Give me reason's to hate Activision that aren't COD related
- Thread starter Ironbat92
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Upon hearing that they are were not allowed to release Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines before Half-Life 2, they forced Troika to shovel out the game in its incomplete state ON THE SAME DAY as Half-Life 2. They then proceeded to shut down Troika.
First off: How To Use An Apostrophe [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe]. I swear, I'm going to start posting that every time someone abuses the poor apostrophe.
Second: Uh. Kotik is an ass? I donno. I think Jim Sterling went over a few reasons in one of his videos.
Second: Uh. Kotik is an ass? I donno. I think Jim Sterling went over a few reasons in one of his videos.
They're directly connected to Blizzard, who don't have the best public image right now (crappy WoW expansions, Diablo 3's real money auction house). Some believe (whether it is true or not is another story) this is Activision's fault.
They over-saturated the music genre with the yearly Guitar Hero sequels. The genre wouldn't have lasted forever anyway, but Activision greatly sped up the process.
For me though, I hate Activision because they make a shit ton of money every year from Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, and they don't do anything interesting with it. The only new IP that I can think of that they've made in the last few years is Prototype, and all they seem to do is churn out sequels for the same old franchises year after year.
They over-saturated the music genre with the yearly Guitar Hero sequels. The genre wouldn't have lasted forever anyway, but Activision greatly sped up the process.
For me though, I hate Activision because they make a shit ton of money every year from Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, and they don't do anything interesting with it. The only new IP that I can think of that they've made in the last few years is Prototype, and all they seem to do is churn out sequels for the same old franchises year after year.
They killed Radical. I'm sure tons of others too, but Radical is the only one I gave a shit about.
Also Captcha says don't waste time. Real talk.
Also Captcha says don't waste time. Real talk.
Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision) is the spawn of Beelzebub made flesh. He likes to say things like he wants to "take the fun out of making games" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94711-Bobby-Kotick-Wants-to-Take-the-Fun-Out-of-Making-Games] and he likes taking childish potshots at competitors. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103793-Bobby-Koticks-Trash-Talking-Spree-Continues] He also thinks that no-one can make good games any more except Bungie. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103639-Kotick-Bungie-the-Last-High-Quality-Independent-Studio-Left] He thinks that it's a good idea to sell in-game cut-scenes as separate entities. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103517-Kotick-Itching-to-Sell-Cutscenes-As-Films] He was also itching to charge people twice for CoD as soon as he could. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101503-Kotick-Wants-Call-of-Duty-Subscriptions-Tomorrow] He's also been likened to Emperor Palpatine by an industry lawyer. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99196-Game-Lawyer-Calls-Bobby-Kotick-Emperor-Palpatine] Tim Schafer isn't too fond of him either. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102062-Psychonauts-Creator-Calls-Bobby-Kotick-Names] I could keep going with these.
Granted, all these examples are pretty old now. Kotick has learnt to keep his mouth shut now and EA has taken his place as being the cartoonishly evil video game company right now, but Kotick hasn't done anything to prove he isn't a dick.
Granted, all these examples are pretty old now. Kotick has learnt to keep his mouth shut now and EA has taken his place as being the cartoonishly evil video game company right now, but Kotick hasn't done anything to prove he isn't a dick.
What he saidchocolatekeith said:
If you're not familiar with me: hi, I'm DoPo, you may know me from trying to plug Bloodlines as often as possible. And you know what? It's a bad game. Also, it's a bad game because of Activision. It's a bad game I love, but imagine if it was actually good, then other people would have loved it, too. But even this aside, Troika was killed, over it. They willingly sacrificed themselves, so the game isn't horrible but that's about it.
But WAIT, there is more. You know what Activision does with Bloodlines now? Nothing. Well, aside from releasing it on Steam and some other digital distributions, that is. But they wouldn't have done this if the fucking fans didn't make the game playable first and provided support. That's it - they wouldn't have made much money on the game over these past years, if there weren't people to do their work for them and for free. That's a new level of exploiting your customers.
