Posts tagged Bobby kotick at WOW Insider

Posts with tag bobby-kotick

Who's who at BlizzCon: WoW Insider's guide to the staff of Blizzard

Posted Oct 8th 2008 11:00AM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: BlizzCon

Everyone going to BlizzCon this year will get to roam around the convention hall with some of the very people who bring you World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games. While many World of Warcraft fans might be familiar with the online pseudonyms such as "Drysc" and "Tigole," very few probably know what they actually look like.

We've searched the internet high and low for pictures of these folks and have compiled them into a nice and handy gallery complete with some biographical information. The pictures are small and mobile enough that they can be saved to an iPhone or other mobile device that can be brought into the convention hall.

If you happen to be going to BlizzCon be sure to stop and say hello to these Blizzard people. And if you aren't going, check out WoW Insider during the convention for the latest and greatest reporting right from the floor.

Gallery: Who's who at BlizzCon 2008

Bobby Kotick talks about what Blizzard can do for Activision

Posted Sep 26th 2008 1:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

The Wall Street Journal sat down to interview Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and our little World of Warcraft game got a nice bit of face time (one wonders why no one's asking Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime about, say, Guitar Hero, but who are we to question the corporate structure?). Kotick says that Activision closely examined what everyone else was doing with MMOs and online gaming, and saw that the only real winner in the market was Blizzard. Rather than investing in their own franchise, then, they decided to just buy Blizzard from Vivendi (and as you know, that's what happened). Kotick says what's so difficult about running these online games is just the scale -- you've got to handle credit card fraud, keep thousands of servers up and running (and patched), and still provide a good experience for millions of players at a time.

Kotick also talks about the way that WoW is sold in Asia (there, instead of paying a monthly fee, many people in Internet cafes pay per hour in cash), and says that Blizzard's experience with setting up a viable pay model may come in handy with other Activision properties overseas, Guitar Hero being his first choice.

We're still not exactly clear on how all of this relationship works -- while both Blizzard and Activision have said in the past that it's hands off, you have to think that even though things are buddy-buddy now while the money's flowing, but what happens when the two sides start to disagree?

WoW Player Stories updated: Military stories

Posted May 30th 2008 7:00PM by Michael Gray
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, News items

I'm not Val Kilmer, either.

The official World of Warcraft Community site has updated its Player Stories section with two new stories from military personnel. Both are short and easy reads, so I'm not going to spoil them here for you. They're kind of heartwarming, and help put WoW in a little bit different light. The stories definitely show another side of why some players play the game.

It's pretty easy for some folks to forget that there are people on the other side of the computer. Real live human beings, who have friends and family. And, for some players, the whole reason they're sitting down at the computer in the first place is to get access to those friends and family. And, remember, even Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says one of the great things about World of Warcraft is its social experience.

Activision's Bobby Kotick speaks at All Things Digital

Posted May 29th 2008 7:00PM by Michael Gray
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Interviews

Bobby Kotick, CEO Activision Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, took the stage at the All Things Digital conference, and spoke a little more about the Activision Blizzard deal.

Kotick fesses up that a lot of the merger was about Blizzard's people. While a pessimist might read this as "we can't compete with them, so join 'em," what I see is a deep level of respect for Blizzard and its creation. Kotick said, "the merger is really our mechanism to get access to Blizzard's talent, capability and infrastructure." This isn't really a surprise, and reinforces what Kotick's had to say about being considerate of Blizzard's culture.

As has been said before, Kotick doesn't seem like a bad guy. What he's doing is acknowledging the good work Blizzard's done in the past. He straight out says that, "I've never seen anything quite like World of Warcraft, not just as a gaming experience, but as a social experience, as a business."

That's not the kind of sentiment issued by someone who doesn't like what they just bought (Ed: But would someone who just spent $18.8 billion on anything not like it?). While Kotick doesn't say directly much about the future of Blizzard, things are still looking good for our favorite Blue team.

Bobby Kotick: Activision is "considerate of the culture" at Blizzard

Posted Apr 28th 2008 2:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Interviews

Portfolio has an interview with Bobby Kotick himself, warchief of the Activision Blizzard clan, and in there, they talk about the merger itself (obviously), as well as Kotick's past and what he's trying to do with Activision Blizzard.

If you believe everything he's saying, then our favorite game company sounds like it may have landed on pretty good ground. Apparently Activision was originally trying to buy out Vivendi (Kotick says he'd realized that World of Warcraft wasn't so much a game as a full-fledged social network), but Vivendi made the counter-offer of a partnership instead. And while Kotick only chats briefly about Activizzard's other properties (he thinks facial and mouth movement will help videogames tell great stories -- sigh), he does say that Activision is a place where Blizzard can grow as a studio of its own, as compared to a faceless corporation like, ahem, EA.

All in all, Kotick doesn't sound like too bad a guy, although I can't imagine that any CEOs being profiled in something called "Portfolio" would. It does at least sound like he'll let Blizzard do their thing, although just as we've said before, while things are great now when the money is rolling in, there's no knowing what will happen in the future.

[Via WorldofWar.net]

Activision CEO talks about in-game advertising... is WoW next?

