Activision getting hammered

Steve5304 · April 16, 2001, 23:50

In todays 'tech wreck' almost all the Software companys are suffering. One particular company is Activision. Which put all ofs its eggs in the hyped 'PS2'. 'PS2' Which turned out to be a huge dissapointment for shareholders is now considered a failed gamesystem. Activision had officially tried withdraw from the PC gaming arena upon release of the much hyped "Call to Power II". This game which is a sequel to the "Call to Power" hit was expected to have sales through the roof. On top of this Activision had expected the lion-share of profits to come from its 'Tony Hawk Pro-Skater'. However as we mentioned earlier the game was a total flop. And Activision is now making Watered-down sequels in a desperate attempt to recover what appears to be a huge loss. Now activision finds itself between a rock and a hard-place. Last Quarter its earning dropped 35%. However Tony-Hawk was not the 1-2 punch that hurt activision. The 'CTP2' Sequel which was expected to match its prequel "Call to Power" Bottomed out selling less than 30 000 copys. Most NET-INVEST Magazine editors agree that it is a real possibility that Westwood may make attempt to move on the crippled Activision. However Westwood doesnt appear to be willing to go near 'Activision'.

Transfered (bye typing)from my Technology Investor Magazine!

Lets all contribute to there (Activisions) Destruction bye returning this stupid game!

Dale · April 17, 2001, 04:41

If I were Westwood, I'd run screaming insanely from any suggestion they should buy Activision!

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

Steve5304 · April 17, 2001, 14:22

I woudnt mind a cross between red alert and CTP !

me_irate · April 18, 2001, 10:23

while i to consider ctp2 flawed, i dont have the same hate for activision as you do. I myself continue to enjoy ctp2, and play it quite often(almost every day). As for tony hawk pro skater? if you are talking about the first one it sold in the millions and was a great game, the second one however was also good, and sold well. As for the PS2, i think they need to check again, the system while not meeting its estimates for the 3 milion systems by the end of the phisical year, is by no means a failure. It sold more in this time than any i can remember. Not to mention the shortages. Even now i go into babages, i sometimes see people if the ps2's are in yet. And as for activisions involvement in ps2 it is understood that with the low instalation base at the beggining of a systems life cycle that games will not sell in large #'s

[This message has been edited by me_irate (edited April 18, 2001).]

BeBro · April 19, 2001, 17:35

I was very amused when I read about Activision´s problems under the headline "Sales unexpectedly low for CTP2". Why unexpectedly?

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Civ2000 hosted by CivII Universum

April 19, 2001, 18:16

BeBro: "The 'CTP2' Sequel which was expected to match its prequel "Call to Power" Bottomed out selling less than 30 000 copys."

Fools.

[This message has been edited by Ceci n'est pas Snapcase (edited April 19, 2001).]

connorkimbro · April 19, 2001, 19:50

Maybe unexpectedly for activision. didn't they learn not to make unrealistic expectations? my momma taught me that. ctp stunk, and i didn't expect any better for ctp2. i WAS foolish enough to buy it, but i bet alot of other people weren't. oh well.

come to think of it, i don't think i ever finished a game of ctp2. it just plain stunk.

Zanzin · April 19, 2001, 20:43

Well, we should all be happy. We've all been calling for the downfall of Activision, and it now looks like it's happening. I feel sorry for the people working in the lower echelons of the company who'll loose the their jobs...but it might, at least, teach the corporate fatcats that to sell games you need to do more than just release them at christmas time when sales will be higher - ie, you actually need to make a decent game, AND support it (through patches that actually fix things)

Palpatine · April 19, 2001, 22:54

There is justice in the world hehe. First Activision ripped us off. Now they get their pay-back

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Palpatine

TheBirdMan · April 20, 2001, 00:24

This was also postet on the OT (before I saw this thread):

I do like CTP - specially after patch 1.2 and hack 1.21.

