Activision Misses the Point

#1 I concur.

I'm tired of seeing Star Wars, Matrix, etc. junk over and over again. Making more of it isn't the solution.

#2

Quote:In a statement that accompanied the news, Activision president Ron Doornink said the company was taking steps to adapt to the new, high-stakes game of console, computer and handheld game development. "The video game market is increasingly dominated by high-quality products based on recognizable franchises supported with big marketing programs. We have decided to take steps to align our business with the continuing evolution of the video game market."

As to why the company canceled so many products, Doornink said, "Specifically, we have canceled the development of 10 games, which we believe are unlikely to produce an acceptable level of return on our investment. This will enable us to focus and increase our development and marketing resources on those franchises with the greatest potential. We believe that this realignment will enhance our position to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the growing mass-market."

I wonder how much this idiot's salary is???

"Allow me to translate: we're going to flog our franchises to death, market the living bejabbers out of them, and keep our fingers crossed." - Bill from Gone Gold

#3 Not wanting to sound idealistic but as the larger companies join this sickening trend I can only smile as this can only leave an untapped market for indies to make a living from e.g. making games for people sick of franchised games or at least bring forward games that most companies wouldn't touch but are still really playable and fun.

I wonder if it's inevitable that as companies get larger, returns need to grow respectively, pressures on executives grow and therefore risks really do need to be minimised? Is this a natural business equillibrium and therefore inevitable?

I'm sure Jeff could talk all night on this subject. P)

- Melv.

#4 It's a legal thing, isn't it? When you're talking about a public company like activision, taking too much risk invites a shareholder lawsuit.

#5 Interesting how Activision was probably one of the first Indie rabble-rousers. ;-)

Disgruntled Atari employees...

#6 Risk won't invoke a lawsuit. Bad decisions and then covering it up do (enron).

This definately looks good for indies, and makes a much wider marketspace for us as we can't possibly afford franchises and license deals anyway. So I hope the industry keeps moving in that direction. The mobile industry is similar to this right now- only the big publishers (Zio, Sony, Sega etc.) can't get a decent foothold with their overhyped licensed crap.

The unfortunate side effect is that those games that were cancelled will never see the light of day, regardless of the state of "finished" they are in. And Activision certainly won't release that property to the creators so that they can shop it, or release it independently.

Imagine if just of those titles turned into the next Half-life (a mega-phenomenon). The entire upper management would lose their jobs.

#7 Hey, they are 100% correct about the big marketing budget and the recognizeable franchise thing. That's definitely a really big deal.

But the truth is, that just gets you noticed to begin with. I remember going to see Alien 3... we were all excited opening night. I saw it, and hated it. I understand that ticket sales dropped to almost nothing after the opening weekend. Word-of-mouth got around, I guess.

The problem with games and movies is that you can begin each project with something of a clean slate. Which is why they keep getting away with foisting crap on their customers. Sure, you can kill a franchise that way, make sure that each sequel is going to enjoy lower sales than the first. But publishers seem to be aloof from the pressures of being known for doing crap. Developers, on the other hand, tend to get consumer blame. Even if it was the publisher that pushed them into releasing before the game was ready in order to make Christmas or whatnot.

All I can say is, this is probably good news for the indies. The "niche market" keeps getting wider and wider as the big names fight over a smaller and smaller subset of games based on existing popular franchises, movie & TV licenses, and sports games. There are many genres getting neglected now - and we're in a position to meet the needs of customers who favor these neglected areas.

#8 Just to throw my two cents in - i think that Mr. Doornink shurly doesn't have a clue - or whoever wrote his statment - but - the guys at activision are trying to do whats best for there company - they are missing the point from our point of view - but to look at it another way - this could mean that there will be more of a focus on making the fewer titles better - like Valve with half life - they may have a franchise that could really be a big seller as well as a really fun game - I do agree that they miss the point and I belive that these trends in the industry for the big players will in deed allow for the indie developers to really shine, though - Iv worked for companies who instead of moving to the popular "genres" stuck with a unique idea and went belly up because of it. So in a way i can understand what they mean to do.

