Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has lauded his company as one that "celebrates entrepreneurial, opportunistic, independent values," and is considerate of culture when it comes to buying out games studios.
Kotick then went for the cheap shot, comparing his company to EA and stating that "it did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired." A somewhat ironic statement, perhaps, in a time where Activision is hated for sucking the life out of the Guitar Hero series, while developer Harmonix sided with EA to create the highly successful Rock Band.
EA, of course, has claimed the opposite of Activision, stating that its company is great for developers and that it is the closest thing America has to a Heaven on Earth. Also, its corporate water fountains taste like sweetened honey and flights of angels sing CEO John Riccitiello to his nightly slumber.
Ultimately, a fight between Activision and EA is like the one Hitler and Stalin had -- it's not exactly one you're keen to pick a side on. That said, I wonder if Activision or EA fanboys actually exist, and are now trolling Internet message boards as we speak, desperate to prove which Borg-like entity is the best. They would, I feel, be the saddest, most miserable creatures in all of Fanboy Hell.
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Fuck Blizzavison... and EA.
I'm all for a shit flinging contest. Brings me back to the days when SEGA would have ads talking shit about Nintendo (and vice versa)
Everything has fanboys!
kagai i fucking love your comment.
can I make it a poster and hang it on my wall, read it all the time, and buy EVERYTHING you say?
please please please, and just don't let other ppl say things, i only want it from youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Are you kidding, Hitler is nothing compared to Stalin!
Hitler totally sucked the soul out of the countries he acquired. Now Stalin, he was considerate of all other cultures.
See, even Stalin has fanboys :P
I'm siding with Hitler... or wait... Stalin. Which one... never mind.
I hate everything anyway
yeah it used to be great with those "Genesis does what Nintendon't"-ads :-D
Fanboys= bane of gaming society
This is ridiculous. They should both shut up and make some games.
Neither are as evil as gamers make them out to be. I've never understood the virulent hatred they inspire in gamers. They're businesses, their job is to make profit. Like it or not, without them the industry would be a shadow of what it is now.
Mxyzptlk:
Speaking personally, I don't really hate either of them. I have no problem with corporations at all, I just think it's stupid to take potshots and expect people to be all "YEAH! Go Activision!" I might find hate for corporations silly, but siding with them in a bitchfight is equally as silly.
They're both as bad as each other and it's quite funny watching them pretend they're angels.
I love Rock Band, so.... .... ....
True. I think it's easier to have developer fanboyism (Blizzard, Valve, Rockstar, etc) since they actually make the games. I suppose publishers are "The Man" and hence every fuck up they make has people screaming for blood while ignoring the fact that they employ thousands of people in the industry who make the games we play.
Eh, it's like watching McDonald's and Burger King talk about how much more awesome they are than the other one. Don't care, shut up and give me my fries.
It's a shame huge corporations like Microsoft (Gears), Nintendo (Mario Galaxy), Sony (Uncharted), Activision (Call of Duty 4), and EA (Rock Band) keep publishing such utter trash as the tripe that constitutes the barren crapfest of gaming that we were forced to suffer through in 2007.
@BlackSheep
OMG, you are super-awesome. No one exists to me but you. I will now bash every comment that dares disagree with any stance you may take in the comments sections of this great site. And, I will take your beliefs, likes, dislikes and make them my own.
You are my personal Jim Jones; I promise to partake of whatever flavor of Kool-Aid you are handing out and follow you blindly without any thought of common sense or intelligence.
YOU ARE A GOD, and i am your servant!!!!
Stalin was such a sellout. He just didn't give a fuck about the long time communist fans who supported lenin back in the day, and just tried to appeal to the masses with casual genocides. At least hitler knew how to keep his fans happy. By the by, love how this article was goodwined before the comments even started.
Ultimately, I despise activision for cockblocking the PS3 GH3-RB compatibility patch, and I fucking hate EA for making europe wait 6 months, then utterly gouging them pricewise in regards to rock band. I don't care about their exploiting of franchises with endless repetitive sequels, because at least I can understand the business sense of that. Those two moves earned both companies my ire, and while I'm not going to be boycotting either, I'm going to try and avoid giving them my cash when I can.
The hate for EA is just stupid, but then again..so much of what goes on when fanboys talk about game is stupid.
I guess it's maybe because with a book, CD or movie..there is a single person to be held ultimately accountable. The author, artist, or director. For most games, the best we get is a developing house, and at worst a publisher...which is sort of misplacing the blame?
kagai
i was just trying to be your fanboy :(
@DJKoolaid
I must admit. If you compare the way that EA has handled RockBand so far as compared to the way that Activision is whoring out the Guitar Hero series, I have to say that I actually appreciate something that RockBand is doing.
@kagai and Blacksheep
OMG i'm a fanboy of you guys too!!!!!!!!!
Who gives a fuck?
GTA 4 comes out next tuesday, and really, I'm pretty shit bored of every game I have on ps3 and 360, and since konami keeps delaying the MGO beta, well, I just want my fucking GTA.
But I will agree, the songs in rock band and the DLC for rock band make GH3 look like a joke.
No Doubt? Decent band, but not exactly "guitar hero" quality.
@BlackSheep
And I yours! :)
Hey, this perfectly mirrors the democratic race for the presidential nomination! Is Activision supposed to be Obama and EA is Hilary?
kagai, yay!!
@mikescool you have no idea how much of a fanboy of mine you are :P
my name is Mike :)
@DJDuffy: I heard EA is prepared to "obliterate" Activision if Activision tries to acquire a smaller neighboring studio.
Well Rock Band IS better than Guitar Hero so........
@ Blacksheep and kagai....you guys rock. ;)
See here at Activision we encourage creativity. Which I why we require are developers to where 15 pieces of flair.
lolz @ Maxvest
Also, like Hilary, EA will use NUKES to acquire said game studio.
Holyetheline starts new Dtoid meme
STFUAJMG
Shut The Fuck Up And Just Make Games
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
Jim Sterling,
Did you just bust out some old school Sub-Mariner!?
The only EA defenders are Rock Band fanboys, or at least I hope they are the only ones.
Activision published Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. For that, I owe them my respect for the next 54 years.
"YEAH! Go Activision!"
@Mxyzptlk Its not really like that though, the publisher aka the funders have a massive ability to buy studios and fire people, they have the ability to short change a studio or give them less time. These things are very very apparent when you play games like Army of Two or any number of the EA f'ups. They employ people, yes, but so does a nuclear bomb program that doesn't make them good.
I have to literally go with Activision, only EA has created a synonym with retarded.
In other words EA'd!
Fuck both. I'll stick with the smaller companies.
Activision.
*mopes*
If Infinity Ward dies at their hands, a thousand curses upon Ritticiello and his ward of catamites.
I just want starcraft 2
then I can retire from reading websites, and playing other games
at least for another five years...
I hate Activision, and I don't dislike EA in the least.
EA is at least trying some new things. Army of Two, Rock Band, skate., Dead Space, etc.
When was the last time Activision put out something new? Also, they killed Guitar Hero. Fuck them.
ActiBlizzard is dead to me. Guitar Hero is a shell of it's former self, and WoW has become an heroin den of endless dungeon crawls.
As much as EA sucks sometimes (*cough* Madden), they took a huge risk with Rock Band, and I respect that. skate also shot the Tony Hawk franchise in the back of the head, while it was busy looking at the purty rabbits.
I think EA has been doing a better job recently. Criterion has actually flourished under EA. I'm a little worried about Pandemic and Bioware being picked up by EA, but I think that EA has realized by this point that it is better to let acquired developers do their own thing while providing all the necessary cash.