Blizzard dies and Bobby rides

GuardianX · Feb 11, 2022

Abigailicious said:
$150+ million dollar payout to a sociopath CEO, that's not capitalism, that's not even evil capitalism, that's corrupt cronyism and vile technocracy.

One of the most successful game industry CEO's ever?

I mean I'm not on his list of payoff people but yall need to keep perspective when you rant on people.

It makes sense, but it doesn't taste well. The man is the most recognizable name in the game industry from outsiders and within the industry, the man makes people money.

---

Do me a favor, right now (WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP ON GOOGLE) tell me the name of a CEO in the gaming industry that is within 10% of ATVI's ~8 BILLION dollars a year revenues. Heck I'll give you ~70% of that, name me a CEO of a gaming company that pulls in revenue over 2 billion a year.

Bobby Kotick is a brutal businessman, the guy made MONEY for all his investors.

I'm actually more shocked that he didn't pull in more, to be honest. When I heard it was just under 1/2 a billion I really wondered about the "Why" of it. The acquisition was so big the amount of acquisitions over it is under 20 in the last 50 years.

Burren · Feb 11, 2022

GuardianX said:
One of the most successful game industry CEO's ever?

I mean I'm not on his list of payoff people but yall need to keep perspective when you rant on people.

It makes sense, but it doesn't taste well. The man is the most recognizable name in the game industry from outsiders and within the industry, the man makes people money.

---

Do me a favor, right now (WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP ON GOOGLE) tell me the name of a CEO in the gaming industry that is within 10% of ATVI's ~8 BILLION dollars a year revenues. Heck I'll give you ~70% of that, name me a CEO of a gaming company that pulls in revenue over 2 billion a year.

Bobby Kotick is a brutal businessman, the guy made MONEY for all his investors.

I'm actually more shocked that he didn't pull in more, to be honest. When I heard it was just under 1/2 a billion I really wondered about the "Why" of it. The acquisition was so big the amount of acquisitions over it is under 20 in the last 50 years.

Alphabet blue hairs and basement dwellers don't understand business or the real world. You're wasting time, my friend.

Hekotat · Feb 11, 2022

GuardianX said:
One of the most successful game industry CEO's ever?

I mean I'm not on his list of payoff people but yall need to keep perspective when you rant on people.

It makes sense, but it doesn't taste well. The man is the most recognizable name in the game industry from outsiders and within the industry, the man makes people money.

---

Do me a favor, right now (WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP ON GOOGLE) tell me the name of a CEO in the gaming industry that is within 10% of ATVI's ~8 BILLION dollars a year revenues. Heck I'll give you ~70% of that, name me a CEO of a gaming company that pulls in revenue over 2 billion a year.

Bobby Kotick is a brutal businessman, the guy made MONEY for all his investors.

I'm actually more shocked that he didn't pull in more, to be honest. When I heard it was just under 1/2 a billion I really wondered about the "Why" of it. The acquisition was so big the amount of acquisitions over it is under 20 in the last 50 years.

Yeah, he's the reason most games aren't fun anymore either. That was his goal in life to remove fun from games and he has succeeded. The industry will continue to decline as these practices increase for the pursuit of money rather than the pursuit of a good product, just like most every other industry right now.

GuardianX · Feb 11, 2022

Hekotat said:
Yeah, he's the reason most games aren't fun anymore either.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh

You are really gunna have to refine that statement, I ASSUME you mean "most Triple A Games", in which case I would say that the biggest detrimental factor to triple a games is their budget getting so big that the financial people just green-light anything.

This all falls into my belief that people should struggle because struggle makes things better.

Sure struggling sucks but think about it this way, the term "Trust Fund Baby" is an entirely negative term denoting that a person never had to struggle to achieve anything of worth and they are entirely living off the work and effort of another. Taken another way, that person CANNOT live on their own means because they haven't fallen, they haven't figured out that you have to get dirty to get back up.

This can nearly be applied to all things. Without struggle you get shitty, meaningless content that is meant to be CONSUMED not enjoyed.

