Activision May Stop Supporting Sony

[Jerkapotamus]

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has warned that the publisher "might have to stop supporting Sony" platforms.

"I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation," he told The Times.

"They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow," he added. "If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console - and the PSP too."

Edge Online.

Kotick is a pretty big dick, but I seriously doubt there's much clout behind his threat. Even if the PS3 isn't selling as well as the 360/Wii, I'm sure COD and Guitar Hero sales make them a pretty nice profit. Maybe he's referring to smaller games, like Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Either way, I think it's just an empty threat in an effort to spur a PS3 price cut. He's been whining since E3 about it.

[liaaaam]

Well then let's hope there is a price cut soon!

In the article it states Activision paid $500m in royalties to Sony last year (most of this for Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, I imagine).. they must be making some money to have such high royalties to pay! It sounds like a lot of money (which of course it is) but it's a fraction of their profits.

[Jerkapotamus]

At 6/19/09 11:55 AM, liaaaam wrote: Well then let's hope there is a price cut soon!

It really doesn't make sense to cut the price until right before the holidays. Cut the price now, you'll get a one month sales spike and then everything will return to about the same. Cut it during the holidays and there is a three or four month spike in sales and strong, new software to support it.

[liaaaam]

At 6/19/09 11:59 AM, Jerkapotamus wrote: It really doesn't make sense to cut the price until right before the holidays. Cut the price now, you'll get a one month sales spike and then everything will return to about the same. Cut it during the holidays and there is a three or four month spike in sales and strong, new software to support it.

Yes.. a price cut in October would be perfect, not only do you get Christmas sales but it should be pretty strong after Christmas too (I guess they count as Christmas sales, people buying themselves things after with the money they got or just treating themselves for the holiday or whatever).

The strong new software is also true, Gran Turismo 5 being rumoured for late 2009 which will be huge, God of War 3 possibly, MW2.. etc.

[SlipperyMooseCakes]

At 6/19/09 12:08 PM, liaaaam wrote: The strong new software is also true, Gran Turismo 5 being rumoured for late 2009 which will be huge, God of War 3 possibly, MW2.. etc.

I thought GT5 and God of War 3 were both 2010.

Anyway I don't see this really happening. I think it is just to put pressure on Sony to cut the price so companies like Activision can see more money. Sony can wait to cut the price and the guy mentions 2010-2011 well I'm going to out on a whim here and say Sony would have cut the price by then anyway so Sony is fine.

Dropping support of the PSP, that I could see.

[7794]

Tony Hawk when downhill with the release of American Wasteland (btw, skate). Each Call of Duty is just the same game with different graphics/ and a new game mode/weapons or something, i guess people are into this kind of stuff. Guitar Hero = Rock Band. So the only upset will really be CoD.

I think of Wolfenstein as a parting gift, farewell Activision!

[H-A-X-O-R-Z]

At 6/19/09 01:08 PM, 7794 wrote: Tony Hawk when downhill with the release of American Wasteland (btw, skate). Each Call of Duty is just the same game with different graphics/ and a new game mode/weapons or something, i guess people are into this kind of stuff. Guitar Hero = Rock Band. So the only upset will really be CoD.

I think of Wolfenstein as a parting gift, farewell Activision!

When a series turns out with a good profit then there's no reason to drop it, CoD 3 gave us sprinting, CoD 4 we saw a nice new modern approach, CoD 5 gave us vechiles and zombies.

[SlipperyMooseCakes]

http://www.vg247.com/2009/06/19/sony-on-
kotick-ps3-drop-threat-we-respect-third-
party-opinion-but-no-comment/

Sony responds by not commenting. And Pachter says it's a bluff!

[RiuTenshin]

At 6/19/09 01:15 PM, SlipperyMooseCakes wrote: http://www.vg247.com/2009/06/19/sony-on-
kotick-ps3-drop-threat-we-respect-third-
party-opinion-but-no-comment/

Sony responds by not commenting. And Pachter says it's a bluff!

I'm going to laugh if they drop support for a while just to fuck with them.

