Activision: 'Wij zijn niet slecht'

In de ogen van veel gamers is Activision een kwaadaardig bedrijf, onder andere doordat ze te veel dezelfde games zouden uitbrengen en Bizarre Creations hebben opgeheven. Activision zelf vindt dat dit beeld verkeerd is en dat ze simpelweg een makkelijk doelwit zijn omdat ze de nummer één publisher zijn.

"It's interesting, before our merger with Blizzard, becoming the number one publisher from a revenue perspective, we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two. As soon as we became the number one and we develop broader perspectives, perceptions started to change a little bit."

Volgens Activision zijn ze zelf geen groot slecht bedrijf dat beslissingen maakt in donkere kamers. Ze zien zichzelf als een bedrijf dat graag samenwerkt met andere developers, gericht op talent en goede ideeën.

"We've worked very hard, and continue to do so, to let people know that, you know, we're the same guys, we really are. We haven't changed! I'm the same guy that I was before the merger, as are most of us. We're the same organisation. We haven't gone out and hired 3000 people. Our ability to scale and move quickly is the same as it was before. We're not this big, monolithic empire that's making decisions in a dark room, we're still very collaborative. We still have the same healthy respect and appreciation for talent that we ever did."

Alle interne studios bij Activision kunnen hun eigen cultuur houden, alsmede hun eigen visie. Wat dat betreft zijn ze geheel vrij om te doen en laten wat ze willen. Het plezier dat de developers hebben is belangrijk voor het creatieve proces en Activision wil daar niet aan komen. Ze vinden dat ze goed bezig zijn bij Activision

"With all of our internal studios we have built a process, Bobby [Kotick, CEO] has really done this directly himself, built a process for the independent developer model, that allows them to retain their own culture, their own visibility, their own leadership, really to drive the stewards of the brands. I think those are important pieces of ownership, as it's loosely defined. I think that's an important part of people coming in and having a passion and being able to exercise that passion as opposed to going in and being called publisher's name plus location. That takes some of the individuality away from that studio, and maybe some of their ability to personalise, to put in passion and ownership into their studio process. So I think we've done a good job of that through the years."