It all ties into these companies having more money than sense at a certain point. They hire people that fit diverse rules, they hire friends of friends, and ultimately they then have a bunch of fucking morons working there that all try to grab the wheel and steer.

---

Rant aside, there are a TON of games out there that don't fall into any of the models that Bobby Kotick envisioned. Hell he didn't even pioneer micro-transactions, that was our good friends from Everquest leadership in a couple failed ventures.

Given the landscape of games being so absurdly vast, you can play a genre of entertainment without even touching a major development studio.

My major problem with placing the blame at his feet is that it gives a pass to a ton of other shitty triple A devs because people forget all the shit other people do.

nu_11 · Feb 11, 2022

Hekotat said:
Yeah, he's the reason most games aren't fun anymore either.

The reason most games aren't fun anymore is because the average consumer has a zero taste and will knowingly buy the same crap every year

Khane · Feb 11, 2022

nu_11 said:
The reason most games aren't fun anymore is because the average consumer has a zero taste and will knowingly buy the same crap every year

Case in point. The Lost Ark thread on this very forum

Daidraco · Feb 11, 2022

Khane said:
Case in point. The Lost Ark thread on this very forum

The games f2p. While you hate the game, Im just over here buying up all kinds of freeness.

Khane · Feb 11, 2022

I dont think you understand why I actually hate the game. Which is why you use the "F2P" line. Its WoW on steroids. More dailies, more time gates, more gear resets, but also with a cash shop to bypass. And because of that cash shop people for some reason forget about all the mechanics that make the cash shop thrive. It's the weirdest gaming phenomenon there is.

All the same people who complain about those garbage mechanics in other games suddenly defending them when a cash bypass is put in place because "you dont HAVE to spend money, you can just create 5 alts and play 10 hours a day doing dailies and trading the mats to your main! What's the big deal?". Its the antithesis of logic.

People in that thread are already complaining that because the servers are down they are going to miss their dailies

It's truly mystifying.

Ukerric · Feb 12, 2022

Daidraco said:
The games f2p. While you hate the game, Im just over here buying up all kinds of freeness.

The thing is, if the game is F2P, then it has been designed around getting people to fork money in micro-transactions. There's no going around it. A game that is designed to be F2P has to include those hooks, and hobble "normal fun" to make it potentially profitable enough.

So yea. It's free, which by design means it's shittier than it could have been.

Chysamere · Feb 12, 2022

Khane said:
I dont think you understand why I actually hate the game. Which is why you use the "F2P" line. Its WoW on steroids. More dailies, more time gates, more gear resets, but also with a cash shop to bypass. And because of that cash shop people for some reason forget about all the mechanics that make the cash shop thrive. It's the weirdest gaming phenomenon there is.

All the same people who complain about those garbage mechanics in other games suddenly defending them when a cash bypass is put in place because "you dont HAVE to spend money, you can just create 5 alts and play 10 hours a day doing dailies and trading the mats to your main! What's the big deal?". Its the antithesis of logic.

People in that thread are already complaining that because the servers are down they are going to miss their dailies

It's truly mystifying.

Careful bro, if you shit talk their game too much

Kirun will come in here and give you a vacation from the forums.

Everyone knows if you silence a person criticizing your game, it proves you are right and you win.

Chris · Feb 12, 2022

GuardianX said:
One of the most successful game industry CEO's ever?

I mean I'm not on his list of payoff people but yall need to keep perspective when you rant on people.

It makes sense, but it doesn't taste well. The man is the most recognizable name in the game industry from outsiders and within the industry, the man makes people money.

---

Do me a favor, right now (WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP ON GOOGLE) tell me the name of a CEO in the gaming industry that is within 10% of ATVI's ~8 BILLION dollars a year revenues. Heck I'll give you ~70% of that, name me a CEO of a gaming company that pulls in revenue over 2 billion a year.

Bobby Kotick is a brutal businessman, the guy made MONEY for all his investors.

