You try and run one of the biggest video game companies on the principle of having fun, and we'll see how well that'll turn out.

You can't possibly stand there and say that buying a "movie" made of disjointed cut scenes is a good idea? That paying to play a normally free game on top of fees for Live (if you're on 360..) is a good idea?

Gaming thrives on fun, and Kotick's idea of a good workplace is to instill "skepticism, pessimism, and fear...We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression." Oh yeah, this guy totally knows how to run a company well. Look at Bungie, Naughty Dog or Bethesda. Are they like this? Absolutely not.

It's not my place to decide what people should or should not spend money on. Is it yours?



Good thing Kotick never proposed that, then.



I'd really like the source of that quote, if you wouldn't mind terribly.



You don't mean Bungie LLC, who signed a ten year publishing deal with... *drumroll* Activision Blizzard?

Edit: Besides, at what point did a former subsidiary of Microsoft become the shining example of good business practice and not milking a franchise for all it's worth? Have you even heard of Halo?

Of course games companies have to make money, but there's a difference between making a profit from good games and making a profit from extorting customers through dumb ideas like this.


http://play.tm/news/30785/kotick-wants-subs-for-cod-online-multiplayer/


http://kotaku.com/5361939/koticks-skepticism-fear-and-pessimism-make-cameo-at-modern-warfare-2-event Do some research before immediately accusing people of making stuff up.

I don't see how this is an issue at all as it doesn't detract from the games whatsoever and you aren't being forced to buy it.

:banghead:

The whole idea is that games will still have cutscenes. The games themselves will not be changed in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER!

The games will stay the same!

There will be no alteration in the games!

Alteration will not take place in the content of the games!

Games, which is the subject of this matter, will not be susceptible to modification as a result of this concept!

The games...will...still...have...cutscenes!

All he is proposing is that compilations of the cutscenes could be sold separately, for those who want to watch them without playing through the whole games, in the exact same way you can get soundtrack CDs!

Lcars, is it your sole purpose to go around shooting down everyone's opinion that's not your own? Especially if they don't support your precious Activision? Please calm down and understand both sides of the story.

What about all the other crap he tries to push? Pessimism in the workplace, CoD subscription service etc.? Even if the cutscenes will still be in the game, which is still debatable considering the quote, it's still a moronic idea.

QFT.

Do you people even read the articles you link?

What he says is clearly that he would like to see a subscription based online service akin to XBOX Live.

In his own words "I would love to see us have an online Call Of Duty world. I think our players would just have so much of a more compelling experience. [...] If you look at what they're playing on Xbox Live today, we've had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers. I think we could create so many things, and make the game even more fun to play. We haven't really had a chance to do that yet."

But I suppose reality should never get in the way of blind hatred...



Again, do you even read this stuff?

He's talking about people being mindful of the costs of production and the economic crisis and that you can't just throw money away on wild gambles in this economic climate.

It's not far to have a debate with someone about your opinions on the subject and then pull that card in my opinion.



I thought this thread was about the cut-scene issue, not his past decisions. How is it a bad idea, if people will buy it it is a GOOD idea from the company's perspective. Minimal work for increased profits, how is that a bad idea?

EDIT: You know what? Nevermind. I'd rather not get warned over this.

It creates a far better forum when you are arguing over points than everyone saying "Oh my god, he is evil!"

It disappoints me what this thread has become, oh well.

Can we just drop my comment, please? I thought better of it in the end.

Yeah, I agree with Defaulted. This has gone on too far, and the thread has officially been derailed.

There are too sides to this: What gamers want, and what makes the most money, and many different opinions regarding this. That said, I'm out. I've said all I have to say.

Well, I'm outta here, there is clearly no stopping the raging hatred of Bobby Kotick, irrespective of what he's actually said and done.

Moderator advice: You all need to cool it in this topic.

How is this a problem at all, nothing is changing in the games but cutscenes will be released as a standalone. Its not like you have to pay to unlock them, its a business, and while I agree that Activision has done some stupid stuff, they have to make money, and as far as I know this hasn't been done before, so they make some extra money for a service that wasn't there before, would everyone be happier if they gave it out for free?

