Regarding Activision (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, September 15, 2016, 17:11 (3130 days ago) @ breitzen

I wanted to say something about Activision, because this is a big part of what colors my entire point of view on this subject.

I know it is easy for us to roll our eyes any time someone on the internet starts yelling "blame Activision! They're evil! Every problem with the game is their fault" etc. I don't want to come off as "that guy".

But I sort of am that guy... just with a little more nuance ;)

Let me first say that there are many talented, creative, hard working people within Activision who care deeply about making great games. No question about it. But the question we need to keep in mind is: "Who signs their paychecks?".

Activision is a public company. They answer to their shareholders. In most cases, public shareholders are not known for being a patient or forward-thinking group. They demand growth, year after year. If there is no growth, there is a risk of panic, and that can be disastrous for a company the size of Activision.

We don't need to think about theoretical company behavior, here. Activision has proven, time and time again, that they like to take their fastest horse and ride it as hard as they can until it gets driven into the dirt. They've done it with every franchise in their catalog. CoD is still standing, but it took some serious blows over the past few years (to the point where Activision restructured the developer rotation for the series).

Now Destiny is a bit of a different animal, because Bungie owns the IP and Bungie perhaps has enough clout as a studio to talk back to Activision without fear of being dropped and replaced. But at the end of the day, Activision is the one writing the checks to Bungie, which means Activision's concerns are Bungie's concerns. Maybe not everyone at Bungie, but there are certainly people within the studio who care very much about keeping Activision happy, because a happy and stable relationship means everyone gets to paid.

So when say things like "of course Bungie is going to keep trying to find ways to get more money out of Destiny players", I'm not saying that the hard-working people at Bungie are unethical, or that they don't care about their community. I'm simply recognizing the reality of the situation. Bungie MUST continue to find new ways to monetize Destiny because Activision wants them to because their shareholders demand it. We can't ignore the roll of outside influences here. If CoD or Guitar Hero have disappointing sales one year (hint, they BOTH had disappointing sales last year), guess who's job it is to pick up that slack? This is how publishers operate. The 2013 Tomb Raider was considered a "failure", despite glowing reviews and sales of 2-3 million, because the publisher's other games that year had all failed to sell, and so they expected Tomb Raider to make up the difference. Anyone who thinks Bungie/Destiny isn't similarly effected by publisher pressures isn't seeing the whole picture.