Once upon a time, Activision Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick kicked a few franchises to the curb: Riddick and Ghostbusters. No doubt, this was a result of the Activision and Blizzard merger requiring some resources to the merged together while others were cut from the lineup. Phil Harrison, the new big suit at Atari/Infogrames has raised these little birds from the ashes with a dream to build them into 100-million dollar franchises.
While Bobby Kotick said the titles, “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,” Phil Harrision sees it as a personal challenge to prove him wrong.
“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine — and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.” (1up)
In many ways, this is the difference in attitudes from a large firm compared to a smaller firm with strong goals and a vision for success. Activision Blizzard is big now, perhaps the biggest publisher in the industry, they can’t be bothered with minuscule 80-million dollar franchises. Others, like Atari, strive to take a title from nothing to something of greatness. Granted, Atari’s failed in a lot of franchises, but with their new ex-Sony executive behind the helm things could turn around and this might be the first step.
Most of the best game franchises in existance today started from nothing but a dream. Big publishers don’t have time to dream, they’re too busy making money off the fanboys of their current franchises.
@Kinect: I’m glad this gimmick seems to be fading I rather use a remote or get up if I have to. The whole system felt clumsy and as Jonah demonstrated annoying when doing things that have nothing to do with the system. I’m quite content with using controllers, it just feels quicker and more precise.
@Windows open source: It seems to be little more then speculation if they are actually going to do this or if all that has happened is they talked about it. There are people that barely seem to be able to even use a computer let alone meddle with it under the hood.
@Kickstarter: I think this would be a great topic for an episode, I know Paul feels burned out on it but there are successes. Pillar’s of Eternity is just one of many, their’s is probably the best example of it being done right. I looked for games that I wanted to play and this was one of them, and yes I also looked at who was making it so yes choosing “famous” or those already previously successful is exactly what one should take into consideration.
Also a game’s difficulty rating I don’t think deters from the fact that a company that said they would deliver a game did so. I found it hard too but that doesn’t make it a failure of a game or a kickstarter investment. Like with this topic and the previous Windows open source people need to exercise some common sense with these things. Kickstater or crowd funding isn’t a bad idea when it is helping those with good ideas, and knowledge on how to do make it happen but just lack the funds to execute it.
You don’t have to back anything but I don’t think it deserves condemnation as a failure either.
QotW: Back to a topic Paul does like, I think I mentioned that Abadonware would be a good policy to help preserve these old games. You guys are right that we do more to preserve records and history than we have before and it’s a shame that games are facing trouble because of outdated software, license holders, hardware advancements, copyright laws etc.
I love you guys. I listen to you. But I work like a horse for the good of the public. Being an adult sucks.
@QOTW
Not sure. I didn’t get into heavy gaming until 2005 sadly. Eastern Europe had limited access to video games. So a lot of the classics I am playing first time. People fuelled with nostalgia tell me how good Goldenye, Zelda and WoW were. But when I play them I feel they are dated and clunky and not half as fun as modern games. Playing Twilight Princess ruined Ocarina of Time for me. Ocarina didn’t have a lot of modern features that I would expect from a modern game. And I won’t even start on Kingdom Hearts.
Only a few games contain a formula that endures over time. Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Halo are all still good games. But because of that they are re-released a lot, and I would rather play their modern descendants. So I would say on the future, Retro gaming will become a niche part of gaming, much like a genre. You will play it if you like it. Wider gaming public will ignore it and those games that have good gameplay would be updated every other year. Wait up for Mario Kart 15 and Ultimate Super Smash Bros Tussle.