In a recent conference call regarding their Q1 earnings for 2013, Activision has stated that they will be exclusively investing in large franchises from now on. They will be avoiding new franchise endeavors entirely, unless they see a way for those new franchises to render excellent profits.
“But I would say, when we look at new investments, we aren’t looking to do new investments unless they provide the kind of — same kind of scale and investment return that we have in our existing businesses.”
Furthermore, development time on these new titles will be truncated, allowing Activision to push out content at a much higher rate. It was also reiterated that the Wii U is to blame for the lack of sales in the Skylanders franchise. The Wii apparently also had “weaknesses” in regards to the franchise, despite its large installed base.
“Obviously, a growing installed base of family friendly consoles would be a benefit. And console prices and sales are one of the risks and one of the issues that we articulated for the fourth quarter. That said, we’ve done well despite weaknesses for both the Wii and the Wii U and seeing the Wii U take off would be great, but remains to be seen.”
getting ready to see some damage control.
The only one who’s been doing damage control lately is you.
If people dont want to buy their games, there is no need 4 damge control lol. Activision thought they were untouchable 4 a while, now they get to come down to earth.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I want my spiderman 1 from the PS1 HD remake. =[
Well you can probably throw that idea, as well as Crash/Spyro HD remakes, and the return of Guitar Hero is probably gone too…
Don’t the rights for the first Crash & Spyro games belong to Sony though?
Sony owns the publishing right for the first 3 Spyro game and the first 4 Crash game, while Activision own the right to the actual IP themselves.
I thought so. Would Sony have to go through Activision to do HD remakes or could they just do it themselves?
I would believe that they would have to go through Activision to do a HD remake as Sony can only publish the original PS1 games, a HD remake wouldn’t fall under that publishing right. So if Activision wanted to they could do a HD remake of the original PS1 game without Sony.
biggest ps1 hater on earth , but sir your right the only spiderman game ever orthpaying for
Which basically means, they care just for the money and nothing else
They’re out to make money, just like every other company.
Blame the people who lap up the annual releases of CoD and the like.
Bad move. Giant Blockbuster games are the ones that hurt the most when they fail. Truncating development times only causes the developers to put out shoddy products. Blaming your problems on other companies is a sign of failure WITHIN the company.
veru true
that’s why gaming is fucking diying, get ready for another crash
Well fucking said my friend.
MESSAAAAAAAAGE!!!!! And Well Said!
nintendo will probably shit a new huge ip after being backed up for so long……plop PLOP and it will be fine again….. then activision screws it up again. activision and a lot of big time developers might be the ones to go anyway because people are going to get sick of all the same shit…. plop PLOP
They can’t blame bad Wii U sales for bad profits, every game they’ve made/ platform it has come to is completely their choice…
They didn’t.
Or in other words “We are going to only make Call of Duty games”
That’s exactly what I thought.
LOL!!! Exactly. If they would respect Nintendo fans and give us dlc for COD, maybe more people would buy the dam game. Nintendo fans purposely didnt go all googoo and buy cod because we already know the BS this company has us go through starving us from DLC and lavishing everyone else.
Current big Activision franchises: COD, Skylanders, Spider-Man, Transformers, Guitar Hero (currently on hiatus), 007, not bad for one company.
Good thing I dont play any of those games. I thought it was fishy that you can’t download the spiderman game from eshop. Oh well their loss. I wish they would stop playing the blame game.
Activision killed the last 007 developers. And when you think how much better the games were during EA’s time with the franchise…
Nightfire, oh how I miss FPSs like you…
How are you gonna blame Nintendo on poor sales of Skylanders when it’s also on PS3 and Xbox360? Don’t blame one company!
They never said that all Skylanders sales are poor. Skylanders and Call of Duty have (according to their reports) been the #1 and #2 top selling game franchises for them.
that is what I thought, besides every one of the skylanders characters have activision on the box and out town is always sold out of them. so how that is poor sales???
The fucking give us back Crash, you pricks, stop hording it away.
Or just give him back to Sony. A PS4 exclusive Crash game made by Naughty Dog would be awesome.
Well that was what i was implying, Crash 3 is just amazing, the only pre PS2 game aside from Chrono Trigger that i put in my top 10
I miss Crash
So… Call of duty and Skylanders then.
Blah blah blah. Stfu , Cracktivision.
None of the Hardcore early Wiiu adopters wanted Skylanders , that’s why it didn’t sell. It will sell well on the platform in the years to come. At least your not sucking on a big lemon like EA is.
At least they havent say that those big bidgets games are not coming to wiiu.
The game coming this year will probably sell well if Nintendo’s marketing efforts for the Wii U are successful.