In a way it has been. European version of Xenosaga ep. 2 came with a DVD that included all the cutscenes of ep. 1. That is because ep. 1 was never published in europe. And neither was ep. 3 :rolleyes:

That was Namco not Activision, though

i think alot of people are not reading the article correctly. from the way the article reads hes saying that they would take the cutscenes OUT of the game..........as in they wont put them in or you have to pay to unlock them. not that you get game cutscenes and then you pay for bonus cutscenes like some people have suggested. i can live without cutscenes personally but if they are talking about taking part of the story telling device out of the game then its absurd. its bad enough that people have to buy DLCs for stuff that should be in the game from the get go but now this. this is seperate and distinct from "directors cut" or megasupreme enhanced editions that come with maps, figurines, extra ingame costumes etc. those i dont mind at all and in fact i purchase them on a regular basis. it sounds like they want to pay for the stuff that you normally get with the game. if cost is so prohibitive in making all these CGI movies then stop making them or make the shorter.

No, that is not what Kotick said at all. You may want him to have said something for which you can hate him, but he didn't.

His meaning is clear to all who can read properly.

I don't see this as Kotick. I see this as an indication of where the gaming industry is going as a whole. WoW made a ton of money off of that mount. When I play LOTRO I'm always seeing offers to use the Turbine store and I'm an actual subscriber. I think being nickel and dimed is the way the gaming industry is going to be. And being a PC gamer for 25 years, this is not a good thing.

I actually bought Dragon Age for my 360 instead of the PC to avoid things like this.

This is stupid.

1: Most games have pretty terrible writing and story so I'm not entirely sure why you would want to do this in most cases.
2: What's stopping me from simply going on Youtube and checking the cutscenes out there? Some might try to equate me doing so to pirating games but the only reason anyone would do that is because of the idea put forward by Kotick. If this entire thing never came up, noone would do equate the two.
3: Most games don't deliver the entire story through cutscenes alone, so unless they change this and all games published by Activision only have plot in the cutscenes and nowhere else, there is no getting around this.
4: Plenty of games have, or did have since I can't think of many games with the feature now, a feature in the main menu where you could just rewatch cutscenes. Usually as an unlockable after beating the game. So, it's very sad to see the state things are in now. I remember before DLC where games would have a crap load of unlockable features and bonus content which they now, for the most part, don't have. Unless you buy DLC packs. This is all this is. The ability to rewatch cutscenes used to be free, but they are now charging for it.

Anyway, I think this is going to completely flop. I don't see why anyone would even want to buy cutscene compilations. As I read it, there is nothing to imply that cutscenes will be taken out of games but if I am mistaken and they are actually being taken out, then Activision will die. I don't mean I will bomb them or something. I mean, noone would buy their games. Sure, drunken fratboys and rappers who think they are badass despite using Twitter will still buy CoD but the majority of people will not buy games that have no cutscenes.

I stated this in an earlier page but I'm restating my thought because there is a lot of confusion about what is going on still. When I initially read the article in the OP it completely makes it sound as if they are taking out the cutscenes from the game. I read it twice last night and made my opinion based off of my understanding of the English language. It was also mentioned that he is being quoted from a speech. He is quoted as to saying something along the lines of "taking out cutscenes from the game." The simple phrase in the original article provided "take out" is the complete reason why so many people are upset. Saying you're going to "take out" the scenes means that you're not going to have them in the game at all. That is what gamesradar attempted to do. That is why everybody is confused and upset and people are bickering childishly. The fact is that the cutscenes are staying in the game as they are and somewhere in the next 5 years Activision may attempt to sell a cutscenes "repacked" as a movie. If the OP article would have been clear on this a whole lot of confusion would have been avoided. So simply stating that anybody that can read properly would understand what is going on clearly didn't read the OP article which was intentionally making Kotick look as bad as possible.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/kotick-starcraft-players-would-pay-30-for-cutscenes-repackaged-as-a-movie-20100918/ article helped me understand the situation better.