Activision Creating Yearly Franchise Titles
What Shall Become Of Origianl IP?!
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Activision CEO Robert Kotick revealed today that the company will focus on exploiting its various franchises with annual injections to achieve growth over the next ten years. The new direction has already been shown to be successful for many of Electronic Arts' sports titles, in particular the Madden football series and will soon be tested outside the sports genre by annual entries for Midway's Mortal Kombat series.
Kotick explained: "We have a huge competitive advantage owning and controlling some of the world's most valuable franchises in the videogame industry," said Kotick speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.
He continued by revealing intentions of "taking those franchises that we own and control, annualising them, increasing their penetration and their interest to consumers every single year." Adding "Tony Hawk is an example of a franchise that we've managed to exploit, with over nine separate versions of the game," said Kotick.
Kotick also mentioned the important of strong brand tie-ins such as their recent acquisitions of the James Bond license and the need for a mix of titles, shown by the companies purchase of Guitar Heroes creator Red Octane and even extensions to the franchise such as music downloads.
"We have developed a real expertise in taking proven franchises, particularly those that are tied to movie launches, and making sure that we get the maximum benefit from the movie launch" said Kotick.
"The music genre is growing very quickly. Guitar Hero is a great IP. The long term opportunities here include all sorts of product extensions - music downloads that are very high-margin opportunities - and you can expect next calendar year, launches of Guitar Hero on every significant new format" commented Kotick.
Kotick explained: "We have a huge competitive advantage owning and controlling some of the world's most valuable franchises in the videogame industry," said Kotick speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.
He continued by revealing intentions of "taking those franchises that we own and control, annualising them, increasing their penetration and their interest to consumers every single year." Adding "Tony Hawk is an example of a franchise that we've managed to exploit, with over nine separate versions of the game," said Kotick.
Kotick also mentioned the important of strong brand tie-ins such as their recent acquisitions of the James Bond license and the need for a mix of titles, shown by the companies purchase of Guitar Heroes creator Red Octane and even extensions to the franchise such as music downloads.
"We have developed a real expertise in taking proven franchises, particularly those that are tied to movie launches, and making sure that we get the maximum benefit from the movie launch" said Kotick.
"The music genre is growing very quickly. Guitar Hero is a great IP. The long term opportunities here include all sorts of product extensions - music downloads that are very high-margin opportunities - and you can expect next calendar year, launches of Guitar Hero on every significant new format" commented Kotick.
