News
$1bn MMO still couldn’t touch Warcraft, says Activision
Tim Ingham Feb 28 2008, 1:40pm
Comments (6)
CEO Bobby Kotick talks of his great confidence in Blizzard franchise’s dominance
Chief executive of Activision Bobby Kotick believes that even if a publishing rival was to invest $1 billion on a new MMO franchise, they would still struggle to take on Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium 2008 conference, Kotick said:
"[Blizzard] has probably half a billion dollars invested in the franchise over 15 years. They have hundreds of people involved in refreshing the content every year…
"We don't think that even if we made the $500 million or billion-dollar investment to make a World of Warcraft competitor that we would even be successful doing it."
"When you look at Lucas and EA and Microsoft and Sony--and you pick the venture capitalist--and look at all the money that's already gone to these businesses that have failed, there didn't seem a likelihood that even a well-managed company like Activision would have the prospect for profit anytime soon in this category. And so that became very apparent to us."
Comments
“Yap yap yap”
Posted by: Mr Chatterbox - Feb 28, 4:45pm
Mr Kotick sure has a lot to say in the news today.
I'm keeping a beady eye open for the "Kotick announces favourite colour: says 'it's blue'" exclusive in MCV. It must be in the offing...
“Re: Yap yap yap”
Posted: Feb 28, 5:36pm
What a load of ********, if a billion dollar MMO was announced tommorow you can bet your *** u'd find out pretty sharpish.
After all, with a billion dollar budget, they could afford some serious marketing & advertising for a start....
“Re: Yap yap yap”
Posted by: William Volk - Feb 28, 5:42pm
Having worked with Mr. Kotick I wouldn't bet against him. He's been right more often than not.
I think if there's a challenger to WoW it will come from an entirely novel place ... not a traditional game company Maybe something location based on handhelds.
William Volk
CEO, Mobile
Former VP Technology, Activision 1988-1994
“Re: Yap yap yap”
Posted: Feb 28, 6:27pm
but blizzard owns activision! why would they copete against themselves. What a silly story
“Re: Yap yap yap”
Posted by: Llew - Feb 28, 9:11pm
The proper way to compete against World of Warcraft is not to make another Everquest clone with more content and features, but to make a game to draw away players for whom the ideal game does not yet exist, and who are only playing World of Warcraft because it is the closest thing out there. Google Gamasutra's "Rethinking the MMO" article for a more detailed explanation.
“Re: Yap yap yap”
Posted by: Bob - Feb 29, 9:34am
Something like APB perhaps?