Kotaku 
Enter your username and password.
Denver, 10:12 AM
Wed Nov 25
54 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip us:
Editor-In-Chief:
Brian Crecente
| AIM | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Stephen Totilo
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
| AIM | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editor, Weekends:
Owen Good
| AIM | Twitter
Correspondent, San Francisco:
AJ Glasser
| AIM | Twitter
Columnist:
Leigh Alexander
Columnist:
Tim Rogers
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/12/09
11/12/09
Seem's rather arbitrary to me. #activision
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
I'm sure you know that #activision
11/12/09
The game is $60/7hours playtime = $8.
(yes I know there's MP too, but it's rather rude to include that when not everyone will be playing that
edit: especially if they are comparing it to single use Cinema, than a DVD of the film)
11/12/09
It's rather rude to just go off that when not everyone will be playing that. #activision
11/12/09
Activsion are implying that MW2 has 300hrs (aka twelve and a half days) of value.
Which is a bit high, I'd wager very few get that kind of play time from the game.
Not everyone has online, not everyone plays multiplayer, activstion have said this themselves and acknowledged it.
Though $8 an hour isn't a bad ratio compared to a DVD, though compared to most other games it's a bit crap $/hr. #activision
11/12/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
If they compared it to a DVD then that would be fairer, however that wouldn't help them as both could potentially be $0.20. aka I've picked up Shawshank Redemption for £2, watched it about 8-10 times. that starts putting it ina there arbitary Modern Warfare 2 value. #activision
09/16/09
09/16/09
Truth.
09/15/09
Sequels aren't that good for innovation because you've got to give the fans roughly the same thing again so you generally can only innovate in very small ways. Sure there have been innovative sequels, GTA III springs to my mind, but most of the really innovative games have been original IPs. I can think of one or two innovative sequels but I'd be here all night if I started listing the innovative original IPs. Heck even in the last month we've had "AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity" and the beta for "Gratuitious Space Battles" and "Scibblenauts" all of which are pretty innovative titles, certainly far more innovative then anything I've seen in an Activision sequel recently.
Perhaps the problem is Kotick is simply blinkered to only look at games that grossed X million dollars. That would certainly explain why he thinks new IPs are a rare thing when I find most of the new games I buy don't have a number at the end of them. Even then I don't think his comments stand up. What were the two most innovative big name games of the last year? I'm open to correction but Mirror's Edge and Dead Space spring to my mind for their first person parkour and dismemberment gameplay styles respectively. Okay neither was hugely successful but that's not what he said, he said sequels were good for innovation and I just don't think that stands up.
09/15/09
As far as I'm concerned, they're beginning to plant the seeds of their own destruction. They'll still make tons of the money in the next few years, but Kotick needs to shake things up and stop acting so pompous.
09/16/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
The problem is that Activision hasn't even done that: Guitar Hero added more instruments (in response to Rock Band); Tony Hawk: Ride is adding a new control scheme (copied from Skate It); Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is fantastically polished, but doesn't even pretend to do anything new, unless a contemporary setting counts (it doesn't).
So where's the innovation?
09/15/09
How many times have you played a very good game that was magical in your eyes, but flawed in some key way?
How many times have you sat around wishing that Bioware would just fucking making KOTOR3 already, or Lucasarts would make a new Tie Fighter, or Schafer would update Full Throttle, or Kojima would decide he DOES want to do MGS5, or only if ICO had a sequel, or Okami sold enough so they'd make more....
I could go on and on and on and on....
So why the hell would you hate on Activision for Tony Hawk 9 and then turn around and buy Final Fantasy 13?
---------------------------------
If it is a game or universe I like, I WANT sequels.
I WANT them to bury it into the ground with 45 fucking installments that come out every 6 months.
Because I'd be HAPPY with KOTOR 17.
So seriously, STFU already.
09/15/09
09/15/09
You want to see franchises run into the ground with a sequel every six months?
Fail. Massive fail.
09/15/09
Cod is continually changing gameplay. 4 was a HUGE departure, and it looks like MW2 will keep that trend alive.
Tony Hawk is trying out a physical controller in the hopes of reinvigorating the series.
Ultimate Alliance is pretty different and highly sought.
DJ Hero is new (sure it is a music game, but it IS innovation)
Blur is new.
Wolfenstein is a sequel that everyone was asking for, and I'd say pretty different from the last installment...
