So when Kaminsky says, "What we've realized over time is that making a great game is important, but not enough," one cannot help but wonder if Activision decided that, since great games aren't enough, maybe great games aren't necessary at all. Activision's mind-boggling bottom line, now measured in the billions, indicates the company is certainly doing something right, but it's not necessarily indicative of a commitment to great videogames.
And like so many things, success is in the eye of the beholder. Call of Duty 4 made a spectacular splash and it's very near the top of my "to play" list, but I find greater hope for the future in the far more modest accomplishments of games like EVE Online, the space-based MMOG with less than 200,000 subscribers that is nonetheless viewed as a resounding success by its developers and fan base. Not because of the "little-guy-makes-good" angle (although I'm not so cynical as to suggest that's not pretty cool in itself), but because it represents a different kind of paradigm for the industry: Risk mitigation through reduced scale. If tens of millions of dollars aren't riding on the success of a single game, developers and publishers may be more inclined to take greater chances with their creation, leading to - dare we think it? - real innovation in future releases.
Innovation as it stands now is little more than refinement and incremental improvements in technology. And in case there's any doubt about the effectiveness of the marketing machine, one need only look at the latest entry in the Madden NFL franchise, a grey-bearded series that, by any rational estimate, overstayed its welcome years ago but continues to plod forward, driven by the EA Sports engine. Madden NFL 08, despite minimal improvements and a Metacritic score of 77, sold over four million copies by the beginning of November 2007; its predecessor, Madden NFL 07, has sold over seven million.
Kaminsky's eagerness to accord the same importance to marketing as development hints at a bleak trend among the major players in the industry, in which the advertising expenditures becomes more important than the money spent on development. If great games are really on the menu, then what's needed is a little less PR and a little more boldness and insight - and budget - in the development process. Kaminsky's system may be a moneymaker, but it does little good for gamers.
