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

@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.

i do not want sony to go the way of sega but to be taught a valuable lesson you dont know what youve got till its gone(its fanbase). then maybe the ps4 will be a more complete GAMING console because of this.

@ 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.

Do you know the meaning of the word xenophobe?

Only the internet can spawn irrational behaviour. *sigh*

@ good(you'rekillingmenow)fella: yes, xenophobe is easy..., it's scarily close to the one used in my "native" language. But thanks anyway, maybe you can help me someday with conditionals.

Ah, you're still clueless I see. You really shouldn't try to confuse things with this language barrier. My use of the word native isn't racist or xenophobic. Look it up, it's what 'we' call colloquial.

I don't belive we're from diferent races, unfortunatly, though, when someone says I shouldn't try to comunicate with other individuals and "stick to my native tongue" I might not find it coloquial, and hence mistaken it for "xenophobia". But then again, I can be wrong, and might as well be, after all, a "goodfella". Let's hope it's just a brand thing and stuff.

I just want to know what you meant by "Social services? Not with my pay check."?

good to have read some more informed posts on the last page. thanks.

who has a clue as to why miiiguel and goodfellow are not taking their argument up through pm?

oh that... and I thought it was the "born tomorrow" shit. Language barrier, indeed (and, ufff..., it is a brand thing, that left me happier, no bullshit now, believe me!).

So, let me try another analogy: Don't ask me to pay for some service a multinational did in the past, I mean, I'm all for the social state, European way and all, I pay for my parents (read: "previous generation") retirement. Do the same for corporations? No way.

Oh well, maybe I'm indeed tired and talking too much bullshit, and it's reaching a considerable level of schizophrenia (is taking me home), written in a non "native" language.

I'm going home.

wft is he talking about? ^ ^ ^

This is pure gaming politics. Why go public with something like this? Activision have become one of the most disliked names in gaming in less then 18 months with their focus on sequels and pricey extras plus canning various original titles and this is just their way of saying 'were in charge Sony, do as your told'. Very similiar attitude to EA a few years ago.

Yes, I do agree a lower price would help put more consoles in more homes meaning more potential sales but for the worlds largest publisher to ignore the millions of PS3 owners makes no financial sense.

And yes I know I cant spell.

"Frankly, your argument that the PS3 is redundant because of your PC is hilarious."

I don't see why that is so funny, as it is my pc is quite similar but a OC'ed dual core and 4GB ram, so surely you see the same as me. Multi format is best on PC (specs allowing) which covers most games these days. In my case its plugged into the same TV and sound system as everything else, it plays blu-ray (and HD-DVD) is a truly amazing media player.

So to say the PS3 is redundant due to my PC is a very fair comment, yes it won't play the PS3 exclusive games, to me that means I am missing 3 games (personal opinion) so £300 to play 3 games is rather poor. Likewise the PS3 won't play PC Exclusives so I am quite happy playing warhead instead of killzone 2.

Can i ask you, what is the point in someone going out and investing in a PS3 over a 360? When the average punter doesn't even have access to a HD screen, let alone the inclination to buy Blu Ray discs.

For half the price, you could have an Xbox 360 and spend the rest on a fuckton of AAA pre-owned games.

@Goodfella
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.

My PS3 is redundant because of the PC. Although that's nothing do with buying multiplatorm games and more to do with there isnt much on the PS3 that interests me, and there is plenty on the PC. I simply prefer it as a games platform. PS3 makes a great media center though for streaming stuff to my TV from the PC

The second statement is worst peice of 'console argument' I have ever seen. Neither console "whores" or rather ports their games to the PC. The developers do...

I really don't think he ment to say attach rate as that makes no sence! As it has no baring on the number of consoles sold.

You could sell 1 million and have an attach rate of 10, so 10 million software units sold

Or have sold 5 million but only have an attach rate of 1.

Devs just need as big a potential audience as possible which they would get by PS3 dropping price, as despite the 360 being cheap there are still a fair number of people sticking with sony and making do with PS2 until they can afford a PS3.

Also surely by now porting costs between 360 and PS3 must be quite low now so surely not supporting PS3 would just reduce their sales, which when games like Call of duty are selling in excess of 4 million on each console that's a lot of sales to loose. Especially when there are plenty of games being produced to a similar budget that are seen as succesful for have sold just a million copies in total!