I'm actually more shocked that he didn't pull in more, to be honest. When I heard it was just under 1/2 a billion I really wondered about the "Why" of it. The acquisition was so big the amount of acquisitions over it is under 20 in the last 50 years.

Jews with lots of capital buy successful buisnesses and take credit for the success, then retards like this defend them.

Please explain how Bobby Kotick helped Candy Crush, Call of Duty or WoW be successes.

BoozeCube · Feb 12, 2022

Chris said:
Jews with lots of capital buy successful buisnesses and take credit for the success, then retards like this defend them.

Please explain how Bobby Kotick helped Candy Crush, Call of Duty or WoW be successes.

Still dumb as fuck about business I see... Bobby bought Activision back in the 90's, do you see this graph you stupid fucking retard that is why he gets paid. It has nothing to do with the games. You retards still think making a good game matters. It matters about as much as McDonalds making a good burger... It doesnt matter at all once you stupid failure dipshit fucks can understand that basic concept you might not be a poor as fuck teacher who raises rapist goatfuckers in your own country.

Chris · Feb 12, 2022

BoozeCube said:
Still dumb as fuck about business I see... Bobby bought Activision back in the 90's, do you see this graph you stupid fucking retard that is why he gets paid. It has nothing to do with the games. You retards still think making a good game matters. It matters about as much as McDonalds making a good burger... It doesnt matter at all once you stupid failure dipshit fucks can understand that basic concept you might not be a poor as fuck teacher who raises rapist goatfuckers in your own country.

What did Bobby personally do?

Again he just bought already successful companies, they bought Candy Crush in 2016 not in the 90s.

This kind of capitalism where corps buy each other adds no value to society at all.

Cybsled · Feb 12, 2022

BoozeCube said:
Still dumb as fuck about business I see... Bobby bought Activision back in the 90's, do you see this graph you stupid fucking retard that is why he gets paid. It has nothing to do with the games. You retards still think making a good game matters. It matters about as much as McDonalds making a good burger... It doesnt matter at all once you stupid failure dipshit fucks can understand that basic concept you might not be a poor as fuck teacher who raises rapist goatfuckers in your own country.

Good games still mattered. Despite what people believe, you don't get sustainable long term profits/growth if you just churn out shit. Take a look at their late 90s history - they gobbled up a lot of studios during that time and provided some seed funding to make some high profile game series, like Tony Hawk and CoD.

Bobby did have a good sense for what would be popular or marketable. Despite what franchises later became, greenlighting stuff like Overwatch 1 was a good choice. The gaming community hated him because he would push for more and more versions of that original game in a series, until it no longer was profitable. Or push for a game series to change to maximize dollars earned, even if long term it might be to the detriment of the game. Activision isn't alone in that (hello Electronic Arts), although EA doesn't get much love for those practices either

Gutterflesh · Feb 12, 2022

Big Phoenix · Feb 12, 2022

Lets be real here, Activion's profits havent come from producing quality games its come from cosmetics and other micro transactions. The fact one of the marquee studios has turned to absolute shit should be a telltale sign good management isnt going on over there.

joz123 · Feb 12, 2022

In their eyes it's good management. They just need to put out something playable and thrown on the DLC's.

xmod2 · Feb 12, 2022

BoozeCube said:
It matters about as much as McDonalds making a good burger.

This is where people keep talking past one another. If you're concerned with making good games, Bobby Kotick is terrible at his job. If you're concerned with making good money, then he's great at it. There is a fundamental and philosophical disagreement about the 'point' of a game company. From that perspective, Bobby can be both very very good and very very bad at his job.

GuardianX · Feb 12, 2022

Chris said:
Jews with lots of capital buy successful buisnesses and take credit for the success, then retards like this defend them.

Please explain how Bobby Kotick helped Candy Crush, Call of Duty or WoW be successes.

Are you joking right now?

The direction of capital investment is a cornerstone of a CEO. Sure they make some of it at the behest of the CFO or others in the company but the CEO is directly responsible for issuing the final guidance.

