Bobby Kotick insults every independant developer other than Bungie

[Rainbird]

mike_intellivision said:

Rainbird said:

mike_intellivision said:

Sounds like a self-serving proclamation to me.

And if you are their publisher, they are not so indepedent.

Of course it's self-serving, but anyone who knows something about the industry and how it works will know that Bungie are by far not the only independant developers left who produce high quality games. If I were an investor, Bobby would lose a lot of credit saying something like that.

And they're still an independant developer, even if they have a deal with Activision.

On the independence, it depends on the contract and whether Activision has approval rights of what it publishes and what happens to things it refuses.

Remember the big controversy with Brutal Legend. Activision did not want to publish it because it could not become a series but then wanted to prevent EA from publishing it. In other words, it (Activision) potentially holds all the cards in this  relationships. And that would  severely limit the "independence" of Bungie.

Bungie retain the rights to the IP though, so they're still independant in their work.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28299/Activision_Inks_TenYear_Multiplatform_Bungie_Deal.php