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Bobby Kotick: “People Are Happy With Existing Franchises”

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

August 19, 2009

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Activision CEO Bobby Kotick insists that the majority of gamers are happy to see new updates to existing franchises.

The world’s largest third party publisher recently reported a sevenfold jump in profit to $195 million for the second quarter ended June 30. Its success can largely be attributed to the ongoing popularity of franchises such as Call Of Duty and Guitar Hero, both of which have seen numerous iterations.

“A small segment of very vocal gamers say everything has to be new and different every year,” Kotick told The Economist. “Actually, people are happy with existing franchises, provided you innovate within them.”

According to Kotick, the games industry was lacking discipline when he took over Activision as a struggling publisher back in 1991. The need to find “a balance between people who would be creative and entrepreneurial, and people who knew processes” was required, and persists to this day, he said.

asym's picture
On August 20th asym said:
  • “Actually, people are happy with existing franchises, provided you innovate within them.”

    • This is possible: look at the genre-changing Super Mario 64 and Galaxy, for instance. Unfortunately, Activision seems unable to provide examples of its own.

    Rockemsock's picture
    On August 20th Rockemsock said:

    Peter, I don't think I'd lump Blizzard and their franchises in with the rest of the bunch. Nobody else has managed to even come close to the success of WoW in the MMO space (or in any space for that matter)...and the Starcraft 2 trailers and gameplay footage looks pretty impressive.

    But perhaps you were only referring to Activision franchises pre-Blizzard merger.

    Peter_Pesic's picture
    On August 20th Peter_Pesic said:

    I don't even think of Blizzard when I think of Activision. But I guess one thing is for certain if everything else goes badly, WOW and other Blizzard titles will keep the entity afloat. Though, that makes it seem even more ridiculous that Activision is taking any risks at all, it's all about "new" games in existing franchises, with expensive plastic peripherals/add ons.

    Rob's picture
    On August 19th Rob said:

    “A small segment of very vocal gamers say everything has to be new and different every year,”

    A very large segment of vocal gamers don't want to pay $60+ for the same game every year. See that's the key phrase: EVERY YEAR. He's content to churn out the same garbage every year. In the IT industry 12 months is an eternity.

    And Kotick, if you had any innovation at all in your existing franchises users wouldn't be clamoring for new IP.

    Your stupidity over Brutal Legend has already spoken volumes more than anything you could ever say.

    samromeo's picture
    On August 20th samromeo said:

    'Your stupidity over Brutal Legend has already spoken volumes more than anything you could ever say.'

    Discussion over.

    AaronMC's picture
    On August 19th AaronMC said:

    Oh wow, yeah.

    I forgot about Brutal Legend. That's a really good point.

    AaronMC's picture
    On August 19th AaronMC said:

    Actually, I want to defend his statement about innovation within a property.

    I think that's the most intelligent thing this guy has said all year. He's right, as far as I can tell. But he's wrong about the limits of those innovations.

    People like franchise games because it gives them a certain degree of knowledge about what to expect. They liked the first one, so it follows that there is a greater-than-low likelihood that they'll like this new one.

    But those very expectations also put tight constraints on what can be done with the property. Let's say I have an idea for a shooting game that also involves a fishing simulator. Let's say it's really good (somehow). I could not possibly put this under the Medal of Honor franchise title. No matter how good it is, gamers will not be expecting this and many of them may specifically hate fishing simulators, which is why they play FPS'es.

    If we restrict ourselves to franchise games, yes, we CAN innovate, but many innovations will necessarily be sacrificed in favor of franchise consistency. This leads to instability of the business model, because when gamers get tired of the franchise, the sales will quite suddenly dry up, and no new properties will be in the pipeline to take up the slack.

    And also, Kotick heads up a company that, after losing Harmonix from the Guitar Hero games to MTV, IMMEDIATELY started copying Rock Band's innovations.

    Peter_Pesic's picture
    On August 19th Peter_Pesic said:

    The only franchise games that are worth a damn, and impressively push things forward (in a heavily congested genre at that) are the Infinity Ward developed COD/MW games.

    Activision better do everything they can to make IW happy, because other then IW, they don't own a developer who consistently delivers and sets game development standards. Not to mention IW was founded by people who left the Medal of Honor team at EA, so it's clear those guys have zero problems picking up and leaving, if they see any reason to do that.

    Indrema's picture
    On August 19th Indrema said:

    "Very small segment of very vocal gamers"...?

    Is he talking about EA?

    muddville's picture
    On August 19th muddville said:

    Let me just run that through the Bobby Kotick Bullshit Filter [BKBF]:
    "...The majority of gamers are happy to see new updates to existing franchises"
    "LOL $$$ LOL $$$"

    savagehenry's picture
    On August 19th savagehenry said:

    “Actually, people are happy with existing franchises, provided you innovate within them.”

    The circus is in town... Here comes the troop of clowns, headed up by the chief clown himself.... But Bobby you need to make more of an effort. If you are going to say stupid things you at least need to look the part.

    So please tell us, we'd all be interested to hear what innovations you think Activision have come up with over the last year or so. I thought all you did was buy up talent and instead letting them come up with something new and different you stifle them with making franchise games so that Activision can satisfy their stakeholders. Tony Hawks, Guitar Hero, Call of Duty... Prototype... please!! Fun to play but as far as innovation goes... You got to be joking, right? You even let I.D. Games slip through your fingers.

    Bland, homogenized, boring, not original or innovative at all. A couple of successful years and you think you're the god of the computer games. Laughable!!

    Jack_'s picture
    On August 19th Jack_ said:

    That's why my most anticipated game of the next few months is Darksiders.

    Poffle's picture
    On August 19th Poffle said:

    Yeah but Bob, your franchises have little to no innovation each iteration. Tony Hawks got completely stomped into the ground and this new one just looks silly. Guitar Hero has had about 20 versions since Neversoft made Guitar Hero 3 and it's still not as good as Rock Band 1. I haven't really played the Call of Duty games cause you think you can charge over the odds for them, Modern Warfare 2 set to be the most expensive so far at £54.99! What do you think it is, an N64 game?

    StealthBadger's picture
    On August 19th StealthBadger said:

    There has to be a middle ground bobo! Guitar Hero 27 is not that middle ground!

    German's picture
    On August 19th German said:

    Hahahaha good one!