Activision: Exploitation has worked well for us

We remember a few years ago when Electronic Arts was a publisher known only for endless remakes and clones and Activision was known for making creative new titles like Call of Duty. Now though, that's almost turned around on them and while EA is pursuing more new IPs, Activision is cancelling everything that can't be totally exploited.

Not our words either; those of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

Speaking in a conference call yesterday (Transcript at Seeking Alpha) Kotick explained why certain new titles were abandoned when Activision took over Vivendi, namely Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters and 50 Cent. Quite simply, Kotick said that he didn't see those games having the potential to be as fully exploited as games like Guitar Hero or Call of Duty.

"With respect to the franchises that don't have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming $100 million plus franchises, that's a strategy that has worked very well for us," said Kotick.

Kotick said that the company now only planned to focus on games that they would still be able to produce sequels to ten years from now, saying that rising development costs were a huge factor in that decision.

The company has already announced an intention to make many more Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games, plus there's talk of a Guitar Hero movie. Is the exploitation going too far? Let us know what you think in the forums.