#9 I have at least one friend at Activision myself, in management. And though he can't tell me what he has coming down the pipe, he's quite excited about it. I think the fewer games they plan on producing are going to be EXCITING. I have no problem with a company focusing on QUALITY instead of quantity.

I just feel like it's not even quality the big publishers are worried about - but rather that they are emphasizing "safe" low-risk, me-too products and sequels and famous brands / licenses to the exclusion of most other possibilities. That's a BAD THING for the consumers (meaning *ME*, still a gamer at heart).

But it's a good thing for indies (also meaning *ME*, fortunately) in that they are leaving a lot of the room for us in the somewhat less lucrative (but still very worthwhile) parts of the field.

#10 Agreed, the more Me Too stuff that appears provides more opportunities for those indie games that appear, esp. seeing as I would expect small development teams are capable of producing excellent games on a very small budget, as long as they are equipped with the correct tools :)

#11 If I'm not mistaken, Tom Peters (the guru of company managment) wrote a book a short while ago about when companies get too big... It was amazing reading a man that used to be quoted as "the Man" in big company managment byte them back with a rage, saying that they misunderstood everything he said... quite funny...

I think the book was called "Chaos Managment" or something like that... it has a lot to do with how indies do things... :)

#12 Two told me that because no one preordered, they hadn't gotten any copies.

I might be missing something but this quote leads me to believe this has nothing to do with Activision but the retailers. I worked for a large computer chain for a while and no matter how much critical acclaim some games may get the RETAILER won't order any copies to save space for GTA, Halo... whatever.

Retail is a sad sad industry.

#13 We can blame the publishers, we can blame the retialers, but at some point I think everyone has to come to peace with the fact that the buying public is getting rehashed licensed shovelware because that is what sells (tht is what the public is purchasing).

It is a trend in both games and movies and though I personally don't like the direction tht things are going, that is the direction they are going.

If consumers were to reject the licensed games, we would see a lot more innovation and risk taking in the industry as a whole.

#14 @Joe it is a catch-22, the public is buying what everyone is calling crap because that is what is offered. The majority of the public is not going to just stop buying because it is rehashed crap, that is why they buy it, it IS REHASHED CRAP, they feel safe with what they know. Thinking that boycotting licensed and franchise titles is going to drive innovation is more out of touch with the public than Activision ever has been!

As much as I hate to say it, the Activision folks have a better eye on the market than most of the people that post bitching about the "crap" games selling, they are selling; that is the point! The real crap games like Aquaman DON'T SELL and WON'T sell regardless of the marketing dollars spent on them.

Seems what most people in this thread don't get is that what they think is crap is not really crap and that they are the ones out of touch with the buying public!

I don't think there is anything inheritly wrong with copy-cat game developers. I like lots of bands that sound the same, that is WHY I LIKE THEM they are similar, granted none of it is anywhere close to mainstream in the USA, but I like it BECAUSE OF THE SIMILARITIES to other bands in the same genre!

Outside of more immersive game mechanics thru new external controller interfaces and hand in hand with graphics advances there are no NEW GENRES that I can see in the near future.

Granted I don't buy any of the swill that gets pumped out until it hits the baragin bins if then, but I am not going to fault Activision or EA, SOMEBODY is obviously buying all the license/franchise titles and are happy with it.

#15 I agree Jarrod..

sorry if my comment earlier seemed to suggest a boycott.. I am not. This is consumer demand driven, and if the consumers stop buying the licensed propeties and start buying new and innovative games, the publisher will follow suit (by investing resources into what the consumer is looking for).

Now, there are a lot of people that do look for something different. They are not a small percentage, but the % is too small for the big publishers to go after it. Good times for the indies if we can grab some of those players who are looking for "something" that is not being offered by the big guys.