But more importantly there's a fair amount of evidence to support a PS3 price before the end year any so I don't see the point in making such a public statement that could damage their relationship with Sony.

I stopped cheer for sony after they released PS3, i just could'nt get the price even with all things that go with the bundle but i don't need them...why ? because if console keeps being stuffed with players, inet, wi fi and such crap then its already not a console its another computer =/ Sony however more than big asshole in this case, pushing out a BD was good thing about size of the disk doubles or tripples but it costs so fucking much for an ordinary teens that buying it becomes a problem. I don't know how about other europe countries but in mine PS3 60Gb costs x2 price of its originals, pretty cool huh ? No comment about the games as well which cost 1/4 of usual work payment. I know its just this country's prob but being a fat jerk as they and giving to kids a most expensive present of all consoles + even more expensive games for them is so cheap. money is all they ever wanted

It is understandable even if they still make a profit on the PS3 version.

If the cost of making a ps3 version of a game is large enough to make it a better investment (in terms of returns) to make a whole new 360 game/360 dlc then why would you make a PS3 version instead of using that money to create something for the 360 with better returns per invested £.

Ask the stockholders...

When PS3 drops in a price will be after they release PS4 its so predictable. Nothing was holding Sony from making a Dual Layer DVD as default format for their games. Just look how Xbox360 handling it right way, and there is nothing bad about making even 2 disks game or even 4! Remember Final Fantasy VII or VIII i even didnt care about amount of disks, sony just bitching out of own lard

donnie - "I admire his posts and his syntax whats odd about that?"

Might as well just sling an intelligent word in there to subtly convince everyone how clever you are. S'alright; close the thesaurus - no-one noticed.

Everyone knows the biggest mistake Sony made was the price of the PS3 (or rather, shoehorning Bu-ray in and having a shitty architecture). But Sony has learned a lot in the last few years.

Then they release the PSP Go for 250 quid.

Maximusfarticus and farticusmaximus FIGHT

Ill add Activision to my list along with THQ of game companies I never buy titles from.

Shitty plastic peripherals galore, and overrated shooters with 32 bit era design choices (infinite spawning enemies and exploding barriers in alleys you arent meant to go down. Fucking bionic commando and superman 64 were punished for that shit, cod is no different).

Infamous is better than prototype. Killzone is better than call of duty 16. Skate is better than tony hawk 47. Rock band is better than guitar hero 12.

No-one would miss not having activision games.

I think you guys are all missing the most important point:

The guy making this threat is the same person who shitcanned a load of good and exciting projects last year because they weren't suited to be exploited with yearly version updates.

The same guy who's now trying to prevent Brutal Legend from seeing the light of day.

For these and many other reasons, fuck Activision.

Oh, and one other thing; Activision games are the most overpriced pieces of shit on the market. People complain about Nintendo keeping their games at full RRP, but Activision have kept cod4 at 20% above the average RRP since it released. Gouging cunts.

I think that we can wrap this up by say that the PS3 is dead in the water. Sony cannot afford to keep losing the money that they are at the moment. The reason that they haven't dropped the price is because they can't afford to.

They failed with the online aspect when that was the great new thing, they failed with the motion controller, they have failed with the games and the third party developer relationships!

Someone said earlier that they felt sorry for people who can't afford the PS3... I have a PS3 and I'm feeling pretty bad for spending the money on something that is so bad.

I don't blame activision for bailing on a failing platform. How long before the others follow?

Sony should stick up the fist and extend it middle finger to Acti.. Who the F$$$ is ACti to tell others what to do? If they don't like, go to develop games 4 PC or something.. Like I care..

Acti sold 10 million copies of Modern Warfare 1, 35% are on Sony's platform.. they stand to loose 3 to 4 million copies.. And look at what they did with Brutal Legend.. this company is becoming the OLD EA..

If our game industry run by ppl like Acti, our game industry will go nowhere.. I think Sony should do what Nintendo power do before let ET incident hit our beloved platform

remember what is written in the article are just a few quotes from a full interview. this and other articles are written/edited to intentionally mislead and provoke. the fact that the ps3 is hard to develop for is no news as even Kazuo Hirai famously said http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56844 The point activision was making is they pay more money to sony to produce the same game on the xbox, but however they sell more on the xbox, and it takes more effort, time and money to develop for the ps3 and hence its a triple whammy for them. Due to the fact that Activision pay a flat rate to sony they would benefit more from having more people owning the ps3 as it increases their potential customers. For Sony it doesnt make financial sense to sell more ps3 as they are losing money for every console sold, they would rather try and sell more software than consoles.