Posted Mar 7th 2008 10:30AM by Zach Yonzon
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Interviews

When Vivendi acquired Activision -- or was it Activision acquiring Vivendi? these business deals confuse me -- to form what the soon-to-be Activision-Blizzard late last year, many players were concerned about how this would affect our beloved MMO. Blizzard assured its players with an FAQ on the forums about the merger stating, in no uncertain terms, that it would not affect Blizzard's games in any way (except to improve them, presumably). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently spoke with Next Generation, however, and talked very much like the businessman, discussing possible revenue models for their stable of games. He mentions how Activision-Blizzard must figure out StarCraft's business model for the future, "with in-game advertising and sponsorship" which he says "presents a tremendous opportunity for the future."

He illustrates how StarCraft can actually be "the model for in-game advertising and tournament play", spooking at least one World of Warcraft player, who asks on the forums if WoW could be next. Fortunately, Karune chimes in the same thread assuring StarCraft fans (and by extension, WoW players) that Blizzard has "no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II." He explains that "Bobby (Kotick) was actually referring to Battle.net, which has always included ads." It's very reassuring, but perhaps such speculation would be avoided if Activision-Blizzard's CEO actually words things a little better.

Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories

Posted Mar 4th 2008 7:00PM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Features

This week's round up of WoW-related posts on our sister site Massively covers many different angles of the MMO universe dominated by World of Warcraft. You can click on the links below or subscribe to a special WoW-only Massively feed.

As the Worlds Turn: Get your fix
With so many games out there, presenting different worlds, different rules, different ways to play, what is it that grabs hold of players and, for some, doesn't let go?

Does WoW really need to be 'beaten'?
When will the constant cries of 'Will this be the WoW-killer?' be stifled once and for all? Let's instead concentrate on the far more interesting question: 'Why does there need to be a WoW-killer?'

Pong creator Nolan Bushnell to enter MMO space
The man many call 'the Father of Videogames' -- as he is responsible for founding Atari and creating Pong -- Nolan Bushnell was recently interviewed by GameSpot at this year's GDC.

Behind the Curtain: Should raiders get special treatment?
Loot should always be a secondary concern in MMOs. I've been seeing more and more, the idea that developers should put the concerns of those players whose sole or primary concern is the acquisition of loot above the concerns of other players.

Clan Gear: guild clothing for the masses
Adam and Freya Chapman have run Threadsafe, a direct-to-garment printing business, for the last two years. Now, in conjunction with Adam's brother Keith, they're opening Clan Gear, a direct-to-garment printing outlet for gamers, where the focus on the printing is your artwork, your character, and your designs.

Investment of $1 billion+ wouldn't dethrone WoW, exec says
According to a report, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stated in an investor meeting that his company had done extensive research on the MMO category, and came to the conclusion that even a game bolstered by an initial investment of $500 million to $1 billion would still probably have a hell of a time competing in the same space as the Blizzard juggernaut.

Activison faces lawsuit, says MMO market is "insurmountable"

Posted Feb 28th 2008 2:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items

Two bits of news about soon to-be-Blizzard's-overlords Activision: first, a group of investors are apparently planning to sue Activision about the whole merger thing, apparently saying that Activision didn't do enough to cash in on the deal. They're complaining that in the deal with Vivendi (Blizzard's owners), Activision settled for an "unfavorable minority poisition." The company hasn't responded yet, but if this lawsuit goes forward, we could find out a whole lot more about the exact terms of the deal between the two companies.

And for their own part, Activision is thrilled to be in the business of Warcraft: Activision CEO Bobby Kotick sees MMOs as an "insurmountable product category," and says that if they were competing with WoW, they'd have to toss at least half a billion to a billion dollars into the deal, and even then they wouldn't be guaranteed success. Which means that at this time, in this market, Kotick says that companies entering into the MMO market are basically throwing money away.

Can't say we're surprised that the CEO of the company that now owns WoW says it's unbeatable, but as you know by now, EA and Funcom (Warhammer Online and Age of Conan's publishers, respectively) surely disagree. We should see who's right by the end of the year.

[Via Incgamers]

Video interview with Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO

Posted Dec 17th 2007 2:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Interviews

Here's a short interview with the CEO of (now) Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick with an official inside view on the merger that recently combined the Guitar Hero company with the Diablo and WoW company. He's definitely still speaking from an Activision viewpoint (he disses Rock Band, which would be unacceptable if he wasn't actually publishing their main competitor-- Rock Band is awesome), but he lays out how the deal was a great idea for both companies and how Activision is looking toward the future of game publishing.

It's also interesting to hear him talk about the three major innovations in gaming recently-- interface innovations (such as the Wii controller or the guitar for Guitar Hero), social innovations (not just in MMOs but in terms of tournament and organized play), and production value, which is definitely something both Activision and Blizzard know about. The woman interviewing needs to learn how to interview rather than interrupt, but as a CEO, Kotick sounds like he knows what he's talking about. For now, anyway, Activision Blizzard seems to be in good hands.

[Via incgamers]

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Who's who at BlizzCon: WoW Insider's guide to the staff of Blizzard

Bobby Kotick talks about what Blizzard can do for Activision

WoW Player Stories updated: Military stories

Activision's Bobby Kotick speaks at All Things Digital

Bobby Kotick: Activision is "considerate of the culture" at Blizzard

Activision CEO talks about in-game advertising... is WoW next?

Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories

Activison faces lawsuit, says MMO market is "insurmountable"

Video interview with Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO

Countdown to Wrath of the Lich King

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