In music, the 'alternative' became mainstream in the late 80's early 90's. Good things for the small guy if the buying public starts looking for alternative forms of interactive entertainment.

#16 @Joe

And now "alternative" is just another form of pop, processed and shaped by the big wigs just as much as any brittney spears or backstreet boy.

MArketing knows what the majority of buyers want and they provide it. Sure it's crap but it's an inevitability for anything good enough to draw a crowd.

No matter how original and unique it is, if a big company sees that it could sell, it'll milk it for all it's worth until it's crap again, and then turn on to something else. Trends get recycled in one form or another decade after decade. Video games are just so young that these trend patterns are hard to see.

#17 Double Post

#18 Rockatansky:

You may be right. But SOMEONE has to invent the new style / idea. Don't leave it to the big guys in entertainment to innovate. They can do it, but they are horrible at it, and it usually still boils down to it happening IN SPITE of the big corporate umbrella rather than because of it... the Babylon 5's and The Sims and Ultima Onlines of the world.

However, in the games business, the big guys used to be willing to take bigger risks than this. It seems like they are all following exactly the same "get rich quick" formula right now. I guess that is a natural result of expenses growing faster than the revenues... their margins are getting tighter and tighter, so they can afford fewer mistakes.

#19 @EVERYONE

there is plenty of innovation in video games and from some big publishing houses even, the sad problem is that it is all in JAPAN right now. Used to be that the Japanese just took our ideas and made them smaller, cheaper, faster and better . . . 50 years later and a few billion burgers and pairs of blue jeans and heavy metal and viola!

They are on the innovation front for sure video game wise . . . they take the risks, they have a buying public that is more open to new things.

Go to any Japanese ARCADE and you will see what I am talking about, the ARACDE has died in the USA!

They don't think that animation has to be for kids, they are at the cutting edge of alot of music composition right now also if you know where to look and who to look for.

Seems we could learn a thing or two from the Japanese gaming crowd ourselves.

#20 The problem isn't that the percentage is too small for publishers to go after, its just they don't know how to market it. I waited for eons to see a decent WWII FPS. Finally "Saving Private Ryan" hit the theatres and I saw the first REAL attempt, with Playstations original Medal of Honor (1999). Suddenly the publishers had something to latch onto, and everyone started ramping up with their own WWII FPS. This trend still continues with the recent release of "Call of Duty" (2 different singleplayer demos are available).

I keep seeing the excuse: there is no MONEY in it. Its not that there isn't any money in it, its that publishers can't recover their investment because they are so horrible with money management. And where they choose to apply their resources is absurd.

I know of a startup company, backed by a bunch of has-beens. This was their FIRST venture into the mobile game market, yet they were able to secure multi-millions in financial backing. Their first game had a 4 month dev cycle, and the team consisted of about 6 people (including marketing team). The game sucked, they missed the mark by a million miles and it still isn't selling worth a shit. It certainly wasn't for lack of marketing or financial backing.

Now, I'm not brilliant or anything, but I bet I could have given ANYONE here at this board that kind of money, and they couldn't have possibly done worse. And this continues to happen (Sega, Sony, Zio and Ubi are more examples of assinine funding cycle). So why do the publishers do this? Because they think they ARE taking the safe road.

Licensing is not cheap. So the cycle gets even worse- the only benefit is that they can hopefully use the game to market the movie, and vice-versa. But we can see that didn't save "the Hulk". Is it going to save "The Cat In the Hat"?

Now the real question is, DO we want to see games with movie tie-ins? Sure we do, and some of the translations are very smooth. But do we really need to have shit crammed down our throat just because they can't get off their lazy asses and think of anything better? Most people have no idea how many great ideas and games have been prematurely terminated because the execs are too busy shoveling shit into the mainstream. Does this mean Activision produces ONLY shit? No. They have alot of titles that I really like, dating all the way back to the Atari 2600 days.