The next issue of Edge contains an exclusive interview with Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick, with there still being a day to go until the magazine lands on store shelves the closest we can get to the source is Edge online. They are reporting that Kotick has said some less than complementary things about EA’s working practices.
“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.”
This isn’t the first time that EA’s working practices have had the spotlight shined on them, all the way back in 2004 through the infamous ‘EA Spouse’ blog posting EA – Â The Human Story with its mention of 85hr working weeks and other almost inhuman working practices. Last week this story resurfaced when EA’s John Riccitiello admitted that EA’s past working practices were responsible for the decline in quality of one of their biggest franchises.
Coming back to Kotick’s interview, when talking about EA’s ability to change, he went on to say “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.”
Very damning indeed, but on the other side of the coin, it is interesting that Kotick should position himself in a metaphorical glass house whilst throwing stones by mentioning Infinity Ward. That studio itself imploded earlier this year, with studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella ending up being fired following a very public spat over Activision’s alleged desires for Modern Warfare 3 not fitting the direction that West & Zampella wanted to take it. I believe court action is still pending following this fall out so it’s too early to tell if Kotick should be more concerned with keeping his own house in order before criticising others.
teflon
Damn. I was half hoping that he’d bought some LMGs, RPGs and a tanks and literally gone to attack EA…
What a way to go out. (We all know that EA have some mighty strategists making themselves fairly impenetrable to all but an early tank rush. Shame Kotick couldn’t get in there sooner…)
teflon
Oh, and what a complete crock… Notice how DICE is still DICE, EA LA is now becoming Danger Close, and the numerous publishing partnerships they have.
Does it really matter what the name of the developer is? Not in the slightest. It just matters that they can develop something that they want to work on.
cc_star
The name of course doesn’t matter, but it sounds like he’s implying that once EA buys you out and consumes you, changing your name to EA Florida/Vancouver/Montreal/New Jersey or whatever that they replace your top guys with their own and assume all responsibility for future creativity or lack thereof, replacing everything that once made the studio great with their own philosophy, so as there’s no perceivable difference between the studios other than their geographical location.
The flipside of this is that if EA do takeover the studios rather than leaving them to their own devices that they then maintain tighter control, this makes their stated aims easier to achieve than a looser collection of studios like going all out for Metascores of 90+ perhaps its this that is having dividends as far as gamers are concerned, i know I appreciate it.
EA get a lot of goodwill from most people, personally I buy their products I love FIFA, like Madden & NHL, loved Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno, but I asked the question yesterday where does this goodwill come from?
Perhaps its purely down to the fact that they have been replaced as #1 by Activision so the criticism is diverted to them instead, perhaps someone else will be flavour of the month next year, perhaps someone else will be the gamers favourite pantomime villian?
Tuffcub
“you can’t be a floor wax and then decide that you’re going to become a dessert topping” is the best quote ever.
LycanGav
It’s also complete nonsense. EA have shown that they can transform themselves from Ronseal to Dream topping with a different approach and the willingness to work hard. Look at the transformation their top sports franchises have blossomed under over the last few years. Titles such as Dead Space and Dante’s, while not huge commercial successes have also been given time to grow as new ip’s with sequels in the pipeline. EA’s change gives hope to many folks that other publishers who have perhaps lost sight of things (Hello Activision and SEGA amongst others) can also turn things around.
Cerberus64
Considering the recent events at Infinity Ward, I hardly think he’s in a position to criticise another company.
Uhyve
Well, technically he doesn’t suffocate studios, he just fires anyone who doesn’t bend over when he tries to screw them… wait, that sounds much worse.
djhsecondnature
And with perfect timing for a response to: http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/09/26/sunday-thoughts-business/
This is why people hate Kotick. Keep your mouth shut Bobby.
Klart
Can somebody shoot this guy?
hazelam
remember the silver bullets as well.
TSBonyman
Looking forward to the court case.
mcduff1979
kotick is a ass… EA have vastly improved in recent years
BrendanCalls
What an incredible read that EA_Spouse link was
I’ll be looking out for this interview some point this week, sounds equally as interesting
hazelam
after gutting a successful developer he accuses ea of mistreating it’s developers.
and in the same interview the ceo of the company that brought us tony hawk’s ride, says kinect is too expensive.
or am i misquoting him or taking his words out of context?
i’m no huge fan of ea, but if there is one person really has no right to make the kind of accusations he’s making, then it’s bloody well one bobby kotick, aka satan’s evil twin, aka the most hated man in gaming. :)
solidsteven
as opposed to pissing of an entire studio? mr koprick