He just can't stop. I literally think he has to be the dumbest sonofabitch toever run a company and got them to number one by making one smart acquisition in Blizzard. I can't even comment on this anymore because I will get so fired and use words that may cost me future credibility. Here's the write-up from Gamespot in its entirety. I have to go to bed this is just so blatantly retartded it shut my brain down, I don't know how they sat through it.
During a 45-minute presentation today at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick covered a substantial amount of ground. For one, the executive explained how he expects Activision games--specifically Guitar Hero--to bypass consoles altogether. The executive also showed off animation technology he hailed as the future of storytelling in games, pegged the next generation of consoles as being two years out or more, and explained openly why he wants a company culture infused with skepticism, pessimism, and fear.
Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick.
On the Guitar Hero topic, Kotick told analysts and investors about some potentially big changes in store for the rhythm franchise. When asked about a Guitar Hero game that didn't need a console to operate, Kotick bluntly appraised its benefits.
"I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is equal the playing field a little more and give you some leverage with first parties when it comes to downloadable content and the business model," Kotick said.
The executive also told attendees to "expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console," specifically saying he'd been impressed with media hub functionalities shown by 1080p TVs that let users stream content from their PCs. He also suggested a day in not-too-distant future where players' Facebook profiles will be integrated into Guitar Hero, letting them make songs to share with friends, post high scores or favorite songs on their profile page, and so on.
While games like Guitar Hero have proven popular for the tactile experience of their peripherals, Kotick said Activision is also working to push the envelop in emotional game experiences. He showed the audience a clip of Call of Duty: World at War, saying his friends in the movie industry all react by pointing out how unreal the mouth movement looks. The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player.
To remedy that, Kotick noted a realtime rendering and mouth movement technology Activision has been working on. He showed a clip of the technology, saying it could could represent nothing less than a transformation of the medium. While Kotick said the technology wouldn't surface until the next generation of games, he did say it would be ready before the next generation of hardware.
Kotick added that publishers don't take advantage of the full capabilities of today's hardware, and said it might be some time before the next generation arrives. Typically, console makers give publishing partners about two years' notice when it plans to introduce new hardware, Kotick said. But so far, the console makers haven't given him specs or white papers on new hardware, nor have they consulted him on design decisions, leading him to believe their current priority is instead to reduce the cost of each system.
When he wasn't promoting the company's games or technology, Kotick was celebrating its laser-like focus on the bottom line. He pointed to changes he implemented in the past as being particularly beneficial, such as designing the employee incentive program so it, "really rewards profit and nothing else."
"You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly," Kotick said.
He later added, "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
If that sounds like it would create a corporate culture that isn't all sunshine and hugs, then it's "mission accomplished" for Kotick. The executive said that he has tried to instill into the company culture "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" of the global economic downturn, adding, "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."
Gamespot
for the Wii, and Spore Hero Arena for the DS will be coming out on October 6th in North America and October 9th Internationally. Lucy Bradshaw from Maxis had this to say about the games:
will be set on the same universe as Spore Hero but with a brand new and engaging story. The galaxy is being threatened by an evil force that must be stopped and it's up to you to do so. You must build your own gladiator to battle on different planets, collect parts, gain upgrades and unlock special abilities to be used in your single player quest or online via Wi-Fi.
is actually getting a price increase in Britain from 130 to 160 pounds(sorry I don't have their dollar sign). The Elite is mentioned but the price isn't, the Premium(Pro) isn't mentioned given more evidence that it is in fact being phased out completely. Accessories are getting a small bump up as well by one or two pounds, and Microsoft has attributed all of this to the poor pound to Euro exchange rate. Kind of a strange move considering Gamescom starts tomorrow in Germany, but money has to be made so I guess their hands are tied in this matter. Feel free to comment below. 
was released back in May of this year, and it did not fare well, neither in sales nor was it a critical darling. While some of the smaller websites gave it a decent shake, the bigger sites were not so kind. Whether or not this says anything about me, the bigger sites were wrong and the smaller sites are in fact correct. Since I am a smaller site, really just a blog, I guess that means I am automatically going to give it a good score. If that is what you thought, then you are right(ish), since I am not giving an actual score to the game. Read on to see what I loved, hated and thought was just fair to middling. 