News

Winters defends Activision: "Not a monolithic empire"
Posted: 14.04.2011 15:10 by JonahFalcon Comments: 14
Head of developer relations for Activision, Dan Winters,related in an interview with Games Industry BIZ, stated in defense of the company that just because Activision currently sits in the number one seat of videogame publishers doesn't mean they're a "monolithic empire".

I would like to think that we spend a lot of time, and I individually spend a lot of time thinking of ways to reach out to the development community and show that we have respect and complete admiration for what they do on a daily basis," Winters argued. "I hope that there aren't any hard feelings and I hope there isn't any reluctance - I've certainly not felt it directly.

"A business is a tough thing to manage on a number of different fronts, especially when you're dealing with a creative community like video games or interactive entertainment. Any time that I do hear anything of concern I do try to dispel it. The overall message that I would love people to get out of any time they actually get detailed information about us or my personal approach is that we have admiration and respect for the talent in this industry.

Kotick's management relations with developers has been controversial.
"We recognise that the success we've had as a company comes from the talent of those individuals and those teams. We would like to think that we're able to compliment that talent and high-quality product with the ability to move things through the right channels, and that's great, I think that's part of our magic sauce. But without really high quality product, and without the passion and talent behind it, we recognise that the business is only the business. I hope there's no reluctance, I certainly haven't felt it directly."

He then claimed that before Activision merged with Blizzard, the publisher was seen as "warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two," though it's hard to envision caustic and controversial Activision CEO Bobby Kotick as "warm and cuddy" even then, when he was stating, "The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games" and wanting to cultivate a culture of “skepticism, pessimism, and fear.” Real warm. Real cuddly.

Comments

By Ridgy (SI Core Member) on Apr 14, 2011
Ridgy
You know they're up to some creepy shit if they have to release propaganda like this. Well I guess the necromancy of COD is creepy :P
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Apr 14, 2011
herodotus
I daresay the development community would have something very different to say about Acti. As for being premier publisher, heed the demise of EA from that position.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Apr 14, 2011
JonahFalcon
EA only fell to #2 because Activision merged with Blizzard.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Apr 14, 2011
herodotus
Interesting Jonah, as Activision replaced EA as No.1 Pub in June 2007 but didn't finally merge with Blizzard until July 2008 (though it had agreed to the deal in Dec. 2007).
Anyway Ubisoft are now gunning for number one slot...I don't believe they'll get there, but Acti really has nothing new or exciting on their books.
By Eversor (SI Elite) on Apr 14, 2011
Eversor
Hmm, ain't seen Star Wars in a long time.
By Ridgy (SI Core Member) on Apr 15, 2011
Ridgy
The activision part of the company is basically making money solely on COD...Not much of an empire if you ask me. Though Blizzard has best seller dominant titles in MMORPG, RTS and soon RPG categories. All I can say is that I hope Acti have something stellar planned!
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Apr 15, 2011
herodotus
Activision has become a on-hit-wonder now, after trashing "Guitar Hero" and Blizzard is a snail when it comes to title releases. So "CoD" alone can't keep it at No.1.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Apr 16, 2011
FoolWolf
Agrees with Hero- Activision isn't that fun as a company and the struggle between EA, Ubi and Acti isn't exactly a match I sit and cheer for anyone on... All three have some major flaws and showed some great inconsideration of their gamers...
By PowerJack (SI Elite) on Apr 16, 2011
PowerJack
I agree with you FoolWolf they are the same on the inconsideration part.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Apr 17, 2011
herodotus
At present I'd have to rate them:
1/ EA ("BF3" will be a hit, I've no doubt)
2/ Ubisoft (after dropping their DRM).
3/ Activision

EA are trying to win back the fans, but Activision and Ubisoft equally look more to profit than anything else atm (Acti relying on "CoD" and DLC's and Kotick openly didainful of the consumer, while Ubi pushes out unfinished products).
By festalx (SI Member) on Apr 17, 2011
festalx
:D
By Zvezdalina (SI Veteran Member) on Apr 17, 2011
Zvezdalina
I'm not quite sure what they want to achieve with this. :-S
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Apr 17, 2011
FoolWolf
Well, EA did try - then they made BioWare into a craptastic little money machine that makes crappy DRM servers and forced out games.... BioWare? I mean come on - they are what Blizzard is to Activision... or should be at least...
By Zvezdalina (SI Veteran Member) on Apr 18, 2011
Zvezdalina
I still have this feeling like they could've handled this better.