I agree with Leviathan . . . (Gaming)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Monday, September 07, 2015, 20:08 (3163 days ago) @ Fuertisimo
edited by General Vagueness, Monday, September 07, 2015, 20:32

Yeah, I feel you man. There's a lot of passion and energy I think in the discussions these days and it can be exhausting.

One thing I will say regarding the whole Activision meddling thing is that... It's not definitive proof that they are screwing everything up behind the scenes, but it is evidence of at least one occasion where Activision did meddle in a way that Bungie employees felt was inappropriate or unexpected (remember that Ryan actually did side with Marty about Activision's overreach). Honestly reading it it seems like Activision just came in and did a switcheroo on Bungie without telling them it was going to happen or anything. Pretty crappy thing to do even if it was just a press reveal.

Well it's not even that, we don't know what the final contract was like, but in the version that came out from the Infinity Ward case Activision got control of the marketing (maybe not all control but that's how I seem to remember it), and a bunch of people here have said that's par for the course when you're dealing with a publisher. No one who knows how this works or what the agreement was like (or what Activision is like, if you really think they're that bad) should have been surprised, least of all Marty who was part of the leadership when the deal was made.
Also they were given advance notice, otherwise they couldn't have tried to get Activision to change their minds.
I will say I think they should've listened to Bungie and Marty because it's their universe and their game and E3 is a big deal and creative types tend to get pissy when you remove what they created (and people in general).
Speaking of the Infinity Ward case, I think it's worth remembering Bungie entered into talks with Activision (although they probably didn't finalize them) before that whole mess became public.