Played a lot a SP games with Wes Whittakers mods (which I made changes to according to my own taste, fx. modern units never got obsolute and I played on superlarge maps with my own map.txt file (avoidning most of this very small islands/very small lakes "continents", the original file gave)).

The last 9-10 month, I have only played PBEM games. Afterall, when you have played many games, the AI was too weak even in deity mode with Wes' mods. Think I'm in 12-13-14 games now (one as sub), currently placed as no. 5 out of 40 ranked players.

As for Craptivision and CTP II. Craptivision got what they deserved. We all know, that (nearly) all companies releases all games and programs too early with a number of bugs and "normal" bad programming. Therefore I think they are obliged to support those progams/games with some patches until most is working correctly - or give the code free if they can't afford to make the patches themself.

I am not sure how many paches we got for Civ II, but as far as I remember, I played with a release called 2.42 on my pc. We got 2 official and one un-official patch for CTP. And only one for CTP II - still with no decent MP or PBEM support. I did not buy CTP II.

TheBirdMan/Max

Steve5304 · April 20, 2001, 00:50

PS2 will fail like Sega-Saturn and Dreamcast. It has already failed.....very few people have actually bought it. Considering the "hype" behind PS2. When we defien 'Failure' its generally mean "Does not meet expectations"

You can have fun playing an AI that is completely retarted at warfare

Iplayed about 15 games of CTP2 and i dont ever remembering losing a city. And it was on King-Impossible. And in case you havent noticed CTP2 Multiplayer is BROKE. Try to launch a game and play till about turn 90. The game will constantly Re-sync and 'waiting for Data'
[This message has been edited by Steve5304 (edited April 19, 2001).]

BeBro · April 20, 2001, 07:25

The civ2 add-ons came always with newer versions of the game (CiC 2.68? - not sure, FW 2.78, and of course MGE), so there is no need for special patches (ok, you have to pay, but these add-ons are really cheap today).

I had the first CtP, it was not bad, and it runs good on my machine, but it wasn´t as addictive as good old civ2...Perhaps I buy CtP2 when I see a low price offer here (should be very low

)

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me_irate · April 20, 2001, 23:05

I agree the ai is pathetic. I only play mp, and we seldom use ai's because the game turns into a race to find the ai and take his cities. i truly dont understand why you think m player is broke, i play all the time.

TheBirdMan · April 21, 2001, 13:40

I call the company Craptivision mostly because of what I read about CTP II, but also the way they treated some of their employees. From all I can see, the game had a gigantic potential, but most was lost at the end. It could have been fixed, but it was not.

As for CTP, I think I got just what I paided for, and no more.

Wes (and all the other modmakers, that made all the parts of Apolyton pack 1) gave me the "rest" and they gave that for free.

Without these people and their mods, I would have packed the game away and probably not been playing PBEM now!

Solver · April 22, 2001, 00:33

Can't agree with you, Bird. If you've played CtP I PBEM, you must thank Activison for giving it to you, not smile now.

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Solver the "Running Beer" - http://www.aok.20m.com

Solver · April 22, 2001, 04:39

But, without Activision creating CtP, WesW would be unable to make those mods.

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Solver the "Running Beer" - http://www.aok.20m.com

Immortal Wombat · April 22, 2001, 05:38

if Activision hadn't made CTP, Wes wouldn't have needed to make all those mods, the company would have actually finished making the game.

Gazablanca · April 24, 2001, 15:00

Serves Activision bloody right,i'd say.

faded glory · April 24, 2001, 20:35

Its authentic, I subscribe to the same magazine. It was in the febuary 12th edition. Activision is in knee deep dung. They are slashing prices everywhere.

[This message has been edited by Saddam (edited April 24, 2001).]

Lawrence of Arabia · April 29, 2001, 15:31

i havent played ctp2, but it seems to me that nothing works. This is like the ghetto-ist game ever.

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Its okay to smile; you're in America now

Solver · April 30, 2001, 06:39

here it looks much like Activision are being wiped. Poor men.

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Solver the "Running Beer" - http://www.aok.20m.com