I’m not sure I’ll ever really understand the hate for Bobby Kotick. I can understand why people are unhappy about the rising cost of gaming, but the way people act makes it seems like Bobby Kotick is the only person making decisions at Activision. He is the man ultimately responsible, but I doubt very much that he sat down one day and decided to change the price of some games the company are releasing on a whim. He’s not the only guy working at Activision.
As the gaming community are so keen to remind everyone gaming is big business. That’s very true, it’s now the highest grossing entertainment medium and receives regular coverage from major media outlets. The issue is you can’t promote gaming as big business and then complain when publishers make a business decision.
Of course it’s valid to complain as a customer if the cost of something you buy goes up, but attacking any one individual just seems odd. There are always business decisions that customers aren’t going to like, but companies don’t make these without putting a lot of analysis in. I would imagine that there was an entire team dedicated to looking at the price of products at Activision, in fact I’d be surprised if most publishers don’t have teams looking at the same thing.
That seems the oddest part, how everything in the gaming industry becomes personal. If Tesco puts up the price of bread or cheese you don’t see complaints directed towards their CEO. You may see complaints about Tesco as a whole, but you don’t see them directed towards any individual at the company. Why is it so different in gaming?
The other issue that I rarely see mentioned is inflation. Games, and in fact entertainment media in general, seem to have stayed around the same price for as long as I can remember. They do increase or decrease on occasion, and of course you have the price rise associated with new forms of storage, but games, DVDs, CDs and books don’t really seem to rise in line with inflation in the same way that other products do. Is it really that surprising that some companies are attempting to rectify that?
Unfortunately the fact that prices have been so similar for such a long time is probably the largest reason that there’s a huge backlash any time anyone even hints that there might be a question over price. If prices had risen in line with inflation, perhaps a pound every few years, I find it unlikely that you’d see the same kind of complaints being made. Perhaps the entertainment has missed a trick by keeping prices steady, prices inflate for a reason and they may being to regret not moving with it sooner rather than later.
By no means am I saying I like price hikes, but I understand it from a business perspective. I don’t blame Bobby Kotick for what Activision as a whole is doing, in all likelihood there are good reasons behind every decision they’re making. The way that Kotick personally and Activision are a company is called money grabbing doesn’t exactly make sense either. Of course they’re trying to get your money, they’re a company in a capitalist society. That’s pretty much the central aim of any business, to make cold hard cash.
That’s what it all boils down to really. For gamers gaming is a passion or a hobby, something we do to unwind after we’ve made money at our jobs or sat in a classroom all day. For publishers and developers it may well be a passion as well, but if you want to do it as a job it has to be about money to some extent.
The Serb
Business is hard,it is always about money and to some degree passion,what one has to ask him/her self is what would they do if they were in the same situation as the corporate executives.More likely than not you would be doing the same thing,i know i would.
freezebug2
There is no piracy on PS3 Blue Ray games, so no lost revenue there. In the past software companies have had to take this into account when pricing games but Nobby Coldprick is just taking advantage (and the piss) when he suggests upping the price of already premium priced games. Problem is though that die harders will pay the price whatever Dickpiece decides to charge.
CdmanJak
hes still a prick…
ToastEggsBacon
Gaming as a business is fine. It has to be. Money makes the world go around, and the gaming industry isn’t exempt from this.
Where people are entitled to moan about that is when business interferes with or clouds what the gaming industry is ultimately about; the escapism, the fun and the heart and soul. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but not at the complete expense of the customers satisfaction. I think this is a fine line that Activision and Mr. Kotick in particular sometimes appear to miss.
Take the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. Harmonix and EA want to make as much money as they can, just as much as Activision do, but they handle their business in a way which is more rewarding and approachable to the consumer.
ico
Spoiler Alert – On a totally unrelated note doesn’t Bobby Kotick (in the picture on the TSA homepage) remind you of the head vampire in the Lost Boys or maybe that’s just me?
Raven336
thats funny, i was discussing this with my wife earlier today and we talked about how games are slowly becoming more expensive (my wife is majoring in business and me in criminology). i know most games (today not 10 years ago) cannot be released without some tie-in (movie, DLC or promo) and its kinda killing the industry in my opinion. i don’t mind doing a trade-in at gamestop or any other indie game store, but trying to selling something like a cutscene (that’s essential to a game) is a little over the top and Mr. Kotick there sort-of pushed a button (no pun intended) to many gamers. i don’t have anything against Activision or EA by the way, i just hope next year they won’t be trying to sell the same thing thats coming out this year.
DJ-Katy
The reason people don’t attack Tesco’s CEO is because he doesn’t come out and make a twat of himself every 5 minutes.
“There are always business decisions that customers aren’t going to like, but companies don’t make these without putting a lot of analysis in.”
Oh, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but they do. All the time. I’ve worked at some of them. Sometimes they even get contractors in to do the analysis then throw the reports away and do their own thing anyway. You’d be amazed some of the companies are so dumb how they ever manage to make a profit.
CallMeIshmael
Am I the only one who is tired of all the naive dumbshits getting worked up about Bobby Kotick and their overwrought hyperventilating on the internet? Hate to break the news to you but EVERY business is out to maximize profits and sell the shit out of you. Behind conference room doors right now every game company, Apple, Google, Facebook, Mountain Dew, Whole Foods, your local Yoga teacher, your dog’s vet, (insert company name here) is figuring out new ways to sell the shit out of you. Every business has a common goal — making as much money as possible. Any business that acts like it’s not their primary goal is a fraud.
hazelam
there’s business and there’s business and then there’s treating your customers like a piece of land you’re strip mining.
i don’t like the way the customer is becoming unimportant in this industry, other than as a resource to be exploited that is.
i don’t have a problem with companies making money, even if it’s me they’re making it off of, but some of these companies are all about profits at the expense of everything else.
alienate your customers? who cares so long as we’ve got their money.
alienate the creators? who cares as long as they’ve finished the job and we get the customers money.
block preowned sales? so long as nobody can sell on their own property without giving us a cut.
it’s all short term greed with little to no thought about the long term ramifications.
they keep pushing and the bubble will burst, but what do people like kotick care, he probably already has more money than he could spend in a lifetime, when it all goes to shit, and it will if they keep this greed is everything attitude, it won’t be the CEOs and the managers that will suffer most, it will be the thousand upon thousands of people working for these companies that dont get multimillion dollar bonuses for somebody else’s work.
and the reason the CEO of tesco doesn’t get criticised in the same way kotick does is because he probably doesn’t come out every so often making halfwit statements about how he loves taking our money and how he plans to take even more of it, and making it clear what a greedy twat he is.
in the end, people are not just an exploitable resource, keep treating them that way and you’ll find they will turn on you.
Severn2j
The price of games has risen a lot over the years, just not for quite awhile. When I started gaming (back in the 80s) a C64 game cost around £10 and with the rise of the 16-bit era (like the Amiga/ST) they started charging £25, I think Sega Master System games were around this price too.. IIRC, they started charging £40 at around the time gaming went mainstream when the original Playstation was released and then rose to £50 with the 360/PS3 (although, most places still charge £40).
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As for business in gaming, obviously they are there to make money, but the creativity and the business decisions should be kept well apart or the content suffers as a result, you cant mass produce creativity. Also, this idea that games publishers are living in poverty due to piracy and the second hand market is bogus, imo.. Video games are the biggest entertainment industry in the world, and somebody is making an absolute killing out of it. Do you really expect me to believe its some kid in his bedroom leeching off a P2P network?