Remember how much the core gaming audience used to hate EA? While some of that sentiment persists, much of the disdain has been shifted to Activision Blizzard over the last couple years. CEO Bobby Kotick and the company as a whole have become the new "evil" publisher and the whole Infinity Ward situation certainly didn't help matters.
As a company, Activision has been supremely successful, thanks to the Guitar Hero music boom, which is now fading fast, two record-setting entertainment launches with Call of Duty, and of course, the money train that keeps on rolling in World of Warcraft. But with that success has come numerous layoffs and studio closures. Over the last year or so, there's been a real laundry list of developers affected (either with layoffs or outright closure)... Bizarre Creations, Budcat, Neversoft, RedOctane, Radical Entertainment, Luxoflux, and more.
When you compare the actions of Activision to the statements made by Kotick back at this year's D.I.C.E. Summit (about fostering development and independent studio culture), it doesn't necessarily align too well. We brought this up in our interview with Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who also compared the feelings towards Activision to how many gamers felt about PS3 just a couple years earlier.
"You have to make some tough decisions sometimes. Sometimes, really talented people get caught up in those, unfortunately. We have to manage our slate; we have to decide which genres and categories we want to try to compete in," Hirshberg began. "We also have to monitor and take a good hard look at the marketplace results and make the right decisions for our business. At the end of the day, even a company the size of Activision can’t compete in every genre, and shouldn’t. Focus is rewarded in this business. The companies who do it the best tend to have their areas where they really shine and make the best games in those areas. There’s a constant process of reevaluating whether or not we have the right slate, whether or not we’re making the right games, and then whether or not we have the right people involved with the company, and partners involved with the company to make those games. That’s a very tough process to manage. If you’re looking for proof of a narrative, it won’t be hard to find, in any video game publishing company, because it is a tough business, and lots of decisions like the ones you described get made."
He continued, "Even though it’s a tough business and even though you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do from a business standpoint, you never do the kind of things you’ve listed lightly. We don’t do the kind of things you listed lightly; they are excruciating decisions, particularly when there are talented people involved and we’re in a talented people business. That’s all video games are, a reflection of the work of talented people. We do everything we can to make the relationships with our developers work, and to find a commercially viable use of their talents, and it’s only when we’ve exhausted every other opportunity that the things that you’ve described happen. I want to make sure that comes across, because it really is true. We don’t ever make those kinds of decisions in a cavalier fashion, I can assure you of that."
Hirshberg also said that Activision has done a number of things to support its developers too. "[We've] also, on the other hand, done a tremendous amount of support for great games and great developers to the tune of pushing games into the following year and taking the financial hit in the current year because it’s just not great and it’s just not up to our standards yet. Doubling down with the production budget and the financial investment to bring that game up to a standard of excellence that we want to deliver for our fans. There are as many of those stories, if not more, as there are stories of closures and layoffs and things like that," he said.
"Those are the results of the business in many ways expanding and in many ways contracting. We live in a world today of fewer bigger hits. More and more of the sales in the industry are coming from fewer and fewer titles. Those titles are as potent and as powerful as ever, but it’s kind of a high stakes game when everyone’s trying to get into that upper echelon of performance and there’s no middle class, or a shrinking middle class if you want terms of performance. It’s a tough business, tough decisions have to get made from time to time. Hopefully, we’re making them for the right reasons. What I can tell you is since I’ve been here there’s not a day or an hour that goes by without a conversation or focus on creative excellence in delivering great gaming experiences to our fans. That’s what this place is focused on and about, and like I said, there will always be evidence if you want to find the other side of the story, but I do think the two sides can and do coexist."
If Activision is hoping to "repair" its image with core gamers, they've certainly turned to the right man. Hirshberg's only been with the publisher for a few months now, but his track record as a marketing expert speaks for itself. At advertising agency Deutsch LA, he was one of the main people behind the now hugely popular Kevin Butler marketing campaign for Sony, and that's done wonders for people's perceptions of the PS3 and other PlayStation products. Hirshberg hopes to help Activision in a similar way.
Can Hirshberg turn around gamers' perceptions of ATVI similar to what he did with PS3?
"I have Google, just like everybody else, and I’m of course aware of what the reputation is amongst core gamers, and there’s a narrative that I think has taken over reality to a certain extent," Hirshberg noted about how Activision's been received in the gaming community. "I think there’s definitely some disconnect between the perception and the reality. I would give you a couple of thoughts on that. If you go back in a time machine and read the general tenor in the blogosphere a couple of years ago about Sony PlayStation, it sounds a lot like what people are saying about Activision today. There’s a lot of disappointment in the PS3, and it was overpriced, and they’ve given up on the core gamer, and Sony Blu-ray… all those complaints were out there. It takes time sometimes to win peoples hearts and minds. I was a part of helping them turn around that image through the marketing of PlayStation, but also perception caught up with the reality. The reality is they put out a pretty great product and the versatility has become one of the key selling points, even with core gamers. My point is you’ve got to stay on the train, because the scenery changes."
He continued, "I think that some of Activision’s reputational challenges are not based in the reality of the company that I’ve experienced here so far. I would love to be a part of closing the gap between perception and reality, and I also like working in an industry that has such an engaged fan base that keeps you honest and keeps you focused on the right things. There’s no success in this business without delivering for gamers. I invite that; I love that. There was a pretty vocal community of people who commented on the advertising business as well, and I think that’s really good for creativity, ultimately, because the values of the people who are the most vocal you might agree or disagree with what they’re saying at any particular moment, but I think it’s pretty clear that everybody in the core gaming community wants great games."
More from Hirshberg, which you may have missed:
Activision: Infinity Ward Still 'One of the Most Talented Developers in the World'
Activision: Kobe Bryant Call of Duty Ad 'Controversy' is 'Very Hypocritical'
Activision Has 'Nothing But Love' for Harmonix, Not Giving Up On Guitar Hero
Activision: Tony Hawk Still Has Michael Jordan Type Staying Power
