The market has spoken

[Curious_Tongue]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/27/activisions-kotick-is-now-among-the-highest-paid-ceos-in-the-us/


Activision's Kotick is now among the highest-paid CEOs in the US

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is now among the highest-paid CEOs in the United States, Bloomberg reported. According to a document filed to the SEC, Activision increased Kotick's compensation to $64.9 million in 2012. The majority of Kotick's earnings came from stock awards valued at $55.9 million. By comparison, Kotick earned $8.3 million in 2011, and Blizzard Entertainment President and CEO Michael Morhaime earned just over $9 million in 2012.

As Bloomberg noted, Kotick's $64.9 million earnings stretch out over five years, plus he could still garner $16 million more should he meet the "highest performance targets." Kotick saw his base salary increase to $2.1 million in January this year.

Update: To clarify, since the awards vest over a five-year period, Kotick received $8.33 million in compensation for 2012, not all $64.9 million.

 

[Infinitron]

Good for him. He makes popamole without shame instead of fucking up other people's genres.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Honestly, he has my grudging respect for the absolute mastery he displays in his jewism. Most corporate agents of decline are currently almost pitiful in their incompetence, but Kotick is a villain worthy of our hatred.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

COD doesn't bother me. Warcraft doesn't bother me.

It's when other companies try popamole their games to capture a share Activision's successes that causes the decline.

 

[Mangoose]

Haha, Activision, the publisher that actually sent agents to physically copy files from a developer's HD to a USB key.

 

[Damned Registrations]

13 million a year for 5 years. Plus 2 million a year base salary? Now we know why CoD needs to sell eleven kajillion copies to be 'profitable'. Not that there was ever any doubt this is how corporations work.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Haha, Activision, the publisher that actually sent agents to physically copy files from a developer's HD to a USB key.

I heard they were looking for an excuse to fire them to get out of paying royalties.

 

[DeepOcean]

I don't know what to think of him, for one side he spearheaded the decline but he isn't responsible for what Square Enix, EA and Ubisoft do. Most of the games Activision publish nowdays is CoD related and the Blizzard games. CoD was already a linear spectacle shooter from day one, so you can't say that they turned a complex game into a popamole. The Blizzard games didn't suffered from massive popamolification (SC 2 is almost the same as SC 1 and Diablo 3 is more of Jay Wilson responsability than anything). EA and Square Enix are way more guilty for the popamolification, EA butchered everything it touched, they turned their games not in only popamoles but bad popamoles (even worse than the popamole standard), Square Enix butchered their own games then decided that that wan't enough and decided to buy Eidos Montreal to butcher other people games (only decent game they made was DX: HR).

 

[RK47]

1. Someone discovered the secret of fast-food games bajillion sales.
2. Other companies want to do it too.
3. Not everyone likes fast food.
4. ????
5. Blame customer's entitlement.

 

[IDtenT]

1. Someone discovered the secret of fast-food games bajillion sales.

Wasn't that technically Microsoft though?

 

[cvv]

I don't know what to think of him, for one side he spearheaded the decline but he isn't responsible for what Square Enix, EA and Ubisoft do.

Hmm, I wouldn't place Ubisoft in exactly the same cathegory as EA, Activision and Squeenix, without defending it, naturally.

I guess what I'm trying to say - if there was ever to be a Nürnberg trial with publishers, EA would commit suicide the night before the execution, Activision would be hanged (short drop), Squeenix would repent and end up with a life sentence (paroled after 15 years) and Ubisoft would get 10 years (serving the full sentence, devoted to charity work afterwards).

 

[MetalCraze]

1. Someone discovered the secret of fast-food games bajillion sales.
2. Other companies want to do it too.
3. Not everyone likes fast food.
4. ????
5. Blame customer's entitlement.

More like not everyone can make fast food.

As we can see only BF3 was a relatively successful CoD-clone and only because it was CoD with tanks.

 

[evdk]

I don't know what to think of him, for one side he spearheaded the decline but he isn't responsible for what Square Enix, EA and Ubisoft do.

Hmm, I wouldn't place Ubisoft in exactly the same cathegory as EA, Activision and Squeenix, without defending it, naturally.

I guess what I'm trying to say - if there was ever to be a Nürnberg trial with publishers, EA would commit suicide the night before the execution, Activision would be hanged (short drop), Squeenix would repent and end up with a life sentence (paroled after 15 years) and Ubisoft would get 10 years (serving the full sentence, devoted to charity work afterwards).

Bah, Dönitz had style.