Activision CEO says company is successful because competitors' games 'are less than adequate'

Daniel Terdiman/CNET

(CNET) Activision CEO Bobby Kotick took a shot at competitors during an earnings call with investors yesterday.

"I think you have had, unfortunately, a stream of products that are less than adequate from some of our competitors, and I think the demands and the expectations in the marketplace for great quality products," Kotick said, according to a transcript of the call published by Seeking Alpha. "And if you look at the success that we're having, it validates that there is an opportunity for great quality products, but I think where we are in the console cycle makes it more challenging for anything other than great quality products."

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During the call, Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst asked Kotick why he believes Activision Blizzard is performing relatively well when the entire game industry "was down 30-something percent in the first half of the year."

Kotick first discussed issues with the "macroeconomic environment," saying that unemployment and other negative economic indicators are having an impact on the industry. But then he unloaded a shot directed squarely at his company's competitors.

Kotick didn't say which competitors are delivering sub-par products. However, he obviously believes that his company's offerings, which include the "Call of Duty" franchise, are superior to what's being offered by many other companies, according to Gamesindustry.biz.

It might be difficult to argue with Kotick's assertion. The fact is, the game industry, as a whole, is down considerably this year, and prominent publishers, including Nintendo, are having some difficulty attracting players. Meanwhile, as Activision Blizzard pointed out in its earnings report yesterday, it was the top independent game publisher in North America and Europe during the second quarter.

Activision's success has been aided by Skylanders "Spyro's Adventure", which the company claims, was the "best-selling console and handheld game overall in dollars for the first six months of 2012." Add that to the wildly successful "Diablo III," "World of Warcraft" holding steady, and the "Call of Duty" franchise still attracting online gamers, and it appears the company is on the right track.

The financials certainly seem to indicate that. Activision generated $1.08 billion in revenue during the second quarter and a $185 million profit, beating Wall Street's expectations. More importantly for the company, many industry observers believe only better times are ahead.

"Activision is in a position to deliver dramatic revenue growth this year and next, and given the leverage from these high margin titles, it is likely that earnings will once again grow more rapidly than revenues in both years," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote today in a research note to investors.

This article first appeared on CNET.

[I_Stand_4_What_Is_Right]

Activision is wrong again, if you news team really want a great story i'll be sending one about this company, this company so call Activison doesn't want to remove hackers/jailbreak consoles from their online service because they will lose profit from the online services. They are alot of crazy stuff that is going on, on these Call of Duty games from everyone of them that has been made since 2007. I've got things on a DVD-R Cd 4.7GB. I've got 3.10GB of files to prove activision is defintely wrong about their services they really try to throw alot of sarcasm down your throats saying they are doing their best they ain't doing nothing. They got their support down where no customers at all can get in contact with them through via email. They allow these players to hack on these games those leaderboards are shot on these games they are people in MCL's all day long in those lobbies the MCL is Modded Challenge Lobby's and it has been proven October 26, 2012 that they was a law in effect about this matter saying that Jailbroken Playstation 3's online was considered illegal under the DMCA act that is the Digitial Millieneum Copyright Acts. Activision and Sony America knows about jailbroken playstation 3's online. Representative Dov Carson he got on www.gamerrader.com and said he was very angry about an angryblogger I was the angryblogger he was breeching about on there. I kept speaking to them and telling them to remove this illegal garbage offline they would not response to me one of their workers named Jose Escbedo said he couldn't help me any longer and me trying to get someone to do something about these illegal acts they are doing on the game. Sure im angry who else wouldn't be they spent their money listen to sarcasm garbage these companies say they said when Modern Warfare 2 came out they would be no hackers on the game but what happen they are hackers over running it i've got friends close to me that has been deranked on these games they achieve 10th prestige on here and some modded hacker that has jailbroken software on his system deranks him back to Level 1 online sends a messages in red letters saying haha you got owned. Ain't that so amazing seeing that go on, online and these crappy Activision company will not remove them they want us to send in 1 player at a time and they know that they are 10,000s of players on here useing jailbroken software i've got it all on Cd and i'll be shipping this ungodly nasty flifth that they will not remove offline. They got Black Ops with pure ungodly flifthy sex offensive material online where these players made out of emblems that treyarch placed on these games and Black Ops 2 is already filled with hackers and it just came out that's great ain't it we the customers pay $63 for a game we cannot play online because of hackers screwing the server's up with their jailbroken garbage I told Sony America to get in contact with Activision's company and tell them that I know how to remove jailbroken software offline where they will never be able to do it again but no they still brush me off to afraid to message me back. I've writting them until im blue in the face. You news reporters will eventually see what really goes on behind the customers that support these online games when im through with this activision and Sony America and all those other companies will not won't to show their faces back out in public anymore knowing what kind of cobbed up contraption game they made for others in the world those two companies Activision and Sony America knows that they are doing it. And Treyarch has a Bussiness email i've got on Cd that email is a fraud that email doesn't exist. You like children playing these games putting ungodly flifth on it making those emblems out of XXX porn Activison knows about it i stayed off the game for 1 to 2 weeks just to see if they would stand their ends and take and do something about it they would not they got those report options up there on the game for looks. I came back on the game those weeks later to see if they removed them they did not remove them they stood up there and still they are up there today until some nasty mind made something didn't i'll show you things on this game that will totally make you sick of watching make you where you don't want your children to play this game seeing the ungodly nastiness that they show on Black Ops on Playstation 3 network. I'll be shipping these Cd's all over the news from america from oversea's if it takes it and let everyone in the world see what really goes on, on these games while their children plays it they are children putting this on the game and they are adults putting this on the game but parents that are not aware of this will not want their child playing this game seeing that sick nasty garbage that is on it. So like i said you'll be getting video's of this later they will be alot of news reporters getting in touch with this CD that i've got.

[hypnotoad72]

Meow.

I imagine used copies of "Stampede" are at an all time high as well...

Nobody has the time to play games anymore... or the money... thank lower wages combined with costs of necessities skyrocketing.

I had no idea Activision still existed either...