Bobby Kotick: Activision is "considerate of the culture" at Blizzard
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 28th 2008 at 2:30PM
Portfolio has an interview with Bobby Kotick himself, warchief of the Activision Blizzard clan, and in there, they talk about the merger itself (obviously), as well as Kotick's past and what he's trying to do with Activision Blizzard.If you believe everything he's saying, then our favorite game company sounds like it may have landed on pretty good ground. Apparently Activision was originally trying to buy out Vivendi (Kotick says he'd realized that World of Warcraft wasn't so much a game as a full-fledged social network), but Vivendi made the counter-offer of a partnership instead. And while Kotick only chats briefly about Activizzard's other properties (he thinks facial and mouth movement will help videogames tell great stories -- sigh), he does say that Activision is a place where Blizzard can grow as a studio of its own, as compared to a faceless corporation like, ahem, EA.
All in all, Kotick doesn't sound like too bad a guy, although I can't imagine that any CEOs being profiled in something called "Portfolio" would. It does at least sound like he'll let Blizzard do their thing, although just as we've said before, while things are great now when the money is rolling in, there's no knowing what will happen in the future.
[Via WorldofWar.net]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Interviews
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bloodtrip Apr 29th 2008 2:19AM
Bye World Of Warcraft, Hello crap games... unless Blizzard, as their new partner, will set them straight and Blizz still keeps their own style. Mergers and partnerships suck, people are just to money hungry.
Chubbs Apr 28th 2008 2:54PM
Still won't be forgiven for the GHIII/Rock Band PS3 guitar fiasco.
Coherent Apr 28th 2008 3:32PM
Why don't journalists ever ask questions like: "How can you reconcile the soft treatment of Blizzard's company and culture with that of Harmonix, where you virtually created your own competition by selling them down the river where they were inspired to create Rock Band which is beating you at your own game?"
Yeah, hehe, I know, I know, because then it would be a very short interview. But still it's hard to watch him congratulate himself over Blizzard when Activision handed their biggest competitor the very same company which had created their biggest success.
Coherent Apr 28th 2008 3:38PM
He comes off as a suit who has no idea about what kind of business he's in. I'm sure he's very successful at the wheeling and dealing, but he doesn't know anything about games or gaming culture.
Let's hope that he knows about the things he doesn't know and simply acts as a facilitator for the people who live and breathe it.
Nizari Apr 28th 2008 5:24PM
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
As long as Blizzard products continue to have the same mass popularity that WoW, Starcraft, and Diablo have (as well as those oh-so-lucrative merchandising tie-ins), Activision won't touch it with a 30-foot pole. Now the real question is if Blizz every starts to falter, how bad would Activision let Blizz get before they'd step in and try to "fix" it?