Scott Jennings: Call of Money
Today, MMORPG.com columnist Scott Jennings devotes his column to a single thought: Activision lowers the boom on Infinity Ward, and illustrates a fundamental problem with game development.
Column By Scott Jennings on March 03, 2010
Activision lowers the boom on Infinity Ward, and illustrates a fundamental problem with game development.
If you’ve been here before, you may remember that I’ve talked about the Modern Warfare series once before in my column. Although Modern Warfare isn’t an MMO (although it has some of the design features found in an MMO, such as a limited version of character persistence and progression), its creators, Infinity Ward, are responsible for one of the hugest selling videogames of all time. Alongside the now-slumping but previously huge Guitar Hero series and an online game company you may have heard of once or twice, it helped to make Activision one of the largest and most successful video game publishers.
advertisement Apparently, it didn’t help. When the company that owns both the most successful first person shooter franchise of all time and the best selling massively multiplayer game of all time still can’t make a profit, well, perhaps questions need to be asked. And from all reports, the answer Activision’s executives came back with was, strangely, “let’s fire the people who ran the project that earned us over a billion dollars last year! C’mon, it’ll be great.”
The reaction to this was fairly illuminating, on several levels. For one thing, to say that there was a difference between how players reacted and how developers did was something of an understatement. Most of the reaction from players was thinly disguised glee at Infinity Ward’s troubles – after all, these were the guys who killed dedicated servers! They hate PC gamers, they deserve to rot for such unpardonable sins and no one should ever hire them. Well, no one ever said that hardcore PC gamers weren’t opinionated. I know, I’m one of them.
The reactions among fellow game developers, though, were more subdued, and break out into two paths. The first, by developers relatively new to the industry, is a sense of shock, awe and fear. How could Activision do that… to Infinity Ward?? These are the guys who made one of the best selling games of all time with a staff of only 75 people. They made good products, they hit their milestones, they made their owners a lot of money – and they got gutted, their leadership, who had founded the company, replaced with functionaries from Activision’s publishing division. If that can happen to them… who is safe?
The responses from the jaded veterans who may have had experience with similar events are a bit more knowing: this was inevitable, the moment they signed their contracts. Publishers are evil and cannot be trusted. It’s just what they do. Once you sign on the dotted line, you have to assume that you are no longer a partner, but a resource awaiting the inevitable exploitation. Publishers don’t have the interests of developers at heart, nor of gamers – they simply exist to suck as much money into their pockets with the least amount of effort.
;)
So why do publishers even exist… and why do developers sign their independence and their future away so often? The answer, quite simply – money. It takes money to make competitive “AAA” products. A lot of money – in the tens of millions, rapidly approaching the hundred million mark (and in a couple of instances, such as Grand Theft Auto 4, exceeding that threshold). To get this money, developers contract with publishers – the publishers provide the funding, and the developers are promised a share of the profits if the game sells well. It’s a fairly basic relationship, but one that frequently breaks down, as both parties begin to assume the role of antagonists, and believe more and more on both sides that they and not their counterparts are responsible for their projects’ success.
This is true, to a degree, for massively multiplayer games as well. MMOs are even more expensive than most other games, and take longer to develop. That money has to come from somewhere. The younger studios, such as Cryptic, work with a larger publisher to finance their team long enough to get a game out the door. Their more successful elder siblings, such as SOE or Blizzard, effectively become publishers themselves – a necessity given that the knowledge needed to midwife the birth of an MMO isn’t yet common currency. Thus, the larger publishers, such as Activision and EA, simply buy smaller MMO teams to bring their base of knowledge in-house.
This all has echoes of the recording industry: artists who sign contracts with recording labels who gain the lion’s share of their proceeds for what most would consider very little work on their part. This robber-baron sort of relationship makes it easy to justify pirating music – an attitude encouraged by some musicians, who after all most likely aren’t going to see a lot of money from record sales, anyway. (One wonders if game developers would be similarly sanguine about piracy if they, too, could supplement their salaries by going out on tours.) And some more visionary musicians, such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, do their best to make end runs around the entire system through digital distribution.
And that, I think, is the ultimate direction that gaming needs to look to as well. Because in today’s development models, publishers are corrosive – both to the short-term well-being of development teams, and to the long term incubation of creativity. The things that make a good game – creativity, polish, and artistry – are not the things a publisher looks for when juicing up an end-of-quarter report to stockholders. A good development house works as a unified team, to ensure that everyone is invested in everyone else’s success. A good publisher thinks quarterly layoffs are a good start.
So, how do we, as developers, free ourselves from the shackles of the suits carrying suitcases of sweet milestone cash? Simple: small games, self-financed, distributed virtually and virally. This can – and often does – work for massively multiplayer games as well. They aren’t blockbuster hits, they can’t compare in breadth of content to what a Blizzard or EA can fund , and sometimes they rely on models such as free-to-play that most gamers don’t particularly like. But if you believe in the future of game development as a creative enterprise as opposed to, to use Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s favorite phrase for what his company produces, “packaged goods” – the current publisher/developer model has to be overturned.
Or, we can wait patiently for Call of Duty 7: Duty Call. Based on past examples, it should be out by 2012, will sell about 12 billion copies, and have about two hours of gameplay. Woo.
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Aside from this column, Scott is also currently contracting with NCsoft.
Every Wednesday he provides us an insider's look at the MMO industry.
Now... all this is nice.. but I sure as hell am able to predict neither of those so nicely kicked has learned anything and will go to EA or SOE only to get kicked again.
because the "high-profile" devs live of the publishers, and when one contract gets broken, they sign a next pact with the devil for cash just as big.
I would be genuinely surprised if any of them agreed to work with a smaller Dev studio for less cash, even if it meant greater stability.
Simply put... the devs don't learn from their mistakes, so they allow the publishers to exploit them. Had the Devs learned and all the big publishers would be left with unskilled Devs, such practices would cease.
I love journalism like this, it gets me all angry and sweaty! Thatcher needs ousting!
@Scott
WORD
Can i make that even bigger?
Never was a truer article written on this site.
Thats why i say to all:
Support indies.
Buy Darkfall , Fallen Earth , EVE , Turbine ( yes they are also independent )
Mortal , Dawntide .... whatever. Single player indy games - They are cheap. Support them!
I read few days ago a shocking article about game developers in Japan. Who work 100 hours week , and are payed barely enough to survive.
Game development is quickly starting to be least desirable job for a programmer. Even to point of avoiding it at all costs.
It is all because of those corporate bloodsuckers.
Game Industry made more than film industry in last few years. Yet I never read about actors or film people complaining about job loss, bad pay.
Whats wrong in that picture ?
With digital distribution WE DO NOT NEED PUBLISHERS ANYMORE!
And we certanly do not need overbudget eye candy games with shallow gameplay.
Vote with your wallet!
God, I love your articles. Even when I don’t agree w/ them.
And yes… until Developers stop taking the bait from Publishers, we’ll end up w/ more rushed, incomplete, quarterly-report oriented games.
While it takes money to make money, it doesn’t make sense to me to get into business with companies that are known for their apathetic attitude towards their developers and more importantly, their customers. Especially in this industry where selling boxes is only a small fraction of the equation. Community, longevity, support and enthusiasm are all heavily weighed by the majority of mmo gamers. And even more heavily weighed in the most important part of each games’ acceptance: word of mouth.
To take it one step further: when these shallow, empty, flash-in-the-pan games are released (*waves to Cryptic*), they don’t keep the attention of the hardcore player. Which, by my definition are the players that create the fansites. The players that lead large and small guilds. The players that give a part of their life over to the community of the game, beyond just “logging in and raiding”.
Publishers are so out of touch. I just can’t wrap my head around developers that get into bed with them. Knowing full-well that creating games is something a developer does b/c they love it and these large Publishers will shit all over that love and ruin it.