That's not very likely but what the hell.

[liaaaam]

At 6/19/09 12:46 PM, SlipperyMooseCakes wrote: I thought GT5 and God of War 3 were both 2010.

I think they will be but GT5 is apparently on Play.com with a 2009 release date; we know how flawed these sort of things are so that's just "rumoured" release date right now. God of War 3 has been rumoured for this year but I'm expecting 2010 too.

Anyway I don't see this really happening. I think it is just to put pressure on Sony to cut the price so companies like Activision can see more money. Sony can wait to cut the price and the guy mentions 2010-2011 well I'm going to out on a whim here and say Sony would have cut the price by then anyway so Sony is fine.

I agree.

Dropping support of the PSP, that I could see.

I don't know.. with the PSP Go there may be a new market as a media player and they cut the price of the dev kit by 75% or something which will allow more developers to churn out cheap games (hi, NDS) which will make people buy the console even though it's so old. I won't hold my breath but there's a chance of a small revival of the PSP over the next year or two.

[Jawdyn]

Ah, feels good to have an Xbox.

oh wait

[mercyfire]

Glad I got a 360 ;D

[MattTheParanoidKat]

Well, the Majority of Activision titles apart from Call of Duty suck major balls. Activision has been pretty keen on assraping franchises (Guitar Hero, Spyro, Crash, etc). Plus, they are one company, even if they do stop going on Sony, they still have the other 3rd party devs to use. Pretty much Activision is losing out. Oh, and the PS2 is still going strong, and are FAR less expensive to produce games for that system then any other right now.

The CEO is an idiot, this is the guy who ran 4Kids for Christ's sake. Do we expect anything of intelligence and quality from him?

[Gustavos]

It's no longer about what the customer wants. If anybody wants to attempt to give me a half decent example to prove me wrong from any time this generation, please do.

[Matt2358]

At 6/19/09 09:30 PM, Gustavos wrote: It's no longer about what the customer wants. If anybody wants to attempt to give me a half decent example to prove me wrong from any time this generation, please do.

It's ALL about what the customer wants, If they don't sell things customers WANT, then they don't make money.
Making things the customers will actually like is another story.

[whitewolfer]

Even though i like healthy competition between the 360 and the PS3, this could be a major blow to Sony that may shut them down. Even though I'm a 360 fan, I'd rather not see the PS3 go.

[squidly]

PS3's failing, and when you fail, your allies don't find use for you, your worthless in the business game.

This isn't kindergarten, this is the real world.

[Gustavos]

At 6/19/09 09:58 PM, Matt2358 wrote:

At 6/19/09 09:30 PM, Gustavos wrote: It's no longer about what the customer wants. If anybody wants to attempt to give me a half decent example to prove me wrong from any time this generation, please do.

It's ALL about what the customer wants, If they don't sell things customers WANT, then they don't make money.
Making things the customers will actually like is another story.

Well yeah, but if they didn't make any games, they wouldn't make money right? So they have to make games. And no, they don't listen to the suggestion emails. Don't kid yourself.

BUT, I do know one example of a company going out of their way to do something really nice for the consumer. It's what they did for Brawl and the multiple ways of playing. They know that people who buy Brawl likely had the gamecube. So the extra gamecube controllers allow for more players. I have one gamecube controller and two wiimotes, therefore I can play with two of my friends or siblings at once. They didn't have to put the ability to use gamecube controllers in, they just wanted consumers to witness the awesome multiplayer and co-op capabilities. The wiimote sideways was probably just put in for no reason though.

[TiredPaperBoy]

I believe his threat

Think of it from a bussiness point of view, less people own PS3 therefore small customer base. However you can't even take into account the Wii because none of activisions games are at all demanded on the Wii

so yeah its 360 vs PS3, and since there is a large amount of bussiness on both end, he will probaly juts cut down bussiness on the PS3, but I don't tihnk he will stop all together

[Falconpunchr]

All I can say is that they brought it on themselves with their greediness, but I do hope that if the recover from this they will learn from their mistakes.

