Many game studios are being dropped following a bit of an economic downturn in the United States and globally. Activision has to deal with being agile enough to survive the economic times like anyone else and has dropped a few games that had great potential.
Gamers continue to ask the question, “why?” when some of their highest potential games were dropped to the floor. Ghostbusters and Brütal Legend are a couple examples of games with eager fans already salivating prior to its launch. Some of these fans are a bit ticked off that Activision named them as dropped franchise opportunities.
People ask why a company holds one “mediocre” title while getting rid of other potentially awesome ones. Don’t forget, this is a business and a good studio/publisher is going to make good business decisions without emotional attachments – those that bring emotions into play may end up with a highly valued product (to them) with no additional potential and lower revenue. This isn’t to say developers cannot be passionate about their games and their industry, they just have to build games gamers will buy and continue to fall in love with release after release.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is one of these business savvy individuals who knows where investors will find profits for the future, and he also know how to manage employees, with the use of software like this sample pay stub for payments and more.
“[Those games] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.” (1up)
Ghostbusters is a great example of a title which could be well received and fun to play but probably wouldn’t be an exploitable franchise. The game, based on a popular movie, has limited potential for yearly releases and huge franchise success. Ghostbusters fans would probably disagree, but that’s when emotion comes into play. Think dollars and cents, not awesome fun gaming.
Oddly enough many of these business decisions from Activision, Electronic Arts and other big publishers arrive when the economy is in free fall and investors are eying your revenue potential. People make their most important and, usually, unfriendly business decisions when their company is at risk.
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It’s sad to think money comes first and entertainment value comes second but we’re not the ones trying to make a profitable living in the industry. Put yourself in Kotick’s shoes as he walks into a board meeting to discuss future plans, road maps and profitability – you’d do what you have to do to keep your job, right?
@Dead Island – wrong version on Steam:
Since its a digital distribution channel, it is easy to fix …
@Lord British wants to make another Ultima:
I said it in another post: as a developer, either you sell the IP to the publisher and enjoy the money, or keep the IP and retain control. You can’t do both, have the cookie and eat it.
@Crytek rebukes “unlawful layoff” claims
Europe labor laws (Germany included) are a bit more weird. They would send labor inspectors to check how many extra hours you’re pushing etc. etc.
That’s one extreme.
The other extreme is bad planning that leads to all-development-crunch-time.
There has to be a middle ground.
@ Steam on Xbox Live Marketplace:
Newell wants EA to start selling their titles on Steam again. The way he goes about it is by trying to squeeze market space away from Origin; if EA would like to make more money, they would have to go through Valve’s Steam.
@console “limitations” in Battlefield 3:
PC rulez 😀 !!
Now, while 30 fps in a shooter is fluid, at 60 fps you do get better reaction time from the game. And for online shooters, this matters.
There is a reason why competitive shooter games run at a simulation tick rate at 60 ticks per second, 90 ticks per second and even 120 ticks per second.
Question is, for the fps count to matter, will Battlefield 3 be a competitive online multiplayer? Something tells me that it aims to be one.
@Black Ops map packs hit 18 million sold
What pisses me off is that modders can’t sell the maps they make, but developers can. And nowadays (case for Battlefield 3) there won’t be any modding tools. Way to go to maintain a community …
@PSP:
This will come as a shocker: I like Jonah’s idea about a simple handheld console, that does only gaming.
In terms of gadgets, I don’t like multipurpose ones. My phone only does calls and text messages (and live for 5 days from one recharge), so from a portable handheld I only expect it to play games.
@QOTW:
In the second STALKER game, Clear Sky, they changed the damage mechanics and the weapon accuracy (nerfed it).
Now, while I loved the fact that you could customize your gun in Clear Sky, changing the base accuracy AND making enemies die only from headshots caused a lot of frustrations.
This was somewhat exacerbated by the fact that the first game had decent guns and enemies would die also from body shots.
Thankfully they reverted a good deal of it in the third game.
@Steam on XBL – That would be great but, as Jonah said, Microsoft would be putting out Arcade Games for 15 dollars while Steam is having a sale, selling the same game for 5 bucks. I wish it were so, but I understand why is isn’t.
@Black Ops Map Packs – I have purchased all four map packs (the last one was free due to the fact that I had the Hardened edition of the game), and I, like many, only purchased them for the Zombies maps. The problem with that is I have to pay for the four crappy multiplayer maps instead of them offering the Zombies maps as separate content.
@QOTW – Bioshock is easily one of my favorite games of all time, but the hacking in that game annoyed me horribly. Thankfully, they changed the hacking mechanic in the sequel, so at least they learned from their mistakes.
I enjoyed hacking in Bioshock. Deus Ex: Human Revolution does it better, though.
I found the hacking to be more tedious than enjoyable. But, to each their own.
guys,jonah ,just to let ya all know that im still listening and i observed that the podcast is getting better,i didnt have time to comment coz i was playing minecraft and studying, and guys if you have a minecraft account but you dont play anymore plzzzz message me and try to give it to me because im stuck with a cracked account and im really broke so plzz i beg you all @qotw i never encounterd those things because i enjoy all of my games ,ps dont stop the podcast keep it going
edit you could message me on Facebook ,name; oliver lance de leon