Your reference to Radiohead and NIN was spot-on. The middle man needs to be ousted from the process of media. There is no need for them at this point, given that we have the technology to replace them. The only thing they can provide is money, which, while necessary in most cases, doesn't justify their use.
I would rather buy a game/album/movie if I knew my money was going into the hand of the artist. It's only a matter of time before digital distribution overshadows and eventually dismantles the traditional retail model, in my opinion.
Prax
I do agree with most of this article, we complain a lot and still pay through the nose if it's a game/community we like. So, if you believe in the developers, and not the publishers who are out to get your wallets anyways, mark these words and support indies as they come! We do need a change badly.
I agree with your article, but until the gamers start actually doing things the right way, the publishers will not change the formula.
Good article! Blizzard, SOE, NCsoft and any F2P company has gotten too big for it own good and have forgotten theplayer base. They create easy to play games and people started copycat the the games. There are developers attempting to adjust and compensate but im I think its too late.
You do need money to make games, but to to companies out there dont hurry your games. Take your time and put lots of content and more content and the money will come as well as a long lasting player base!
(BBBBBBBBBBBBBWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH dances with Miranda of Mass Effect 2!)
Loved reading that article. Its a shame that activision has done this, dam bloody publishers, not much that can be done though. Personally, im not going to buy the new cods, and i doubt they will be any better than they are now anyways.
Agree wholeheartedly with your article. Studio's, go the CCP route, own your games, don't sign it away to publishers who only understand box sales and who don't care about the games they sell, as long as they can sell them.
Nicely written Scott. Good job.
I particularly liked the link to Schafer's awesome tweet.
Hurray for SCOTTY!
Good article man...
Time = money, whether you are developing for a publisher or independantly, it still costs the same amount.
And I doubt anyone here would settle for less than what they get from existing MMOs on the market, which are primarily done by publishers.
STO? (Wonder if this will become another lesson to upcoming game designers)
Good article as always but...
Isn't this a bit of a utopian idea?
If developers had money they wouldn't need publishers. Someone, somewhere has to supply the cash behind the game - even indie game studios have to find some kind of investment.
And so the great cycle of life continues.
I'd bet that even indie game studios can run into these same issues albeit on a smaller scale.
Its these people that make sure that in 3 years every MMO costs 50 bucks a box with a 30 bucks expansion every 6 months and one extra adventure every month that cost like 6 to 10 bucks... And then there will be the item shop that takes up to $50 or more to be even competitive... On top of that there will be merchandise and other things to make money from and offcourse a $20 a month subscription..
While both the developers and players cry because another great MMO just failed..
I bet Activision is allready pushing Blizzard to add a real item shop to their game, and they will use the situation over at the modern warfare team as an excample to put presure on teh Blizzard CEO's
I tell you we are all doomed.... Goldsellers are the least of our problems
This special message OP was brought to you by an NCsoft employee.
I agree that it's a nice ideal, but either players have to accept less features with their independent "AAA" titles or independent studios already need to be rolling around in cash for it to happen. Both are pretty unlikely.
Indeed!
I saw COD:MW2 getting ported to the PC with no dedicated servers, costing $60 and thought "haha, no thank you".
March 5th comes out BFBC2 and I'll be there.
STOP BLAMING PUBLISHERS
Publishers are good for our industry. They risk huge amounts of cash on high risk games.
BLAME THE FOUNDERS
Every acquired developer has 2 to 6 founders who each made around $1,000,000, each, at the time of acquisition. They signed documents with the acquiring publisher that clearly stated in legalese "I, the developer's founder, assure the publishers, that these hard working 50 people who work for me will be happy to just have average paying jobs and you can fire them any old time you want and I won't care cuz I got this money."
Randel Reiss, Game Industry-vet
Part of the problem is publishers' drive to turn every game into a MMO. A good example of this is Hellgate: London. The game installs two distinct clients, a single-player and a multiplayer. Flagship, despite management inadequacies, would have had a far better outcome had they simply created a well-supported single-player title without trying to cash in on some imaginary online playerbase with unlimited cash to fling at them.
A current example is Star Trek Online, which could be an outstanding single-player experience, but is tragically wedded to the MMO model. Time will tell what the final chapter of this one will look like.
yep could ask OP if he himself would dare to go into a project knowing he only got paid IF the game became a succes - success in terms giving a proper sales, and on top had to work for free till release,...
other than that....sc*biiip* the coporate world :P
I have long suspected this to be the reality behind the recent failures of Mythic and Cryptic.
How about we blame them both as we see fit to aportion the blame, each of us according to their beliefs?
Kotick makes the EA suits look like the good guys. It remains to be seen if he can run this company into the ground like the EA suits have done.
I think accepting less features is pretty doable as long as the ones implemented are solid enough. Think of many of the super-ultra-costly MMOs currently out there such as Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, hell, even Star Trek, and of how many "features" they do wrong or weakly. Considering the feature list for each of them is pretty big (and the amount of flak generated), we can safely assume that what people are looking for is not quantity but quality.
Besides, most MMO features are based upon three organizing bases: combat, crafting, and to a lesser extent exploring. Develop solid systems for each of these and you can then add whatever ramifications you want (an auction house to sell your stuff, a lair or dungeon for group content, small quests in faraway lands, etc. etc.), and as long as they're fun, free of major bugs, and 'desirable', you're good to go. I don't want 1000 worlds and zones to explore if they're all gonna look similar just because each one costs a million dollars to produce and the developers have to do them in double time because they have to release the damn game in one year and they PROMISED 1000 worlds. If I have 10 zones that are large, deep, and full of great content I'm all for it. You can always expand in time. That's what MMOs live upon anyway, right?
I think the gaming community can easily 'adjust downwards' if development quality is at stake. Most people already do when they buy retro games and Xbox Live Arcade oldies, so I see no problem with that if translated to MMOs.
None of my columns here are cleared with my current employer, nor are endorsed by them. I list my employment status so that you can be aware of possible conflicts of interest, but do not speak as a company representative here.
Thanks for reading!
I think accepting less features is pretty doable as long as the ones implemented are solid enough. Think of many of the super-ultra-costly MMOs currently out there such as Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, hell, even Star Trek, and of how many "features" they do wrong or weakly. Considering the feature list for each of them is pretty big (and the amount of flak generated), we can safely assume that what people are looking for is not quantity but quality.
Besides, most MMO features are based upon three organizing bases: combat, crafting, and to a lesser extent exploring. Develop solid systems for each of these and you can then add whatever ramifications you want (an auction house to sell your stuff, a lair or dungeon for group content, small quests in faraway lands, etc. etc.), and as long as they're fun, free of major bugs, and 'desirable', you're good to go. I don't want 1000 worlds and zones to explore if they're all gonna look similar just because each one costs a million dollars to produce and the developers have to do them in double time because they have to release the damn game in one year and they PROMISED 1000 worlds. If I have 10 zones that are large, deep, and full of great content I'm all for it. You can always expand in time. That's what MMOs live upon anyway, right?
I think the gaming community can easily 'adjust downwards' if development quality is at stake. Most people already do when they buy retro games and Xbox Live Arcade oldies, so I see no problem with that if translated to MMOs.
and most important take less than 15$/month.....like a "paid in development" or if go call it pay for beta - Id do that if the core game works and is fun. where mortal online right now lacks....ofc it aint released yet. but does seem they wanted too much in one go. and wouldnt pay anything for it in current state.
hm guess derail to troll abit :P
EVE did it, Darkfall seems ok successful....so can be done. not that Id support the way Darkfall over hyped their game, to make it sell.
