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I'll be honest here. I let out the longest sigh ever before I started to type up this news. Yes, it's Bobby Kotick running his mouth off again.
This time to both CVG and Edge about EA's business model and how it apparently sucks horribly compared to Activision's, blasts the former heads of Infinity Ward, and bad mouths Tim Schafer.
First up, let's see why he blasts Tim Schafer.
To be fair, many people have called Kotick both a "dick" and a "prick", ourselves at TGN included. But alright, fair enough. Kotick was insulted and fired one back at Schafer, seems like fair game there.
However, Kotick continues on to insult EA's business model and how EA "removes the identity" of a company when they take them over, unlike Activision. Riiiiight...
If you thought that was everything, think again. He continues on to say that EA has "lost its way" and is struggling to acquire some really great people.<!--more-->
On the subject of the former heads of Infinity Ward, Zampella and West, Kotick stated that he felt betrayed by two people whom he had considered his friends.
Apparently going off on a rant against everyone is what you do.
Is it fair to say that Kotick is trying to play the victim here and that he's trying to make it seem like Activision is infallible, especially with his statements against EA and how Activision apparently can do no wrong with the companies under their control. Yeah, right.
Kotick, speaking strictly as a gamer and as a member of the community, shut the hell up. You're coming off as a prick of the highest order right now and with your statements made recently. Seriously, just shut up. I can't imagine the headache you're giving your PR team any time you open your trap.
This time to both CVG and Edge about EA's business model and how it apparently sucks horribly compared to Activision's, blasts the former heads of Infinity Ward, and bad mouths Tim Schafer.
First up, let's see why he blasts Tim Schafer.
"Tim Schafer. The guy comes out and says I'm a prick. I've never met him in my life - I've never had anything to do with him," he told Edge.
"I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it."
"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."
"I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it."
"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."
To be fair, many people have called Kotick both a "dick" and a "prick", ourselves at TGN included. But alright, fair enough. Kotick was insulted and fired one back at Schafer, seems like fair game there.
However, Kotick continues on to insult EA's business model and how EA "removes the identity" of a company when they take them over, unlike Activision. Riiiiight...
"The core principle of how we run the company is the exact opposite of EA," he says. "EA will buy a developer and then it will become ‘EA Florida’, ‘EA Vancouver’, ‘EA New Jersey’, whatever. We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that’s what makes them so successful.' We don’t have an Activision anything - it’s Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer.
"That, to me, is one of the unassailable rules of building a publishing company. And in every case except for two, the original founders of the studios are still running the studios today. The only thing that we try to do is to provide a support structure to make them more successful. If you do a really good job - and a lot of our studios do - you get to pick what is, in my view, the most difficult thing to pick in the industry: to make original intellectual property."
"That, to me, is one of the unassailable rules of building a publishing company. And in every case except for two, the original founders of the studios are still running the studios today. The only thing that we try to do is to provide a support structure to make them more successful. If you do a really good job - and a lot of our studios do - you get to pick what is, in my view, the most difficult thing to pick in the industry: to make original intellectual property."
If you thought that was everything, think again. He continues on to say that EA has "lost its way" and is struggling to acquire some really great people.<!--more-->
"The thing is, it doesn’t work that way - you can’t be a floor wax and then decide that you’re going to become a dessert topping," he says. "That doesn’t work, it’s your DNA. [EA’s] DNA isn’t oriented towards that model - it doesn’t know how to do it, as a culture or as a company, and it never has... Look, EA has a lot of resources, it’s a big company that’s been in business for a long time, maybe it’ll figure it out eventually. But it’s been struggling for a really long time. The most difficult challenge it faces today is: great people don’t really want to work there.
"It’s like, if you have no other option, you might consider them. They have some… the team that makes Madden is a really great team, it’s been able to manage, capture and keep some good people. But we have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA – that’s their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value. It’s lost its way. And until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it’s going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."
"It’s like, if you have no other option, you might consider them. They have some… the team that makes Madden is a really great team, it’s been able to manage, capture and keep some good people. But we have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA – that’s their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value. It’s lost its way. And until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it’s going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."
On the subject of the former heads of Infinity Ward, Zampella and West, Kotick stated that he felt betrayed by two people whom he had considered his friends.
"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," Kotick told Edge.
"The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.
"You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."
Kotick revealed he knew Infinity Ward staff would leave en masse following the split, but insisted all will be fine in the end.
"There's 70 really talented people at Infinity Ward who are focused and engaged – and in the last six months, we've had something like 5000 resumes, so it's not like there's a shortage of interest in working there.
"It's one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"
"The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.
"You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."
Kotick revealed he knew Infinity Ward staff would leave en masse following the split, but insisted all will be fine in the end.
"There's 70 really talented people at Infinity Ward who are focused and engaged – and in the last six months, we've had something like 5000 resumes, so it's not like there's a shortage of interest in working there.
"It's one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"
Apparently going off on a rant against everyone is what you do.
Is it fair to say that Kotick is trying to play the victim here and that he's trying to make it seem like Activision is infallible, especially with his statements against EA and how Activision apparently can do no wrong with the companies under their control. Yeah, right.
Kotick, speaking strictly as a gamer and as a member of the community, shut the hell up. You're coming off as a prick of the highest order right now and with your statements made recently. Seriously, just shut up. I can't imagine the headache you're giving your PR team any time you open your trap.
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