Activision Considers Selling Video Game Cutscenes

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I really wish bad things upon Kotick

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said it's likely his company will begin selling in-engine cutscenes as full movies in the near future.

Speaking today at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in California, Kotick said StarCraft II's in-game cinematics are so good that the publisher could edit them into one film and distribute it to fans digitally, a move, he said, is likely to happen sometime in the next five years.

"If we were to take that hour, or hour an a half, and take it out of the game and we were to go to our audiences, who we have their credit card information a direct relationship, and say to them 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?'

Kotick continued to say he believes his business model is superior to that of current film studios, saying a StarCraft movie distributed by the publisher would crush any opening weekend box office record ever.

"My guess is unlike film studios that are really stuck with a model that goes through theatrical distribution and takes a signification amount of the profit away, if we were to go to an audience and say 'We have this great hour and a half of linear video that we'd like to make available to you at a $20 or $30 price point,' you'd have the biggest opening weekend of any film ever," he said.

"Within the next five years, you are likely to see us do that. It might be in a partnership with somebody or alone, but there will be a time where we'll capitalize on the relationship we have with our audience; deliver them something that is really extraordinary and let them consume it directly through us instead of theatrical distribution.

"If we were to deliver a film digitally this way, I'd say an extremely high percentage would then go to the theater and watch it again."

Would you pay to watch an in-game cutscene movie?
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http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/112/1120940p1.html
 
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Activision really aren't going to stop this whole 'extract every last penny' policy are they? I hope their greed bites them hard.

There is making a good profit on something whilst providing your customers a good service and then there is bleeding them dry and taking the **** out of them.
 
I laughed so hard when they announced they will be charging for tickets to actually watch blizzcon over the net, they were not cheap either.

Greedy.
 
I'm just glad idsoftware had the sense to get the **** out of there when they saw the way things were going.
 
Its another way to make some cash in what being classed as the worst recession in what 70 years? My hat goes of to them, if it works it will keep shareholders happy themselves in a job and lots of happy customers.
 
wnb said:
Its another way to make some cash in what being classed as the worst recession in what 70 years? My hat goes of to them, if it works it will keep shareholders happy themselves in a job and lots of happy customers.
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Lol... oh wait you were actually serious? How deluded does someone have to be to think what Kotick is trying to do is in ANY way connected to the recession and not entirely motivated by greed?

It makes it sound like he intends to simply cut n paste the cutscenes and not add things... because adding in a simple function to the game that lists the cutscenes you've viewed and allows you to view them at your whim is just too nice. Oh wait they should release it as DLC...
 
Normally i'd agree with the mob here but the cut scenes in SC2 are good enough that if they filled in the gaps in the story that you'd only get from playing the game they could actually make a semi watchable film out of it.

I laughed so hard when they announced they will be charging for tickets to actually watch blizzcon over the net, they were not cheap either.

Greedy.
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They charged for streaming of Blizzcon last year (dunno about other years). Considering Blizzard run Blizzcon at a loss i can't really blame em...
 
G-Man said:
Normally i'd agree with the mob here but the cut scenes in SC2 are good enough that if they filled in the gaps in the story that you'd only get from playing the game they could actually make a semi watchable film out of it.



They charged for streaming of Blizzcon last year (dunno about other years). Considering Blizzard run Blizzcon at a loss i can't really blame em...
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So they don't make huge amounts of profit from WoW?

to be honest, I probably would've thought it'd be fine when I heard about it. but they were quite expensive from what I gather.
 
Whether or not they make a profit off WoW itself wasn't my point, they don't make a profit on the ticket sales from Blizzcon was all i was saying...
 
At least Hollywood films, bad as they are, don't cost $30 to buy on DVD... and Kotick thinks he can sell in-game cutscenes for that much? :rolleyes:
 
G-Man said:
Whether or not they make a profit off WoW itself wasn't my point, they don't make a profit on the ticket sales from Blizzcon was all i was saying...
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Sorry, I overreact sometimes. I just think it's pretty lame to charge a large sum for streaming content which is regularly streamed free for other conventions. it seems activision is trying to lynch every last penny from the consumer.

I know prices will eventually go up, but Activision are taking it too far imo.
 
Well if cutscenes from actual games remain as consistent and of the same quality as they are now, I don't see this as a bad thing, or have I read it wrong?

Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void (3rd pack) is released a sometime in 2011 tying up the Starcraft 2 story. If say 6 months later the story / script and CGI departments get together and work on a little movie surely that's only a good thing?
Blizzard cutscenes have always been of such a high standard in the games industry and lots of people would be willing to pay to see some short movies. Can't fault Activision / Blizzard for seeing where money can be made.

However if actual game cutscenes decrease in length or quality, I'll happily join the angry mob with pitchforks and **** through their letterbox :).
 
G-Man said:
Normally i'd agree with the mob here but the cut scenes in SC2 are good enough that if they filled in the gaps in the story that you'd only get from playing the game they could actually make a semi watchable film out of it.



They charged for streaming of Blizzcon last year (dunno about other years). Considering Blizzard run Blizzcon at a loss i can't really blame em...
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so does quakecon and its free
 
lol, $20-$30 for a animation video, on release day, to watch on my monitor. no thanks, id rather get down to a cinema with a massive screen and pay a lot less thanks.
typical kotick!
 
Kazz said:
Well if cutscenes from actual games remain as consistent and of the same quality as they are now, I don't see this as a bad thing, or have I read it wrong?:).
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you read it wrong
"If we were to take that hour, or hour an a half, and take it out of the game and we were to go to our audiences, who we have their credit card information a direct relationship, and say to them 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?'
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just so people dont keep missing it

hes not on about making a cgi move based on a game hes on about taking a movie out of a game

his vision is probably like that train sim game that costs $30 yet if you were to buy every peice of dlc the game costs you over 800$ :lol:.

personally i would trust that peice of **** kotick with my credit card and i find him such a ****** how can he even say stuff like this?

its not like its a leaked memo or something hes out of touch with the real world....
 
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