Activision "might stop supporting Sony" Comments by Games Industry.biz

"
Have you heard of the multi award winning Left 4 Dead and its sequel L4D2? Its really very good.

Really, Bobby has just slapped PS3 fans in the face, kicked them in the nuts and finished them off with a chinese burn.......to the bell end.
"

brand addicts never acknowledge anything not on "their" system.

hick deads really.

Big trouble? Hardly.

Last month MS shifted 44k more units in the US according to NPD. That's not all that impressive considering the price disparity between the two platforms!

Its not a popular thing to point out, but MS sales performance isn't really all that. 15.2mil lifetime (42 months) in the US market is hardly stunning. Especially as its far and away the cheapest of the current gen machines.

Just drop the frickin price already Sony and all this "heated debate" crap will end. You'll sell more consoles and games and everyone will be happy :)

Except Wii owners who'll then also start demanding a price drop.....

what a load of bull. take up of PS3 has been quicker than take up of 360 when you align their launch dates.

"Its not a popular thing to point out, but MS sales performance isn't really all that. 15.2mil lifetime (42 months) in the US market is hardly stunning. Especially as its far and away the cheapest of the current gen machines. "

doesn't the main sku cost more than the wii?

mind you, it's never going to compete with Wii.. ninty have captured that old ps2 market.

I think that by now they were meant tobe getting massively outsold by the PS3, in that sense still selling more is quite a surprise really.

See, there's lots of people on here talking about console sales and whatnot, but the actual focus should be on attach rates. Either PS3 users do not buy as many third-party games, or if users have both systems, they're picking the 360 version. It's all well and good shouting about Sony's first and second party games, but the third-party publishers don't give a shit about that. And furthermore, Sony's problem, unlike Nintendo, is that it costs an absolute bomb to develop for PS3 compared to the Wii. Add this all together, and you can see why ActiBlizz might say something like this. Personally though, like most people, I just think it's Kotick throwing his toys out the pram to get what he wants....

Does anyone know how the worldwide monthly sales are doing between the PS3 and 360 (just out of curiosity)?

F*cking hell, donnie080208 are you farticus's twin?

You spout as much bollocks as he does.

@Donnie

Who is this Noboby and what did he think the PS3 would be?

"F*cking hell, donnie080208 are you farticus's twin?

You spout as much bollocks as he does."

It's the same person. C'mon, no-one else would say they "admire" Farticus' posts!

"i was just saying how much i enjoy and admire his posts"

try going outside sometimes dude!

"Les missed the point"

I seriously doubt it (as I'm rather intelligent - both a blessing and a curse as you have to deal with relatively more idiots). But please elaborate.

"if you would have told analysts 3years ago we would be having these debates and comments of a ceo of the worlds biggest publisher they would have been dumbfounded.NOBOBY thought the ps3 would be anything other than a massive triump."

True. That's because what analysts do is take the past and extrapolate that to the future. As the past didn't have a Wii they were completely off the mark.

"I must comment on the abuse FACTIMUS MAXIMUS gets for pointing out the blatant mess sony is in this gen.i have been reading his comments the last few weeks and he is a beacon of truth in these comments section.keep up the good work with your witty and articulate comments factimus"

I was referring to this part of your post.the rest is just waffle (in my opinion). Comments like "beacon of truth" place you firmly in the sycophantic my friend. Neither you nor the object of your affection (proved by your insistence on the misspell) work for Microsoft or Sony and so I cannot accept what you say on here as anything other than opinion.

can you possibly resist the urge to have a dig at sony in one of your posts? not even faRticus has a swipe every time he contributes. that's f-a-R-t-i-c-u-s.

cheers

can you possibly resist the urge to have a dig at sony in one of your posts?

the answer is a very clear, very definite: no

"It's the same person. C'mon, no-one else would say they "admire" Farticus' posts!"

Based on the first post I assumed satire. It's quite hard to imagine such a post to be 'real'... ;)

btw: about sales - which this is about. ww pick-up of consoles has been higher for ps3 - see above. also do not forget that ps2 still sells around as much (actually about 20-30% less) as the "current-gen" consoles.

a large part supposedly are consumers which still are on the fence towards "current-gen"?!

edit: spolleeng

PS3lol.

tbh, i have to question your games competetance for buying a PS3 alone. It never was a good deal, unless you wanted a Blu-Ray player. Which is in itself questionable in this age of downloads and mediocre uptake.

This time next year, maybe it'll be the beginning of the end.

@les
This is complete and utter bullshit so I guess he was misquoted. The other option is that the guy is an idiot. Given his function that's not completely unrealistic...