Risk my ass. Call of Duty wasn't high risk. Grand Theft Auto is no longer high risk. Starcraft 2 is definitely not high risk; just look at the screenshots. Let's get real, the publishers might've gone for the 'high risks' in the past (oh, the very day), but they no longer do that, and they invest millions in shit like sports games because they safely generate massive amounts of cash each year, not because they're pushing the limits of gaming. It's rare nowadays to find innovative games, and that's no arcane knowledge.
The simple solution is what others have already posted about: indie games. It's noticeable how they've grown lately even in the face of all the corporate giants, and sometimes even within them (like those cool little games in Xbox Live Arcade). You say "our industry"; it's obvious publishers are good for you, Mr. Industry Vet, but not for the rest of us who want to buy a fun, perhaps meaningful game, and who are essentially outside your industry, because games get increasingly cut and shafted from the forced part of publishers just to get a release date and the "predicted" flow of cash going, in detriment to our (yeah, our) enjoyment.
Speaking as one of those jaded developers: excellent article. Thank you for telling it like it is.
F'n Scott Jennings delivers! This guy has the right frame of mind... Unfotunately it's the gamers that are their own worst enemies, demanding AAA graphics, musical scores, content, innovation, originality etc etc... All the while spending the same $50 on games they spent 10 even 15 years ago... $60 if you are a console gamer.
They will bitch when an indy tries to sell a game for the same $50 or charge the same monthly fee as a major publisher, and then pick apart every little aspect of the indy game all the while enjoying the slow morphine drip of their beloved (and sometimes hated) BIG title...
As a seasoned gamer I remember 8 bit graphics and sound and graph paper maps I made while playing C64 games, so for me it was always about the game play and not so much about the flash... It's the flea on crystal meth ADHD gamers that discourage indy developers... It is so easy to point fingers and say fail, clone, lame, cheezy but in essense indy developers should be encouraged rather than berated...
Have to wonder how accurate this information is and how much spin is on it as well.
First off all reports that have come out from Activision/Blizzard have listed a profit, and one of the few gaming companies to do so through the terrible economy of last year. These are from actual number sheets released since they are a traded company.
They supposedly let go of the people they did due to breach of contract. It doesn't matter how good you are at your job if you break your contract you get fired. They still have everyone else there and have even said Infinity Ward is currently working on 2 map packs to be released for MW2 in 2010. They also today released a report saying all the expansions they are doing with the CoD franchise in the coming years.
I can understand one developer being upset over other developers being fired and thus fearing for his own job. But there seems to be an extreme amount of spin on this article over what actually happened and the actual current state of activision/blizzard.
And just to be clear to anyone who will accuse me of the standard retorts. I am not a fanboy of activision/blizzard. I also thoroughly enjoy MW2 and play several times a week, and as such I highly appreciate Inifinity Ward and the work they did.
I've been saying it for years... don't blame the goddamned publishers, and don't blame the devs.
BLAME YOURSELVES.
Every time you pre-purchase a fucking video game because you need to be one of the million other people that are going to have it that same day, you send a message to publishers that you're a mindless zombie who doesn't give a shit about quality or even quantity... just the child-like dream of having that awesome package at any cost.
EA, Atari, and Activision are three of the most blatant, bloodsucking THUGS of the videogame industry. Their Borg-like assimilation of EVERY fucking dev. company and IP is legendary. You people really need to take a step back and see the forest through the goddamned trees. It's not PC's vs. Consoles... it's Publishers vs. Consumers.
The ironic thing though... is they're not pushers of some addictive drug, or life-changing appliance. They're slave masters who whip their devs into submission after they sign their souls away to meet the deadline as quick as possible. Quality doesn't need to be a factor, because they'll "get it right" with the sequel the following year at full price. The worst part is... Every one of you know this and still in zealot fashion pre-purchase that game and send a message straight to the top saying "I have disposable income, spoon-feed me shit and I'll eat it up."
*shrugs* Bon Appétit and thanks a fucking lot for ruining my games, assholes.
i stopped reading when you seperated Activision and Blizard and Atari from Cryptic, in BOTH cases the publishes bought out the developers, their one house.
hell the official name is Activision hyphund Blizard
Its true, the lure of easy money has a very strong appeal.
And smaller, Indy funded games may be the genre's only real salvation.
I think MMORPG's are heading towards a meltdown, with games costing upwards of a $100M.
Eventually they'll just become too expensive to be interesting to the big publishers and with any luck they'll flee the market making room for the small guy once again.
Great article, and I especialy like the comparison with the muisic industry.
There is a BIG sea-change that is just beginning to happen these days.... and it stretches across many industries... not just gaming. It's too early to tell just how this change will go down in the end...but there are some encouraging possibilties.
What this article really touches at it's core is the relationship between content producers (i.e. developers, muisicians, artists, etc) and content distributers. Under the old paradigm, the content distributers enjoyed pretty much all the power in that relationship....and thus ate the lion's share of the proffits. The reason for that was because distributing on a mass scale (and pretty much that was the only way to distribute) took HUGE amounts of capital, connections and business relationships. Those were things that publishers had...and the artists didn't... and thus they pretty much owned all the power in the relationship. It took an incredibly well established and successfull artist to gain even a small portion of the power in that relationship.
The distributors/publishers MAY understand well the business of distributing on a mass scale but they are usualy pretty clueless about the content they are distributing, what it takes to create it and what it's appeal to the public really is. At thier best, publishers/distributers realize the limitations of thier knowledge and expertiese and stick to doing what they know best... the actual nuts and bolts of mass distribution...they let the artists/content creators control the creation of the product, listen to them, support them and minimaly interfere with that process. However is a very publisher/distributer that actualy recognizes that reality. Far too often, the publisher thinks that it is what THEY do/know that gives the product it's appeal/value.... they think that they understand the art and it's appeal better then the artists themselves. In fact, many go so far as to think that the artist is largely irrelevant.... and that they can take a turd, wrap it in tinfoil and with the right marketing and packaging turn it into a best seller. The milli-vanilli syndrome if you will. Thus you often see massive interference by them in the creation of the actual content....much to the detriment of that content.
Along comes a little invention called the Internet.....and with it a vast potential sea-change in the dynamic of how distribution of content (and even mass distribution) can work. We are only in the very early stages of working with this new model of distribution. With the internet....it takes only a miniscule amount of money to start distribution on a small scale...... whereas before in order to get a printer/cd producer, etc to even do a single run of your product...you often had to agree to a minimum order of thousands of copies....and doing a mass distribution cost huge amounts of capital up-front. With the internet....there really is no "minimum scale" and even distrubiting on a mass scale costs fractions of what it did under the old model. This makes the publishers/distributers largely obsolete...and they know it..... and they are fighting tooth and nail against it. More then half of the real push behind DRM and digital IP/Copyright enforcement and things like the DMCA is NOT about combating piracy....it's about the content distributers desperately struggling to maintain THIER strangle-hold over the METHODS of DISTRIBUTION. It's NOT that pirates that are thier real targets.... it's the artists/content producers that can SELF-PUBLISH for little expense that are solidly in thier cross-hairs....because it is those people who are a direct threat to thier business model.
Essentialy the old publishing houses want to push the bar artificialy higher for distributing content.... to force people to continue to have to go through them to distribute thier products.... and to strangle any method of distribution that circumvents that. Thus you see things like... "You must encode your content with X licensed DRM technology if you want it to play on peoples home machines"... and of course it is the publisher who holds and can afford to pay the licensing fee's for that technology. That's a large part of thier real game/goals.
The other dynamic that you see happening today is publishers trying to push the idea that in order to have a successfull/good product...you have to have massively lavish/expensive production values.... that you have to have thousands upon thousands of people working on a title for it to be "any good".... and thus requiring HUGE startup costs. Which, of course, you need to rely on the Publisher for providing (thus maintaining thier relevance). This perception is patently false. While there is no denying that lavish production values certainly have thier own appeal..... ultimately that's only one aspect of ther overall appeal of the end product to the consumer... and in many cases and genres a VERY small and unimportant aspect at that as well.
