Kotick: Bungie the Last "High Quality" Independent Studio Left

[Swaki]

huh, i must say when i think of indie games halo and half-life aren't the first that pops up, but i must admit, i love the guy, i think hes hilarious, even when his company makes games less enjoyable with annoying DRM its so stupid i just have to laugh, its like we are in a sitcom and im the disapproving dad and hes my rascal son and every time he does something stupid i just throw up my arms and say my catch phrase "Oh, bobby" *shake head while smiling* *laugh track*, this episode of silly ceo and friends was brought to you by DRM, DRM, because every gamer is a pirate.

 

[Nouw]

Bungie? Hmmm... a close call between Valve.

 

[Agayek]

Valve have put out a tonne of stuff though, not all of it is golden.
Epic games, you'll just have to pardon me and tell me who they are. The name rings a bell but meh, hell if I can remember them.

Perhaps you're misinterpreting his use of "High quality", as far as I'm aware Bungie have only done Halo titles, right?
Maybe that's what he means. They're the last company who have only done one long, high quality project amongst other companies who take on multiple tasks at once and don't deliver.
IE: Valve and Episode 3.

Epic Games is the company that makes the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War games, and typically the game engine that something like 50-75% of all AAA games use (or so it seems, I don't actually have any numbers on that). There's probably a few other games they've made, but those two are the big sellers and the only ones I can remember off the top of my head.


OT - I want to be surprised by this, but I simply can't. Every time Kotick opens his mouth in public he proves himself an idiot. He is the living embodiment of the reason we have the saying "Better to stay silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".

 

[ender214]

Is it just me or has Bobby Kotick become the gaming world equivelant of Snooki or Paris Hilton or whatever retarded celebrities are out there right now. It doesn't seem like 2 weeks go by without more news of him doing something stupid.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Valve have put out a tonne of stuff though, not all of it is golden.
Epic games, you'll just have to pardon me and tell me who they are. The name rings a bell but meh, hell if I can remember them.

Epic are the guys behind Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Gears of War. Pioneers, in a lot of ways.

 

[Irridium]

Isn't Sucker Punch owned by Sony? Aren't they one of Sony's first party development studios? That doesn't sound to "independent" to me...

More on topic: I love Bungie, but dammit what Kotick said is not true. At all. Ugh I'm really getting sick of him.

Valve have put out a tonne of stuff though, not all of it is golden.
Epic games, you'll just have to pardon me and tell me who they are. The name rings a bell but meh, hell if I can remember them.

They made the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War games. As well as the Unreal Engine which is used in almost every game these days.

EDIT: Fucking ninja's...

 

[Scde2]

Again this guy is talking out of his ass.

 

[Brad Shepard]

He realized that no one listens to him that gives a crap right?

 

[Lyri]

It took Blizzard ten years to deliver SC2, lets not give up on Valve just yet.

As much as I love it, it's still not perfect. It's very hard to insta-balance an RTS, especially with such a rich history and fanbase like SCII.

Epic are the guys behind Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Gears of War. Pioneers, in a lot of ways.

They made the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War games. As well as the Unreal Engine which is used in almost every game these days.

Thanks for the heads up guys, but still I think Kotic may have a point.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Ever since bungie shacked up with activision the entire situation has reeked of... something.

I know the kneejerk from all the halo zombies is "brah, that kotick is a pretty big smacktard brah" but something else is at play here.

You have to remember the head of a publishing house isn't for people who read or play video games, its for people who will never have any personal contact with anything the house publishes and only views them as an investment opportunity. Which means, when it (the well dressed asshole at the top) starts talking like this, its a sign the well dressed asshole is desperately attempting to cover a huge mistake. Which means microsoft let bungie go because bungie had nothing to offer, while activision is stuck nursing a lame horse for the next ten years.

Hopefully it won't affect blizzard.

 

[Irridium]

Thanks for the heads up guys, but still I think Kotic may have a point.

Not really. Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead games are great fun. Plus there's Alien Swarm that Valve put out for free. Those games were great. Not to mention Portal 2 coming out next year.

 

[Tsaba]

It took Blizzard ten years to deliver SC2, lets not give up on Valve just yet.

As much as I love it, it's still not perfect. It's very hard to insta-balance an RTS, especially with such a rich history and fanbase like SCII.

Epic are the guys behind Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Gears of War. Pioneers, in a lot of ways.

They made the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War games. As well as the Unreal Engine which is used in almost every game these days.

Thanks for the heads up guys, but still I think Kotic may have a point.

