A lot of gamers like to hate on Activision, and with good reason. After all, the publisher is responsible for running popular franchises like Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero into the ground. Will they do the same with Call of Duty and Skylanders? Probably.
But that doesn't mean Activision isn't also taking some risks. According to CEO Eric Hirshberg, they're taking more chances than many give them credit. "Our strategy is to do a few things and do them exceptionally well," he explained to Edge. "I think that sometimes people misperceive that as somehow being risk-averse, and yet we’re taking some of the biggest risks in new genres and new business models and new IPs than anybody."
Hirshberg then went on to cite Destiny as one such example, adding:
I think Bungie is a pretty special group of creative people and they’ve had a very good track record of games that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. [You] can see the ambitiousness of the concept and in order to bring that concept to life it’s been a big investment.
It's a partnership that takes both an Activision and a Bungie to bring to life.
From what we've seen of Destiny thus far, it's hard to argue against Activision. It's an incredibly ambitious (and expensive) game that is hardly playing it safe. Even if it is a first-person shooter at its core.
