Wed, Sep 15, 2010 | 23:06 BST

Call of Duty games are “going to get richer, deeper, more engaging”, says Kotick

blackops-3

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has told attendees at the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference that if you want to know how Call of Duty games will look visually in five years, look no further than Black Ops.

Speaking at the conference, Kotick was asked about the future of Call of Duty, specifically what to expect from it within the next five years visually when compared with today.

“I think when you see Black Ops this holiday, that’s going to give you a great sense of how different the games will visually look ,” he said. “But if you look at that game, it’s only going to get richer, the characters are only going to get deeper, the stories are only going to get more engaging.

Then, when you think about some of the things we have incorporated, we’ve talked a little bit about Wager Match and what we’re doing in multiplayer, but to play against people you have an identity with and using that headset to be able to communicate with a person you’re using a lot of these physical devices that have a higher level of engagement. Having more additive content on a more regular, frequent basis, these games are going to start to look like film.”

Adding these new options, like Wager Match to keep things fresh, and offering frequent DLC updates will be nice, but Kotick also talked a bit about technology allowing in-game characters to show more emotion like actual human actors.

“The characters you see on the screen are going to be much more realistic than they are today, ” he said. “They’re going to be more compelling, they’re going to be more believable, there’s going to be so many more things you can do from a gameplay perspective than what we can do today.

“When you see innovations like Kinect or Move, where you now have the ability to use voice to actually control what you see on the screen, and for motion to control what you see on the screen, those are going to be big changes in the interface that will probably broaden the appeal of videogames.

“But we’re seeing for the first time, opportunities to reach consumers who never played videogames before.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops is out November 9 for PC, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

27 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Action, Activision Blizzard, Development, Hot, PC, PS3, Shooter, Wii, Xbox 360
Tags: , , , , ,

27 comments

#1

Dr.Ghettoblaster
15/09/10, 8:10 pm

That’s pretty depressing actually…

So Activision’s running this series into the ground just like Guitar Hero then..lol.

#2

theevilaires
15/09/10, 8:11 pm

where the hell have you been Dr.G anyway yea that sucks….(360 fault maybe) :(

#3

Erthazus
15/09/10, 8:12 pm

:d With the same old engine? :D Jesus thats depressing :D

#4

DSB
15/09/10, 8:19 pm

Lawl, oh dear. Kotick just pulled a Kotick.

Any moron expecting a Call of Duty to be different from the last one clearly hasn’t played any of the games, though. It’s not exactly a series that plays on innovation. You buy it for some good old action, and that’s what you get.

What the guy is saying, as I understand it, is that they’re gonna try to switch it up with different scenarios and different wars and differently storylines.

Beats the hell out of a stale old WW2 series, for sure.

#5

onlineatron
15/09/10, 8:19 pm

Kotick talks like he doesn’t know jack about videogames.

All his answers are stock.

#6

Dralen
15/09/10, 8:21 pm

Hahaha! That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a Activision Reps mouth.

#7

DSB
15/09/10, 8:27 pm

I didn’t see anything particularly stupid about what he says.

What’s stupid is saying something that can be misquoted the way it is in the above title. CoD has always been about mimicking movie action since the very first installment, which was basically a mix of Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and Enemy at the Gates.

And you can arguably do some pretty neat stuff with Move and Kinect. Just imagine a squadbased shooter that lets you use handsignals. That’ll obviously never happen because it’ll probably require an IQ to use, but it would be fucking cool to interact with a first person world like that.

#8

AHA-Lambda
15/09/10, 8:29 pm

@7 – i agree it actually isnt that bad a statement really.

#9

Erthazus
15/09/10, 8:32 pm

@DSB don’t be butthurted. Everyone of course understand what he means :)
People are just joking :D
Kotick is not that evil, for now Oo.

#11

EscoBlades
15/09/10, 8:45 pm

What a MIGHTY load of bullcrap!

#12

Elven_Star
15/09/10, 8:52 pm

“blablabla our game is awesome, buy it blablabla”

#13

YoungZer0
15/09/10, 8:54 pm

Outdated?

#14

Erthazus
15/09/10, 8:56 pm

@10 Oh thats you :D !

