Bobby Kotick: “Great people don’t really want to work at EA”

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Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, told Edge that “The core principle of how we run the company is the exact opposite of EA. EA will buy a developer and then it will become ‘EA Florida’, ‘EA Vancouver’, ‘EA New Jersey’, whatever. We always looked and said, ‘You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that’s what makes them so successful.” EA returned fire at Activision in an interview with CVG yesterday, when a spokesperson attacked the publishing giant’s “His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick’s own hubris.”

If you don’t know what he’s referring to, earlier this year, Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella, the head honchos at Infinity Ward. Lots of people from the Call of Duty-making studio left in protest, and then a group of Infinity Ward employees and ex-employees banded together with Jason and Vince to sue Activision for damages. It was like a train wreck – the internet couldn’t look away, no matter how horrible it got. The persistent world is World of Warcraft, of course, and the franchis “in steep decline” is probably Guitar Hero.

But Kotick’s point is that, apart from that notable exception, “the original founders of [our] studios are still running the studios today. The only thing that we try to do is to provide a support structure to make them more successful. If you do a really good job – and a lot of our studios do – you get to pick what is, in my view, the most difficult thing to pick in the industry: to make original intellectual property.”

Kotick went on to challenge EA’s ability to adapt to the expectations of the modern developer: “You can’t be a floor wax and then decide that you’re going to become a dessert topping. That doesn’t work, it’s your DNA. Their DNA isn’t oriented towards that model – it doesn’t know how to do it, as a culture or as a company, and it never has… Look, EA has a lot of resources, it’s a big company that’s been in business for a long time, maybe it’ll figure it out eventually. But it’s been struggling for a really long time. The most difficult challenge it faces today is: great people don’t really want to work there.”

I think it’s a case of the pot implying that the kettle is a metallic kitchen utensil used chiefly for heating liquids, but what do you think?
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Er... did someone say the last sentence because they thought it sounded good or is calling the kettle black under the heading of racism now?

Really what is Kotick trying to compensate for if he's now slagging off other publishers publically?
 
Evilsod said:
Er... did someone say the last sentence because they thought it sounded good or is calling the kettle black under the heading of racism now?

Really what is Kotick trying to compensate for if he's now slagging off other publishers publically?
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Maybe it's a weird version of Tourette's Syndrome and he really can't help himself.

More probably he is just a grade A jerk who has become too enamoured with himself and cannot see the long term damage he is doing to Activision.
 
At the end of the day if there were to be two press releases, one from Activision and one from EA, i'd watch the EA one. EA release better, more interesting games than Activision.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
Maybe it's a weird version of Tourette's Syndrome and he really can't help himself.

More probably he is just a grade A jerk who has become too enamoured with himself and cannot see the long term damage he is doing to Activision.
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He's probably just interested in profit figures. I doubt he has any clue what his target audience actually think of him (those that know of him).

~>Dg<~ said:
lol and where did half of his team go :D ea. fail !
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He was probably trying to make a shrewd comment about how they were no good... instead he just looked like a dick.
 
*Sees "Kotick" in thread title, posts without reading opening post*

LOL Kotick, why can't he just **** off.?

*Goes to read opening post*

Edit: "His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick’s own hubris.”

Bwahahaha! True, so true. :)
 
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Flicked through the edge interview while on the bog earlier. I had my bran today so it was a fairly quick read but either Koticks been horribly represented (harhar) or it was a really cringe worthy attempt of him trying to generate something that look like good PR.

Oh and good news everyone!! While he is still wanting to shove custom peripherals down our throats, he thinks that 'move' and 'that motion thing from microsoft with such a stupid horrible name' will remove the need for him to flog us dance mats. awww shame :(
 
For some reason this man has a face I want to punch extremely hard for no reason, and just keep punching it till I get tired and his face is caved in.
 
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