"I think that we can wrap this up by say that the PS3 is dead in the water.... "

I disagree I'm quite excited about PS3 at the moment, in fact PS3/PSP might (I say might) just make a turnaround, could 2010 ACTUALLY be the year of the Playstation? Why? The mistakes are over. slow BD drive embarassment, loosing GTA, Tekken, Rumble, Home, official firmware PSP, media on PSN, Blu pricing.Phill Harrison and David Reeves gone. All these things are now starting to finally fall into place.

Vidzone is a great (free) service, coupled with the long overdue video store will really start to show the real potential of a PS3 to many who just (somehow) do not know what their own hardware can do. It's shocking it's taking so long TBH. Anyone know what they charge in the states BTW? I'm wondering what the price will be is there any chance it's DRM free when you buy to own?

Exclusive games wise, sure it's lacking that's the area I'm still most critical and it's only got some gametime lately from FVII and Ghostbusters (yes I got it after all busting makes me feel good and it's bloody good - import it 360 guys!). E3 showed some goods though and all Sony really need to do is somehow stick PS2 back in, get off the quirky niche stuff and more on the stuff that made PS1/2 so great. "home" of the "Playstation brand" not scraps and years of wait or canned/left to rot series Sony.

PSPgo and some of the software coming might also be enough to give it the boost it needs. PSP IS a great machine just with no real direction, E3 showed me they might be getting their act together.

Couple the two machines together for music, video, games and really bring the home of the playstation brand in, it could be saved........if the price comes down!!!!! PS3/PSP/PS2 is too expensive Sony need to learn this quick for it to work.

Besides that NXE is horrid, I shouldn't have to pay to see companies ad space frankly. Now if an EG "XBOT!" can say that surely there is hope for Sony....

That's nice of them, maybe one day they'll stop supporting all platforms.

"Then they release the PSP Go for 250 quid"

But still have the PSP 3000 on the shelves....

@gl3n: Can i ask you, what is the point in someone going out and investing in a PS3 over a 360? When the average punter doesn't even have access to a HD screen, let alone the inclination to buy Blu Ray discs.

For half the price, you could have an Xbox 360 and spend the rest on a fuckton of AAA pre-owned games.

the point would be that you have a reliable console, which has everything for modern needs boxed in. this means wifi, bt, free-online, HDD, dlna etc. So I do not mean blu-ray so much.

Can I ask you, what is the point in investing in a 360 over a PS3? You'd eventually end up paying the same price - only for a better online experience and the marginally better multi-platform titles? Should the console actually have been better engineered, I (personally) might be tempted. As it is, I refuse to give my money to a company which knowingly puts defective hardware on the market and sells it for a premium price. 3y warranty?! - my ass.

Fanboys can cry,moan,defend as much as they want,but at the end of the line this is just business,nothing more,nothing less.

His comments about PSP show what kind of a joke is PSP Go...

"If the cost of making a ps3 version of a game is large enough to make it a better investment (in terms of returns) to make a whole new 360 game/360 dlc then why would you make a PS3 version instead of using that money to create something for the 360 with better returns per invested £."

True, if the additional investment in porting to PS3 doesn't give them an adequate return they should invest the money somewhere where they can make a good ROI. But TBH I seriously doubt that that is the case. Because by dropping a PS3 version, all development cost must be attributed to the 360 version making its ROI go down as well.

It's just brass talk trying to:A) get Sony to drop the price in the hope it will allow Activision to sell more games; B) Put the pressure on Sony for future contract negotiations.

Like any 'good' business man, his priorities are:
1) himself
2) short term shareholder interests
3) long term shareholder interests
4) business partners
5) customers

"If Acti drop the PS3 then the PS3 dies, end of story."

Yeah you're totally right! Who gives a crap about God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo 5 and The Last Guardian if we can't play Guitar Hero 438 and Call of Duty 94 Future Warfare 43?

I wonder if Activision has half an eye on the next generation platforms?

Let's face it, games are expensive to develop on this generation of HD consoles. Imagine the next generation (when ever it may be - 4-6 years time).

