Items tagged with Bobby Kotick
The CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick announced this morning that he would lead an investor buyout of the company worth approximately $8.2 billion dollars. The move would free Blactivision (how has this moniker never caught on?) to become an independent publisher and free it from the clutches of Vivendi, the evil French entertainment conglomerate. Vivendi has reportedly been attempting to sell Activision Blizzard for years, due to an apparent hatred of actually turning a profit, given than the game developer owns some of the most popular franchises on Earth. Kotick, otherwise known as Satan (if you think I'm kidding, hie thee to Google and type "Bobby Kotick is a" in the search bar and...
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A report from videogame industry analyst Michael Pachter indicates that EA is investigating new revenue streams, particularly digital revenues that might entice players to buy into an extended game demo and follow up with a full game purchase once the title was available. That's the noninflammatory version of this story's lede; the inflammatory version is that EA wants to charge users $10-$15 for traditional downloadable game demos. EA has clarified that this is not in the cards; EA's Jeff Brown told Kotaku that "EA SPORTS, EA Games and EA Play are each experimenting with download strategies that deliver fresh game content in formats players want to experience...None of the proposals call for...
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Last weekend, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick gave details on what he believes represents the future of gaming—and managed to become the poster child for unhappy workplaces. We'll talk gaming first. Current-generation consoles like the PS3, XBox 360, and Wii have been very kind to Activision and its lucrative Guitar Hero franchise, but Kotick doesn't seem inclined to pay much attention to them over the next couple years. Rather than picking one console to support above the other two, Kotick plans to develop games that bypass consoles altogether and are playable on TV media hubs or equivalent technologies. This could broaden the spectrum of gamers, and bring others into the fold, but it's a rather...
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Gamers who've been salivating at the chance to slaughter zerglings (or each other) like it's 1998 are going to have to wait a little longer. Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the first Starcraft 2 campaign—the Terran-centric Wings of Liberty will not be ready by the end of 2009. The culprit, according to company PR, is Battle.net. The company's release is quoted below."...it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize...
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