Activision No Longer Competes With Sony or Microsoft, But With Facebook, Kotick Says

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has recently talked about his company's new strategy, and revealed that other console-dependent companies like Sony, Microsoft or EA can't even compete with Activision, given its solid online strategy.

Kotick revealed that other companies are going to have lots of problems when planning their online and social strategy, not to mention trying to match Activision Blizzard's current status.

The CEO stated that while traditional rivals like Sony, Microsoft or EA will continue to challenge Activision in terms of video games, Facebook will be the company's biggest rival in terms of online entertainment.

"Because we're in a lot of different businesses, we have a lot of different competitors," Kotick told the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference.

"Our competitor online [is] Facebook in some respects. Even though they don't create content, they provide it. There are a lot of new social gaming companies that are emerging and take mindshare - not from our consumer, [because they're] a different demographic. But there's the potential that some of the social games will start appealing to our consumers so we're making a lot of investments in that area."

"But the traditional companies - the Electronic Arts, or Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo or Disney - that make console-based video games, are going to really struggle [in future] to figure out how to get into these online business we're in today."

In simpler terms, Kotick says that his own company will lead the way in terms of online entertainment, offering different types of experiences than traditional interactive entertainment companies.

Lots of other video game companies are trying to get into the social online experience, but according to Kotick, only Activision has the right attributes to be successful in this new market segment.

According to the CEO, the fact that the company was bought by French media corporation Vivendi and that it has merged with Blizzard allowed for all the right strategies and resources to come together and become one single entity.