Kotick strikes again!!

Trouble is people will pay and are already pre-ordering in huge numbers. On the surface it may seem like a huge gamble on Activision's part, but I think it's more devious and calculated. But looking at the backlash here, I reckon Kottick has done nothing more than taken a 12 gauge to the collective toes of Activision and their subsidiaries and I suspect people will be wary of them in the future. Too many out spoken remarks can earn you a reputation you'll be hard pushed to escape in the future.

It feel similar so how, to your dealer putting up the price per gram. You know you want the fix so you'll pay whatever it takes, the moral complexities go straight out the window! However even though you may have paid a special price for that hit.. For the next fix however, you'll be running around trying to find a cheaper alternative.

It remains to be seen whether Modern Warfare 2 will be any good!! and I certainly won't be putting any money down pre-ordering. Might even go with a pre-owned copy, who knows.

Company CEO in 'wants to make more money' non-shocker. This is neither controversial nor surprising. Want your customers to pay more money for your product? Then raise prices on a game that, despite their bleating and "OMFG BOYCOTT ACTIVISION SMASH THE SYSTEM" whining, the vast majority of COD4 fans will snap up regardless of price.

Those that feel that strongly about such things are often the same people that cannot stand to be left behind in the Multiplayer testosterone pissing-contests that online shooters like these foster and which MW2 will no doubt fall 'victim' (delete quote marks to taste) to.

Can't stand being left behind in the hunt for your Prestige ++ cock-substitute, then guess what? Mr Kotick willl have your £55 (or more likely £110) thankyouverymuch.

Ha ha, 'course retailers will go for his 'plan'. Only few customers would buy a game at that price in the short-term which will boost the sales of pre-owned copies even more. Meaning less royalties to Activision and more moolah to the store. Unless there's some 'arrangement' between Activision and the retailers, cos I honestly can't see Activision shooting themselves in both feet that bad.

Know what? The last Activision anything I bought was COD4. I bought it used a couple years (?) ago and never got more than an hour of so into it. I have never played a plastic instrument game. I have never played World of Warcraft.

I just went to Activision's website and had a look at their back catalog. The only things I can see on a list of 209 games (that's 209, not 2009) that I might someday be interested in owning are Geometry Wars 2 and Riddick. There's an awful lot of crap on there!

So I guess what I'm saying is that while on one hand I'd hate to see this buffoon's price-raising antics spread across the entire industry, on the other hand he could immediately jack up the prices of everything Activision sells today and it wouldn't affect me at all.

I for one do not associate Activision with quality. And I spend more than a little money on games.

A rather ballsy statement from Kotick, considering the retail industry faces ever-decreasing consumer demand. I think he's just not being realistic.

This wanker shouldn't say shit like that in public (or even joke about it) as it'll 1) make gamers only buy 2nd hand Activision games, 2) will make PC gamers pirate their games, 3) destroy their image.

You know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.

You...can go and pull my meat sword! I don't pay more than £20 for my games. This comedian is having a laugh.

Fuck it, i think i'll go and pirate/download every Activision PC game out there... just because i can!

This guy is a fucking moron!

I heard about this happening in a meeting with a retail chain I work for. We discussed it, and we're not all too "gung-ho" about this. We try to keep prices as low as we possibly can, and this isn't helping.

Oh Activision....

We're not amused.

You go ahead and try that numbnuts and let us all know how it works out for you. You know why people eat up DLC, used games, and the Wii?? IT COSTS LESS. If a consumer finds a better product for cheaper they will buy it. Stop your ranting about everyone else's (Sony's) price if you're going to whine about increasing your own and coupling stupidly expensive add-ons that provide no experience to the game it's sold with.

These are games we are talking about and I'm one of those people who isn't going to shell out $59.99+ for one. Certaintly not the limited editions of the garbage you produce.

This is a funny plot twist ala Shyamalan, right there... not so long ago Kotick was complaining about the PS3's price being to high, therefore affecting the user instal base. Whether or not he was right back then, today the truth comes out. Let's threaten Sony to get their console price down so that we can increase our games' prices up. Way to go buddy!! Never saw that one coming. I don't know about you guys, but I prefer paying a little bit more on a console that a lot more on every single game I buy. The higher the price, the greater the loss. A lot of people are confortable with the current price and this is encouraging impulsive purchases as well. Get the game more expensive and your games better have the greatest reviews to get the people to buy it. Otherwise, people won't bother buying something if they aren't 100% sure of it being a good purchase. This will increase renting and secondhand market.... and piracy... this being the hellish trio every publisher was complaining about. That just makes no sense at all. Plus the fact that we are in a recess period, which affects the sales, now this. I don't know in which evil parrallel universe this guy lives, but here on Earth where people barely buy stuff at a reasonable price, they will not buy more if it costs more... and he probably wears a goatee, too. It's hard to believe Activision is one of the top of this industry with statements like this.

A terrible idea.

This move will do little to deter hard-core gamers, because they are the ones who buy those premium sets. The casual gamer, on the other hand, will significantly reduce their consumption. He uses the term "consumer acceptance," while apparently being too stupid to realize that means "gamer acceptance." Gamers and consumers are different groups. All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles.

This results in an instability. If they fail with the hard-core, the broader market will not be there to absorb some sales. And by the time they realize the hard-core sales have failed, and they drop the price, they've lost the marketing momentum from the launch.

Their goal should be reducing price as far as possible and increasing the size of the market. Why do they think the used game market is so vibrant? If they simply sold the games for less, boom, larger market.

Seems short sighted to me. As digital distribution etc. pushes publishers to the side lines you'd think they'd try innovative ways of keeping their prices down.
I suppose special editions are intended to reduce the likelyhood of people trading in their copy of the game? And a higher price point means more profit on new purchases but surely cutting prices is more likely to make second hand games less attractive.

Greedy bastards.