Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has questioned whether BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMOG The Old Republic will make any money for publisher EA.
Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit yesterday Kotick, whose company has dominated the MMOG sector with World Of Warcraft, said that even if The Old Republic did take off it would be George Lucas, rather than EA, that reaped dividends.
"Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars," he said. "We've been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don't really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts."
Perhaps mindful of the decline in World Of Warcraft subscribers - the game's paying userbase has declined by almost two million in the last 12 months - and the increasing prevalence of the free-to-play model in the MMOG space, Kotick said: "If you look at the history of people investing in an MMOG and achieving success, it's a small number."
Source: Reuters
Comments
5Maybe somewhere along the line, someone just wants to make a good videogame?
Damn Kotick is such an asshole, just because he can swim in a pool of liquid gold doesn't mean that other developers' projects are failures.
As much as I want to feed the guy to my neighbour's dog, he has a point. Even if it is a good video game, it doesn't do EA an favours if they don't get a return on their investment, especially if the MMO market is shrinking. Also, how is the Star Wars franchise still appealing to people? But that is just my opinion of course. Although I will say this, Lucas either think up something new and original or piss off. What a has-been.
I've no intention of going anywhere near a PC MMO, but if I did I'd much rather play a sci fi one from BioWare than the orcs and elf guff Warcraft peddles.
Heaven forbid gamers might actually get some choice in their MMO, ay Mr Kotex.
Yes I'm sure Bioware/EA entered into an agreement where they won't make any money from TOR.
Someone tell Kotick that just because his company has enough credit to get a loan to buy the number one MMORPG doesn't make him an expert on producing a successful one.
@jaks not quite what happened there, Kotick's company didn't get a loan to buy a number one mmorpg. Activision merged with French Company Vivendi. Vivendi already owned Blizzard. Activision and Blizzard are run as seperate entities, Vivendi is still the parent company, and Bobby Kotick just likes to talk a big game.