#15

DSB
15/09/10, 8:59 pm

@14 Great comeback. That’s all requirements met.

Further reading:

http://gagne.homedns.org/~tgagne/contrib/unskilled.html

#16

Stephany Nunneley
15/09/10, 9:28 pm

@7 Misquoted? That was exactly what he said. Or am I reading you wrong?

#17

DSB
15/09/10, 9:40 pm

@16 It’s not false in the legal sense of the word, but it’s not accurate Steph :P

You’re making it seem like he’s talking about changing nothing, when really he’s flaunting Black Ops as a case for how he wants the series to keep evolving. In other words, the exact opposite of what that title would suggest.

He even goes on to specifically say he wants it to advance even more technologically and visually.

The accurate thing would be “Black Ops illustrates how CoD will evolve over the next 5 years”. Awful headline, I’m a tired mongrel.

I hate to be the inhouse Acti-advocate, but I do think it’s a little silly to keep steering everything the guy says towards that sort of nonsense.

I’m really not Bobby Koticks boytoy. Honest.

#18

Stephany Nunneley
15/09/10, 9:54 pm

@17 While far be it for me to call myself a Kotick fangirl, I don’t think the guy is as bad as everyone makes him out to be.

But the lady asked about cod in 5 years – he said just look at black ops so that is what I put, not what he implied, and it’s not a direct quote this the lack of quotation marks. I went into what he implied in the post. I don’t do or know shorthand, so I kept up the best I could. But I did not misrepresent what he said either.

EDIT: There. I changed the title. Hope that makes things clearer, and I added quotation marks even.

#19

DSB
15/09/10, 10:00 pm

@18 It’s no big deal. And the copy is indeed solid.

You’ll forgive me for thinking it’s an easy way to get some hits flogging a ginger horse, though.

#20

Stephany Nunneley
15/09/10, 10:03 pm

@19 HEY! I am a ginger. Well. Sort of. :D

#21

G1GAHURTZ
15/09/10, 10:03 pm

“But I did not misrepresent what he said either.”

The title is [still] misleading.

No question about that.

#22

onlineatron
15/09/10, 10:11 pm

@21

Gotta agree with G1GA.

Far be it from me to question the management, but that title makes it seem like the he’s saying Black Ops is the pinnacle of COD and it they’ll sell the same game for the next 5 years.

#23

DSB
15/09/10, 10:18 pm

@20 Hey, I got love for the gingers! I literally make all my girlfriends dye their hair red. And by that I mean skillfully manipulate them into doing so.

Just so I can think of Bobby… Mmmm.

The headline is better now by the way. You’re getting warmer :D

#24

b163oi
15/09/10, 10:19 pm

So more people will be switching 2 BFBC? You gotta be using a different engine by 2012. You guys are slacking ®_®

#25

Stephany Nunneley
15/09/10, 11:03 pm

@21 and @22 I am just gonna say this, and I will leave it be after this because you will think what you want to anyway.

I, personally, never, ever, ever *purposely set out to make a title that will “generate hits” or that is intentionally “provocative”. I may have misunderstood something unintentionally, or misread something, but I am not so dishonest as to do it on purpose. Truthfully, ever since I started writing for pay 11 years ago I have always had a hard time trying to convey what is being said in 10 words or less for a title. That is all it is really.

The lady’s question was exactly this: “What will a game like Call of Duty look like in five years, compared to where it is today”.

Kotick’s exact quote: “I think when you see Black Ops this holiday, that’s going to give you a great sense of how different the games will visually look.”

Note “look”, not be exactly like, which is not what was implied in the least.

Once again I will change the title but that is essentially what he said in short form.

God, I need a vacation. *puts head in hands and cries*

#26

Kuwabara
15/09/10, 11:26 pm

i bet most people play mw2 as though it was a chore, not out of pure fun and awe.

#27

DSB
16/09/10, 2:53 pm

@26 Oh yeah, and then we go sit in a steaming hot shower and cry for two hours because we hate ourselves so much.

You got us nailed, dude.

@25 There there. Most of the gaming press is dishonest, you really can’t expect us to think otherwise with a headline like that. For what it’s worth, I think you fixed it nicely.

Leave a Reply