firstly, very long term engagement is objective proof of quality.
On March 23 2021 01:51 WombaT wrote: In initially reviving Activsion sure Kotick showed a lot of vision and chops, nowadays I’m not seeing a particularly admirable display of executive chops We’ll see, I could be 100% wrong and the current franchises will continue to have milkable udders in perpetuity, or a next generation of fresh games will knock it out of the park.
I think his handling of Skylanders and Guitar Hero was brilliant. I think his handling of CoD , WoW, and Candy Crush has been rock solid. I love what ATVI did with Bungie.
I don't think the people playing CoD, Candy Crush, and WoW are going anywhere.
Activision/Kotick have been publishing CoD for a super long time and last year the franchise pulled in $3 Billion.
I'm not really seeing any "sky is falling" type stuff happening here. The bigger you get the more complaining people will do. meh. If Kotick has done such a horrible job over the last 15+ years the game and franchise would be dead by now.
"There are many factors that may contribute to a rise in this particular company's stock price that may not be directly attributable to [...] leadership. The use of video games as one of the few entertainment options available amid the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, has been a boon to many companies in the gaming industry irrespective of executive talent or strategic decisions."
On March 23 2021 01:51 WombaT wrote: In initially reviving Activsion sure Kotick showed a lot of vision and chops, nowadays I’m not seeing a particularly admirable display of executive chops We’ll see, I could be 100% wrong and the current franchises will continue to have milkable udders in perpetuity, or a next generation of fresh games will knock it out of the park.
I think his handling of Skylanders and Guitar Hero was brilliant. I think his handling of CoD , WoW, and Candy Crush has been rock solid. I love what ATVI did with Bungie.
I don't think the people playing CoD, Candy Crush, and WoW are going anywhere.
Activision/Kotick have been publishing CoD for a super long time and last year the franchise pulled in $3 Billion.
I'm not really seeing any "sky is falling" type stuff happening here. The bigger you get the more complaining people will do. meh. If Kotick has done such a horrible job over the last 15+ years the game and franchise would be dead by now.
How’s Guitar Hero doing these days?
I don’t see the sky falling anytime soon, if at all, outside of regulation hitting into the current monetisation model for some of these games.
The current model of megahits and monetisation beyond retail sales is definitely better for publisher stability, I think people tend to forget that there were times in the past where big publishers and devs would be sunk with a few underwhelming titles.
Which wasn’t great either for gamers/consumers either. On the other hand you could use that safety buffer to develop a wider portfolio beyond the huge cows that merely only make a good profit instead of a gigantic one. You might even develop the next bit megahit while you’re at it.
On March 23 2021 23:01 WombaT wrote: How’s Guitar Hero doing these days?
I'm glad you asked this question. great question in fact.
Kotick got ATVI out of the genre just in time. How is Ms. Pacman doing these days? Are dot eating maze games doing poorly because Namco mismanaged the Pacman franchise? OR had consumers simply moved on in a new environment offering them more choices?
When a genre is in decline, execs who have their ear to the ground get out fast. I'm impressed by how such a high level exec as Kotick is able to "read the street".
To answer my own question, I think Namco did a great job making dot-eating-maze games. Consumers got bored of the genre. It didn't matter how good the games were people were no longer playing those types of games. Likewise, consumers got bored of rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero and the entire genre fizzled. In this case the best thing for the publisher to do is to GTFO of the genre as fast as possible. Good job by Kotick and ATVI in doing this.
Guitar Hero died because consumers grew bored of the entire genre. ATVI milked it for all it could. This is no different than how Namco, Data East, Taito and Exidy milked the dot eating maze game for every dime and then bolted the nanosecond people stopped playing dot eating maze games.
When I read articles like the one posted above I have to wonder how much life experience the author has.
The ground would probably be pretty ripe for a singular Guitar Hero or Rock Band game where you get the kit and songs and then you enter the marketplace for new songs and content. As you say, those games were always going to drop off in popularity due to diminishing returns on what novelty each new iteration brought. It would seem to be a good fit for a stripped down, community-focused modular experience in a way that wasn’t really practiced in its heyday.
I digress somewhat, your point on Namco is basically my point on Activision’s portfolio now. It’s a few more eggs in a few more baskets but it’s a vaguely similar principle.
It may well be that it’ll never become any kind of issue, or ActBlizz will resolve it if it does shift that way.
interesting work culture, they have. Rather ironic Josh says they have no titles while listing his title. LOL. https://blog.bonfirestudios.com/not-entitled-3f48b441ee81 Along the same "no titles" philosophy Gearbox has their game credits roll with everyone named in alphabetical order along with no titles.
Its been how long since Pardo left? I hate to break up this party, however, I wonder when Bonfire is going to actually .. you know... like .. ummm .... make a game?
I can't really have much sympathy for Bonfire's employees if they start whining about how the "money guys" are wrecking things. They've taken so many years and developed nothing ... they are beholden to the people supplying the money.
as a games industry history buff i'm just lovin' one of the pictures in one of Bonfire's blog entries.
On March 26 2021 01:22 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Bonfire Studios eh?
interesting work culture, they have. Rather ironic Josh says they have no titles while listing his title. LOL. https://blog.bonfirestudios.com/not-entitled-3f48b441ee81 Along the same "no titles" philosophy Gearbox has their game credits roll with everyone named in alphabetical order along with no titles.
