More extraordinary claims from the outspoken publishing boss
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick wants the world to know his firm is embarking on an exclusive ten-year partnership with Bungie, and in typical fashion he is doing so by way of cavalier and comical sound bites.
Speaking at a recent investor meeting, the CEO of the world’s biggest third-party game publisher described Bungie as the last of a dying breed of game developers.
"Bungie are a very unusual company. They're probably the last remaining high quality independent developer,” he said, as quoted by game news site CVG.
“And they're a real company.”
The extraordinary claim will no doubt spark a reaction from hard working independent developers with a point to prove, as well as some of the bigger independent outfits that may feel their triple-A egos deflate a little.
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Aside from Bungie and its fleet of in-house developers, Activision is known to be working with two other independent game studios. United Front Games is building True Crime for the publisher, and the steady British outfit Eurocom is on the biggest project of its life with the promising Wii game GoldenEye.
To make certain his comments would reverberate across the industry, the outspoken publishing kingpin also took a swipe at Microsoft for good measure.
“When Bungie started the process of looking for a new partner, they'd been in business with Microsoft. They had a vision for a product they wanted to create that needed certain skills and capabilities - that Microsoft had some of.
"But as they started to go and look at the obvious candidates, they realised that no company other than Activision had the skills that they needed to be successful for the vision of that product. These are things that you never would have envisioned five years ago,” he said.
Activision announced a landmark publishing partnership with Bungie back in April, having outbid a number of other interested parties.
[Source: CVG]
I actually agree with him for once!
There is a little company in Seattle now... hmm... what's it called again... Pipe? No... Lever? Hmm... Ah! Yeah, Valve! No?
He must be on drugs... if anything its the opposite way around! Ninja Theory, Valve, Crytek, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, Epic, Insomniac, Relic, Splash Damage all of which remain independent and also many of which are all leaders in technology and critically acclaimed games.
You've got to look at who he was making these claims to. He is neither a lover of games nor a games player, he's the business end of the industry.
He's making this statement to investors, so he's clearly going to attempt to talk up their abilities to alleviate any fears these investors have that the massive outlay in bringing Bungie on board and letting them keep their IP is worth it.
If they'd brought Valve, Epic, Crytek, Splash Damage or any of the other great independent studios out there on board in a hugely expensive and risky move akin to the Bungie deal, you don't think he'd be spouting exactly the same nonsense about them?
Very good point Alex, but the way he comes across in the media can be really frustrating. Arrogance and control over a creative industry are the worst combination possible. In fact, arrogance costs people jobs and destroys studios.
Thanks Pug. I can't stand the man personally; he has a knack of rubbing people up the wrong way, and continually courts controversy by making wild statements that seem deliberately designed to annoy the games development community.
While the games industry continues to be such a lucrative sector, there'll continue to be guys like him sitting at the top who have no connection with those actually putting the shift in to create the product, or those that buy it.
In the world of modern game development, these people are inescapable. Not that I'm discouraging anyone from climbing to the top of that bell tower when Bobby's in town....