For a personal example....my favorate computer game of all time...and one which STILL occupies the majority of my play time is a strategy title (Advanced Tactics - WWII) which is essentialy the work of a single person. While there are big budget games that I certainly do like....for all the millions spent on them and staff of thousands that it took to produce them.... I still play and enjoy that single person title more then any of them.
Look at it another way.....would Chess be that much less enjoyable of a game if played on a peice of card-board with the squares marked with markers...and bottle tops for peices. Yeah....a gold and silver set with percision machined peices might look quite nice....but for most players 99.9 percent of the value of the game comes from something OTHER then it's presentation.
I think as players it really behooves us to TRY TO UNDERSTAND what it is that really appeals to us about the games that we enjoy playing. I would hazard that for alot of us that lavish production values (i.e. "eye candy") while not nothing...is fairly far down the list on the entertainment factor. We should also be alot more self-aware and critical of the effect that advertising and marketing have on us.... X add IS designed to appeal to that "OOOH I gotta have it!" gut reaction in us...but remember a cool add does not make a cool game....and in fact what the add could really be selling is simply a turd warped in tinfoil....and no matter how fancy the package...a turd is still a turd.
Furthermore, it behooves us to actively seek out, support and try less well known, advertised, independantly produced games. Not only are we benefiting ourselves by weakening the stranglehold/monopoly that those big corporate publishers have over the content that is available to us (and since when is more choices not good for a consumer) but just like me with Advanced Tactics... we may just find some really awesome/fun games in places where we weren't really expecting them.
Not sure why but there was a link to the "not able to make a profit" line that was lost in my article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/02/11/2010-02-11_call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_sells_12m_copies_but_activision_makes_no_profit.html
Interesting read... I know they got to do something, I'm not sure if self publishing is gonna be enough.
As I understand the situation, from Activision's point of view there were 2 terminations of employment due to contractual infringements, or if it is to be believed inappropriate behaviour.
I think Scot is right though, but if the "little guys" banded together into a co-operative they may well be able to share assets, lower overall costs & increase their credit potential.
Half-right as far as I'm concerned. Pre-purchasing does not support long-term success of a tille or engaging entertainment over-time, but prolonged subscriptions to a title do. One has to resign to the fact that there are different entertainment expectations for different folks, and even though I will disagree with one position over another about the entertainment value of one title over another, and what I do or dont appreciate, it still stands that there is a profit to be made on the most mediocre of games.
So, if the position is that publishers that take away from the developers ultimate launch vision and risk running into the market repeatedly with said mediocre products for a money-grab, then there are certainly other just as effective means to publish a quality product without having to get on ones knees in front of one of the top 5 publishing houses.
Surprised no one has actually said this yet...
IW is the spin off of the Medal of Honor team, they walked out on the wholely owned EA studio because they wanted to do things differently to the publisher parent. The year after Call of Duty 1 came out, published by Activision, they were brought 100% by Activision and have been (from our perspective), happily working with the new publisher parent, until now.
The two who have been fired were probably trying to do exactly the same thing, walk out with most of the studio following.
They will go on and set up another independant studio, churn out a single title with a new publisher and then get brought out again, the cycle will continue.
Great read. And great discussion.
Also. Thanks for pointing the fact about greedy founders.
I mean after all they are the ones that signed the deal with the devil (I am looking at you Bioware)
A lot of things about this particular situation don't add up.
When a publisher cuts from a studio for financial reasons, they almost always cut from the bottom, not the top. Finding senior level talent is hard, finding junior worker bees is a lot easier. This is further supported by the whole 'insubordination' bit in the SEC filing - any sort of insubordination or trouble making would have to result in the loss of employment.
While yes, it is usually a question of money, it just doesn't make any sense that they would start with the CEO and CTO of the studio, who also happen to be the studio heads, and yet not announce other things like "Infinity Ward lays off 30% of their work force". I've worked for an ATVI studio; the studio heads are pretty damn close to ATVI corporate, and they'd need to do some serious stuff to get fired.
The rumor I've heard most circulated is that the heads of IW were planning on leaving and starting a new studio, and attempting to woo other key talent from IW to join them. ATVI heard about it and beat them to the punch. Whether there is any credence to this is anybody's guess. However, it flies in the face of corporate culture to start cutting the most senior of senior management simply for financial reasons, especially when not accompanied by massive other layoffs.
--S
you made a point near the end, that I think deserves its own write up, about the game coming out in 2012 with 2hours of content, I see this more and more in new games, it seems gone are the days of 100 hours of play time, I know games like Dragon Age have a pretty solid amount of game time, I have played them, but had I not paced myself I could have been through the game pretty fast, I do like the little minnie adventure packs for 5 bucks or so, I dunno if this just stems from greed of the gaming compaines now, or the trend for everything to be wham bam done.. limits from the consoles themselves, I know console games outsell pc games, but your still looking at a hefty pc market, I am pc gamer, because I can do so much more with my pc than a console can, Even the new Force Unleashed game at best had 8 hours of play time for 60 bucks.. Would be intrested in what drives this other than greed and getting more games out with less play time, which really is sad..
This one is wise, yes.
Very interesting article. However as an experienced MMOG player, who have seen several indy MMOG games, I am doubtful if we can put the future of games in the hands of companies like Starvault, Adventurine or whatever those other companies were called that created barely playable games like Mourning and Dark and Light.
To my knowledge the only indy company to produce an MMOG with any kind of quality is CCP (Eve). All other indy MMOG has been garbage and judging by Mortal Onlines open beta another garbage, incomplete game from an indy company is on its way.
So the choice seems to be between simple, massproduced games which are driven by money grabbing people in suits or buggy, barely playable junk coming from underfinanced and underdeveloped indy companies. The future of MMOGs is bleak indeed...
I think as someone else stated you have to put blame on the developers also. the publisher is a money generator they do not care about anything but profit...they are not game developers or artists....they are a business to make money. the developers should hold out for a better contract if they think they have a good idea for a game. Blizzard did it...they pretty much retain control of release dates, number of games, and information released. From what I read they held out for less money from Activision for more control of their own house.
Why should I throw money to a crappy independant company in hopes that they will take my money and make a great game. I am not getting paid back when the game is good. Instead I paid X number of years for crap for the hope of having something good in the future. At least if I gamble in Vegas I get a better chance of fun and profit now.
Little remembered fact, Turbine was an indie company when it made and released Asheron's Call. It signed on Microsoft as a publisher when they were close to release but Microsoft literally only published the game and hosted the servers.
And yes CCP was too. It shows it can be done, and done successfully. I think the current Indie devs overshoot their product. Instead of release extremely stable, well honed game and slowly expanding on it as they get subscribers (what both Turbine and CCP did with their products). Instead we get indie companies trying to compete directly with the top MMOs at their launch, which is never going to happen. As a result the games aren't even close to stable and they're full of bugs and missed promises.
Free market...stop being lemmings and do not buy the games. That is the answer...instead people buy games because "Star Trek, Star Wars, Call of Duty, or some supposedly great developer is in the title. As someone else said stop pre-ordering games you know nothing about. Let the game publisher prove the game first to us instead of assuming we will spend the money first and bitch later with no power to effect the company because they know the lemmings will buy the next one.
One of the few articles I've read by Jennings recently that didn't have some not-so-subtle hidden message or bias or subliminal *play EVE/Aion* flashing images... ;) In short, I liked it. Good journalism free of personal bias and the kind I'd like to see more of on MMORPG.com.
