Kotick Regrets Not Picking Up Harmonix

19 Feb 2010 at 10:58:36 by Tim McDonald

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick noted made the wrong choice in choosing Red Octane over Harmonix.

According to GameLife, Kotick - speaking at yesterday's DICE Summit - explained that Activision had known Harmonix as "somewhat of a failed developer of music games," and that they had "nothing that was commercially viable until Guitar Hero" and so decided to acquire Harmonix's Guitar Hero partner RedOctane instead.

After Activision acquired RedOctane and began churning out Guitar Herogames, Harmonix was acquired by MTV Networks and developed Rock Band.

Now, however, it appears that Kotick regrets this decision. "We really didn't think 'Hey, we should go to Boston and meet these Harmonix guys and see what they're up to,'" he said, before noting that if they had, "it would probably be a profitable opportunity for both of us."

Kotick also made mention of a few similar mistakes, such as passing on Will Wright's studio, Maxis. Kotick apparently looked at Sim City 2000 and decided Activision didn't want the company, which at the time was also working on a game codenamed "Jefferson," which went on to become one of the biggest franchises in gaming: The Sims.

Despite this it's worth mentioning that Activision has made some savvy decisions, like acquiring the company that went on to develop the massively-selling Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward.

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