I believe he's just trying to reel people in to buy "Activision," he probably believes that small fraction of the gaming community that is brain dead will buy Activision and only Activision because it has the "last" great game maker. Even if he gets 1% thats still a butt load of money.

 

[gmacarthur81]

Blah blah Bungie blah blah.

Yes yes, HALO is a great series.

Epic, I don't know if I would have put them in next to Valve. I mean, Gears of War is good, but they are better know for the Unreal Engine than anything else.

I am interested to see what Runic ends up doing after they get done with Torchlight 2. I honestly think they could be the next Valve..... sans the millions and millions worth of profit from Steam.

 

[Autofaux]

Kotick apologetics, scramble. Can't spin this so that it doesn't sound like he's alienating dozens of companies that make great games.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Thanks for the heads up guys, but still I think Kotic may have a point.

I have to disagree. Let's look at the timeline and see what we're dealing with here.

2000-2010
Bungie: Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo: Reach. One series of general high quality.

Valve: Half-Life 2, Episode 1 & 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal, Day of Defeat: Source, Counter-Strike: Source

Epic: Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Shadow Complex.

And that's just talking about the games, nevermind the massive contribution Epic and Valve have had to the gaming community through Steam and gaming engines such as Source and Unreal Engine 2.0-3.5

Bungie is a talented developer, but to say they're the "last high quality" one is arrogance of an almost astounding level.

 

[ZehGeek]

Inb4suckinguptoyournewmoneysource

 

[Lyri]

Not really. Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead games are great fun. Plus there's Alien Swarm that Valve put out for free. Those games were great. Not to mention Portal 2 coming out next year.

None of those titles compare to Bungie with Halo.
Bungie is responsible for Halo and only Halo (still looking for confirmation, don't make me google this shit), it's been a massive, high quality project that's spanned the age.
Look at it's development, whether you love or hate the game aside it's been something extraordinary.

Show me commitment like that from Valve in one of their titles.

I believe he's just trying to reel people in to buy "Activision," he probably believes that small fraction of the gaming community that is brain dead will buy Activision and only Activision because it has the "last" great game maker. Even if he gets 1% thats still a butt load of money.

Maybe he's just throwing his new partners a bone and saying "You know guys, Bungie are fucking ace"
Which will also give him a shit tonne of money as I'm assuming that Activision are now backing them and will be investing some money into them.
Which doesn't that remove the "independent" status from them anyway?

Inb4suckinguptoyournewmoneysource

************, beat me by one post.

 

[Tsaba]

I believe he's just trying to reel people in to buy "Activision," he probably believes that small fraction of the gaming community that is brain dead will buy Activision and only Activision because it has the "last" great game maker. Even if he gets 1% thats still a butt load of money.

Maybe he's just throwing his new partners a bone and saying "You know guys, Bungie are fucking ace"
Which will also give him a shit tonne of money as I'm assuming that Activision are now backing them and will be investing some money into them.
Which doesn't that remove the "independent" status from them anyway?

For the sake of argument, let's just say he's doing both, because, quite frankly, you could spin it either way.

 

[Balobo]

None of those titles compare to Bungie with Halo.
Bungie is responsible for Halo and only Halo (still looking for confirmation, don't make me google this shit), it's been a massive, high quality project that's spanned the age.
Look at it's development, whether you love or hate the game aside it's been something extraordinary.

Show me commitment like that from Valve in one of their titles.

I actually enjoy most Valve games 10x more than I enjoy Halo.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Not really. Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead games are great fun. Plus there's Alien Swarm that Valve put out for free. Those games were great. Not to mention Portal 2 coming out next year.

None of those titles compare to Bungie with Halo.
Bungie is responsible for Halo and only Halo (still looking for confirmation, don't make me google this shit), it's been a massive, high quality project that's spanned the age.
Look at it's development, whether you love or hate the game aside it's been something extraordinary.

Show me commitment like that from Valve in one of their titles.

Halo has been around for a long time but that doesn't give anyone a platform to say "They're the only high-quality indie developer left." I respect Bungie for the Halo series but with ALL the other independent studios out there, many of which are consistently putting out titles of good/amazing quality, Halo can't hold up.

Valve has consistently put an incredible amount of commitment into each and every single one of their games (I dare you to play any of them and tell me they aren't polished to a mirror shine). They also gave us the Source engine, and Steam, both of which have benefited gaming in ways Halo can barely touch.

Epic; they came up with the second most important FPS (next to Doom), gave us Unreal Engine 1, 2, 3 and 3.5 (being used by dozens of games), they gave us Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and the majority of their games are high quality.