Taz! said: Yea, Sony know Activision are only bluffing I can't believe this whole topic has been taking so seriously.

This.

Activison isn't going to pull the plug on PS3. Guitar Hero games sell over 1 million units each year and Call of Duty is the highest selling franchise on the PS3. That would be stupid for them. What do they want a bigger userbase for when Modern Warfare 2 should sell 5 million on PS3 and 8-9 million on 360? Well that's my prediction.

A lot of you are overestimating Activision here and what will happen if they do that. Yes, it will be a big blow if Sony lose the support of Activision but do you think Third party like EA, Konami, Square-Enix, Capcom and etc. will suddenly stop making games for Sony just because Activision will not support Sony anymore? Why would they stop making games for Sony platforms if that is the one making them more profit? That's very stupid.

At this point in time, I don't think any third party publisher would consider abandoning any platform (except maybe the PSP) ...

With that said, if third party publishers released 20% to 30% of their smaller HD console games exclusively to the XBox 360 because they were upset that Sony didn't reduce the price of the PS3, and then Microsoft was able to secure (possibly timed or content) exclusivity on 5% to 10% of their games through "Money Hatting" , it would really harm the PS3's viability.

Because that attitude helped Sony so much this gen? :) It's awesome for Nintendo and Microsoft yeah. I'd be laughing my ass out if it really happened. Believe me Sony cares... A LOT.

Where's the pimpslap? SCEE said first that they aren't commenting the issue to the media and now SCEA said that they negotiate with Activision-Blizzard.

Considering the pricing comment relating to financial forecast, it may aswell be bundles. In general, that would be better option to Sony overall. The thing is, that Sony has to drop the price, at the moment Sony can't drop the price.

I seriously doubt they would cut support entirely, look at Call of Duty, they make major bank on the PS3 with those titles.

As much as people here like to constantly debate about the sales of "Big" games, publishers are probably more likely to make decisions based on the 90% of smaller games they produce that are lucky to see 250,000 sales on a platform. If development costs are too high, and the return is too low on these games a company may not be able to recover regardless of how well their "Big" games do ...

Activision will never stop supporting the PS3 because if the CEO does that then he will be out of a job. Vivendi would not appreciate it if he cuts off a giant revenue stream that is the sony platforms. Infact this CEO could even lose favor just because he has a big mouth. The guy may be the CEO, but he doesn't have absolute power. Shareholders and Vivendi which has a controlling stake in Activision hold the fate of his future in their hands.

Also Modern Warfare and Guitar hero has such a big following it could potential lure people to whatever platform still has them. However Activision makes a shit load of licensed games from mostly movies that don't have a strong enough lure to get people to follow them so therefore they will lose out on all that revenue. Further more Activision would probably no longer get these contracts from all these movies and other IP because they don't support the PS3. So not only would they lose out on the PS3 sales from all games but they would also lose out on games like Shrek, Wolverine, Spider Man, Transformers, etc. across all platforms. If Activision stop supporting Sony their console revenue stream would be reduced to about 30% of what it is.

Activision doesn't have any pull with Sony at this point. Yes they can really hurt Sony but would be killing them self in the process. Vivendi knows this and would never let this talk go further than it already has.

First off ...

The revenue from Sony platforms doesn't matter, all that matters is the profit generated and the return on investment. If a company is spending $10 to make $5 on a platform, or they can get double the return for investing the same money on another platform, then they have nothing to worry about from losing the revenue from dropping a platform. I'm not saying this is the case, just that it is more complicated than simply looking at the revenue generated.

Now, you may not hear about people buying a videogame console to play cheap licenced games but they do have an impact on the system that ends up being bought. While most people imagine the "Man of the house" as having the power to buy the toys he wants for himself, quite often devices like game consoles are bought with a consideration of how the entire family can get use out of it. A system that has "poor quality" licenced games targeting everyone is a much easier sell in most households than a system that is full of high quality games targeting teenage boys and men.

This game is a little more complicated than what it appears to be on the surface. Activision are the largest 3rd party publisher in existance right now. They have games which hold a lot of sway with consumers -> Diablo, Call of Duty/Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero are the main ones. They also hold a lot of sway with other publishers as well, when they jump one way they will definately send ripples amongst the others. Since we don't know precisely whats going on behind the scenes to motivate them to make such statements its hard to determine exactly what they want to happen behind the scenes. Its further complicated because we don't exactly know what conversations they are having with Nintendo and Microsoft regarding their games as well.

Long term, I would say perhaps they may consider themselves better off with a two horse race than a three horse race, especially if the other console manufacturers make it worth the trouble. This is considering that perhaps Sony is unwilling to cut the price significantly enough for their liking and because of that they feel that the future profitability from the PS3 platform is being hurt so they would wish to act now and aquire a positition which is in their own best interest with platforms which are selling much better in their key western markets.