I really enjoyed the comparisons made to the recording industry; he's exactly right. The big boys get to become (or have to become, depending on how you view it) publishers themselves; the smaller studios don't have that luxury.
Then you have the small, indie studios without a large company publishing or backing them - look at Icarus, makers of Fallen Earth. It's a small game that I would say is far better in quality than any other "AAA" (whatever that's supposed to mean nowadays) game released in '09; and is far and away better and more engaging than Aion which is another "me too" themepark grind at best, a security nightmare and hacker's haven at worst.
So there are smaller companies out there still publishing good games. It still pays to keep an eye on the big boys, SoE and Blizzard, of course - just because they're big, doesn't mean they're bad. In a lot of ways I am most interested in what the huge self-publishing companies come up with and what the smaller guys (like Icarus) come up with.
The companies that "latch on" to a large publisher ala Atari and Turbine? Not so much. Atari absolutely destroyed DDO with a lack of support and advertising, in my opinion. That game could still be sub-based if it had proper backing, instead, it's a freakshow F2P nightmare game that doesn't remotely remind me of the D&D games my friends and I had around tables. (Maybe I should start charging players in my tabletop games for magic items and new races... Hey David, you want to play a drow? That will be $5. Also, if you want a magic Longsword +2, that will be $10. I take cash or checks.)
I somehow doubt that would go over well with my tabletop players.
Good journalism, Jennings. Good writing.
Indies should charge less, distribute for free, and build up their base...when they have a stable base, good solid gameplay then start to raise the price to the level of other games. As with Fallen Earth...it has a good base...but I would not pay AAA prices for it.
This message should be broadcast to the whole world, blind purchases are what make this environment of craptastic releases possible and actually a lot more profitable than solid releases developed for the gamer that seeks quality.
I have to say, Scott Jennings is probably the best front page writer on this site. Great article, very truthful, I agree fully, although I've believed this to be the case for years.
I think the answer lies in gaming platforms that can be modded up. You need something that everyone can use as a base, then work off of other people's work in a "standing on the shoulders of giants" model. Otherwise, the front work is just too much to handle for a small team.
I think its important to note - that gaming is changing. Casual players no longer buy a PS3 game for 60 USD and then play it for 1 hour. Thats why Guitar hero is loosing its popularity for example. These casual gamers have found new ways to get entertained - paying less - but getting the same thing out of it. Huge free to play markets and social sites are adding new titles that dont cost a dime (at least not at start) so ppl will ofc grab it.
About the old "publisher is the bad guy" - Well its the half truth. The other half is that the same publisher funded the entire project - and since the developers are very often NOT able to follow the timeframe set up for the game - it means that the publishers usually spend alot more than they intented to before the game launches... and then in many cases - its not even half finished. You can not blame the publisher for that. Thats the development team that has failed to deliver and ofc the ppl that have spent the money will not be happy with that....
But Scott is ofc right when he talks about lower budget -indepented released games. The problem is still in many cases that the DEVELOPERS are not able to provide the quality product and it will never be on time. Free to play is therefor the so called "low quality" outcome that we have all grown to know. Well... the thing is... it doesnt have to be low quality ... just start with a small dose of high quality .. and then built on it... But ofc that means that the DEVELOPERS need to be on top of their game...and then we come yet again to the problem.... Very few developers are actually cabable of releasing a good quality product. And those that can go to the publishers so they can spend more money - to develop "more" of a game- that then is harder to control when the game is released to a custimor base - that then isn't really looking for "that sort of a game". So ... we have another niche game that the developers wanted to make - the publishers payed for - but very few really like to play. And even fewer will now pay for playing it...
Don't blame the publisher for that.
This article is all too true, I became sick to my stomach when EA purchased Bioware all I could think of is that one of my favorite devolopers will soon be no more.
The indie game market would be better if it wasn't flooded with uninteresting, simplistic shit. Hard to say BUY INDIE when most indie games aren't worth anything and there are still plenty of great non-indie games. While more indie games come out that are very innovative, more non-indie ones come out with large amounts of depth to keep sucking you in.
But yes, this is fairly ridiculous. Stupid wealth distribution upsets me, too. DO 1% OF THE WORK GET 80% OF THE PROFIT YEAHHH
Developers should just start very small, make small but good games, and always release them digitally, on a platform like Steam. Then they wouldnt need a publisher. Publishers are all ran by greedy monkeys with mad cow disease.
Agreed, support indies, those games might not be "AAA" but you can actually find better "quality" (as in history, deep and such), than its big fat corporate brothers.
Great article, much worth my reading time.
Boy do I hope some greedy publisher reads this and gets all flustered. That would be the day... when publishers fear of job security is greater than the developers.
Well said.
For the first time in years I'm not subscribed to an mmo. I play f2p's or single player. I'm as ready as the next person to throw down my money and play that new mmo. Problem is none have come out lately I feel are worth my money or time.
It took several years for me to see the light and stop pre-orders, stop buying into the hype. ..... It was almost as bad as stopping smoking. Hopefully others will jump on the band wagon and dry up the easy money these companies are sucking out of the gaming industry.
Haha , what an epic article, thumbs up for you bruv.
Loved the reading, keep em comming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kotick
Robert A. Kotick (born 1963)[1], also known as Bobby Kotick, is the CEO, president, and board member for Activision Blizzard, a video game developer and publisher.
" During Activision Blizzard's Q2 2009 financial results conference, Kotick was challenged over his "comfort level" around high prices attached to "new games that have some expensive controllers" (presumably the Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk and DJ Hero franchises), and said, "If it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further."
In 2008, as reported by Forbes magazine, Robert Kotick received nearly $15 million USD in salary, benefits, options and incentives for his work with Activision Blizzard, of which $899,560 was his actual salary
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/11/05/why-activision-let-go-of-ghostbusters-and-50-cent-games/
"don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. ... I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus... on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we'll be working on them 10 years from now."
I guess I'm not surprised now.
Hate to break up the torches and pitchforks party but they got fired for cause.
Nah it won't break up the party. Conspiracy theorists don't heed facts.
While I have a certain level of sympathy for the fired, this article is far too juvenile.
Corporations bad, poor people good! Where hammer and sickle?
The people spending the money to develop these games are taking the risks. Very few, if any, here understand the business model for the people who lay out the money for games that may or may not even break even.
Just like pharmaceutical developers, the people who bankroll these projects have to factor in complete and utter failures, games that get scrapped, etc.
If you want control, you treat it like any other business: start small, get paid nothing for a long time, release a modest product for a low price, and slowly build out the game as you go. How many regular people start a business and shoot for 100,000 customers within a month of opening the door in order to justify an investment?
It's like saying "I don't want to open a single pizza place, but a whole chain throughout the country, and I want someone else to pay for it all while I retain all control."
It's ridiculous.
Have a vision. Build it out bit by bit and have patience. Maybe you'll just make a modest living and not turn out super-rich. That's how a lot of businesses end up anyway. Why should the MMO industry be so different?
If the company who created a game like Modern Warfare, which educates the shooting of civilians is in trouble, it is only justice! People who sanction such games must SUFFER.
I would like to add that CCP (EVE) is a company that sells the game online - no real publishers (boxed versions). And this leads to a BETTER game cause there are no payed for expansions that force the developers to create worlds outside of the main world. Everyone is welcomed into the entire game with all updates with every single free expansion pack. And where does it leave EVE ? One of the most succsessfull MMOs of all time ? From a true Indie company.
How many boxes for payed for expnasions do you think a publisher would have tried to force out ? And who cares if it destroys what EVE is all about while at it ? ..
Some of the free to play are starting to throw out huge free expansions like Runes of Magic. The problem with F2P expansions is that they reduce the value of the items that are in item shops. So not as profitable for the money men... but still ofc making money.
