So the massive Activision Blizzard / Vivendi deal is supposed to go through next month and what's one of the first questions Kotick is faced with?
'Does this mean there'll be more violent games made under the new publishing powerhouse?' asks The Times. Actually it asked, "Could the feminisation of the customer base mean that rampant violence is on the wane in computer games?" but that's close enough.
Kotick explained, "I don't think that you need to have gratuitously violent products. But no company can afford to turn its back on a $45 billion section of the market. They are as important to the business as R-rated movies [restricted to 17 and older] are to films."
The Activision CEO also made some interesting comments about living in the UK.
"It is ridiculously expensive to live in the UK, especially in London," he said. "What dictates our expansion plans would be whether we can compensate our employees fairly and whether they can achieve the quality of life that they want. "We think about development planning and where we can get tax incentives that would help us do that. Our employee base tends to be young, say, in their thirties. And I think that they would like to be in a city rather than in Slough."
We do too. But London is a bloody expensive place to live.
i have an office and warehouse in slough 5 minutes from terminal 5. if he thinks slough is cheap he is on a different planet. why oh why would you want to work in smanky london full of people that think they've made it in a 1 bed flat that cost them 300k. sad people in my book.
London sure is expensive, but I love living here. After the hick redneck yokel country village I grew up in, I love that there's something happening all the time. And I'm still half an hour out of the centre.
Glad to hear they're not abandoning adults altogether. I know R-rated movies don't sell many hard copies (pun not intended) because Walmart won't stock them, but I guess $45 billion in online sales isn't to be sniffed at. And I guess the age group buying them is the same age group that make up the main users of PC, 360 and PS3. Could be a nice marketing move.
I totally agree about this poxy island being way too expensive to live in! Not only that, it's a complete s**thole compared to the rest of Europe as well! I HATE BRITIAN!!!
I totally agree about this poxy island being way too expensive to live in! Not only that, it's a complete s**thole compared to the rest of Europe as well! I HATE BRITIAN!!!
f**k off elsewhere then! Sorry couldn't resist. I love my country (England) But hate the government, they really take the p**s out of us all.
any city would be better than Slough; its a dump. I used to live there.
Couldn't agree more - I live not too far away, but you couldn't pay me to go there. It's a dirty, depressing and downright awful place....they should just bulldoze it and start again.
I totally agree about this poxy island being way too expensive to live in! Not only that, it's a complete s**thole compared to the rest of Europe as well! I HATE BRITIAN!!!
f**k off elsewhere then! Sorry couldn't resist. I love my country (England) But hate the government, they really take the p**s out of us all.
Agreed. I'm London born and bred and although I've travel to loads of cities around the world, none of them have the amount of character that London does. Sure it's expensive, over crowded and full of rude arrogant business types, but I wouldn't trade it for the world
any city would be better than Slough; its a dump. I used to live there.
Couldn't agree more - I live not too far away, but you couldn't pay me to go there. It's a dirty, depressing and downright awful place....they should just bulldoze it and start again.
But isn't Thorpe Park there? It would be a sad loss
any city would be better than Slough; its a dump. I used to live there.
Couldn't agree more - I live not too far away, but you couldn't pay me to go there. It's a dirty, depressing and downright awful place....they should just bulldoze it and start again.
But isn't Thorpe Park there? It would be a sad loss
Thorpe Park is nearer to Staines than Slough - you must be thinking of LegoLand Windsor and, no; that wouldn't be a sad loss at all.
Try Manchester. Vibrant city, tons to do... And cheap 'cos it's oop North!
Its only cheap if you earn a Londoners' salary. I consider myself to earn a pretty decent wage, but couldn't afford to buy a house relative to the standard I'd expect for my earnings.
I agree with the above post. This country could be great, but this government has screwed everyone down with stealth taxes and increasingly poor management of the economy. We've become a nation of haves and have nots through the incompetence and ignorance of politicians, and the subsequent actions of those that have seized on the opportunity to exploit this incompetence.
The games industry is worth about Ł500m to the UK ecoonmy, so its worrying that even massive publishers like Activision/Blizzard struggle to obtain the incentives from the government to invest in UK development teams. But then given the overall ineptitude of modern politics, it wouldn't surprise me if gaming went the same way as all the other industries in which we once excelled.
I agree with the above post. This country could be great, but this government has screwed everyone down with stealth taxes and increasingly poor management of the economy. We've become a nation of haves and have nots through the incompetence and ignorance of politicians, and the subsequent actions of those that have seized on the opportunity to exploit this incompetence.
Me thinks you speak the truth Mappman... Every day I wake up, wishing there would be some sort of 'V for Vendetta' rebellion against our incompetent government.
Try Manchester. Vibrant city, tons to do... And cheap 'cos it's oop North!
Manchester's all right, but after moving from Bury to Edinburgh I don't think I'd ever go back. Wonderful city, and virtually free of those God awful shell-suits that make the people who wear them sound like walking crisp-packets.
I'd pick Manchester over London any day though, prices in London are just a joke.
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why oh why would you want to work in smanky london full of people that think they've made it in a 1 bed flat that cost them 300k. sad people in my book.