[liaaaam]

At 6/20/09 08:40 PM, TiredPaperBoy wrote: Think of it from a bussiness point of view, less people own PS3 therefore small customer base. However you can't even take into account the Wii because none of activisions games are at all demanded on the Wii

Firstly since CoD4s release the PS3 install base has grown by 200%, the 360 install base by 125% - so 3x as many people have a PS3 now as when they released CoD4 - if they bothered back then and don't bother now, how retarded would that be? Secondly, just because you may not hear about Activision games on the Wii, don't dismiss them. Activision is a large company and I'm sure they have made a lot of money from the Wii, just like every other developer who has cashed in on the Wiis large install base and low development costs..

[Hiphopopotamus]

Even if they can't buy their 14 helicopters a day because of Sony, it would be a pretty moronic move for both sides, without the support of Sony gamers they will attempt to ruin their sales on other consoles by review bombing their games and encouraging boycotts on other consoles, let alone the lack of profit from one form of media being cut.

[leetspeaker]

Good

[slothfromabove]

"I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum"

wow... some of us noticed this the day of launch!

[liaaaam]

At 6/21/09 05:56 AM, slothfromabove wrote: wow... some of us noticed this the day of launch!

Reaaaally?

[desert116]

At 6/21/09 11:48 AM, liaaaam wrote: Reaaaally?

Yeah.

[liaaaam]

At 6/21/09 12:50 PM, desert116 wrote: Yeah.

Your graph is showing the exact same thing as mine, only I limited mine to the amount of time the PS3 has been released. If you know how to read graphs, you'll see that the one you posted doesn't show anything. What mine showed (and, yours does too!) is that the PS3 has sold more than the 360 in the same time frame.

Thanks for helping prove my point by posting the graph again though.

[Grubby]

I laugh at everyone who purchased the PS3.

I knew from its very conception that it would be an epic fail, so I made the right choice.

All my friends who have a PS3, or have both a 360 or PS3 are either getting a 360 or completely disbanding the PS3 in favor of the Xbox 360.

Even if there is lots of momentum, there's no way for Sony to get even close to beating the Xbox 360. The gap too huge, the economy is in a downturn, and Sony has no complete killer app that will instigate a massive switchover.

Plus the Wii is already sapping at Sony's market at the same time.

Good move Activision.

I actually don't laugh at you PS3 owners, I just feel sorry. Sorry for being so mean.

[liaaaam]

At 6/21/09 01:32 PM, Grubby wrote: I laugh at everyone who purchased the PS3.
I knew from its very conception that it would be an epic fail, so I made the right choice.

Yay, another fanboy :P How in the world is the PS3 failing? They've sold 23 million of them in a year less than the 360 has sold 30 million. They have many blockbuster games that, in my opinion, beat the shit out of any exclusives the 360 has to offer (I know some people prefer Gears to MGS, this is my opinion not a fact). The 360 has more games (because of the easier development and the fact it has a whole year on the PS3), but the PS3 has more "top class" exclusives (with scores of 80+).. I remember reading an article that was comparing exclusives and that found that little nugget of information out.. that's MGS4, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Uncharted, Resistance 2, Ratchet & Clank, etc. So your opinion that the PS3 is an epic fail seems to be an unfounded one.. it may have the lowest market share of the 3 consoles but it has been out a year less than the 360 and has done considerably well in that short amount of time, and like I mentioned it has plenty of amazing games.

I honestly can't think why your friends would go from PS3 to 360 - everyone I know who has both plays their PS3s much more.. I can only assume that it's peer pressure. The PS3 has everything - wifi, free online, internet browser, audio playback, video playback, fantastic games (including PSN games).. and there's plenty more to come (games-wise at the very least).

Plus the Wii is already sapping at Sony's market at the same time.

...

Are you fucking kidding me?

[HecticCircleCrap]

At 6/19/09 01:11 PM, H-A-X-O-R-Z wrote: CoD 5 gave us vechiles and zombies.

Nazi Zombies. Revenge from the Holocaust, bitches!