With its ongoing court battle between Infinity Ward, increased pricing of its map packs, and talk of subscription-based plans for its franchises, Activision hasn't exactly made many friends with gamers over the past year.
In an interview with IGN during E3 last week, COO Thomas Tippl said he recognizes there is a contingent of gamers out there that view the company in a very negative light, and that Activision is aiming to improve its customer relationship.
"Obviously, we stay connected to what's going on in the communities so we're not ignorant that there's a very vocal minority out there that has some very strong feelings," said Tippl. "Whenever you become #1 in any industry, you automatically get a target painted on your back. You've got to be able to live with that."
"There are many things we can probably do better in the way we communicate with the communities so that we don't run the risk that certain things get pulled out of context and blown out of proportion."
Tippl noted that while improving relationships with fans needs to be taken seriously, the company is not trying to lose focus on what's most important: developing and publishing videogames.
"At the end of the day, when you look at 2009 and what people bought, it's Activision games. We were the only publisher that had success in 2009. No one else did. We're focused on producing great products," he added.
"Now, can we do a better job from a PR and community management perspective? I think we can. We are focused on doing that, but you will always have a vocal minority that no matter what you do they're not going to be happy."
Source: http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/110/1100747p1.html
In an interview with IGN during E3 last week, COO Thomas Tippl said he recognizes there is a contingent of gamers out there that view the company in a very negative light, and that Activision is aiming to improve its customer relationship.
"Obviously, we stay connected to what's going on in the communities so we're not ignorant that there's a very vocal minority out there that has some very strong feelings," said Tippl. "Whenever you become #1 in any industry, you automatically get a target painted on your back. You've got to be able to live with that."
"There are many things we can probably do better in the way we communicate with the communities so that we don't run the risk that certain things get pulled out of context and blown out of proportion."
Tippl noted that while improving relationships with fans needs to be taken seriously, the company is not trying to lose focus on what's most important: developing and publishing videogames.
"At the end of the day, when you look at 2009 and what people bought, it's Activision games. We were the only publisher that had success in 2009. No one else did. We're focused on producing great products," he added.
"Now, can we do a better job from a PR and community management perspective? I think we can. We are focused on doing that, but you will always have a vocal minority that no matter what you do they're not going to be happy."
Source: http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/110/1100747p1.html
Yeah, I was being sarcastic with my first comment. I think we all know that the small minority are the PC gamers. I was surprised to see this article since Activision and IW have gone out of their way to say how little PC players are a part of the "new" CoD universe. We are so small why would they need to fix anything?
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