Activision CEO Says He Would Raise Prices Even Higher

[Royas]

You know, it really seems that the board of directors at every game publisher on Earth needs to tell the CEO to shut the hell up. Kotick here, JR at EA... they just don't seem to be capable of opening their mouths to the press without putting their feet in. How in the hell did these people get their jobs? It sure can't be because of their charisma.

 

[Ushario]

He's a good businessman, honestly if he needed to justify his massive CEO paycheck this did it.
Displaying ruthlesness in a tough enviroment and pushing to get the companies shareholders the best return.

Sure fans will be grouchy about the extra cost. It won't stop them from buying it. Where Activision will suffer is with attracting people new to the genre, they will wait for the price drop.

 

[Savioritis]

Its hard to believe Activision started out as a handful of programmers looking for a little justice in an industry ruled by Atari and their lack of pay and complete disrespect for their game designers. now Activision is merely the new Atari.

 

[Worgen]

fire can solve this problem

 

[Fret098]

why wouldn't he or any other business not want to sell their product for as much as they can

There's a difference between selling a product for a sensible price and selling a product by price-gauging.

Hey, he wants to "make some damn money"

I said change it to "needs" some damn money, damnit! But regardless, at least we know that Sony is trying to lower the price. I can't say that this isn't a common thing with many business, raising prices and such, but the insane hypocrisy that is this Kotick guy is what really tosses this over the edge.

Hm. I don't know if I'd call it hypocrisy, per se.

His argument was that Sony needs to lower the cost on the PS3 not out of principle, but because people aren't as willing to pay the higher cost, so it isn't selling as well as it might be. If the PS3 were selling as well as its peers despite the higher price tag, they probably wouldn't be calling for a price cut since there'd be no evidence for it.

In that line of thought, if they raise the price of games $10 or so, and find that it severely impacts sales, then they'll probably lower them again, since they'd have empirical evidence that people weren't willing to pay the higher cost. On the other hand, if they raise the price but sales stay about the same, then they'll have realized that the new price is still within peoples' acceptable margins for how much a game should cost.

It's definitely a bit of a dick move to pull, no question about that. I just don't think it's necessarily a hypocritical one.

Then we as gamers should boycott any game made by Activision until they realize we wont stand for price gouging. I mean we have the real power here, if we stop buying their games their sales will drop considerably and they will have no choice but to lower their games prices to a reasonable level.

 

[Icehearted]

Maybe now's a good time to invest in some board games? Remember life before Xbox Live, when people actually sat around a table and played Sorry or Chess or whatever? I know that's the sort of thing that saw a reemergence during the first industry crash. This $63 pricetag for games of this gen was/is still fairly outrageous, asking more... well, come to think of it they did manage to put little effort in making a crappy Playschool guitar toy and a music collection with cheap graphics and still sell it to people for obscene amounts of money... so who knows?

 

[Spygon]

"news alert activision have just moved there headquarters to HELL"

this is insane its like their saying their evil and there is nothing anybody can do about it.I think someone needs to knock Activision down a peg or two so i agree we would have a boycott on mw2 until the game falls to "normal" retail prices as that the only thing that will stop them hiking the prices of games every time they feel like it.Actually screw this i am going to boycott MW2 till it drops to £40 who is with me who wants to show that we will not be exploited by developers.

 

[dochmbi]

Yes please, go ahead and raise prices even higher, see what happens to the piracy rate.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

This is a forum. Bitching, pissing and moaning is what we do here. I would need a boycott group 500 thousand strong before I even think of not buying this game, because as it stands it makes no difference whether I buy this or not, the game is still going to sell an unholy amount.

And that is the problem. Unless 500,000 people refuse to buy the game, you won't either?

Yes.

It's like vegetarianism to prove a point. Why bother when everyone else is going to eat it regardless? I would like some proof that others are banding up to prove a point, and I'm too lazy to do it myself in response to your quote.

It's this kind of train of thought that is damaging human society as a whole. Vegetarians who abstain from meat to prove a point are doing just that. Proving a point. In the grand scheme of things, a videogame price is insignificant, but would you sit idly by while an actual injustice is taking place?

Should the people of Iran have just rolled over instead of standing up to prove a point?

Again, a videogame price is nowhere near as important as what happened in Iran, but that "fuck all, I can't change anything" attitude is scary.

Of course the Iran part is completely out of context like you implied. There are things that I would stand up and fight for at the drop of a hat, and there are things I'll follow in the footsteps of many for, and this is it. If there's a petition I can sign, sign me up. If you want to take your own advice and start a movement, sure I'll join.

However until then I'll just buy the game pre-owned, because if I'm sitting here refusing purchase and assuming that there are hundreds of thousands of others doing the same, when it could be the opposite, I just wonder what's the point. I'd like some assurance that I'm part of something much bigger than myself and am making a difference, considering I know this is going to sell millions, and I know everyone who refuses to buy the game now will buy it when the price is cheaper. Make yourself known, start something and others will follow, if it does have to start somewhere then why not with you?

ODST raised in price, I didn't see a petition or a movement. RE5 had content on the disc you had to unlock, and I didn't see a petition or a movement. Just spark it.

Then we as gamers should boycott any game made by Activision until they realize we wont stand for price gouging. I mean we have the real power here, if we stop buying their games their sales will drop considerably and they will have no choice but to lower their games prices to a reasonable level.

This couldn't be any half assed petition. For a game that is going to sell 2 or 3 million? Sure. However this is going to sell well past six or seven million, this will take more than a petition, it will need a campaign. And lord knows you'll need it for when Modern Warfare 3 comes out.

 

[Knight Templar]

why wouldn't he or any other business not want to sell their product for as much as they can

Their job is to sell us things and make a profit, not take as much money as they can simply because they can.

As I've said before, the fact they are earning money by screwing us over doesn't excuse the action.

 

[Wargamer]

Note to self - never again purchase Activision products.

 

[Grampy_bone]

This is just another example of the callous disregard and contempt the gaming industry shows its consumer base. They consider us reliable wallet-openers (the so-called "discerning" hardcore crowd) who will faithfully shell out sixty dollars for any game with the words 'Madden,' 'Halo,' or 'Call of' in the title. I mean, seriously, who does this guy think he is? What kind of business does he think he is running? Imagine if the broadcasting companies began demanding that TV manufacturers charge less for their products.

No wonder piracy and used game sales are on the rise. The game industry isn't growing; it's in decline. They want to raise prices because the number of people buying games isn't increasing. Maybe instead of bitching and moaning about gamestop and bittorrent they should, I don't know, actually make games people want to own.

 

[ActualOvaltine]

Bobby Kotick is Cobra Commander, trying to make the Joes pay top dollar for his games. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

 

[Spygon]

come on people if l4d fans can boycott l4d2 just because they thought its was a bad idea cod fans can boycott mw2 because of unjustified prices changes.As im not buying the game till its £40 or under i hope others join this cause with me and if not i will be one of the only people who can complain about games costing £60 in the future.

 

[Standby]

These companies need to make up their minds, they can either keep prices the same but to compensate increase in-game adverts, which i could honestly live with if i had to (along the lines of the billboards in Prototype, not the vids in Wipeout HD), or, if they are going to raise the price of the disc, not have ANY adverts in the games, they can't have it both ways.

 

[londelen]

So the question is: Who was worse for the gamers, Jack Thompson or This guy? (Jack Thompson before he got disbarred, I mean.)

 

[Robert632]

just cement yourself as a normal person(i.e greedy.) some people(i.e some guy i probably don't know.) like to think some developers are not normel people

 

[little.09]

what! games are already $100 each in aus. bloody bastard