I CAN understand the bitching about Guitar Hero 5...
So what else is there?
09/15/09
Obviously that statement of mine pretty hot and heavy on its usage of hyperbole. If you can't understand that, then don't bother replying again, but if you do, then you can seriously answer why you would NOT want to see a game that you REALLY like get released once every year or two.
Assuming the sequel is not just mailed in, why would you not?
I *will* grant that it seems like 2 years is the ideal timeframe for getting a really well done sequel out the door. But the point still stands that I'm happy to get installments of my favorite series that often.
09/15/09
An innovative sequel, in my opinion, uses the established foundation of the previous games and tries to create something new and fresh that still has that pre-sequel feel. For me, GTA IV was a decent innovative sequel. It was distinctly GTA, but brought enough new things to the table to make it different from San Andreas
In terms of Activision, I was mainly speaking about the Guitar Hero franchise, since it's the biggest cow Activision has to milk next to Call of Duty franchise, which I'm less familiar with.
(Just for full discretion, I own Guitar Hero I and II, have played I - IV)They add a few new songs, a few new characters, maybe a bit more customization, but the game is essentially the same thing. They don't do anything INNOVATIVE, they just tack on a bunch of extras and try to dress it up as innovation. They don't just use the established foundation, they use the whole damn house and just tack up new wallpaper.
Granted, this could be said for a lot of sequels out there, but it just strikes me as a bit silly to start talking about the power of innovative sequels when your own company seems to struggle with what that means.
09/15/09
09/15/09
Just ignore all that and go back to playing Madden 17 or Streetfighter 4, please.
@what0080: I totally agree on new IP, with one caveat, people *buy* the hell out of sequels.
Even with sequels getting spit out in record amounts, there are still lots of new IPs getting thrown out there. EA made a concerted effort this last year, and Activision is putting out a few this year (like Blur, DJ Hero). They've also put out things like Wolfenstein, which aren't new, but they aren't yearly rehashes of the same stuff either.
Look, I think Guitar Hero is way over saturated as well, but it is really the only series that it completely mired down. Well, there might be another, but I have yet to see anyone list it.
I can't stand the Tony Hawk games, but you have to admit they are doing something different by putting out that plastic skateboard. It may suck, but it is NEW.
Modern Warfare is on it's second cycle, and goes in two year spurts as of now, so you can't really even harp on that one too hard.
I *will* say that I don't like them dumping out Treyarch copycats inbetween Infinity Ward's games, but then again, I played the hell out of W@W, and it wasn't a bad game at all.
09/15/09
Modern Warfare 2, THEN we can boycott activision. :D
09/15/09
Sir Paul McCartney was interviewed recently and asked if the Beatles ever considered getting back together before Lennon's murder. What did he say? "We'd gone from A to Z and it had been a great journey. If now we were going to go to 'Z plus' and it wasn't very good, you'd ruin the whole thing." I'm glad someone still understands what it means to be creative.
09/15/09
09/15/09
Someone needs to lock Kotick in a room, incapacitate him in some way, then start trying to rebuild their reputation, because this asshole is doing everything within his power to ruin it.
09/15/09
However i do think he is a bitter and angry man that hates you, me and every other "ignorant peon"(i assume that is what he thinks of us) that criticizes his attitude, with a passion.
09/15/09
Because you still buy his games no matter how much you hate the man.
If Activision profits ever start going down (we all know Blizzard profits never will unless they majorly fuck up over there), THEN he'll start hating you for actually having the courage to stand with your convictions and educating the people who DO buy these games.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
This is your chance, people; if you hate this guy as much as we've all read, don't buy Modern Warfare 2, or any Activision product.
You guys can change this stuff. Let's do it.
09/15/09
09/15/09
Can... we boycott after Moder Warfare 2?
09/15/09
Also your last sentence seems weird?
"You Guys" - As in us, not including you? and then "Let's do it." - So, that now includes you?
09/15/09
I'd be willing to bet that those eight games are from Activision themselves.
Either way, I don't think Kotick has the mental capacity to say something that won't get people pissed. It's as if it's embedded in the man's DNA. Sure, at first it was annoying hearing this guy's drivel, but at this point I treat him as an equal to your everday preteen fanboy message board dweller. That is, I ignore him.
Well, not IGNORE him. I've just stopped getting pissed. If I cared about everything this man said I would've gotten a peptic ulcer already.