Activision threatens to "stop supporting" Sony consoles.

[WereKitten]

Aiemond said:

TheThunder said:

it simple really if you are going to drop a source of a profit (yes their games on PS3 bring profit big time) then you should find another source that replaces that gap you made or else shareholders are going to pissed. PS3 games may sell less than 360 but they still bring them great revenue and profit each year and they can't just say no to that it just won't happen. PSP on the other brings only like 1% of their revenue according to their financial report back in 2008

That's what I am saying. That they are going to replace the ps3 projects with ones that have better returns. They explain this to shareholders by using their models, graphs, figures etc that they used to come to this conclusion and then talk about how much more they will make with these investments. Also, coupled with the comments he makes, it seems they make less profit off a ps3 project than they would a similar 360 profit cause costs are higher.

From the times article: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article6531367.ece?print=yes&randnum=1245400825888

The target is Sony, the once-dominant hardware maker. “I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation,” he says

So, they say no to PS3 if they think they can take the money they are spending on it and put it to a more porfitable project.

 

This is prolly what happened to MW2 wii imo, even though it makes me sad to admit it.

What are Activision's current "PS3 projects"? Certainly they are not exclusives, thus it's only multiplatform games we're talking about.

Can you think of another investment that has higher ROI than putting money into developing a PC/360 game for the PS3 as well? I've tried, but...

• It's not another PC/360 game, because extending the first game for the PS3 would cost less than that relatively to the expected sales.
• It can't be an exclusive (either PC/360/Wii) because they generally have lower ROI.
• Could it be making it a PC/360/Wii game? I doubt the costs of adapting a 360/PC game to the Wii would be lower, because it would require a lot more trimming and shoehorning, plus lower revenue per copy because of the final price. Wii sales numbers I don't think could exceed those of the PS3 - at least for the kind of games you also develop on 360 and PC.

Any ideas?