Kotick: Online passes aren’t “in the best interest of the gamer”

In a recent interview, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick claimed the publisher is not interested in introducing any type of online pass system to increase revenues from the trade-in market.

“We can do some of these things that EA and others have done,” Kotick told Joystiq. “We actually don’t think it’s in the best interest of the gamer, and so we’ve chosen not to.

“We’re not doing anything to suppress used games today.”

Alternately, the contentious publisher said he would rather focus Activision’s efforts on appealing DLC, particularly for its Call of Duty games.

“The best way to keep people engaged in your game experience is keep giving them more great content.”

Kotick hinted that the high pricing ($15) of Modern Warfare 2 DLC was related to attempts to profit from traded-in games.

Rationalize it any way you like, if online passes are not in the best interest of gamers, certainly overpriced DLC that forces gamers to feel like they must purchase it in order to not be locked out of public matchmaking is?

I call bullshit.

And I would hardly call the Modern Warfare 2 DLC, “more great content.” The Stimulus Map Pack only contained 5 new maps, 2 of which were rehashed from the previous instalment. Activision followed this up with the Resurgence Map Pack, which was more of the same, and was once again vehemently met with outrage from fans, both on quality of content and its 15 is the new 10 pricing.

“I think we’ve generally tried to do things like encourage our customers to used-game sales, probably more so than our competitors. But you know, we’re very mindful of what’s happening macroeconomically and I think that that plays a role when we’re thinking about the price of our content.”

Kotick also took time to pat himself on the back and restate his earlier assertion that “Call of Duty games probably represent more than 50% of the total Xbox Live traffic.”

Which read in business terms means: We have a rather uncompromising grip on the balls of Xbox Live gamers, the breadth of which can not be contested by any other publisher. We squeeze and say jump. Gamers say how high?

For more DLC news and info you can follow me on Twitter @The_GeekJock

Source: GamesIndustry.biz & Joystiq

Related articles

• Bobby Kotick Is Ok with Used Game Sales (escapistmagazine.com)
• Kotick talks used games, Call of Duty DLC and much more (gonintendo.com)

GOG.COM

Good Old Games, GOG.com Promises to deliver games your 10 year old kid won’t be better at. GOG earned the top spot in Mashable.com‘s Top 5 Online Game Experiences of 2010

With over 300 games released, GOG has partnered with Atari, Activision, Codemasters, Epic Games, Ubisoft and other big names to deliver classic content DRM free and at a single unit price. GOG.com has created a significant fan base and the online community at their site is very active in delivering a modern social gaming element to your classic gaming experience. A huge plus is that they have ensured Windows XP, Vista and 7 compatibility with all of their releases.

So if you miss those days of having your Pentium 100′s on a LAN in your dorm and playing Duke Nukem till the wee hours of the morning, consider Good Old Games to bring you the best in Old School Gaming!.

Sorry MAC OS fans but just like in the good old days, Good Old Games do not run natively in the MAC OS. Not suprisingly, the GOG community is, quick to offer suggestions, check out the post here;
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/gog_games_on_mac

Spanning multiple genres of rock, the quintessential rock music collection will contain tracks by the following bands, all of which are making their first franchise appearance:

“It’s seriously a huge honour to be included in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock,” said Anberlin lead guitarist, Joey Milligan. “It is surreal to have our name next to so many great bands and amazing songs! I can’t wait to play this!”

• • Anberlin – “The Feel Good Drag”
  • Arch Enemy – “Nemesis”
  • The Dillinger Escape Plan – “Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants”
  • John 5 – “Black Widow Of La Porte”
  • Neil Young – “Rockin’ In The Free World”
  • Orianthi – “Suffocated”
  • Queensrÿche – “Jet City Woman”
  • Red Rider – “Lunatic Fringe”
  • RX Bandits – “It’s Only Another Parsec…”
  • Snot – “Deadfall”
  • Tesla – “Modern Day Cowboy”

“One of the great things about Guitar Hero is that it’s in a unique position to expose millions of people to great music by bands they may otherwise never listen to,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Guitar Hero. “Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock delivers an impressive 90+ set-list and we are happy to be introducing our fans to 11 bands that have never before been featured in a Guitar Hero game.”

In addition to the 11 new bands that will be gracing Warriors of Rock, gamers can look forward to shredding along with songs from Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Megadeath and even some anthems from Queen, Muse and KISS.

Players will be able to unlock more rewards and content than ever before in Warriors of Rock, which will also feature Quest Mode, the franchises first ever story-based mode.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will be out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii in September of 2010.

For more DLC news and information follow me on Twitter @The_GeekJock

Activision announced today that there will indeed be upcoming DLC for Transformers: War for Cybertron. And why not? The game shattered the long chain of terrible Transformers video games and received a general two-thumbs up from the gaming community.

Danke, Activision. Children of the 80′s thank you.

The new DLC will add five new characters to the roaster. Only problem is, three of the characters are pre-order characters, that some people were paying over $100 for, in the hopes of being part of a small minority of gamers who had these characters. D’oh!

Decepticons:
Onslaught
Shockwave
Demolishor

Autobots:
Jazz
Scattershot

In addition to the characters, there will also be four brand new maps : Autobot and Decepticon Escalation maps, and two new maps for competative multi-player mode.

According to Activision the new DLC will be available next week, but no price has been given yet.

Unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to need a little bit of energon and a whole lot of luck before I see some Dinobots DLC. Sad face.

For more news and DLC information follow me on Twitter @The_GeekJock

The Guitar Hero App is published by Activision and created by GH seasoned developer, Vicarious Visions, Inc and build exclusively from the ground up for the iPhone and iPod touch. No doubt wishing to take advantage of the platforms’ functionality, Guitar Hero App also features all-new innovative gameplay, robust avatar customization and personalization, as well as built-in social integration so gamers can share their scores with their friends on Facebook, check leaderboards and get updates through in-game news feeds.

Published by Activision and created by Guitar Hero veteran developer, Vicarious Visions, Inc., and built exclusively from the ground up for the iPhone and iPod touch, the Guitar Hero app takes full advantage of the platforms’ functionality and features all-new, innovative gameplay that will keep players rocking out as they strum, tap, slide and whammy to the hottest tracks from bands they know and love. The game also features a robust avatar customization mode that lets players personalize their game; built-in social integration so gamers can share their scores with their friends on Facebook, check leaderboards and get updates through in-game news feeds; intuitive new mechanics that challenge fans to tap, strum and whammy their way to the top of the Rock Ranks; and the ability to download new tracks from an in-game music store; wannabe rock stars will be shredding on guitar or ripping it up on bass whenever, wherever they want.

Guitar Hero for iPhone and iPod touch is available from the App Store at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id374801345 and features Queen, Rise Against, The Rolling Stones, Vampire Weekend, Weezer and The White Stripes. Song packs are only available through the Guitar Hero app. For more information about Guitar Hero for iPhone and iPod touch, please visit GuitarHero.com.

Twitter: You can follow me on twitter @slash_NERDGASM