Also, Bobby Kotic is a dick.
Their managers keep track of all the acts of "insubordination" by their developers. Insubordination includes doing things like adding things to games that are easy to add that make the game more fun for everyone. Or not showing enough respect to some little Napoleon in management.
I'm going to add my voice to the multitude of people saying that they don't like Bobby Kotick. Also, I don't think I've played any good Activision games that have come out recently, aside from CoD, which is okay but not great. But its mostly because I don't like Bobby Kotick.
Pretty much this. People hate Activision because of Kotick's declarations, and the fact he is considered as a role model for CEO doesn't help.Scrustle said:
Other than that, its the mass market philosophy of buying companies, ditching games that don't have "high potential of annualization" (actual quote), suing people for moving out (including using cold war-like named operations to hack computers and libel them), holding payments and bonuses, milking franchises beyond their breaking point and firing people for not being successful enough according to their standards (even when they are quite successful by any other standard)
Sweet Jesus...Scrustle said:
That's just... was he trying to make people hate him?! That's legitimately sociopathic... why would he say that in public?!Article said:
There's a cartoon from the '90s that I can't recall the name of, where the villain's ultimate goal was to "rid the world of music and fun!"
That's Bobby.
He's genuinely a cartoon bad guy and, in a couple of years time, he's gonna get his ass kicked by some plucky orphans to the applause of an inexplicable crowd.
Wow, I think I actually remember that cartoon! Is the one you're thinking of about a flying sentient piano with various other sentient instrument friends? If so, I think it's Oscar's Orchestra.ScrabbitRabbit said:
Mega nostalgia:
I forgot this even existed! But I remember the bad guy had huge speakers set up in his mansion with which he constantly listened to a recording of his own laughter. I thought it was hilarious. His voice was ridiculous.
Activision couldn't possibly have shut down Troika, since Troika was an independent studio that they didn't own. Activision probably had a hand in it by forcing them to release a buggy, unfinished game that looks bad to other publishers but then it's not like Troika didn't have a record of doing that already.chocolatekeith said:
I think that was it! Wow, I am so going to go and watch that now and relive my childhood :']Scrustle said:
Here's a list of games and series that Activision either abandoned, killed, or nearly killed.
Ghostbusters (dropped by Activision, picked up by Atari)
Brutal Legend (dropped by Activision, picked up by EA)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (nearly killed by Activision, due to "Ride" and "Shred")
Guitar Hero (possibly killed by Activision due to oversaturation)
And now, a list of studios they've closed down.
Gray Matter Interactive (Call of Duty 2), merged into Treyarch
Luxoflux (True Crime), closed down
Shaba Games (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Project 8), closed down
RedOctane (original Guitar Hero games), closed down
Sierra Entertainment (King's Quest series, Space Quest series), closed down
Underground Development (Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, Guitar Hero: Van Halen), closed down
Budcat Creations (later Guitar Hero games), shut down
Bizarre Creations (Blur, The Club), shut down
Radical Entertainment (Prototype), shut down
Ghostbusters (dropped by Activision, picked up by Atari)
Brutal Legend (dropped by Activision, picked up by EA)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (nearly killed by Activision, due to "Ride" and "Shred")
Guitar Hero (possibly killed by Activision due to oversaturation)
And now, a list of studios they've closed down.
Gray Matter Interactive (Call of Duty 2), merged into Treyarch
Luxoflux (True Crime), closed down
Shaba Games (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Project 8), closed down
RedOctane (original Guitar Hero games), closed down
Sierra Entertainment (King's Quest series, Space Quest series), closed down
Underground Development (Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, Guitar Hero: Van Halen), closed down
Budcat Creations (later Guitar Hero games), shut down
Bizarre Creations (Blur, The Club), shut down
Radical Entertainment (Prototype), shut down