| Reasonable said: Some good responses here. I still feel the threat is more of a bluff than anything to get two things: 1) larger HD install base for core Activision titles, particularly the COD (and now MW) series). 2) try and get better royalty rates from Sony Looking at the main titles I don't see how Activision could make up for loss of PS3 sales with 360 sales (i.e. despite the huge appeal of the series I don't see a bunch of PS3 owners buying 360s to get MW2, etc.) They could divert resources to the Wii, but really, overall, that seems very risky to me. Success on the Wii is tricky for 3rd parties IMHO and requires the right mindset and games design. Selling MW2 on PS3 might be less profitable than on 360, but it surely will nonetheless be hugely profitable for Activision. I feel he wanted to get in now, before the title hits to leverage better royalties if he can and try and push Sony to lower price sooner. After MW2 sells (and assuming it sells like gangbusters on PS3 and as well as 360) such a threat as this would seem silly - ergo he has to get in now and pressure Sony up to the next big wave of Activision releases. If it was truly unprofitable on PS3, and he really felt the platform was dead, I doubt he'd bother with posturing: he'd just make the moves and leave the platform to its fate. His actions indicate he wants more PS3s (and via competition stimulous more 360s) sold, with higher sales of his SW on them. |
Im sorry, but its unreasonable to assume that Modern Warfare or Call of Duty would be involved in this threat. I.E they aren't going to withdraw support and these games unless Microsoft offers them one huge honeypot in compensation, which I must add isn't worth it so they won't.
You should really consider the threat in the context of the other opportunities which are available to them. This threat would apply more to games like The Prototype which just released rather than evergreen titles which are surefire money spinners. I think it should be pretty obvious that titles which obviously make a lot of money for Activision aren't in the context of this threat.
The first week sales for Prototype were 285K 360 vs 175k PS3. Lets say you go backwards in time and make it an Xbox 360 exclusive game. Had they done this they may have been able to make the game say 20% cheaper, and they probably could have made it slightly better meaning they could have netted more sales on the Xbox 360 platform on the back of more hype (exclusive) and because it was a better game overal with more focused development. Furthermore perhaps he was thinking that he could have grabbed a marketing deal from Microsoft and offloaded much of the advertising costs as well.
The reason why he would try to bully Sony and not Microsoft is their relative positions in the market. Because Sony is the weakest he can be much more sure of getting a concession out of them than he is with Microsoft. Probably in order of priority he wants: 1. Cheaper PS3s, failing that 2. Lower royalties, failing that 3. Shift development and cut deals with Microsoft for certain exclusives. Number 1 is obviously the best case for him as it would probably spur Microsoft to reciprocate the move as well.
@BDBDBDB
If they want lower royalty rates it would only be worth it for games which are selling well. If they felt the lower end development wasn't worth it then cutting royalty rates doesn't do much to significantly improve sales on games which don't sell as well and which are the likely targets for having their development budgets moved elsewhere. Its more a threat to improve profitability on the games which are selling.
Tease.
