Bobby Kotick, showing an almost admirable disregard for what people think of him, admitted during the Activision-Blizzard earnings call yesterday that if he could, he would raise game prices even higher than he already has.
At some point, you become so successful that you just stop caring what other people think. They will call you evil, they will call you greedy. They will call you insane, but what do you care – you sleep on top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick must be at that point. First he threatened to cut off PS3 support entirely, and now he’s made a casual admission that comes off as completely callous and greedy but is almost disarmingly honest.
Asked a question during the Acti-Blizz earnings call about price points, Activision’s Mike Griffin had this to say: “And then on the second question, Tony, on the pricing, we’ve had for all of our launch titles in the back half of this year, some of which contain peripherals, as you point out, very strong retailer acceptance and support for all parts of our plan, including our merchandising plans, our marketing programs, and our price points.”
After which Kotick stepped in and added this: “And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.”
Even further might be in reference to Activision’s pricing of Modern Warfare 2 in the UK, where the game will run for £54.99 (about $90).
Kotick was probably joking – all the executives reportedly laughed after he made the remark. But that doesn’t make it any funnier to me, since it just conjures an image of a bunch of cartoon fat cats laughing it up and wearing top hats and monocles while sipping martinis and eating ribeyes. And you know, even if he was joking – humor’s an easy cover for your true feelings. Either Kotick is playing with us and doesn’t give a hoot about what people think, or he’s just flat out crazy. Gonna go with a little bit of both.
[Via VG247]
Published: Aug 6, 2009 05:58 pm