For those that don't get it: The number of games each console owner buys isn't dependent on the price of the console. A price drop won't make me as someone that already owns the console all of a sudden buy more games. So the attach rate has nothing to do with this. It would even drop if the price of the console was reduced as more people that buy relatively few games would get one (the non-hardcore).

So a big wig at Activision comments on his business and the future and just so I'm right you reckon you have a better understanding of his business?

Or do you work for Activision on their floor sign posted Arsehole Land?
Where free speaking lunatics were invited to comment at Activision headquarters for the day and really it was all part of an elaborate plan to lock you all up and throw away the key?

"Is it so offensive to say you agree and admire a poster on here?"

No, but admiring on a poster on a video game site is somewhat odd, maybe you could use your admiration somewhere more appropriate?

Given dev costs on the Sony platform, it may be more practical for some companies to simply not develope certain games for it.

I hope this doesn't go the way of the Dreamcast!

"So a big wig at Activision comments on his business and the future and just so I'm right you reckon you have a better understanding of his business?"

No.

"Or do you work for Activision on their floor sign posted Arsehole Land?"

No.

"Where free speaking lunatics were invited to comment at Activision headquarters for the day and really it was all part of an elaborate plan to lock you all up and throw away the key?"

And no.

I understand where you are coming from donnie.

Ouch, as COD is easily the biggest franchise/seller on PS3 so far all the industry must be losing tonnes of money on PS3

Sony need to lower their royalities to keep support, $500m on Royalties on profits of $125 = $375m loss!

I guess publishers do not mind losing money initially to support a platform but thats only if they see future profits.

I suspect the big sellers such as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero have perfectly safe futures on the PS3.

Bobby Kotick can shove the rest of Activisions high quality output, like 'Kung Fu Panda Kart Racing Shrek Party', up his fat arse for all I care.

Dare I say the 360's price may have an affect too, how many PS3 only owners is there who would go out and buy a cheap 360 just to play call of duty if they had too? Cuttings sales on the PS3 would increase sales on the 360.

So no sales on PS3 + more sales on the 360 - Sony fees = a lot more profit

As for people who have this strange belief that us none PS3 owners can't afford them, its more a case of not wasting the money on one, I could go and buy one right now if I wanted but why would I do a thing like that?

Go die in a hole you stupid fuckfaced cunt.

i also like calgon posts

Oh, what a surprise.

"Sony need to lower their royalities to keep support, $500m on Royalties on profits of $125 = $375m loss!"

Don't think that's right. Royalties are what is paid out of the RRP of a game to the console manufacturer, profits are what the publishers have left after costs. Costs include royalties.

It's interesting that Kotick seems keen to lose a significant amount of money from PS3 sales. I tend to keep track of the Chart-Track numbers each week, and most of the time the format spilt is around 55/60%-40/45% 360-PS3 (for games on the 360, PS3 and Wii, it's often closer to 50-30-20). Now, either Kotick assumes that all those people that own a PS3 also own a 360, and therefore the loss on PS3 sales will be picked up by an increase in 360 sales, or he hates money.

Personally, I own 3 multiplatform games on the PS3 compared to about 50 or 60 on the 360. I usually buy the 360 'cause most of my friends own 360s and it makes playing multiplayer easier. Also, the 360 is out first and had gamerpoints and, although they are completely pointless, all things being equal you may as well get them than not. As a final point, all things are NOT equal as the frequent Head to Heads on this very site prove. So, and this is an assumption on my part, I am willing to bet most owners of multiple platforms are already buying the 360 version. Which puts a nail in the 'PS3 to 360 sales conversion' point above.

So Kotick is happy to lose, at a low average estimate, 20% of all sales of his software? With no guarantee of return? Doesn't sound very likely. Especially if you consider that if you're making a game for the 360 the extra cost in porting to the PS3 isn't that amazingly great. At least, it's not in my experience. Extra dev kits, licensing, some programmers to do the PS3-specific coding, and some extra testing time don't really add up to the potential loss of thousands of sales in my book.

But a lot of this is speculation (based on common sense, the sales numbers, and my experience of multiformat development, something Activision should be incredibly good at...). And at the end of day everyone KNOWS that Sony is going to drop the price this 'Holiday Season'. Perhaps it should have been last year, but it doesn't seem like the first part of the year has been especially bad for them, so maybe not. It definitely will be this year, though.

Kotick probably knows it, too, which makes me wonder why he said anything at all. Just to make extra doubly sure (pissing off a bunch of people in the process)? Odd strategy.

Its a pretty stupid statement... I mean as others have said, its seems either a misquote or the guy is trying to reduce his payments.

First things first, software companies have to pay MS as well, so its not like this is a Sony thing. Perhaps Activision are paying more than MS and want a discount.. I wouldnt be surprised by that.

