Edge Online is reporting Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is not happy with the Xbox Live business model because they don't "participate financially in that income stream."
Quote:
The executive told the Financial Times he’s frustrated by existing business models that see companies like Microsoft benefiting most from the success of online third party content, such as that released for Activision’s Call of Duty series.
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“We’ve heard that 60 per cent of [Microsoft’s] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call Of Duty,” Kotick said. “We don’t really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on Live, but it’s not our network.”
Kotick said new game machines will be needed for publishers to better monetise online game play.
“We have always been platform agnostic. [Consoles] do a very good job of supporting the gamer. If we are going to broaden our audiences, we are going to need to have other devices.” Kotick said Activision will “very aggressively” support moves by Dell and HP to connect PCs to TVs.
This is like a contractor who builds rides complaining that an amusement park is charging for entry into the park and isn't sharing that income with him.
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“We’ve heard that 60 per cent of [Microsoft’s] subscribers are principally on Live because of Call Of Duty,” Kotick said. “We don’t really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on Live, but it’s not our network.”
I really get a kick out of that. I've been a Live sub for YEARS, and I can't say I've played ANY CoD game for longer than maybe 10 minutes or so over Live (far as I can recall). I cut my teeth on the first two, sure, but that was on PC. Even most of the later CoD games, I played primarily on PC. My being a Live sub has absolutely nothing to do with CoD in the slightest. To say that 60% of the subs are on the because of CoD is simply absurd. I'm not saying there aren't people who are....but I highly doubt there's THAT much of a dedication to it. Now, to say 60% of Live users have "PLAYED" CoD on Live, that I can see.
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This is like a contractor who builds rides complaining that an amusement park is charging for entry into the park and isn't sharing that income with him.
This....omg I so despise this man.
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This is like a contractor who builds rides complaining that an amusement park is charging for entry into the park and isn't sharing that income with him.
This thread ended with this post. This analogy basically sums up the whole article.
The income stream is increased game sales due to the multiplayer options offered by Live. You already share in that dick. The 60% figure was pulled directly from his ass.
If Kotick is upset about customers playing his product on a platform that does not pay him enough royalties, maybe he should put a bit more effort into the Activision store, or better, make a Call of Duty Black Ops Plug n Play mini-console.
I know it is popular to hate on kotick and activision now, but I agree with him to an extent. MS' tight controls on XBL is hurting XB in the long run. Other devs, squenix, valve, etc want XBL to be more open. As PS3 becomes more successful, MS may be forces to open XBL more. And that would be great.
This guy is literally the enemy of all things gaming. I can't wait until people finally get burned out on Call of Duty games and then Activision is left wondering where all the money went.
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This is like a contractor who builds rides complaining that an amusement park is charging for entry into the park and isn't sharing that income with him.
Well met. I would like to see the team of analyst wizards that came up with the "60% of live subscribers are only online because of Call of Duty" statistic. What an absolute tool.
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I'm actually quite happy with this announcement. I don't have a problem with Activision putting a heavier focus on PC from a software and hardware point of view. This kind of initiative will serve the gaming community far more than his own subscription minded interest. To be fair, whether the 60% number for XBL subscription is accurate or not, Im sure COD is a huge driver of XBL Gold accounts and why not want a piece of that pie? Why are we paying Microsoft to play our games online at all in the first place? Of course, these subscriptions along with the "walled garden" Kotic speaks of is one of the main reasons Microsoft is so hell bent on killing off the PC in the first place. How ironic that Bungies next title will most likely support PC After they split from the company that makes the damn OS!!
