Blizzard release schedule up to 2015

[Merusk]

Morhaime has a boss and has for over 15 months at least.  That is Thomas Tipil,  the Acti-Blizzard COO. That boss reports to Kotick.

http://www.1up.com/news/corporate-shuffling-activision-results-coo

Vivendi placed their trust in Kotick, not Morhaime. This isn't the old days when Vivendi was directly working with Morhaime and crew, they have to go through layers now to even talk.  So long as the numbers stay up they won't care what happens to the games.  Those numbers - which we're only seeing on quarterlies -  haven't dipped enough for the Vivendi board to do anymore than grouse at Kotick at this point.

[Paelos]

Like I said, wait until Q3 numbers release.

Kotick has little or nothing to do with the actual development of WoW. All he's doing is putting the assets in different places. The actual decisions of the assets still on WoW are their own brand of dumb (aside from the cash shop stuff).

[Hoax]

The only people I know who play WoW still say Cata was really well done...

This thread cracks me up.

[Simond]

Well, yeah. If they're still playing WoW, they like Cata. 

[WindupAtheist]

100% of people who eat shit think shit is delicious!

[Lakov_Sanite]

100% of people who eat shit think shit is delicious!

Transformers 3!

[Paelos]

http://blogs.forbes.com/davidewalt/2011/07/20/activision-blizzard-bobby-kotick-innovation/

Here's a current interview that praises Bobby Kotick on how he engenders innovation in his company. Grab your vomit bag!

The best part is how he explains how making DJ Hero drove Guitar Hero into the ground, and that they tried to cram it down the customer's throats. He learned a lot from that experience. He learned a lot by releasing a sequel after it "flopped" in 2010. He's certainly learned a lot about cramming with WoW as well.

[Amaron]

Q: Do you have internal processes that encourage the development of innovative products?

A: We have a “green light process,” and it’s evolved over a very long period of time. But it’s a pretty exhaustive process, very milestone based, and there is a whole process of peer review where you’ll come in and show a prototype or a game concept. Now actually includes all the marketing, because the marketing is so integrated into the game experience. The green light process has evolved to include all the marketing materials, the marketing schedules, the marketing vehicles, to be creative.

 

[Malakili]

Q: Do you have internal processes that encourage the development of innovative products?

A: We have a “green light process,” and it’s evolved over a very long period of time. But it’s a pretty exhaustive process, very milestone based, and there is a whole process of peer review where you’ll come in and show a prototype or a game concept. Now actually includes all the marketing, because the marketing is so integrated into the game experience. The green light process has evolved to include all the marketing materials, the marketing schedules, the marketing vehicles, to be creative.

 

Don't worry if somethings fun, just worry about whether it looks good in an ad - brought to you by, Activision.

[Tannhauser]

*shrug* It sounds like they develop the marketing along with the game. 

[Merusk]

This should be surprising to nobody who has read Stormwaltz's comments in the ME2 thread about that game's dev process.

[Paelos]

I'm just surprised that of all the things I could give Kotick credit for, innovative ideas wasn't one of them. Buying up successful franchises in takeovers? Yeah he's the go-to guy.

I mean this shit was in Forbes attached to investor news.

[Margalis]

Having the marketing be part of the greenlight isn't a terrible idea. It means marketing and development have to work together and it prevents situations where you spend a lot of money on a game that marketing has no interest in or ability to sell.

But no, that doesn't encourage innovation.

[stu]

Yeah, the guy ends it by asking about innovation strategies for other CEO's and Kotick goes into a bleargh about copying Grand Theft Auto without the violence.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yeah, the guy ends it by asking about innovation strategies for other CEO's and Kotick goes into a bleargh about copying Grand Theft Auto without the violence.

That sounds like the most boring game ever.

[Amaron]

I'm not big on "new games must be unique and innovative blah blah" but what he said is just patently retarded.   Sure if they were just bringing in marketing to say "clown shooter with rpg elements won't sell" that'd be fine.   I'm sure it's more along the lines of them bringing in the marketing to dictate to the designers what type of game to make though.   That works fine for Modern Warfare 7 or whatever but not for anything else.

[Ingmar]

I'm not big on "new games must be unique and innovative blah blah" but what he said is just patently retarded.   Sure if they were just bringing in marketing to say "clown shooter with rpg elements won't sell" that'd be fine.   I'm sure it's more along the lines of them bringing in the marketing to dictate to the designers what type of game to make though.   That works fine for Modern Warfare 7 or whatever but not for anything else.

This is what happens everywhere else in software/hardware - for the most part product marketing determines what goes into the products, not engineers.

[Sheepherder]

Sure if they were just bringing in marketing to say "clown shooter with rpg elements won't sell" that'd be fine.   I'm sure it's more along the lines of them bringing in the marketing to dictate to the designers what type of game to make though.

Umm, he actually says exactly what they bring in marketing for: peer review.  Specifically so that marketing can have their shit reviewed.