Isnt it also the case that you only pay for the number of CDs your print (royalty per copy/disk).. so either they are printing too many and not selling them? Or there is something else? Perhaps someone needs to do better stock control

Secondly, I can understand saying Xbox games are selling better, but Wii games? Unless that equates to we are making lots of shovelware that cost hardly anything to make and it sells enough copies to make a profit. Except for a few games, I dont recall many non Nintendo games doing that well in the charts (there are a few, but many/most do not appear).

The price cut is coming, we all know it, and we all know its coming with the Slim towards the end of the year. So saying 2010-2011 is when they will see if they continue to support it unless there is a price drop...seems alittle off.. .dont you think?

All very strange indeed.

Ineptpercy said: As for people who have this strange belief that us none PS3 owners can't afford them, its more a case of not wasting the money on one, I could go and buy one right now if I wanted but why would I do a thing like that?

*Newsflash* The World doesn't revolve around you.

Get this, stay with me as it'll totally blow your mind. Different people have different tastes. I have a 360 and PS3 (and Wii, for my shame) and amazingly I prefer all the first and second party games the PS3 offers and will have to come. Crazy I know but it's what I like.

"its a pretty stupid statement"

Jesus Christ how ironic!!!

The guy has all the EXACT facts and figurers to hand, no amount of armchair analysts working out figures based on things plucked out of their heads or estimates based on top 10 lists is gonna change the fact that THE MAN IN THE KNOW, is saying they are losing tonnes of money on PS3 games right now and to have any credibility at all you can not try and prove him wrong by compiling bts of info from hearsay and conjecture when all of us on hear no nothing compared to this guy.

@donnie

The only thing that's clear is your desire to see Sony fail, it seems, much Like Farticus does.

It would be a sad day if they were ever pushed out and MS were left to run rampant.

Oh how quickly people forget the huge amount of superb and varied games Sony delivered on their various platforms since 1995. You fickle wankers.

If I was Sony I would take this threat seriously.. If Activision were making money off of their PS3 titles what would possibly be in it for them by making a statement like this? Their bottom line obviously shows that at the current market share the money they have to invest to make PS3 titles doesn't give them a healthy enough return. I think you guys read far to much into it, this appears to me to be no more than basic business - they can't make a healthy profit on PS3 games so want sony to grow their market or they will be forced to drop support.

"Kotick probably knows it, too, which makes me wonder why he said anything at all."

Because he wants them to drop the price sooner rahter than later.

Despite posting record year after record year in revenues, the video game business is actually very bad at making real money. They can't really keep the costs under control. So what they need, when costs increase, is more consoles out there so that more games are sold. Wii is doing fine, 360 and PS3 aren't (360 looks good because PS3 looks so bad basically), especially not when you take into account that they require completely different software compared to the leading platform, at higher development cost. Couple that with the ongoing inability of a typical publisher to actually generate substantial sales on the leading platform and the business outlook isn't that great.

How to fix it? A) Stop just doing what you've always done and adapt your development and marketing of Wii titles to the people that actually own a Wii; B) Pray that somehow all of a sudden people start to buy the HD consoles in droves so that you can just continue with business as usual and reap reasonable profits and get your big, fat bonus.

B) isn't realistic but it requires the least effort from the side of the publisher so that is what they'll do. With 360 at a rock bottom price, there's not much to be hoped from that platform so naturally attention is focused on the rather pricey PS3. So pressure is put on Sony to take the loss so that they don't have to. Sony losing billions doesn't affect their bonus after all.

I personally don't expect a PS3 price drop to have the impact that 3rd party publishers pray for. Making it more affordable won't all of a sudden make it hot.

@Grogmonkey

Thank you for a level-headed post! Seems to be a lot of angst in this thread :P

From my perspective, coming as a PS3 and PC owner, Kotick is right in that the PS3 really needs a price cut to stimulate sales, especially in the current financial climate. Both the 360 and the Wii are cheaper, the 360 has the better cross-platform versions (ignoring the PC ofc) and the Wii is currently raping the family market for every penny they have.

But Kotick is a fool if he thinks people who own just a PS3 will buy a 360 just to play Activision games. There's no way in hell i'm gonna fork out for another console when i've got more important things to worry about. And he talk about attach rates is utter rubbish. I have bought 12 boxed games in the year i've had my PS3 and about another 8 psn games. None of them we're made by Activison. Perhaps he should worry about the dross his company is turning out rather than blow smoke about the platform holders.