But Nintendo is only going to maraket there games third partys have to do it with there own by themself unless they have a wiiu exclusive feature.
If Nintendo markets the system well more will be sold. The more that are sold the more likely it is for people to buy Skylanders. Simple :)
If Activision released a Portal Master kit like they did with all other systems then some early WiiU adopters would have bought it.
a portal master for the Wii U, I bought one for skylanders Giants.
Lol, good idea shortening the development time of already rushed games. Soon they’re just going to be throwing together random things hoping it forms some sort of playable game. These other companies should be more like Nintendo and actually think about the game they are developing.
The only games I’m ever buying on release day are Nintendo games, because I know they’ll be top quality, unlike rubbish by these other companies.
I am genuinely shocked.
Damn it Activision just give me an HD remake of Vigilante 8 as well as 2nd offense, and a new 3rd installment and I will actually buy something from you.
So I guess that means CoD is gonna be twice a year instead of yearly?
Lol holy shit.
It kind of sickens me to hear every Company out there blaming Nintendo for their losses and faults as a company!
I second this. It’s like at this point you might as well blame Nintendo every time it rains when you want sunshine.
I was on the call yesterday. They didn’t blame Nintendo for anything.
Yea! They rehash a lot but activision is smart enough to know that this may be a trend of how the next gen would behave not just Nintendo.
And I quote:
“It was also reiterated that the Wii U is to blame for the lack of sales in the Skylanders franchise.”
Please, do explain to us how that is NOT blaming Nintendo for their own product not selling?
My Nintendo News said that, not Activision.
What call? If you mean the investor call then you must have been asleep because its posted all over the place and is public record. They did blame the Wii U, because they would rather point fingers than man up to their own faults.
I was on the call, Activision sent me the financial reports before that, and I have the transcript of the call after. What’s more, I just listened to a recording of the call again including the caller questions after the reports were given. So tell me, show me exactly the place I’m missing where Activision was blaming Nintendo for something. I have all the materials, so all I need is for you to show me.
Not blaming Nintendo directly, but blaming the Wii U’s slow launch numbers for the recent decline in their income.
Direct quote from bobby kotick’s part of the presentation:
” In addition, the newest console, the Wii U, has had a very slow start. All of these factors further heighten our concerns heading into the back half of the year, particularly during the very competitive fourth quarter.” It’s not truly blame but its a finger pointing tactic to lessen the questions he will have to field in regards to software sales from Q1 2013.
They mentioned a lot more than that including products and factors that have nothing to do with Nintendo though. Plus they were essentially saying that these various factors are a concern and something to look out for in the future – which is true, from a business perspective.
I agree with you and mr. Hirshberg on that. We will still have I see what they have in store leading into the second half of the year.
They have made many bad decisions as a company they did not release a Wii U portal masters kit they did not supply stores with figures in the first Skylanders game and made it very frustrating and time consuming to actually find the product and the entire game with figurines cost over $500 which most people would probably run away from so don’t blame anyone but yourself Activision.also why is there a lack of Activision download titles on E-shop?
Also worth noting this: “In April of this year, Activision Publishing launched Uprising, the second DLC Map Pack for Black Ops II on Xbox and we expect to launch Uprising on OTHER PLATFORMS later in the second quarter. Other than that, we have no other significant releases scheduled for our top franchises.” This could bode well or most likely poor for Wii U black ops owners.
Activision has been partners with Xbox for a while when it comes to Call of Duty. Xbox gets all of the DLC first plus some other exclusive stuff.
I know, that’s due to xbox’s exclusivity agreements on publishers. Not a problem but I would like to see the release of DLC on Wii U in the near future. Perhaps the lack of release of DLC on the Wii U is due to activision having to deliver DLC through the eShop instead of through their integrated store?
I have all the materials as well, sir and the information is right there in black and white. Not a direct “this is nintendo’s fault” statement, but definitely a bad omen for activision and their future with the Wii U. Perhaps totally dropping support for the console in the future, as soon as this fall.
I doubt that’s the case. They were talking about precautions with a lot of things including the global economy and the other next-gen consoles too. We already know for sure that they’re going to support those systems.
In fact, yesterday’s call probably had the longest opening disclaimer I have heard in a while when it comes to these conference calls. Listed a ton of things that could change the future outlook – none of which pointed directly or indirectly at Nintendo as being at fault.
What’s more, they said they were disappointed with a lot of other things like the loss of over 1 million WoW subs and the ineffective product and service marketing in China.
As far as I could ascertain, the call had no blame game going on or hints that they were going to abandon Nintendo.
Maybe noting abandonment was a little hasty, but I believe they will certainly scale back their support of Nintendo to try and keep in the black. That was my opinion.
