Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick is a pretty opinionated dude. With the music and rhythm games skyrocketing to popularity, Kotick sees the games as a means to bring new consumers to the bands, not vice versa. "When you look at the impact [Guitar Hero] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant," Kotick said, further adding "so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."Kotick backs up his point even more by stating that the games "have lots of music to choose from, lots of artists to choose from" and that a "12-year-old kid has no idea who Steven Tyler is or who Aerosmith is," but that the game can introduce them to that particular artist. Kotick went on further to say that the majority of people who enjoy these games "will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included. They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them."
[Via CVG]
Source (subscription required) - Activision's CEO speaks
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-26-2008 @ 7:35PM
Supercool4 said...
yeah...how about no
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 7:39PM
Avoli said...
Cant say I dont see his point. The state of the record industry though, itll never happen. They need all they can get..... what for entirely is a bit beyond me.
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 7:40PM
Roto13 said...
They make money off game sales. That should be enough. Greedy Activision.
"Kotick went on further to say that the majority of people who enjoy these games "will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included. They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them.""
This is true. At least for me.
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 7:43PM
ChrisCanberg said...
what a greedy bastard. you already price a bundle for your game thats gunna sell millions at almost $200 and now you want more. not cool man. not cool.
Reply
9-27-2008 @ 7:13AM
Rich said...
That's the point and you missed it entirely. It is a competitive market. The game that can get paid rather than pay for content and produce it for cheaper. Which means they can sell it for cheaper than their competitor. Take your Che' t-shirt off for a second and look around at every product in Wal-Mart. If you can make a product for cheaper it will be sold for cheaper. Rule of capitalism #1, profit is good but being able to undercut the competitions profits is better. And in this case GuitarHero and RockStar couldnt be closer competitors.
9-30-2008 @ 9:39AM
ChrisCanberg said...
I must say, I just got owned. Good point haha.
9-26-2008 @ 7:46PM
TheOverlord#2 said...
I can't wait for this to get on Joystiq. The comments will be hilarious. :P
Reply
9-27-2008 @ 11:00AM
Krownz said...
RockStar?
...lul whut?
9-26-2008 @ 7:57PM
Jordan said...
What bothers me is that he has a really good point. The problem is that when the labels start paying them, the creative input into the game is lost and it basically turns into a sh*tty radio station that you play instead of listen to...and I hate listening to radio stations.
I, for one, don't want godd@mned seether or nickelback or whatever generic flavor-of-the-week-band in my game.
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 9:28PM
Gewurztraminer says: Shinkuu Gadouken! said...
To some extent, I see his point. I never knew who The Killers were before Guitar Hero.
But at the same time, I in fact do buy these games based on the songs that are in them. If I hadn't tested out GH3 in-store and been able to play songs I knew there's no way I would have gotten into the genre in the first place.
(although you could trace it back farther and say that if I hadn't read about a TRU sale on this site, I never wouldn't have gotten into the genre. thanks. i think..... =)
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 10:00PM
Rocketboy said...
He's go a damn good point. Music is advertising for the product of, well, music. Just look at how music sales of bands that are in Guitar Hero and Rock Band skyrocket when the games are released. Really, the best solution is that neither the music publishers nor the game publishers pay for music.
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 10:24PM
Mr Khan said...
He has a point, certainly, but he expressed it in the most conceited way possible.
Reply
9-26-2008 @ 11:28PM
bug frawg said...
No he doesn't. one of the arguing points in guitar hero vs. rock band debates is the tracklist, Activision needs a good selection to keep up with Harmonix & EA.
9-27-2008 @ 12:07AM
lorddshadow said...
actually i'm mostly buying guitar hero so that i can play my favorite songs. so opinionated is correct. and i know lots of kids who know who aerosmith is. so...i agree with the opinionated part.
Reply
9-27-2008 @ 7:02AM
Rich said...
He is absolutely right. There are entire generation now getting Aerosmith, and other bands from their parents generation burned into their brains as "cool" How many of their 10-15 year old kids playing Guitar Hero would normally listen to classic rock or even heard of some of these bands? How many of them now have these songs on their iPods...
The Bands should be paying big money to be advertised on these games.
Reply
10-03-2008 @ 8:08PM
Eivets said...
"How many of their 10-15 year old kids playing Guitar Hero would normally listen to classic rock or even heard of some of these bands?"
...Me!
9-27-2008 @ 9:11AM
KIMP said...
Sad to say but he is right.
With the success of the GUITAR HERO series, music artist WANTS to be in the next edition. It help sale CD. Look at bands like Poison (which I loved back in the 80s), which sold tons of their greatest hits album after being in GHIII.
My girlfriend's younger brother is only 15 and since playing GUITAR HERO III, he's into KISS, Alice Cooper and other great classic rock bands... before that he was listening to hip hop and any R&B crap the radio an tv is feeding them today.
With games like that, the younger crowd discover that there is actually some great music made from the past, and great rock, metal made today.
I'm all for it.
Reply
9-27-2008 @ 4:35PM
dmobxxx said...
These games are bullshit anyway. If you like them, then, well, good for you. I would rather play a real guitar.
Bottom line: No songs=NO GAME.
Pay up you stingy turds.
The end.
Reply
9-27-2008 @ 5:04PM
Orion said...
I agree. I didn't know about Priest till GHIII. Now I have their songs.
Reply
9-30-2008 @ 6:32AM
Richard said...
Whilst he might have a point that the recording industry should pay him as the games are a good platform for promoting their content - this is completely offset by the fact that if he didn't have any content (or the content wasn't suitably mainstream or popular enough) he'd have a rubbish unsellable product.
In other words, its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. You can only get away with charging content providers for inclusion in your product if the value of the product isn't significantly less when they say "no".
Reply