Activision boss mentions COD MMO
GH for Asia also in his Blizzard love-letter.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has been boasting about his relationship with Blizzard again. After claiming last week that he thought it would cost up to a billion dollars to compete with World of Warcraft, he used his speech at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference yesterday to discuss what he's learning from talks with the developer as the companies prepare to merge. One topic, apparently, has been how to make a successful MMO out of Call of Duty.
"Just the few hours of conversations we've had in brainstorming has given us a lot of value..." Kotick said, referring to Blizzard's expertise in the Asian market before moving on to MMOs. "And then when you think about other properties that we own and control like Call of Duty, and what would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment, and how do you monetise that, the same rules apply."
It's a vague mention, but indicative perhaps that despite his warnings about cost, Kotick's plans for the MMO market don't stop at merging with Blizzard owners Vivendi for a slice of the World of Warcraft pie.
In the same speech, Kotick also mentioned the possibility of using Blizzard's Asian experience - its "institutional knowledge" in his words - to introduce Guitar Hero to Chinese and Korean game rooms. Guitar Hero is "the best-selling game we've ever had," he noted.
He also discussed new revenue streams for Starcraft, including advertising, sponsorship and esports. For more details on Kotick's comments, check out the report at GamesIndustry.biz.