Seems like Sony can’t catch a break. In a bullying move by Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick, he told a UK Times reporter about Sony and the PS3:
“They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony…”
Why would he make such a claim? Follow me after the jump for the analysis.
Asked when Sony titles may be pulled, Kotick added:
“When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console – and the PSP [portable] too.”
Kotick is mad at Sony because of it’s poor install base for the PS3, and wants to see the infamous price drop that everyone’s be ruminating over since the platform released. He also went on to site that sales of Call of Duty 4 and 5 both sold more on the Xbox than were sold on the PS3.
So never mind that Sony announced a billion (that’s with a B) dollar loss this fiscal year, but if you could please slash prices, that’ll help pick things up! http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174224
Sony commented on Kotick’s threat early this afternoon with a resounding “no comment”. http://www.vg247.com/2009/06/19/sony-on-kotick-ps3-drop-threat-we-respect-third-party-opinion-but-no-comment/
While he does have a point that Sony’s failure to create a system with a reasonable price point for the average gamer to accept versus the Wii or the Xbox, the PS3 seems to finally be coming into it’s own. It did only take the system three years to hit its stride, and it’s going to take quite a miracle to get it caught up with the other two systems, especially the breakaway Wii. However, many people consider Sony’s press conference at E3 the clear winner this year, and their list of Sony exclusive titles are expanding to the point where even I had to concede and finally buy one.
Not that this is an industry standard, mind you. I’m just saying.
Here’s the bottom line: the announcement that Activision would no longer be supporting Sony platforms is ridiculous. It’s a dick move by the developer to kick Sony in the ass to come up with some more innovative ways to push more systems out the door.
Activision has no intention of stopping production on multi-platform titles. Sony will have its feelings hurt, and it’s unlikely that they will take his words seriously, but they will stick in the back of their heads when they feel like keeping the PSP GO’s price at $250. I mean, both Call of Duty games sold over a million copies on the PS3, so it’s not like they’re not performing. Activision wants the PS3 to perform well; Kotick claimed that Activision dropped $500 million in royalties on Sony. Kotick’s words are the equivalent of a football dad yelling at his kid to go run more laps after a sandbagged workout; the dad wants his son to succeed, but people standing on the outside might misconstrue him as an ass.
I’m not saying Kotick is not being a greedy ass. That may of course be the case, and he might care less about Sony. Just like the football dad who dreams of his son joining the NFL so he can finally buy that double wide he’s always dreamed of. As the head of the world largest third party developer, he’s got the upper hand and he’s taking advantage of the situation to dictate terms to the struggling giant.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/19/kotick-questions-continued-activision-support-of-sony-platforms/
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
1st
Interesting…
It kind of makes me wonder what’s going on at Sony. People have been expecting a price drop for a LONG time now. And it’s not like Sony is unaware of this. I can guarantee that it comes up in every board meeting. So it makes me think, in consideration of the $1 billion loss that they took… is Sony heading out the door? Could it be that they’re not dropping the price because it would ruin them? If that’s the case, it would also make sense for them to NOT comment on it. To not say “Hey, we will go belly up if we drop the price. That’s our situation”. If they did, do you think developers would jump ship? Why bother developing for a failing platform.
This is one of those situations where I wish the walls could talk!
With Activition being this year’s big bad (taking the spot from EA), making sequels, bad games and suing good people (DoubleFine), we as consumers should say “Due to the lack of quality with 90% of Activisions crap, we will not continue to support you with our money.”
Ignoring the fact that the PS3 is not performing bad at all in Europe, and if you take into the calculations that the 360 launched earlier than PS3, they have almost the same userbase, giving 360 the slight edge. The 360 does not have such an advantage that it’s not profitable to port it to the PS3 (it’s not like they make it from scratch for the ps3, just editing some code and stuff).
If he is complaining about the PS3 owners not buying enough, there is a slight possibility that the PS3 users are more quality-conscious? Or maybe there are people owning both consoles, but don’t want to buy it for both? Duuuh.
Huge d*ckmove from Activition, seems like they want the hate from us. If it wasn’t for the 10% good games from Activition, I am sure someone would have boycotted them. (bring on a new boycott video, SG!)
there’s a games company called activision? Oh you mean the crappy company that makes a good games then overmilks the cash cow to the point that if took seriously would get you in serious trouble with animal activist.
Activision are the ones threating sony? Sony should be threating them! Make better games or our contract is through. The only good game they made this year is Prototype and yeah COD 5 if we’re counting lucky breaks.
Before anyone gets upset of the news that activision may quit making games for sony i have three words
LEGO. GUITAR. HERO! OH DEAR NO LEGO GUITAR HERO? However will i continue using my PS3 if i can’t play a lego version of guitar hero! Please leave activision in fact leave the games industry all together and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
for those of you saying that dropping the price point would ruin Sony, you should be informed that dropping the price would be in Sony’s favor as with lowered price demand increases, so that isn’t a logical reason for Sony to withhold a price drop, i don’t know why they are keeping it at its current price because frankly they would be pleasing fans and making the PS3 more profitable in one go if they were to lower the price, so there is obviously another reason behind it
you do realise that at the money they were originally selling the PS3 they were losing around $100 in america for every PS3 that wasen’t sold right? If sony lowered the price then that would raise as well as they wouldn’t be making as much profit.