Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has taken a beating from the enthusiast press, gamers, and several high-profile developers. Last July, Double Fine founder Tim Schafer had some colorful words for the man, calling him a “total prick” and a “dick”. Now it’s Kotick’s turn to strike back! In a recent interview with Edge magazine, Kotick said:
Tim Schafer. The guy comes out and says I’m a prick. I’ve never met him in my life — I’ve never had anything to do with him. I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brutal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, ‘He’s late, he’s missed every milestone, he’s overspent the budget and it doesn’t seem like a good game. We’re going to cancel it.’
And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game.
While I disagree with Kotick’s assessment that Brutal Legend is not a particularly good game, his other points are completely valid. Several of my industry contacts have told me about the game’s numerous delays and overspending. Still, I can’t help but think that these comments will just add to Kotick’s “evil” reputation. Although his argument is legitimate, he’ll still be seen as the big CEO of a huge corporation picking on an independent developer.
Any thought’s on Kotick’s latest?
For once I agree with Kotick. Brutal Legend is bargain bin material now.
Well, the game is only $15 on Amazon.
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I have heard some people say that it is a decent game. It never interested me that much, but there are some good mechanics in it from what I hear. Mechanics that should be transferred to other games to be played by kids and adults alike. Plain and simple though, it didn't sell well enough for Kotick and that is how I think he determines whether or not a game is good.
BL is a damn good game. Great style.
Didn't Schafer complain that Kotick didn't like the title because a sequel wasn't easy to pump out or the game just couldn't be cut in half? Both have valid points though.
Kotick and Whitacre are so damn similar.
@bsukenyan I'm not sure what you mean by "it didn't sell well enough for Kotick". Activision didn't publish the game. EA did. If anything, Kotick would be happy that the sales were relatively low. It justifies his company's decision to drop it and it makes a competitor look bad.
@smartguy Yes, one of the reasons it was dropped was because it ATVI didn't think it could sequelize the hell out of it.
@Ray
Yes I agree, he is probably more than happy that the sales were low since EA published the game. I was meaning the sales numbers were not high enough to meet his standards, regardless of who published it. My opinion of him is that he judges how good a game is based on the sales numbers, meaning that Brutal Legend didn't meet his standards in that sense.
If you wanted to play devil's advocate, you could argue that the game got negative press because of the fallout from Activision and it could have done better with more effective or simply more advertising from the publisher.
The game sucked you couldn't even jump
I loved Brutal Legend. But then again, I'm a big metal fan and a sucker for Tim Schafer's warped sense of humor.
Also, I really liked both Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters much more than [Prototype], the game he kept from the Vivendi merger when he ditched both of those games because he didn't think they'd be franchises he could beat into the ground every year.
Is there a new Prototype coming soon?
I can't say anything about the game since I have not played it, but I do love the corporate cat-fighting. I'd love to hear the "unedited" or "unrated" versions of their rants and hope they mean what they say.
-M