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LFTE: Open Letter to Activision (Mar 10)
Before I proceed to comment on why letting Bizarre Creations slip through your fingers is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard, I am going to grease the wheels a bit with some general love.
A little over a year ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick (issue 202). He told me captivating stories of Activision's past and his vision of its future. I found him to be surprisingly charming, and I loved his passion for big, triple-A products in a time when some publishers seemed to be turning their gaze a little too intently toward social media.
Yes, he is the CEO and can't help but love when a game like Call of Duty rakes in a cool billion; who wouldn't love that? You can presume he loves the money more than the game, but that's beside the point. In speaking with him I could hear his conviction about making products that gamers love.
For the most part, I think Activision does a great job of delivering on that promise. That's a big reason why it is the number one publisher in the world. However, the way his company goes about its business tends to put people on the offensive.
You can now add Bizarre Creations to a long list of Activision faux pas along with the Infinity Ward divorce, over-exploitation of Guitar Hero, and running Tony Hawk into the ground. Activision would have you believe the mistake was acquiring Bizarre, but going after the James Bond license is the real mistake here. Bond just doesn't have the draw he once did, and that isn't Bizarre's fault. The sacrificial lamb should be the business manager who picked the franchise (mistake one) and merged it with Bizarre Creations (mistake two), not the studio.
Bizarre Creations isn't the first or last casualty in game publishing. But there is a lesson here that every video game publisher in the world needs to learn - talent is the most important asset in this industry. People that make great games don't make them accidentally, but they need support. They need good marketing *cough* Singularity *cough*. They need to be teamed up with the right license or concept. They need a publisher to back them when things don't go exactly as planned.
This is a cautionary tale. We watched Electronic Arts drive away talent en masse in the past, but now the company is doing everything it can to strengthen its relationship with its partners. The company discovered the hard way that creators and visionaries come from a finite pool.
If you want to stay on top, Activision, your passion for games that gamers love is crucial. And don't think just anyone can capture gamers' imaginations - it takes something special. Bizarre Creations is/was/forever-will-be an amazing developer, and once it's gone, it's difficult to get back.
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