I don't know why you all are trying to fight this so hard, he did his job, made BILLIONS per year, I don't know how you could argue that he wasn't a good CEO.

He bought companies that did well?

YOU MEAN LIKE EVERY SUCCESSFUL COMPANY EVER?

Have you looked into other companies and the purchases they make?

Chris said:
What did Bobby personally do?

Again he just bought already successful companies, they bought Candy Crush in 2016 not in the 90s.

This kind of capitalism where corps buy each other adds no value to society at all.

So wait, now we are jumping to "He didn't PERSONALLY do anything!" as an argument?

So, by this logic, all managers who don't directly add to a project and just DIRECT people to action should be fired.

I mean lets apply that to education, principals should be let go?

Come on now man, you are a teacher, you need to at least think critically and let go of emotion.

xmod2 said:
This is where people keep talking past one another. If you're concerned with making good games, Bobby Kotick is terrible at his job. If you're concerned with making good money, then he's great at it. There is a fundamental and philosophical disagreement about the 'point' of a game company. From that perspective, Bobby can be both very very good and very very bad at his job.

I get what you are getting at but people need to understand that it's not the purpose of a CEO to be likable or to ensure that a company is producing content that is enjoyable by all standards. Sure those things may be a BYPRODUCT of their roles interaction with the market and their purpose but they aren't the primary purpose.

Also I do think that it's a bit silly to say that the companies that he oversaw DIDN'T make good games. They didn't make games that WE like but people here need to understand that games like FARMVILLE make an ABSURD amount of money because they know how to fine tune the line between milking their userbase and providing an entertaining / enjoyable game.

Most of us share the standpoint that the process of that tuning is shady as shit, and I 100% agree, It's predatory as fuck. There is a LONG list of games and game types that I won't ever let my kids play because they are nothing more than emotionally manipulative gambling simulators.

The unfortunate reality is that people find those games enjoyable AND people spend a ton of money in those games. So what do you tell a business, don't venture into that model?

---

CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is the highest-ranking employee within any organization; they report to the Board of Directors.

corporatefinanceinstitute.com

Chris · Feb 13, 2022

GuardianX said:
Are you joking right now?

The direction of capital investment is a cornerstone of a CEO. Sure they make some of it at the behest of the CFO or others in the company but the CEO is directly responsible for issuing the final guidance.

I don't know why you all are trying to fight this so hard, he did his job, made BILLIONS per year, I don't know how you could argue that he wasn't a good CEO.

He bought companies that did well?

YOU MEAN LIKE EVERY SUCCESSFUL COMPANY EVER?

Have you looked into other companies and the purchases they make?

So wait, now we are jumping to "He didn't PERSONALLY do anything!" as an argument?

So, by this logic, all managers who don't directly add to a project and just DIRECT people to action should be fired.

I mean lets apply that to education, principals should be let go?

Come on now man, you are a teacher, you need to at least think critically and let go of emotion.

I get what you are getting at but people need to understand that it's not the purpose of a CEO to be likable or to ensure that a company is producing content that is enjoyable by all standards. Sure those things may be a BYPRODUCT of their roles interaction with the market and their purpose but they aren't the primary purpose.

Also I do think that it's a bit silly to say that the companies that he oversaw DIDN'T make good games. They didn't make games that WE like but people here need to understand that games like FARMVILLE make an ABSURD amount of money because they know how to fine tune the line between milking their userbase and providing an entertaining / enjoyable game.

Most of us share the standpoint that the process of that tuning is shady as shit, and I 100% agree, It's predatory as fuck. There is a LONG list of games and game types that I won't ever let my kids play because they are nothing more than emotionally manipulative gambling simulators.

The unfortunate reality is that people find those games enjoyable AND people spend a ton of money in those games. So what do you tell a business, don't venture into that model?

---

CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is the highest-ranking employee within any organization; they report to the Board of Directors.

corporatefinanceinstitute.com

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He bought Candy Crush because it was making millions then allocated capital to market and develop Candy Crush. Genius.

Blizzard dies and Bobby rides

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