Hirshberg: "You can't say" Activision isn't investing in new ideas
Activision Blizzard publishing head Eric Hirshberg feels the company doesn't get enough "credit" for its investment in IP beyond Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
"I don’t feel like Activision gets credit for the support it gives to the big ideas we get behind. And when we get behind something, we get behind something big," the executive told IndustryGamers.
"I think that any company who has the scale and kind of hits that we do would be just as motivated to protect them and to invest in them as we are. I think when you have a massive hit like Call of Duty or you have the kind of hit that Blizzard has in World of Warcraft, the first priority, of course, is to focus on and put every resource possible into keeping that leadership position.
" ... But I think it is an unfair characterisation to say that that’s all we’ve got."
Hirshberg highlight a "pretty big investment" in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventures, a "doubling down" with Prototype 2, and a "huge investment" in Bungie's "new intellectual property and a new gaming universe".
"These are all things that take real innovation," he argued.
"You can critique us for narrowing our slate and making tough decisions, but what you can’t say is that we’re not investing in new IP and new ideas. When Toys for Bob came up with the idea of bringing toys to life, we put everything behind them. We gave them the time and the resources they needed to make it great.
"Now if it succeeds remains to be seen, but you can’t say that Activision underinvested in new ideas. You can’t say that we’re under investing in Bungie. You can’t say that we’re under investing in Radical and Prototype," he reiterated.