Activision Developers ‘Have To Earn’ New IPs, Says Bobby Kotick

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, one of the most successful game publishers/developers, feels his firm’s devs “have to earn the right” to create new IPs (Individual Properties). Speaking in a very controversial interview with gaming mag Edge, he said only “the really successful studios” get to create their own new games.

“In the last year, we’ve taken four or five big bets – Singularity, Prototype, DJ Hero and Blur were completely new. That’s more than we usually would do, but in each case there was a very good reason why the developer chose to do it,” said Kotick.

“Our process isn’t that we say, ‘Neversoft, you make a new IP.’ When they wanted to make Gun, they certainly earned the right to make new IP. They came in and said, ‘This is our idea,’ and we provide a lot of the research that will tell them how to think about the product.

“Then they go off and make the game they want to make, and we try and be supportive. You have to earn the right to do that, so it’s usually the really successful studios that get the right.”

Though most studios like to stick with their franchises once they’ve been established as successful game series’s. “Historically, our most successful studios have always stayed specialised; they didn’t want to make anything else,” Kotick continued.

“The really insightful developers realise that the pathway to innovation is greater from a proven property that has an audience… There are so few new IPs that are introduced successfully.

“Really great developers don’t want to disappoint their audience, so they invest a lot of time and energy into building a game and the little things, such as how you play that game, what the UI is, what the storyline is, who the characters are. Great developers really own that franchise,” he said.

He speaks a lot. *whisper*Prick*whisper*