Personally i think Sony will only come third in this generation, but will have a large enough install base to make dropping production for the PS3 a bad call in the long run. There are some seriously good exclusive games on the horizon which will shift boxes, of that i have absolutely no doubt. But Sony need to realise they have shot themselves in both feet quite a lot of times this generation and as a Playstation fan since its inception i can't help but wonder if they had shown a bit more humility and a bit better marketing and financial accumen, just how much of a success the PS3 could have been.

And on a slightly unrelated point, anyone who think digital distribution will be the sole source of game availability in the next 10 years is deluding themselves. Disc media will be the main source of game sales well into the next generation of hardware simply because of the size of game files - these days having a triple A title coming in less than 10 GB is probably quite unusual. streaming that data to tens of thousands of people every day would be hugely costly especially in bandwith terms, plus all the associated risks of large file downloads, plus the storage space the end user would require. I'm not doubting that it will happen eventually, but there has to be vast investment in global infrastructure first (i.e. fibre to your doorstep) for it to be commercially viable.

All imho natch, debunk as you see fit :)

Also considering stopping developing for the PSP. The PSP has an install base of 50m. Slightly less than the combined sales of 360 + PS3.

On the one hand, Kotick's continuing stream of utter bollocks really makes me want to repeatedly hit him in the face with a bus. On the other hand, erm...

Of course it's a move designed to put the frighteners on SCE, and as a result I sincerely hope that Sony flip Activision the finger and tell them to do one. Won't happen either way, not with an increasing userbase that provides both companies with substantial revenue, but as many have already pointed out, Kotick is just trying to play hardball with the percentages they have to shell out.

Also, fanboys. Your pointless, meaningless bleating makes me wish that you'd all die in a fire and do the gene pool a favour.

This is ridiculous, the only reason he's saying this is because if people buy a playstation 3 they won't have enough money to buy one of their games with some ridiculous expensive peripheral. Maybe if they focused on decent games (COD MW aside) without expensive add ons there wouldn't be a problem

151 comments does say one thing at least- no matter how you defend it, youre all worried!

"Get this, stay with me as it'll totally blow your mind. Different people have different tastes. I have a 360 and PS3 (and Wii, for my shame) and amazingly I prefer all the first and second party games the PS3 offers and will have to come. Crazy I know but it's what I like. "

Thats your problem not mine, I personally own Wii, 360 and PC. The Wii is good for the occasional good game and keeping the other half happy, the 360 is still around as I would rather keep it than sell it for next to nothing. The PC is the reason the 360 has little use now and the PS3 is completely redundant due to the PC.

As my point originally was saying the price isn't the issue of the PS3, its the price compared to how many good exclusives there is, right now there is 3 games I wish to play, so if I get them at £20 then thats £120 per game which doesn't represent good value to me.

@grogmonkey
"I usually buy the 360 'cause most of my friends own 360s and it makes playing multiplayer easier."

"I am willing to bet most owners of multiple platforms are already buying the 360 version."

I agree with your first point, if you have both systems, just buy whichever you have more friends with. But personally I buy *most* multiplatform on PS3 for that very reason.

(Caveat - No doubt I could easily fill up an entire friends list on either system, but I prefer playing with people I know predominantly in real life. Just the way the cookie crumbles in my case).

Hmm, in my haste I forgot to mention my PC gaming rig (consisting of a ATi 4870, 8gb RAM, Quad core CPU blah blah), for which I prefer using to play most FPS games including the excellent Left 4 Dead.

Frankly, your argument that the PS3 is redundant because of your PC is hilarious. It's the 360 that whores it's games out to the PC, not the PS3. Just another reason for me to buy less games for the 360.

"Oh how quickly people forget the huge amount of superb and varied games Sony delivered on their various platforms since 1995. You fickle wankers."

You're asuming that those same people were actually born a while before 1995... ;)

I didn't assume, I neglected to realise the point. ;)

Point is, even looking at just the PS2 there's no doubting that single platform has huge amount of great games for all tastes.

"Point is, even looking at just the PS2 there's no doubting that single platform has huge amount of great games for all tastes. "

Of course that is unquestionably true but what relevance does it have to Activisions profit forecasting?

Ever heard of digression?

I never understood why ppl tend to use their (older; cronological) age as badge, and something they like to collect and show others they have... a lot, the more the marrier, and shit.

I would like to be born tomorrow.

Oh how quickly people forget the huge amount of superb and varied games Sony delivered on their various platforms since 1995. You fickle wankers.
Social services? Not with my pay check.

miiiguel, stick to your native tongue as your attempts at jibes in English are totally lost in translation.

@ good(youmustbejoking)fella: Yeah I know, I'll keep on trying though, this urge to learn, up until now, brought me only good stuff. A xenophobe now and then spawns, but that comes with the territory.