unit price as other third parties (unless you have negotiated some special deal with the platform holder).

The NPD’s where both HD platforms have been floundering, outside of price cuts/holidays?

I’m sure there’s plenty that Sony can do to be ‘unhelpful’ to Activision without actually cutting them off, Mike.

Just updated it. Sony’s preparing a statement.

This is the time for Sony to get the system selling GT5 out, goddammit.

Anything to get GT5 out…

In fairness Mike, NPD covers just one country… so it might not be the best way to measure.

You can look at the financial reports for the publishers (which usually provide breakdowns), but even with that you need to be careful. It’s easy to look at a particular quarter and think you see one result… but because of some accounting practices (deferred earnings / GAAP) it’s actually possible to have earnings for individual games showing up in completely different quarters even when they were released simultaneously. Looking over a full year isn’t a bad indication, but still not perfect.

/rubs hand together.
This should be fun.

Popcorn anyone? Someone grab some deckchairs too.

COOOOL PR WARZ!

@Psycho: Fair enough.

Let the statement be Hirai going off on one…

It’ll be the usual shite. “We understand that publishers would like more playstation systems out there but blah blah blah blah”.

(yes, I copied and pasted that… damn having the same conversation in two places!)

Though it would be the story of the decade if Sony came out and said “We’ll live without you, don’t let the door hit you on the way out”. It’s what oldskool evil Nintendo would have done.

Let the statement be Sony telling Acti to fuck off, and both companies going down the swanny.

Now, if Bobby were to quickly open up his purse and buy Konami and Squaresoft…

Damn, I would love to read that, even if it meant not having… Well there’s no Activision titles I want, but they’re important.

Even better if they called Acti’s bluff and they just continued support xD

I can’t imagine what sort of a statement they could be preparing. I’m hoping it’s a “yeah, well fuck you Activision – you’re shit anyway!” statement.

Sony statement preview:

The PS3 already offers great value… blah, blah, blah… best sales in years… blah, blah, blah… highest attach rate… blah, blah, blah… 10 year plan blah, blah, blah…

Shatner: Now THAT would be awesome.

No it wouldn’t. Final Fantasy and MGS as yearly franchise updates? No thanks.

@Blerk
Well, come on. It certainly wouldn’t make a difference to the script quality would it?

@G1GAHURTZ Yup

Blerk: Um, both are raped to death anyway!

What a pretty turn of phrase Lutz…

Kotich? more like Kockitch

There was probably room for a “yo momma” in there too.

go ahead and your profits will drop too. you dare challenge sony fool

I’m genuinely surprised that Sony are responding to this so quickly and so formally.

The thing about the console business is that it’s swings and roundabouts. Sony are unquestionably in a weakened position this gen, but then next gen? Weakened or not, Sony are still a massive company, with fingers in many pies. If I were a third party publisher, I don’t think I’d be so quick to burn my bridges.

Had a bit of a bad week, Mr Sony, hasn’t he?

I was thinking something similar Robo_1, but I was thinking that the power of the internet and modern day blogging has really been on show recently.

First, MS go out of their way to deny any new type of 360, then Sony are all over Kotick’s comments in almost an instant.

Seems like the big boys have decided to get much more hands-on with the blogosphere…

Good lord. I’m just gonna get out dressed like a true toff and introducing myself as “Lord Good of Sony”

/rimshot

Okay, call me a fanboy, but what’s wrong with Sony’s week?

Isn’t this the only thing?

Well, I sort of hate to mention it again but there was that little Ghostbusters incident.

Yeah, but that was more the developer not doing a good job rather than Sony messing up.

also, Valve trash talking the PS3 as usual, Ubi ditching SC PS3

this just proves to me two things

1) kotick is crazy thinking that his threats will get sony to price cut the PS3

2) kotick is seriously becoming an even bigger asshole than jack thompson, which i didn’t think was possible

Well, I onyl ask, becuase I read it on neoGAF too, with the Splinter Cell won’t be on PS3 thing… And I just wondered how that was bad at all.

Especially since all the statement did was make it more questionable.

Yeah, it wasn’t directly Sony’s fault about Ghostbusters, but it still generated bad press for them.

And Ubi didn’t ditch Splinter Cell PS3, it was never on PS3 to begin with. They’ve touted it as a 360 exclusive (PC aside) since it was announced.