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Speaking to The Times, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick yet again expressed his desire for Sony to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 console, but this time went one step further. Kotick threatened that the publisher, the largest third party video game company, may have to pull its support for both Sony platforms, the PS3 and PSP, if a price cut for the PS3 doesn't happen and sales continue to lag.
Said Kotick:
quote Bobby Kotick, Activison Blizzard CEO
"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 Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation."
quote Bobby Kotick, Activison Blizzard CEO
"They have to cut the price, because if you don't, the attach rates are likely to slow. 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."
Bobby Kotick and a partner bought the once-struggling Activision for $440,000 in 1991, at a time when it was losing $30 million on $10 million in revenues. Now the world's biggest independent computer games company, it has a market value of $16 billion (£10 billion) and operating profits of $179 million in the first quarter on sales of $981 million.
Activision overtook Electronic Arts last July when it was in effect taken over by Vivendi of France in a deal where Vivendi injected World of Warcraft into the company for a 56 per cent stake. With such success, Mr Kotick, who runs the business from Beverly Hills, can probably get away with saying anything, which, soon enough, he does.
The target is Sony, the once-dominant hardware maker. “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 says.
News story attached to:
Additional sources:
- Activision CEO: “We Might Have To Stop Supporting Sony” (edge-online.com)
- Activision might reduce focus on PS3 if no price cut comes (neoseeker.com)
- Activision May Stop Support for PlayStation 3 (ps3.ign.com)
- Activision Threatens to Stop Supporting PlayStation 3 (news.teamxbox.com)
- Activision Boss: We might have to stop supporting Sony, S... (qj.net)
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Most recently commented on by on Jun 21, 2009
Most recently commented on by on Jun 21, 2009
Comments
What if the PS3 and PSP regain a lot of momentum after a PS3-pricecut and with the new PSP Go ? And Sony decided not to give publish-license to Activision to benefit other (more) loyal parties with comparable games ?
Anyway, it's better to negotiate with Sony on the issue than to publish this stuff on the internet.
(Note: Activision is the devil, however, no one can deny their games sell like a mo-fo)
I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a publicity thing they're doing to try and get Msoft to come sniffing, lol. Kotick has read the forums and seen how MS are evil and buy out everything and he wants a piece of the action! Haha
Also, kind of amusing how a lot of commenters are completely forgetting about the number 1 selling system, the Wii. No way Activision would cut out the Wii from it's profits to work with 360 exclusively. Activision is one of the few third party publishers that is able to make money off the Wii. Even large companies like Capcom treat the Wii as a step child because they can't figure the system out (Resident Evil on rail shooters, Dead Rising Wii, lack of Zack & Wiki love).
That's what's confusing me though. I can't see how they would be making that little to actually consider breaking any and all ties with Sony. It's just wierd
I can see his side however, think about if Activision was able to set aside thinking about multiplatform, and instead focus completely on the 360 for *insert game name here*. Would it not be better because they would be able to exploit technology only found in the 360.
This works vice versa too, those developers that do just PS3 games, have the best looking PS3 games on the system. This is one of the reasons I like games that are exclusive to a system, it is soooo much better than multiplatform games because of the devs figuring out the best way to use whatever system they work on (whether it is the 360's larger amount of ram or the PS3's cell capabilities that still haven't been fully used imo).
I can see what you mean though. I just can't see Msoft or Ninty going for it, since they're milking Activision for all they're worth as it is anyway and something like this could break that status quo.
I know the last 2 aren't that bad of a loss but Call of Duty would be a HUGE loss.
HEY ACTIVISION! WHY DONT YOU FOCUS ON MAKING SOUND EFFECTS THAT ARENT RECORDED WITH SUBMERGED MICROPHONES!? (Or are you going to sue AKG for not making water-friendly mics?)
I smell a huge MS buyout going on.
Just sounds like Activision (AKA, the new EA) are being too high and mighty for their own good.
Seriously have some common business sense here =|
and brutal legend > guitar hero
i can't wait.
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