Explaining the hostility to one of gaming's biggest publishers.
From the column:
"In a week that saw the departure of Infinity Ward's Jason West and Vince Zampella from the Call of Duty developer, there has been much debate as to who was at fault. Are the former Infinity Ward guys tortured geniuses, hamstrung by the oppressive bureaucracy of their publisher? Or are they wailing prima donnas who tried to use the financial clout of their only franchise to batter their publisher into submission? Truth is, we don't know and, for as long as the story endures, every day someone will publish a new insight into the controversy. However, although the community may be split over who is to blame, it seems gamers can all agree on one thing: they hate Activision."
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
I actually like Activision... well, the Blizzard part of it >_>
Good points, well made. Activision needs to change just like EA did.
There's no doubt Activision has a bad rep, but the games coming out of it aren't too bad. Mostly.
Activision just seem to bully their games to the shelves. The only real franchise that is good now is call of duty, and even that's getting a little stale. The Blizzard thing is irrelevent. Blizzard don't need activision, but activision really do need them.
I know why I hate Activision.