It would benefit Activison enormously if there was only 1 console. Sink the PS3 now, and Microsoft is the most likely default for the next generation of HD consoles. Not only that, but another reason to bet on Microsoft is its seemingly endless supply of money (something Sony as a whole is having problems with in this economic climate). Maybe they're willing to sacrifice their returns on their PS3 titles gambling their actions will result in only one console next generation and therefore a better environment for them to develop, publish and sell games in the future?

I don't think Activision loses money on every PS3 game it publishes - probably none. Do the justify the return on invest? Who knows, probably at least half don't. We can't really say.

However, Activison can. And Activision have proven to be ruthless over the past two years - I know of no other publisher which would decline Ghostbusters. As I understand it, its the success of Ghostbusters (or even more accurately, the success of the pre-release buzz for the Ghostbusters video game) which has all-but greenlighted an actual Ghostbusters 3 movie sequel. Likewise Brutal Legend had massive pre-release buzz. Activision has shown its capable of dropping titles if they don't consider them capable of measurements of financial success Activision seemingly demand.

So I think it wouldn't be wise to simply dismiss this as "toys being thrown out of the pram" - Activision have made seemingly illogical decisions in the past, obviously based on profit and profit alone.

"Acti sold 10 million copies of Modern Warfare 1, 35% are on Sony's platform.. they stand to loose 3 to 4 million copies.. And look at what they did with Brutal Legend.. this company is becoming the OLD EA..
"

plenty might just get a 360 for it. Most people don't think like these fans who add on lots of costs to convince themselves it costs more than the PS3. it is half the price ad that's what people see.

the extremely brand loyal nutters who stick to one are thankfully few and far between really.

Most will just a machine if it has their games and not worry that it doesn't have a certain logo on it.

"Infamous is better than prototype. Killzone is better than call of duty 16. Skate is better than tony hawk 47. Rock band is better than guitar hero 12.
"

and again we have a "first party are best.. i don'tcare wah" list (and my ignore list grows again)

it's that attitude that's probably why they would even consider ditching it if they feel it has a very hard core base that are tending toward first party.

@bad09.. i agree with lots of that but am surprised that it'll be probably the last whole year of this gen that they finally take off. Shocking when you think how they dominated last gen. Agree on media thoughi feel last fm and sky player again help to provide some parity on 360 and obviously it's pushing community again with 1/100 and facebook etc. I do think it will finally start to outsell the 360 with consistency late next year but i also feel it'd be too late to dominate this gen by some distance. How is the bd issue over when they are still doing installs btw? finally. ghostbusters is worth getting for my PS3 then you reckon (I fancy it can cannot be bothered to import)? But yes, net year will bring Heavy Rain and The ast Guardian. I will be very happy with my currently somewhat underplayed PS3 come then (SotC made my ps2 really).

BTW: totally agree on PSP.. I love it. Playing the old pc scumm games on the way to work is ace. It's sony's best console in my view (but don't let people hear an "xbot" say that for god sake).

Wii is doing fine, 360 and PS3 aren't (360 looks good because PS3 looks so bad basically)


So what would be a good attach rate for the xbox to be doing well?

Last i read they were at 8.1 games per console. If this is a bad number then like i said, what IN YOUR OPINION would be good?

Well Ubisoft makes most of its cash from the PS3, what is Activision doing wrong? Perhaps they should stick to the Wii since it has the biggest market share.

@ trebell

I think it's taken them so long because of many of those problems the first major one of course was pricing themselves out of the market. Honestly who at Sony believed it would fly at those prices. 10 year cycle not because of PS2 but cleaning up the errors :)

Installs aren't a problem for me now (upgraded HDD), Ghostbusters did have a lengthy one actually but still a great game. Don't really care about the differences but it's good enough on PS3 and one of the few examples of motion I've liked! Wrestling with a ghost using the DS3 is kinda fun for a wannabe Ghostbuster :)

Yeah PSP is awesome, even better now I have actual PSP games to look forward to!

"When the average punter doesn't even have access to a HD screen"

Quite possibly in the third world. I don't know anyone who hasn't got at least one HD screen in their house, most people having several due to their relatively low cost nowadays.

The best Call of Duty game was the first one on the PC. The rest have just been exactly the same with new paint jobs.

It's news like this that keeps the video game industry interesting! :-D

Not going to happen... the economies of scale in terms of development are such that a PS3 sku is a fairly marginal additional cost in terms of total project spending.This is just Kotick trying to talk the PS3 price down, which is also not going to happen as Sony overall is hurting pretty bad from economic conditions, and have effectively already lost this round of the console wars.