Comments on: A sign that Bioware are onto a winner?

By: Bernard

Bernard — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:32:33 +0000

EA have been working with 3rd party licenses for a very long time.

They have several successful KOTOR titles under their belt.

Even if the license is costing them an arm and a leg, I would argue that it is worth it in this case. How many non-MMO players will pick up Titan on the basis of brand recognition/nostalgia?

By: SpiritusRex

SpiritusRex — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:15:33 +0000

This is interesting on a number of levels. First, Kotick would be a fool to at least not acknowledge the elephant in the room (SWTOR) during an investor call. If Kotick did not acknowledge it could easily be construed by investors that (i) management of Activison is out-of-touch with events in the marketplace (release of SWTOR); or (ii) more importantly, being so comfortably arrogant about WoW’s marketshare that they could care less about competition. So, while at least making mention of SWTOR during the investor call, Kotick has now at least given a defensible position that “Hey, we knew about it, but we, as a company, did not think it was going to be as profitable as it was.” [Assuming, of course, that SWTOR becomes profitable]. On the other hand, if SWTOR does not live up to the gathering momentum of its profitably, Kotick can say, “See, we told you so.” On a second level, is Kotick’s throw away about Lucas Arts business dealings. By lending an economic underpinning to Activision’s failure to collaborate with Lucas Arts (i.e., LA requires a too hefty profit share to make a deal fair), he has given investors a reason why Activision has not pursued business dealings with LA. In essence, Kotick is saying to investors, “Look, it’s not profitable to do business with LucasArts and, therefore, we’re not wasting the company’s money to pursue deals with them.” What Kotick has basically done is business 101 when dealing with investors: 1 – acknowledge competition, 2 – downplay profitability of the competition; and 3 – provide a reason why the Company has not pursued an arrangement with the third-party that market competitors have. Say what you want about Kotick being a douche-canoe, but he is following textbook corporate management strategy.

By: Tremayne

Tremayne — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:33:14 +0000

I actually read two things into the actual quote from Mr Kotick:

First, the serious one – that he’s expecting TOR to get, and hold on to, a large number of subscribers. If that happens, his best bet to keep Actizard’s share price high is by telling investors that yeah, EA has as many people playing their game, but WoW subscribers are much more profitable than TOR subscribers, so Actizard is still the best bet for someone who wants to actually earn cash.

Second, the snarky reaction – looks like ol’ Bobby is admitting that he can’t negotiate a business partnership with Lucas that is advantageous to both parties. I reckon that says more about his own failings as a businessman than it does anything about TOR’s profitability. Sure, Lucas will be getting a big slice of the pie, but there’s more than enough TOR pie to go around.

By: thade

thade — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:30:17 +0000

“I don’t really understand…how economics work….”
*Fixed that for you, Mr. Kotick. <3

All joking aside, this kind of gentle mudslinging is pretty common at the investor level. Of course the current aging kings are going to do whatever they can (whether it seems to carry weight or not) to cast doubt on upcoming competitors. Consider the smaller MMOs that have come and gone over WoW's duration and how many of them Blizzard's brass considered worthy of such a "dismissing mention".

They'd be fools to not consider that Bioware's MMO is a very real threat to their subscriber numbers…and spoiler: they are not fools. Whether TOR will really hit them hard or not remains to be seen of course, but comments like this tell me the Blizzard brass is at least aware of the possibility.

By: smakendahed

smakendahed — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:53:57 +0000

There is something to what was said; Lucas will likely gobble up a fair portion of the profits. Still, yeah, it sounded a little worried.

By: João Carlos

João Carlos — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:54:36 +0000

After my first weekend beta test I don’t have doubts that SWTOR will make a huge profit.Before the test I had a lot of doubts… I was thinking that the US$ 300 million they used for make the game were lost for sure.

And I too don’t have doubts that WoW have the first big 100 ton T. rex competitor.

SWTOR is not revolutionary, but it is evolutionayr enough for be the big pubaa of all MMO and it is a strong competitor to the WoW’s throne. If any game can get more than 10 million players, that game will be SWTOR.

And take note that SWTOR can make the MMO market a lot bigger. A lot of players that never tryed a MMO will come just because the game is a “KOTOR online” or because it is Star Wars.

By: spinks

spinks — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:43:42 +0000

“I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts”

By: spinks

spinks — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:39:19 +0000

I saw it, but when a CEO takes a stab at rival’s potential profits during an investor call, I’m more looking at the reasons why he felt he needed to say that at that point.

By: Carson

Carson — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:35:30 +0000

Interestingly, several of the articles say things like “Kotick questioned whether his rival would make money off the “Star Wars” game” but none of the direct quotes from Kotick actually back that up. The direct quotes are all about how Lucasarts will be the principal beneficiary, not claiming that they will be the ONLY beneficiary.

By: Simon Jones who is blogless

Simon Jones who is blogless — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:58:06 +0000

Yes. This.

I’m not sure people actually read the article in question, which boils down to Lucasarts takes a pretty big slice of the Star Wars licensing pie and just saw the words ‘Kotick’ and ‘Swotor’ and made up their own article in their heads.