So it seems that Activision have put the staff of Bizarre Creations on ninety days notice. The studio is not, as many rushed to report, being “closed down”, at least not yet. It is in line for some drastic action though, and that is never a pleasant experience for anyone, in any job, to go through.
Basically, Activision owns the studio (because the previous owners sold up when they decided they’d rather have the cash than the control – a popular business decision). For whatever reason, Activision no longer see it as a viable business proposition and wish to sell it on, restructure it or possibly close it altogether. That’s often what happens in business. Since Activision owns the studio, it’s their prerogative to do what they wish with it. That doesn’t make the situation any less uncomfortable for the employees who face the possibility of redundancy.
Let’s be perfectly clear: we all wish the very best for the talented people at Bizarre Creations. We think (from our distant viewpoint) that, although a number of their recent titles have been a little underwhelming (for whatever reason), they have done some solid work and probably could have been supported a lot better by the marketing wing at Activision. The uncertainty they now find themselves in is a terrible shame and we sincerely hope that they come out of it stronger and more successful than before.
It’s easy to immediately jump on the ever-popular bandwagon of vehemently criticising Activision for their presence in this situation. In fact, it’s not just easy, it’s lazy. Some people jumped on the story last night (GMT) and pressed for as much conflict and sensationalism as they could from the situation, misreporting aspects at will and without shame. They will probably continue to do so for the rest of today, possibly tomorrow and a few more times before the story draws to a conclusion. Then they will move on to the next sensationalist headline and forget about the talent at Bizarre Creations who have had to relocate, retrain or rethink their careers because of this situation.
That brand of journalism, often celebrated by many of the big names in the UK business, is lazy, harmful and damaging to the entire industry. But it attracts attention and that is what certain outlets crave because, ultimately, attention translates to notoriety and traffic. And that’s what pays the bills.
Please don’t misunderstand; we’re not the biggest fans of how Activision goes about certain aspects of their business. In a perfect world we wouldn’t have multiple rhythm games released in the same year under the “Hero” branding. We would have more original IP and more support for smaller development teams who can keep a stake in their own ideas. In that perfect world we’d like to see smart games that are outside of the few massive franchises get a little more affection from the marketing teams. But it’s not a perfect world and we don’t own any development studios. Activision does.
Was releasing Blur in the same week as Split/Second and Modnation Racers a wise decision by the publisher? Probably not. Was releasing Blood Stone in the same week as Goldeneye and Call of Duty: Black Ops, with barely any visible marketing at all, a wise decision? Again, probably not. But those were decisions that Activision could afford to make because they bought the company. Why are we not crying foul of the people who sold their, previously incredibly successful, studio to Activision?
Let’s address the Bobby Kotick situation too, while we’re looking in that direction. It seems to be every ardent gamer’s second favourite hobby to bash Kotick at every given opportunity. We’ve even poked fun at some of his (often out-of-context) quotes ourselves from time to time. The constant criticism he finds himself under though, is mostly unwarranted. He’s not a gamer, he’s a CEO. He doesn’t care about games from a consumer’s perspective. He’s a businessman whose strategies, like it or not, have made his company an awful lot of money. That’s what he does, exceptionally well.
When Bobby Kotick talks about raising the price of games or potentially exploiting the fan base for subscription-based services he isn’t talking to you, or us. He’s talking to the people who have some investment in his company. He’s talking about the potential he sees for doing his job even better than he has been. He’s talking about selling a product. Yes, that product happens to be one that we care about very much but it’s his product to sell and if we don’t approve of how it’s sold we can simply refuse to buy it (thus endangering more of the development studios we can then champion as they go out of business, by the way). We don’t, in spite of all the self-righteous bluster, stop buying Activision-published games.
Bobby Kotick isn’t the demonic figure huge numbers of gamers (and the gaming press) seem to wish he was. He’s just a guy trying to do his job in the most efficient way possible. But where are the sensationalist headlines in that?
It’s doubtful that there’s anything more sinister going on at Activision than goes on at any number of other huge global publishers (It’s almost impossible to find a global publisher who hasn’t made lay-offs in the past few months). So what’s the difference? Well, Activision Blizzard is probably the biggest. They make huge amounts of money via a number of massively popular franchises (Call of Duty, the “Hero” games, World of Warcraft) and they have a CEO who isn’t afraid to say what he thinks his colleagues, competitors and investors should hear.
They are (at least one of) the largest publishers in the world because the games that Activision publishes are the most popular in the world, purchased by tens of millions of gamers. So how come they’re restructuring and/or closing studios? Because we, very generally, only buy games from the few most popular franchises. It’s a (perhaps sad, for some) fact that making and selling video games is a business. If they only did it for the love they’d have to live in abject poverty.
As much as we can appreciate the quality that has existed in much of Bizarre Creation’s catalogue, the simple truth is that if Blur had sold as many discs as Black Ops there wouldn’t be a problem at all. This might be put down to a number of things – did Activision support them enough with marketing? Did they allow enough time? Did they invest in the studio enough during development? Perhaps, perhaps not. It’s impossible for us to know just now but what we can be sure of is that, although things are uncertain for them at the moment, the talent at Bizarre Creations will find security once more. The cream always rises to the top.
