Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed the secret sauce formula for the company’s continued growth; it contains extract of ‘sequel’.
This focus on the ”big, narrow, and high profile” franchises like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Tony Hawk has been the ”most successful” strategy they’ve seen.
If the company doesn’t believe an IP could have the staying power of say about 10 years then they aren’t going to bother. ”I think generally our strategy has been to focus on the products.. that we know if we release today, we’ll be working on ten years from now,” said Kotick.
”If you have a pathway for innovation in existing franchises, that’s a recipe for margin expansion,” he said. ”You still need to have production of new IP, but you need to do it very, very selectively.”
To innovate within the familiar, the ideal outcome for any fan of their favourite franchise. Kotick explains though that they do have a number of new IPs ”in development ourselves, but the focus is to continue to be on the big, narrow, and high profile release strategy.. I think that we’ve had enough experience now that the strategy that we employ seems to be the most successful.”
Source: Shacknews
