Activision Considers Selling Video Game Cutscenes

[chimaera]

if you do not want it, do not buy it.!

This is what annoys me about all the Activision hate going around, all of these proposals are about extra non essential items, as long as they don't start removing content and selling it separately then i really couldn't care less what their latest money making scheme is.

At the end of the day I've played 3 years of WoW, SC2 and half a dozen other Activision games without spending a penny over the cost of the game, no ones forcing people to buy junk they don't need yet the hate going around is incredible.

Personally if i was an Activision shareholder i'd think that Kotick is the best person to run the company, gamers might not like him but the guy knows how to generate piles of cash.

 

[Kanifee]

its the ruthlessness of his profit machine on his loyal customers that's the infuriating thing.

basically selling the same content twice for around the same money, openly saying we have there credit card info already so if we dangle it they will buy it.
they say if we were to take it out of the game, does this mean remove it and use it as basically DLC extras, playing the game with little to no back story and just the raw game itself, wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, how about we sell games with no characters, you purchase them afterwards so to be able to play the game, texture packs, choose between low medium and high detail texture pack for your game, i bet he would if he could!!!

 

[Nemeses]

Can not see it being a big seller .. but then you never know loads of gullible people about

 

[MeMeMeMe]

I don't see how this is going to make more money than making a film and releasing it at the cinema.

The total money a movie brings in has to offset the cost to make, which could be anything from $20 million (low budget these days) and up, and then there are the costs of distribution (each cinema has its own running costs, and so a small proportion of the take goes back to the distributors, then producers).

Removing and packaging the cut scenes, and selling them through their own distribution network, has a cost much closer to zero. They only have to sell a fraction of the audience a movie needs to make much more actual profit.

 

[ChrisJSY]

I still fail to believe there isn't a huge market out there to be had with a cinema release(maybe in addition to the game), after all they are already doing so.
There's still a profit.

 

[Tefal]

I still fail to believe there isn't a huge market out there to be had with a cinema release(maybe in addition to the game), after all they are already doing so.
There's still a profit.

Bit of a difficult transition for a software company to make a move into live action film making.

 

[ChrisJSY]

Bit of a difficult transition for a software company to make a move into live action film making.

You're right but it's not as simple as "software company".
This company could comprise a studio full of professional artists and who's to say it needs to be live action? (Unless you are referring to my previous statement about the one they are making).

That or they hire people, which is what anyone who makes a large scale film would do. I'm sure I'm saying this all unnecessarily, you know this already so I may have missed your point, if so, whoops.

 

[Tefal]

Pure cgi films don't tend to make massive amounts of money, even less "call of duty 56" isn't going to really pull the crowds in.


Also if it's going for a cinema release in game engine and the cut scenes made for the game aren't going to cut it (films made from cutscnese + some in game footage to fill gaps aren't new they often come on bonus disks though with CE editions), which means film quality CGI which means hiring a proper animation firm to do it, which means they need a really good screen play as generic action movie is not going to sell on CGI when there's a hundred better live action ones.

So in all this movie would cost several times the games budget and couldn't use the story or any of the materials made for the game so would actually be an entirely separate project and completely pointless.

Why bother when they can do what other games have done and have some of thier people spend a couple of weeks putting it together and instead of giving it away as a bit of bonus content whack the price up and make some money from it.


That and no cinema is going to buy it.

 

[wnb]

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...

Deluded? no realist yes. They are a company whith shareholders, they need to continually make money and find new streams of revenue to keep those pesky shareholders happy.

You call it greed I call it how it is.

 

[Evilsod]

Deluded? no realist yes. They are a company whith shareholders, they need to continually make money and find new streams of revenue to keep those pesky shareholders happy.

You call it greed I call it how it is.

You actually believe you're a realistic? My god you really are delusional. Keeping shareholders happy is 1 thing, putting every little money making scheme your greedy little brainstorming sessions can come up with is something very different. Whats better is you actually believe this is to do with the recession, which i believe barely touched the bigger gaming companies and is certainly above the worry of a company who spends... what was it, 4 times more on advertising than designing?

 

[Rimsy]

Kotick is pure evil yes, however he's had a few years to gauge what he can and cannot flog to people who play WoW, realised that 90% of WoW players would probably purchase a box of turds if it had Blizzard print on the outside and let his greedy little imagination run riot.

I hate the guy dont get me wrong, but he's pretty much got 10 million little cash cows all lining up to give him money - no real surprise he's going to exploit those idiots for whatever $'s he can

 

[Yosiah]

Wrathgate cutscene was the best piece of video i've seen in a while. As are a lot of the WoW cinematics. I would quite happily see a Starcraft II or WoW movie in this format, published by the developers themselves.

 

[madindehead]

Yes you are misunderstanding. The idea is to sell cutscenes as movies, not remove them from games.

Did you READ what he said...

"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?'

All he wants to do, is make double the money from a game. As a game doesn't make sense without that cut scenes. So, you would be forced to buy them, just to understand the game you bought for £50 (if Activision continue to have their way in pricing).

Yes, Kotick's job is to make money. But that should NOT be at the expense of customers.

 

[DefiantAsh]

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.

look at mw2, they wanted it to be sold for £50 retail, then every other company follows, and then our games become like £60 a piece, :|

 

[Orcish-Horde]

The root cause of all of this is a fools that buy DLC, your the clowns that started the ball rolling. A fool and his money is easily parted, every time you buy a DLC you paying for what was once free.

 

[FrenchTart]

There was actually a DVD for StarCraft 1's cut scenes released years after it came out iirc. So I guess it's not a first.

That said, I really despise Kotick and the general ethos behind Activision.

 

[Tefal]

Did you READ what he said...



All he wants to do, is make double the money from a game. As a game doesn't make sense without that cut scenes. So, you would be forced to buy them, just to understand the game you bought for £50 (if Activision continue to have their way in pricing).

Yes, Kotick's job is to make money. But that should NOT be at the expense of customers.

sounds like he means just copy them out not cut them entirely.