I definitely wouldn't call it a 'mistake' on the developers part. As the article points out, it's an industry standard, and in many cases a necessity.
People get into games because they love them (usually). That doesn't mean they don't have to eat, have families to support, or want to enjoy other facets of life as well.
I work with many people in the game development industry as well as other creative industries. While it's true that a smaller development studio will generally hold onto you longer, it doesn't necessarily mean more job security. For starters, it's not like you're getting a pay cut of only a couple bucks/hr. Often working for a smaller team means a significant pay reduction. An example of this may be a change of 50-70$/ hr. down to as low as 25-30. On top of this, smaller development studios are more vulnerable, and often have to let people go during off months to stay afloat. This can mean that you're not only taking a huge pay cut, but you're also stuck with months out of the year where you will need to find a 2nd job or freelance.
While getting paid more can often mean putting up with a lot more crap, or working with douchebags you know will turn around and fire you for a job well done, it also puts you in a much better position to rebound from such a layoff. Especially now, with the economy, layoffs are pretty common in this industry. It is generally better to go for the higher pay and job hop, then to take really low wages over a longer period of time. I don't doubt that the developers from Infinity Ward will do just that.
The only time I'd ever suggest going for a smaller company is if you are either new to the industry, or are working on a project you are extremely passionate about.
This site needs more articles and follow up discussions, like this. Thanks to all those involved...it's been a great read to end the nght with.
Wow....very nice. I could not agree anymore. When will big time publisher realize that developers are artists, and not tools to be used and tossed away. Not to have their titles used years down the line from a different (cheaper) team to make huge profits for them and their stock holders.
Reading this makes me not even want to put money into these publisher pockets.
With stories like this, no wonder there is digital piracy!
I agree with the problem being highlighted 100%. "The publishers think quarterly layoffs are a good start." Wow did that ever hit the nail on the head.
I've noticed over the years that its both the players and the devs that get exploited by the big companies who truly don't seem to care about creativity or entertainment value. All they do is suck...cash and creativity.
I think your comparison to the music industry is excellent. Remember the album cover for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here? I'm pretty sure that a musician is shaking hands with a guy that's on fire, but not burning up. I'm pretty sure that's a producer, aka the devil lol.
Apparently I also agree with your recommendation too. I'm playing 2 Indie games currently. They're made by computuer super geniuses just because, and they're fun to play. They're creative as hell. No one is exploiting the devs, and no one is exploiting me. The supernerds (I mean that affectionately) are having the time of their lives creating their own world and playing in it, and I'm lucky as hell that they invited me to the party.
Maybe if publishers weren't so focused on short-term cash grabs, it wouldn't have to be this way. Maybe if they understood the value of earning customer loyalty over the long haul with excellent quality and service things could change. Maybe if the way MMOs were run had more dev and user friendly legislative parameters, exploitation wouldn't be the rule. Until all these maybes become a reality, I think I've found my niche in the Indie scene. And yeah, I'm an Indie musician too, with a friend who runs a legitimate online distribution site. It's good times all around.
While there are a few great indie developers, there are also a lot that go broke before they can finish a game (such as Star Gate). I've been in some betas where they couldn't find financing and has to shut it down and others where they had to release it half done because they needed the cash to continue. Of course, releasing a game way too early makes it very hard for it to be sucessful as players will be disappointed and give it bad PR.
Any developer that doesn't already have a sucessful game producing income needs to have investors to pay for the costs of the development. So if they can't find private investors, they have to contract with some publisher and sign away at least some control over the development. And then when it takes longer than expected and goes over budget, there will be a push to sell pre-release, release early, and over-hype the game to sell lots of boxes before too many find out that its not ready.
Little remembered fact, Turbine was an indie company when it made and released Asheron's Call. It signed on Microsoft as a publisher when they were close to release but Microsoft literally only published the game and hosted the servers.
And yes CCP was too. It shows it can be done, and done successfully. I think the current Indie devs overshoot their product. Instead of release extremely stable, well honed game and slowly expanding on it as they get subscribers (what both Turbine and CCP did with their products). Instead we get indie companies trying to compete directly with the top MMOs at their launch, which is never going to happen. As a result the games aren't even close to stable and they're full of bugs and missed promises.
Turbine is still independent company , and they publish the games them selves ( well , they use codemasters in europe - but are not financially dependent )
And Turbine not only proven that you can make damn good competitor to WOW : LOTRO
But that you can reinvent the wheel , and turn subscriptions upside down - with DDO:Unlimited
This is an opinion column its suppose to have bias.
Article is right on also. But this is a problem seen across the board in all industries from Newspaper, to games and music..
Its very unlikely however you will find another model in the current system that will provide as much funding as these kinds of companies can.
Can small game developers get us out of the mess caused by rampant commercialism? I look at the history of businesses and marketing and just can’t see that. I see some great indie games like Plants versus Zombies and World of Goo, but the history of gaming makes me just wonder how long before the likes of EA buys them up?
Gaming is now ruled by giant companies who leave no room for the small innovator, companies who look first to squeeze every last penny out of a title. Some companies pursue a policy of quality of brand; they take a profit hit to ensure the customer comes to them. Gaming companies now rarely do this, and it's unlikely that will change.
But Mr Jennings has raised a new concern for me, if the best programmers, artists and writers see the gaming industry as a place with no job security, will they chose to work elsewhere? If they can find other more secure employment I am sure they will.
--------
Justarius1- "Maybe I should start charging players in my tabletop games for magic items and new races... Hey David, you want to play a drow? That will be $5. Also, if you want a magic Longsword +2, that will be $10. I take cash or checks. I somehow doubt that would go over well with my tabletop players."
Had me in stiches there :)
RIP Infinity Ward
accountants should never run a business
As always it breaks down to corporations treating people like numbers and not as human beings.
Hurrah efficiency !
Good bye quality !
It so reminds me about Nazis explaining themselves in Nurnberg:" We were just following orders"
That's the main reason why I gave up any plans to build a career in any big company. If you don't want to be treated as a tool work for yourself.
Saga continues, sacked pair sues.
pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php
Which reminds my about another clash between Goliath and David
www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-sues-nc-soft-over-millions-stock-options
I wonder how the proceedings go in that case, it is almost a year now.
Sorry i dont concur, Pumping out the same old cookie cutter mmo's to me isn't risking anything. Now Icarus-CCP-Aventurine-Star Vault take the risks by producing mmo's outside the norm with their very creative Devs.
But thats my 2 cents for what its worth
Perfect example of this happening is that after SOE started losing subs when CU and NGE came along, certain devs left or were fired, not sure which. But point is that they went over to CS and worked on Champions Online. Which amazingly failed too! I guess some of their testers shouldn't of tried to brag during beta that those devs from SWG were helping make CO, heh.
What was the "CAUSE" Zymurgeist? I am interested. You usually dont make blanket statements without some information to back it up. Please dont get defensive, but I worked for a software firm that got purchased buy a large corporation. and then were disbanded when all the projects where completed. We were productive and profitable yet the heads of the Corporation would only look at what they had spent to buy the company vs what they were going to make after we completed the current line of products. Basically they all took thier bonuses that year and laughed as they handed out our pink slips.
Again, I am not saying you are wrong but the conspiracy I was involved with is a fact.
I agree with you Blindchance!
Good read. However with the cost of MMO's today it is not possible to make a AAA mmo without having large amounts of cash. Unless the development team has that money themselves which is highly doubtful you are not going to make the game you want anyway because of lack of funding. So you can say do it "yourself" however that is no longer possible in 99% of cases.
Its great to want to torch the publishers but you can not blame people putting up all or most of the money to want a return and say in want happens. The money they give is an investment not a donation or a blank check to the developers who will come back and want more because they always will want both more money and more time. The people who have this large amount of money to invest would not have that money in the first place if they did.
heh...this is good stuff. And yes, if someone makes an affirmative claim that they were fired for 'cause', please post the 'cause'.
