Bobby Kotick, the head honcho of mega-publisher Activision, really needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. He might be a great businessman, but he’s also great at making himself look like an ass. His latest Kotickism comes from an interview with Reuters, in which he talks about how confident he is in Activision despite the struggling economy. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. The numbers don’t lie, and Activision (and Kotick himself) are raking in the dough. However, when Bobby starts to complain about the price of consoles, that irks me a bit:

"The price on platforms today has still not gotten down to mass-market price points and I think when you're in the economic circumstances that the world has found itself in, there really is a difference between a $199 game system and a $299 game system."

Now, before I let myself go on sounding like a hater, let me explain why this bothers me. This is a man who has admittedly, and unabashedly, seen success from the exploitation of popular game series. This is also a man who is filthy rich from the practice. And yet he wants to be the one to say that consoles are too expensive? You’re right, Bobby; Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo should really get on the ball and lower their prices. The fact that high system prices might be hurting your sales is just unfair. Also, you can clearly relate to the rest of us in these tough economic times. A hundred dollars really does make a difference! Who knew?

Kotick also went on to say that Activision is looking to make more original content for the Wii, as they haven’t exploited the popular system nearly enough yet. (Well, he didn’t say that last part, but we all know what the subtext was). You know what, I would love to see Activision prove me wrong and release some awesome IP for the Wii, but we all know that they would never do something that creatively risky. Of course, it also doesn’t matter, because people will buy it, and the more I make fun of Bobby Kotick, the more he’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, gems like Valkyria Chronicles and Dead Space struggle to sell copies. I do not get gamers sometimes.

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