Grey_Ghost13
Good article and good read again ClossalBlue. Not a good thing to be put on notice, especially in the last quarter of the year with the run upto x-mass.
I feel like it’s a little bit my fault for not buying Blur now! I liked the game, rented it, and thought thats one I’ll go back to when I can pick it up cheap. I ended up buying Split/Second on release week for £25 instead and never did buy that copy of blur.
All the best to Blizzard.
Michael
It is not your fault. I know you were just joking (a bit), but still.
You know, you read some stuff on the net and it’s like certain sections of the industry actually think it is the gamer who is to blame when a company goes belly up. It isn’t. If I can’t afford your games, I won’t buy them. And because I have limited funds I’ll save my cash for those titles I am sure (not always right) that I will like. I do it with other media too!
BrendanCalls
I thought Blur was a fantatic game, better than Split/Second in my opinion. One of those hidden gems that most gamers overlook.
My opinion of Kotick has changed some what over the past few months also, I was once on the hate bandwagon but after a few well-scripted post and articles appearing on the net in the past few months my opinion of the man has changed.
Soild_Nat
Lots of companies are restructuring at the moment, mine included, in fact it will be the fourth time i have been put on notice in about 18 months. Its crap and lowers moral, however some people see it as a opportunity and move on to bigger and better things. I am sure that everyone at Bizarre will be feeling pretty rubbish at the moment, some of them will stay and some will leave, no doubt joining other studios or making their own which in the long run will still benefit us as gamers. It might even lead them to create or produce something that otherwise may never have happened.
I think the backlash to this is in some way the gaming media’s fault (not including TSA in that). They same so intent in jumping on every little piece of news and pushing it to millions of gaming fans often sensationalising it for more hits, when really it wont effect gamers. Companies the length and breadth of the UK are laying off staff, shutting down etc and that barely makes the local news if the local paper. Its happening all over and is sadly a fact of life at the moment.
hazelam
often quoted out of context? i bet just as often quoted in context too.
he got sued for sexual harasment, then the lawyer who defended him sued him for non payment of fees.
when your own lawyers are suing you, well, it speaks for itself rather.
he is the biggest example of what’s wrong with this industry, pure naked greed.
there’s nothing wrong with making a profit, that’s not what i’m saying, it’s the need to make obscene amounts of money all the time that i can’t stand.
the bubble will burst sooner or later, and people like kotick will be fine, but as this week has shown, the people who actually make the product he’s getting richer off will suffer.
he’s not looking at this business long term, it’s all about making obscene amounts of money with this next release and to hell with the future.
this short term, short sighted attitude is what caused the last video games crash, i’d rather it didn’t happen again.
hazelam
oh and one more thing, cream may rise to the top, but shit floats too.
tonycawley
What? My logs sit it the bottom of the toilet. No way do they float. That’d be most strange!
solidsteven
Eww, i have just had a mental image of that.*goes to vomit*:P
Forgetive
This is never a good sign.
Thanks Peter for being concise… this is the average length of clarification required for many gamers to listen to logical reason, but it doesn’t mean they’ll listen.
Gamers have a lot of opinions to share about everything, especially how to run a successful business in gaming.
I say: I support business that appeals to me: business-developers-gamers. There is… some type of pattern here.
CCasey123
Kotick’s character is just a creation of the media, someone they can hold up and blame whenever it’ll make a story more interesting.
I respect that you don’t need to conform to the idea of painting Kotick to be a pantomime villain just to make posts more interesting.
Someone posted this before, its fairly eye opening:
http://oneofswords.com/2010/08/bobby-kotick-those-infamous-comments/
BrendanCalls
Ive read this post before and its fantastic, so good Im gonna read it again
shields_t
Case in point: I didn’t even know Bloodstone had been released, and I’d consider myself far more up to date on most gaming news than even the more internet savvy game consumer.
Tuffcub
Being serious – just for a change – the simple fact is Activision have a massive PR problem within core gamers, ther very fact that Peter has written up this piece proves it. Whether or not this negative image it is justifed is another matter, a lot of it is internet hype but Bob doesn’t make things easy.
The Edge interview helped slightly but even then he couldnt help but slag off EA. He may be a brilliant businessman but he has the PR skills of Kerry Katona with her nose in a bucket of the finest columbian.
(As a personal note I find all their hoo-haa about donating a million bucks to help american troops rather vulgar when four days later they announce they made 300M in one day. I know any money to charity is good but they could spare a bit more, why not add 50c to the price of a copy which went directly to the charity? No one would complain about that.)
Activision have got bigger problems though – pretty much every game they have made in the last 6 months has underperformed. Guitar Hero, Blur, Singularity, Tony Hawk, Bond. Blood drive seems to have been taken out the back yard and shot in the head before it even hits the shelves.
That leaves them with COD & Warcraft. One big game a year and an MMO.
Eggs. Basket. One.
SpikeyMikey23
Kottick is a very good businessman, theres no doubting that. Ive grown up with activision games and ill continue to buy them as the publish good games. im not depriving myself of a good game because the publisher is a money hungry whore. Most businesses are, thats the point of them. i rememeber playing pitfall on the atari 2600, published/made?? by activision. ah good times!