At last someone else besides me tell everyone around the true about money driving games...
In recent games credits, I've noticed more VPs then artist themselves... that is pretty scary and it is a huge problem that has plague the Cinema industry for quite a while now.
Check out, Rock Band Metallica (check the credits, you'll laugh)
Very good article btw!
I think Scott Jennings kind of ignored some key points about the issue at Infinity Ward.
First off there were reports that the men were fired due to insobordination. Now, for those that don't know IW was owned by Activision. Not partnered, but everything in IW, the servers, code, employees, everything are under Activision's ownership. If the head of IW told Activision off, they probably fired him for it. This is not the same as a publisher-developer relationship, IW was under the Activision banner 100%.
Scott's other reference to WoW is actually quit telling. Yes, Blizzard is also owned by Activision. He seemed to glaze over the fact that Blizzard reported WoW's subs have stagnated, coincidentially since Activision acquired them? This is not a good sign. Activision is large yes, but their success is due to acquisitions, not necessarily good business practices.
heh...this is good stuff. And yes, if someone makes an affirmative claim that they were fired for 'cause', please post the 'cause'.
ATVI is seeking subpoena for documents, specifically those talking about forming a new studio by soliciting other IW employees, and talking with competitors like EA.
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702978/Activision-Seeking-Internal-Documents-Related-To-West-Zampella-AndElectronic-Arts-.html
If there are such documents that corroborate, that'd certainly constitute "cause" to me. Soliciting employees is definitely against ATVI employment contracts; I had one in mine as well. It's really come down to two possibilities:
1. ATVI is trying to save a couple of million dollars by booting these two out, and manufacturing excuses to do so. They believe that the immediate savings, strength of the IP and future earnings will outweigh whatever possible fallout there is here.
2. ATVI has evidence that Zampella and West were doing something they shouldn't have, and as such dismissed them. Zampella and West want their cut of the pie, whether or not they are guilty of the allegations. The main ones mentioned were insubordination and Breach of Fiduciary Duty.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiduciary#Breaches_of_duty_and_remedies
I'm still hesitant to say that ATVI is in the wrong. We'll have to see once the documents they asked for are (not) found. One thing's for sure though... I seriously doubt this is a money grab. Like I said in my previous post, when you're trying to cut costs, you don't cut the most senior of the senior management first.
--S
I think indie teams have a chance to self publish and work on great games that people will like and play...case in point is the XNA platform for the xbox for those that are console gamers there are small studios and individuals working on games and selling them on xbox live all the time and some of those are really great games...they don't have a billion dollar budget and the graphic show that but they do have heart and a good quality FUN game at heart....
on the mmo front there is multiverse who allows those same types to self publish or publish through them at 10% that's about an 70-80% reduction in what the actual costs would be when going through one of the BIG publishers...and they may not have the best of graphics but those small teams have heart and drive and are producing games and some of them are already in their beta stages like islands of war while others are still working on others...there are like 4000 developers working on mmo's on that platform....something good has to come out of it....
people just don'[t see what indie's are capable of on the innovation and "creative budget" front when it comes to these games...these f'g AD D kids these days just care about those glorious graphcis and coolest console that makes cappohchino for you etc and could care less about game play when in reality ...gameplay is what makes the game fun and challeging and not those prerty graphics as they might think....that's why we have all this cookie cutter crap out today...
thats my 2 cents anyway..
Says the guy with the Rorschach quote under his avatar :)
Great read as always Scott. When I first heard about how Radiohead did their digital distribution for their new CD, I knew that both I liked it, and that we would be seeing more of it in the future. Even looking at Steam to a lesser degree, they make a great platform for smaller games to have a great springboard into the market; games which would otherwise go unnoticed, or get bought up by a publisher.
I'm just an indie kind of guy I suppose. Long live Fallen Earth!
ATVI is seeking subpoena for documents, specifically those talking about forming a new studio by soliciting other IW employees, and talking with competitors like EA.
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702978/Activision-Seeking-Internal-Documents-Related-To-West-Zampella-AndElectronic-Arts-.html
If there are such documents that corroborate, that'd certainly constitute "cause" to me.
If that is true, then I can understand why they would have fired them. It seems odd that they would fire them just for the money, so I think there might be something to this unfortunately. I'm really interested to see how this turns out.
A good read. Gets to the heart of one of the industry's most recurring problems/cruxes.
It is wholely disappointing that only the titans can afford to put polish on their games, rather than the true artists in the trenches. Then there's the beauty of FB games as well.
In the end, I think, the titans will fall by the very means that supported their existence for so long.
What was the "CAUSE" Zymurgeist? I am interested. You usually dont make blanket statements without some information to back it up. Please dont get defensive, but I worked for a software firm that got purchased buy a large corporation. and then were disbanded when all the projects where completed. We were productive and profitable yet the heads of the Corporation would only look at what they had spent to buy the company vs what they were going to make after we completed the current line of products. Basically they all took thier bonuses that year and laughed as they handed out our pink slips.
Again, I am not saying you are wrong but the conspiracy I was involved with is a fact.
This kind of thing isn't even a conspiracy, it's dirty corporate politics, and it happens all too often these days. I'll be interested to see how this works out.
I think players aren't the only ones getting tired of how the bean counters are wrecking video-gaming. Seems like the game designers (the real creativity in the industry) are getting sick of being jerked around too.
I've seen us go from "pong" to MMOs with $7000 RMT items. That's just plain, ugly as hell greed.
"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it."
I imagine this is how the internal memo would look if indeed there was some sort of conspiracy to switch to EA.
West: We must join with Him, Zapella. We must join with EA. It would be wise, my friend.
Zapella: Tell me, "friend", when did West the Wise abandon reason for madness?
I have to say I agree.
If your ready to start a revolution Scott, then I, and I assume thousands of others, are right behind ya man! Lead on, lead strong!
Activision does not own Blizzard.....
Publishers want me to spend more than 50 dollars for a game, fine, charge 80 dollars and allow me to reutrn the damn thing when its a pile of smoldering crap. Until I have the ability to return the crap that gets shoveled out the door, I am not paying a penny more for my games, not the box, not the subscription, and I won't tolerate games forced on slow, terrible servers that the publisher yank at will to try and get their customers to buy their next medicore, DRM filled rehash of yesterday's games.
I think this column made me think there's two different kinds of people.
First type works for a game development company making games for their bosses. To earn a living. Maybe also to get more experience in game development.
Second type runs their own game development company making games for themselves. To earn a living and to accomplish their own dreams of creating a masterpiece that they designed.
I think the second type is where most people want to be.
Mmmm, think you'll find that Activision does indeed own Blizzard, as they are the majority shareholder after Activision and Blizzard became Activision-Blizzard, note who comes first in the naming too.
Does anyone more informed than me know if any Blizzard employee could be fired by Activision? I would always like to think that Blizzard was special in their independence within their publishers claws.
For the record, I really enjoy Scott Jenning's articles.
More on Jennings blog:
http://brokentoys.org/
Granted, its "one side", but, I have to say....announcing the firings in a 10-K report BEFORE completing an "investigation" is shady at best.
I swear to god this is going to be another division just like in the 60's with Corporate Rock at one end and hippies at the other. History does indeed repeat itself.
Activision and this crap, NCsoft vs. Richard "Iwasalordtheniwasageneralbrittish" Gariott, atari vs. hasbro/turbine, EA/Borg vs. World...
