Activision: Exploitation Now

[Wintermute]

Found this on another Forum:

Activision loves exploitation
Want to know why Activision refused to publish Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend and Riddick? Here's what their CEO said:

"The games don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential."

He added that Activision was only interested in games where they know "we'll be working on them 10 years from now". Which is the most depressing thing we've ever heard a publisher say.

Linky

Anyone seen this anywhere else?

The site linked is (supposedly) reliable, not heard of it before myself but it's been active for a good while.
Not seen/heard about this elsewhere.

[Kohan]

It isn't at all unusual, and Bobby Kotick has made similar statements before. Internal notes carried nearly identical phrases, and in general, those running Activision are very comfortable with the way things are currently working for them. Virtually every game they make is in a franchise, and almost all of them use the engine from an existing title. In other words, they have perfected their own art of churning out clones, and love it.

Examples:

Every COD game uses a variant of the Quake engine, or is an engine otherwise based in Quake code.
Every Guitar Hero that Activision has made since acquiring the license uses the GHIII engine.
Every Spider-Man since "Spider-Man III" uses the same engine.
Tony Hawk.

And so on.

Not only do they want franchises, they want to recycle the engines within their franchises. They're avoiding innovation like the plague.

[Viq]

Makes good business sense. Since they're a business, can you really blame them? If you don't like, then don't buy their stuff.

[Ishido]

Fuck them for saying something that most companies are thinking!

[Katlan]

While it sucks to actually hear, it does make a lot of business sense. Still surprised they cancelled Ghostbusters because, even if the game only got a 7.0~ rating, it would still sell a ton just based on it's title and concept. Game must of been total crap lol

[Kyo]

Atari picked ghostbusters up, and EA does the yearly thing with sports games and people dont complain, I dont see the problem.

[BRP]

EA does the yearly thing with sports games and people dont complain

lolwut

Everyone hates EA for this rehashing shit.

[Kyo]

I guess everyone is the same 5 million people who buy madden every year, the 2 million+ who buy live every year and so on. That obviously covers everyone.

[BRP]

Excuse me as I call Wii Sports the greatest game of the generation.

[Elcura]

It isn't at all unusual, and Bobby Kotick has made similar statements before. Internal notes carried nearly identical phrases, and in general, those running Activision are very comfortable with the way things are currently working for them. Virtually every game they make is in a franchise, and almost all of them use the engine from an existing title. In other words, they have perfected their own art of churning out clones, and love it.

Examples:

Every COD game uses a variant of the Quake engine, or is an engine otherwise based in Quake code.
Every Guitar Hero that Activision has made since acquiring the license uses the GHIII engine.
Every Spider-Man since "Spider-Man III" uses the same engine.
Tony Hawk.

And so on.

Not only do they want franchises, they want to recycle the engines within their franchises. They're avoiding innovation like the plague.

Yeah, those lazy motherfuckers for not making a totally new engine for every single game!

[Kyo]

Excuse me as I call Wii Sports the greatest game of the generation.

Lmao.

[Correction]

So leave games like Portal, Braid, Katamari, etc. etc. to the other guys, who care more about product than marketability.

If you're just looking for reasons to fuel your rage at Activision your gaming dollars speak louder than internet arguments. I think the last Activision title I bought was Project 8. That was two years ago. I'm not exactly rewarding them for mediocrity here.