http://www.gamespot.com/news/6226758.html

Let's start it off with where I got my info from. Thank you Gamespot. Now, on to Kotick. You sir, are one hell of a businessman, and also one hell of a dick. While talking about the improvements to Battle.net and attempting to make guitar hero work without having to have a console (something that will 1. probably not sell 2. Piss Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft off) but I digress. You're wondering why I just called Bobby Kotick a dick (as if it wasn't obvious). It is this statement:

"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

Yeah. Okay. I get it. We're in a recession and you want to make money. But do you have to destroy the very thing that provides gaming with fun. If developers aren't allowed to have ANY FUN AT ALL making their games. HOW THE HELL ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO MAKE FUN GAMES. *ahem* sorry for the caps. Won't happen again. Probably. Anyways, the article also says this,

"The executive said that he has tried to instill into the company culture "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" of the global economic downturn, adding, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

WELL THAT'S THE WAY TO MAKE THEM MAKE SOMETHING FUN! DEPRESS THEM, MAKE THEM FREAK OUT! *ahem* sorry again. But WHAT THE HELL IS HE THINKING? Okay, Activision makes money by cranking out game after game after guitar hero game. Great. Same for Call of Duty. Same for EVERYTHING they have. But this WILL backfire on them. Developers are going to get sick and tired of working with a company that says, "PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT". Imagine Bungie coming up to Activision. "Hey we have a great new IP coming. It's really original and untried." Activision: "DOES IT SAY HALO? NO? THEN MAKE IT F*N SAY HALO!".

This is why I hate activision. The way to make a gaming company make great games is not to "...have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly." I'm sorry but it's not. You let them try new things. Reward them for trying new things. Bungie doesn't feel the need to release a game every year, but when its done. Look at Ubisoft, trying new things on Splinter Cell and with Assassin's Creed 1. Innovation. Activision, you are not helping game development. You're destroying it. For all our sakes, STFU.