Well with the modern age we don't need a fucking box with art, a disc, player manual and a 50-60 dollar price tag on it. Downloads take about the same amount of time it does for me to go to the store, purchase it, bring it back and install it, and it's starting to show. Take a glance at your local EB or Gamestop. See that little cart that has one box of damaged PC games on it with two year old price tags on it (months after Tabula Rasa closed I saw a box for TR still being sold at a retail store). Most of your stores have console and handheld games wall to wall. The change is showing from the retail level (PC graveyard) all the way up to the top (Devs. fighting back at Pimp Publishers).
I hear that Activision does have another COD game lined up for 2010 release by Treyarch as a Vietnam game... and they even announced COD:2011! CEO Bobby Kotick has scheduled a yearly regular shit, so get out your spoons and wallets, kiddos!!onei!
By the way... check this out too...kotaku.com/5485733/ex+infinity-ward-heads-claim-orwellian-moves-by-activision
*Edit: here is the full documentation of the ex-ceo claims - kotaku.com/5485733/ex+infinity-ward-heads-claim-orwellian-moves-by-activision
Make sure to check out page 10...
Then websearch anything you can find about Bobby Kotex...erm, Kotick... whatever. The more I read the more I'm not surprised about what happened to the Ex's, but very surprised at this draconian bs.
*edit edit: Activision has responded...
""Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless," the company said in a statement e-mailed to Kotaku by a spokesperson. "Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth.
"In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."
Note they never say "what" they did though in violation.
On an interesting note... has activision been working with Treyarch for a while with this in mind?
www.destructoid.com/rumor-call-of-duty-7-vietnam-159670.phtml
Back in January it was rumored that they had another dev team working on the next CoD. One about Vietnam, a couple of months ago. Huh... it would be neat to have all the pieces of the puzzle.
What it is is Activision and Vivendi merged in Dec 2007, with Vivendi owning 52% stake. Vivendi had already owned Blizzard at this time, so in July 2008 when the merger was finalized Activision essentially owned Blizzard as well officially.
It is possibly that an Activision exec could fire a Blizzard employee as a result. Though Activision's track record as of late is just crank out the cash don't worry about quality games. Since WoW is holding steady at 11.5 million subs, doubtful anyone at Blizzard will get sacked any time soon.
What some of you are delusional about is not that activision now owns blizzard, which is true, its that blizzard had not been part of just as evil an empire as activision for more than 10 years prior to their activision deal ever since they sold out in the 90s. False. Blizzard has been an evil empire as long as any of you can remember, people just happen to like their games and give em a pass on it.
And wah my robotic executive overlords wont pay my bonus. when you sign your soul over to the devil youre gonna get burned.
Right with you. As of now I am paying publishers exactly zero dollars while I continue to enjoy legitimate, online gameplay. I'm having a great time, and have no hassles. I kind of figure that's what entertainment is supposed to feel like. I always figured, but almost forgot.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what a publisher's business model is. The "someone else paying for it" are called investors. The people creating the pizzas are called developers. The stores are called .. stores lol.
So yeah, it is ridiculous. Developers need to get directly with investors and contract for publishing services. Unfortunately, the "big names" have the retailers' attention and shelf space. So they monopolize our money the exact way that Microsoft dominated software sales in the early days, by getting retailers to showcase their products instead of the competition's.
Even digital distributors are vulnerable to this - when you're talking to the entity who has a hundred products on your site, on which you're making a lot of money, it's very difficult to say "hey, we're going to showcase this indie development studio's competitive product just like we do yours. Because that's only fair, right?".
Fair is not the way cutthroat business is done. That indie's product will not be showcased at all if the big publisher has anything to say about it. It'll be listed on the site, yeah, but no front page, no banner ads, no videos, etc.
Not quite. Vivendi owned Blizzard. Vivendi biought Activision to get it's management team. The corporation reorganized under the Activision-Blizzard banner. Acvtivision had nowhere near enough money to buy Vivendi or Blzzard.
Bobby Kotick can fire any employee of Activision-Blizzard.
One of the most interesting quotes of Bobby Kotick last month:
When talking about game designers and developpers:
" Some ego is healthy, but outsized egos should be checked at the door. It takes a village to make a game. If you think you can do it all by yourself, you’re probably the village idiot".
Apparently the 2 directors were first questioned in the HQ's for 6 hours behind closed doors and not even a window present. After the hearings they were fired immediately and were accused of insubordination and breach of contract.
I think - as always - there are 2 sides to this story.
I agree with the first statement, as we have seen numurous cases of designers/developpers who took on the roles as great pop stars that just fell flat the moment they made other projects (Bill Roper, Richard Garriot, Mark Jacobs etc...).
All outsized ego's. I even doubt the capacity of Jeff Kaplan these days when I read upon his attitude as an EQ guild leader. You may hate BK, but I wouldn't like to have his job in a million years with all those "artists" around.
Good article and it needed to be said. Often times words on the MMO industry dance around the causes of problems with out naming who or what but clouding the issue with metaphors.
There is one thing though that might be a problem with this "small games, self-financed, distributed virtually and virally". I agree its a good idea but we balance on the needle of a huge problem. All this depends on the high speed internet service to most Americans being a stable and available resource. We need to pay better attention because the major players in the ISP industry are working toward the same kind of lesser service for higher prices manipulations that the article hinted at concerning publishers. You will wake up one day and see subscribers dropping off the grid because they quite simply wont be able to afford or have available the bandwidth anymore. One could argue that it wont happen due to the domino disaster effect on internet subscriber industries but looking at our recent issues with our economy I would say we have a problem with some not so smart people running very powerful things, including all aspects of the gaming industry we love so much and industries which it relies on.
The entire gaming industry makes me sick.
Given the current state of our economy, where people with money are trying their hardest to secure this money - leaving out the programmers and artists who aren't making millions, you can't expect any MMO's released to be good.
What can be expected is this industry to barely scrape by with lay-offs left and right. Publishers want a return on their investment. Which translates to 2 year rushed releases, knowing full well that MMO addicts will fork over money on un-finished beta quality games.
I don't foresee any end to this trend until our recession ends (even then, I'm not so sure).
Supporting indy games and independent studio's is great an all, but the almighty WoW has spoiled most MMO gamers. We expect WoW quality games and content, but don't realize how impossible it is to create it. Amazing MMO's that take our hearts and give us months of play-time are extremely rare and take many years to create. It is risky, and as such, are rarely borne.
Great Article.
I all ways wondered why all the games i like keep getting shorter and shorter.
Greed is bad. heh
STO? (Wonder if this will become another lesson to upcoming game designers)
Atari made the development costs back just from box and download sales not to mention how little a lesson they learned from Champions Online which suffered from exactly the same issues STO does.
AoC, Warhammer, CO and STO are all MMO's that were rushed out the door and suffered as a result tho at least the AoC Dev team put in the work and have a pretty decent game now.
http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/email-infinity-ward-sues-activision/
Lol, Scott is wrong, AGAIN.
"These are the guys who made one of the best selling games of all time with a staff of only 75 people."
Where do you get this crap from? Pulling it out of your arse?
"They made good products, they hit their milestones, they made their owners a lot of money – and they got gutted, their leadership, who had founded the company, replaced with functionaries from Activision’s publishing division."
Activision was the one who pushed Modern Warfare 2. Activision owns IW. If it wasn't for Activision they wouldn't be where they are. CoD wouldn't even exist and those rich nasty developers wouldn't be rich.
Scott Jennings, a naive developer spreads his ignorance, news at 11.
Developers are stupid people and these people deserve to be fired, Scott Jennings you just prove how stupid developers can get.
BTW, how do you know it was Activision that denied the ded servers? Wasn't it IW that annouced there wouldn't be ded-servers?
Lead designer and lead software engineer now leave IW.
Think two more leads leaving puts the burden of proof squarely on the publishing house.
http://kotaku.com/5510262/modern-warfare-developer-loses-two-more-key-players