Why do I have the feeling that the only great ideas that will come out on next gen (from third parties) (wii U, PS4 and Xbox) will be Indies only?
Yessss!!!!!
Reblogged this on Curiosidades na internet.
It takes time for people to realize the heart you put into what you do; don’t give up on new things just because you don’t put your heart into them!
Here’s an idea:
Let’s not innovate at all, let’s just rehash the same franchise over and over again!
This will certainly be a good business choice in the long run!
– said no one ever
No, Activision just said that.
EA too.
Most major publishers have at least one series that they do that with.
I say if they want to sell better, than freaking lower the price of the figures and add some new gameplay instead of just introducing new figures
I doubt skylander will probably last longer in the way its headed right now. Figures for 10 bucks and every new skylander games is just to introduce more figures to sell nothing else new. Yeah that will make the game sell very well.
It DOES sell very well. lol
^this
they say wii u is to blame for the failure of the skylanders franchise and say wii is also to blame. well from my experience trying to collect just one air skylander last year was a huge waste of time and every store was always completely sold out. ended up paying twice what i should have on ebay just so i could make progress with a bloody air skylander. so forgive me Activision for not getting sucked into a second round. the first game including all figurines cost me over $500. once again Activision, i’m sorry me and thousands of parents cant afford a second round… especially when their are new NFC games coming that look more fun. Also, i might have bought it for Wii U if it wasnt the only system you didnt release a portal owners kit for… so once again, i’m sorry i didnt buy your product aimed at children under 12. dont blame Wii U or Wii owners for your bad business practices.
Makes me wonder how Disney is going to pull this off lol.
They didn’t say Skylanders failed. They only said the Wii and Wii U had the weakest sales.
Activision is doing exactly what devs did with the 3ds: Make a shitty port, then bitch about it not selling well
Nintendo – Industry scapegoat since 1996.
blablhablahblahb
More Call of Duty
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1) Nintedward needs a hug ladies
2) Aeolus needs a hug and a girl friend
3) Walter Smith needs a hug and cookies
4) N-Dub nation needs a hug ladies and Pikmin 3
5) Alba, superfly, Sickr, need dance dance revolution U. Mario64mario welcome you need Retro’s game.
6) Nintendo commander needs a hug, monster hunter 4, Pikmin, more nintendo warriors speaking wisdom and more Miyamoto IPs.
7) I gamer need a hug, more Res revelations news, Okami2, beyond good and evil 2, star fox, pearl 3DS XLs. Goodness.
8) Neutron, well this one is priceless! Neutron needs prayers and salvation. So do Activision and goodness gracious EA lol.
I understand that they’re a business, but it’s sad that a company would choose to limit themselves like that.
Don’t I get a hug too? ;)
Activision and EA’s future?
http://www.p4rgaming.com/sony-shows-off-ps4s-power-by-announcing-45-developers-have-already-gone-bankrupt-making-games-for-it/
I guess this is a part of the reason why they didn’t snatch up the publishing opportunity for Bayonetta 2; they don’t want to do any paying for good games on their platform.
Well, if it’s even real, that is.
That’s the thing: I’m not so sure about that site anymore. It has some… questionable news. Like Iwata punching a journalist at some meeting. What?!
i guess we wont be getting rid of the plague that is Call of Duty anytime soon then. If you want to make money you need to stop rehashing the same games over and over again, people like new and fresh experiences, if you give them that then thr games may sell out and make a profit
the*
Activision needs to shut the fuck up Nintendo is not the reason why your stupid Call of Duty and Skylanders didn’t sell well. Seriously just shut the fuck up.
This is sad….people hammer Nintendo for not making new IPs and now Activision just confirmed they won’t be making any….so who looks foolish now?
The Skylanders games are short on content and gameplay.
Activision is shaping up to be a really really… annoying company.
People hate on EA a lot, and while neither company is perfect, I have found a lot of more distasteful business practices with Activision.
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Maybe this is why gaming is taking a nose dive… Companies only want to creat mega block busters. Why not create games that may become block busters. Take a chance. Games that ake the chance become the block busters.. Sky landers for instance could have failed bad and the what. But because they took a chance, they created a blockbuster..
Given that this is Activision I am not in the least bit surprised.
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They dont want to do new stuff yet they are with Bungie and DESTINY lol. By the way Destiny on Wii U = Win!
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Kotick also emphasized how hard it is for a company that has a perfect skylanders swap force
opening status. Exploding Fireblast: The central” Flameball” s
instead of onee arrow, and his base is decorated inn purple crystals.
And then make the opening with your left index finger and pull out.
I think skylanders swap force opening it’s going to be doing the work.
The shares were only up 5. Combat can feel a little bit of
an idea of the size of the other models are.