Its been how long since Pardo left? I hate to break up this party, however, I wonder when Bonfire is going to actually .. you know... like .. ummm .... make a game?
I can't really have much sympathy for Bonfire's employees if they start whining about how the "money guys" are wrecking things. They've taken so many years and developed nothing ... they are beholden to the people supplying the money.
as a games industry history buff i'm just lovin' one of the pictures in one of Bonfire's blog entries.
Dam, that was legit my first video game I think. Weird to have a nostalgia for a game I barely remember.
Also, lol to the rest of your post. I am reminded of Diakatana, which is a game I only recently learned about.
On March 24 2021 00:09 WombaT wrote: The ground would probably be pretty ripe for a singular Guitar Hero or Rock Band game where you get the kit and songs and then you enter the marketplace for new songs and content. As you say, those games were always going to drop off in popularity due to diminishing returns on what novelty each new iteration brought. It would seem to be a good fit for a stripped down, community-focused modular experience in a way that wasn’t really practiced in its heyday.
I think people getting bored is only part of what makes stuff go out of style and I bet Guitar Hero type games won't be viable in the current gaming landscape.
What I mean is that the way people game has just changed. Covid aside I think gaming has been moving away from the 'get your friends together to play' era that made Guitar Hero popular. I think mobile games might be part of it, but there is larger saturation of gaming consoles in general so gaming tends to take place more online than in person.
I am biased by my own experience with this, but I don't see many games these days that even have 'couch co-op' in mind anymore.
Now, a rythum game on mobile like you are describing with a good hook or some kinda inovation on the idea of rythum games in general could probably be a huge hit.
On March 24 2021 00:09 WombaT wrote: The ground would probably be pretty ripe for a singular Guitar Hero or Rock Band game where you get the kit and songs and then you enter the marketplace for new songs and content. As you say, those games were always going to drop off in popularity due to diminishing returns on what novelty each new iteration brought. It would seem to be a good fit for a stripped down, community-focused modular experience in a way that wasn’t really practiced in its heyday.
I think people getting bored is only part of what makes stuff go out of style and I bet Guitar Hero type games won't be viable in the current gaming landscape.
What I mean is that the way people game has just changed. Covid aside I think gaming has been moving away from the 'get your friends together to play' era that made Guitar Hero popular. I think mobile games might be part of it, but there is larger saturation of gaming consoles in general so gaming tends to take place more online than in person.
I am biased by my own experience with this, but I don't see many games these days that even have 'couch co-op' in mind anymore.
Now, a rythum game on mobile like you are describing with a good hook or some kinda inovation on the idea of rythum games in general could probably be a huge hit.
Thank fuck things have changed, I was embarrassingly awful at Guitar Hero haha, couldn’t work around my muscle memory of playing tons of actual guitar.
Yeah you’re right there, it’s a pity but rather understandable too. The Switch seems pretty decent in the play in person regard but that’s largely because of the whole family approach Nintendo go down.
On March 26 2021 18:23 Harris1st wrote: Maybe Guitar Hero has a second summer when VR and finger tracking becomes more widespread and you can use actual guiter moves in Guitar here
wow, interesting. thx for posting.
On March 26 2021 16:47 Tictock wrote: What I mean is that the way people game has just changed. Covid aside I think gaming has been moving away from the 'get your friends together to play' era that made Guitar Hero popular. I think mobile games might be part of it, but there is larger saturation of gaming consoles in general so gaming tends to take place more online than in person.
It is interesting how changes in culture ... and different cultures have an impact on any games' sales levels and any franchises' popularity. Often a change in the state of technology plays a critical role in changes to consumer tastes... but not always.
What would you rather play? A really well designed pinball machine... or "Pong". I'd rather play a well designed pinball machine. However, the option of "Pong" did not exist in the mainstream before the early 70s. As a result of this new tech, "Pong" and its variants became all the rage despite the fact that in terms of pure game play fun a Pinball machine was probably more fun.
Sometimes "fun level" and "great design" are not enough to sway consumers when improved technology gives rise to a novelty in the interactive entertainment marketplace.
Humans are strange animals... its very hard to predict their behaviour.
On March 26 2021 18:23 Harris1st wrote: Maybe Guitar Hero has a second summer when VR and finger tracking becomes more widespread and you can use actual guiter moves in Guitar here
This was actually another thing I thought of as well, especially since I think VR is going to be in the novelty stage for awhile here. I can totally see a group of friends going to a VR arcade instead of karaoke or something.
Only reason I didn't mention it is VR is in an odd place imo. It was the big thing a couple years ago but has fizzled out for a variety of reasons (my personal thinking is software hasn't caught up, also ppl are still learning how to design things for VR). I do suspect that VR will get a resurgence but I don't see it happening in the next year or two, maybe not even 5. I also don't think it will ever get to be like game consoles are now, at least with current tech, simply due to the amount of space and equipment needed. On top of all that VR needs great mainstream games to really find some legs.
Not to be dire, but even on top of all that I mentioned I am unsure if the disorienting effects and motion sickness that many experience can be worked out. At least not without moving into Scifi tech where we directly connect our nervus system.
I still think VR has potential even with all those issues, I just have a hard time seeing it moving outside a niche thing that only exists in specialized locations.
EPT
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