Support NeoGAF

[mclem]

After hearing that apparently Destiny 2 might be delayed I wondered what has Activision done for gaming as a whole and it's history? Some of it's most notable IPs: Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk have pretty much been run into the ground. It could be said that it helped gaming become mainstream with the popularity of Call of Duty, but what else?

They were the first independent third party
They were the first company to push for people who work on games to be credited for their work

It's important to remember that Activision is a very old company. Not Nintendo-old, of course, but they were there from pretty much the start.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

Milked the games I loved and drove them into the ground with countless iterations that eventually jump the shark by the 3rd or 4th game.

 

[GUN-NAC]

I remember getting inserts in my old Atari 2600 Activision titles that showed not only the game, but a photo of the programmer that created it.

Yep. Neither Activision or EA are the same company/people today, though.

 

[viHuGi]

Since they are now Activision Blizzard.

Scarcraft
Diablo
Hearthstone
Call of Duty
Guitar Hero
Old Tony Hawk
Destiny

Alot of successful franchises other companies can only dream of.

 

[MilkyJoe]

idk some of the most important franchises in video game history worth billions?

Op should have used Wikipedia, some of the most popular games ever is what they did.

 

[Sinatar]

From the mid 90's to the early 00's Activisions PC arm was absolutely fucking CRUSHING IT.

Mechwarrior 2/Mercs
Battlezone 1/2
Dark Reign 1/2
Heretic 2
Interstate '76
SiN
Hyperblade
Quake 1/2/3
Soldier of Fortune 1/2
Blood Omen
Heavy Gear 1/2
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Star Trek Armada/Bridge Commander/Elite Force
Jedi Outcast/Academy

I mean come on, that is one hell of a run. It's a god damned travesty to see what they've become.

 

[GitarooMan]

ITT video games were apparently only invented 10 years ago. I shouldn't be but I'm legitimately stunned that this question is being asked on NeoGAF and it's not rhetorical.

Activision basically created third party publishing on consoles.

Come on, NeoGAF! Jesus H Christ.

This is basically how I felt reading the thread. Then I felt old.

 

[balohna]

First third-party game developer!

This, which also makes them the oldest.

 

[cartman414]

More than your favorite Japanese developer

Call of Duty single handed ly keeping this industry relevant in the general consumer audience, stay mad

Lol. Hyperbole quota met.

 

[TheSlySoul]

In terms of a historical impact, they pretty much created the toys-to-life genre with Skylanders.
Not sure what else though...
They did publish lots of IPs. One of the bigger third party in gaming history.

 

[Jashobeam]

My earliest memories of an Activision game, damn I'm old

 

[lazer_bean]

since 1979 ? What ?
Activision is one of the biggest you will find in this industry, like them or not

 

[To Far Away Times]

In the days of Atari they were pretty revolutionary by actually, you know, allowing games to have credits and celebrating the people creating the games. They may be a long way from where they started now, and a bit rubbish, but they actually have roots in some pretty important stuff in re: Video Games as you say.

Yeah, even if you strip out the modern day Activision, they've done more for the indusrty than nearly anyone else.

 

[RobbieNick]

My earliest memories of an Activision game, damn I'm old

This, River Raid, Demons to Diamonds and my favorites being Keystone Kapers and Frostbite.

 

[Gutek]

Too bad Op is ignorant on video game history.

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1, 1979[4] and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles.

 

[KJRS_1993]

They fund a bunch of high quality games that are ridiculously popular. They're one of my favourite publishers.

 

[Tallshortman]

At one point I felt like Activision was the most creative and most willing to take a risk of all the major publishers. They're a shell of their former selves in that regard.

 

[JSR_Cube]

Funnily enough nowadays but EA and Activision in their older forms were the original indie developers. Their impact on gaming was huge.

 

[Balb]

I'd understand it a bit more if the OP asked about Ubisoft or something, but Activision is one of the most influential publishers ever. Sure, the current Activision isn't really the same entity that it was in the Atari days, but still.

 

[MilkyJoe]

 

[Shadoken]

More money doesn't always make you more influential , so many dead companies are very influential Atari,Id..etc.

Modern day Activision , I cant think of any greatly influential games apart from COD4 and GH. They did do a lot in terms of marketing so I guess thats something influential?

Their oldschool games were essentially the indie titles at the time. Dwarfed by NES giants like Mario,Zelda,Megaman..etc

 

[FriedConsole]

Yeah I am not sure there would be a Super Mario Bros. without this game.

 

[jesu]

All right... all right... but apart from Pitfall, being the first independent console game developers, some pretty great licensed stuff from the late 90's to mid 2000's, Call Of Duty, Tony Hawks and Guitar Hero... what has Activision done for gaming?

 

[SmokedMeat]

This, River Raid, Demons to Diamonds and my favorites being Keystone Kapers and Frostbite.

I was never big on Pitfall. River Raid and Keystone Kapers were top tier though, and beyond everything else in my opinion.
Chopper Command and Seaquest were also excellent!

I had the patches for River Raid, Pitfall, Keystone Kapers, Chopper Command, Plaque Attack, Frostbite, Stampede, Megamania, and Freeway, and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

 

[Wulfram]

OK, but apart from Call of Duty, Tony Hawks, Blood Omen, Guitar Hero, Pitfall, Star Trek Armada and Quake, what have Activision ever done for us?

edit: damn, too slow

 

[Gutek]

All right... all right... but apart from Pitfall, being the first independent console game developers, some pretty great licensed stuff from the late 90's to mid 2000's, Call Of Duty, Tony Hawks and Guitar Hero... what has Activision done for gaming?

https://youtu.be/9foi342LXQE?t=55s

 

[OnimaruXLR]

Is it fair to say that Activision commercialized gaming in a way no company has done since Sony marketed the PS1 beyond the traditional kids-n-teens market?

Call of Duty is probably the best selling $60 dollar game series of all time, in terms of revenue, right? They sell Grand Theft Auto numbers (well, pre-V numbers) but come out every year as opposed to every 3-4 years. That combined with Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, and Skylanders and Destiny if you count expansions and DLC...

EA has been there all along, but when I think about the state of that company, they seem to reflect the gaming industry more than dictate it's direction

 

[Mman235]

Some of it's most notable IPs: Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk have pretty much been run into the ground. It could be said that it helped gaming become mainstream with the popularity of Call of Duty, but what else?

"let me list some of the massive gamechanging series Activision has had a part in making, but they don't count for some reason"

Not to mention all the other stuff they've done in the past that's been covered in this thread.

 

[KingBroly]

Well...they didn't go all-in on online passes last generation when they were all the rage. They also patch their games when they need patching, unlike some publishers.

They also birthed several genres, like the Music Player Genre (Guitar Hero...whatever you wanna call it) and Toys-to-Life

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

COD4 revolutionized last gen and basically made what last gen was.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Released Virtual On Oratorio Tangram in North America

 

[Pimpbaa]

The concept of a 3rd party publisher. Both Activision and EA were started to promote and recognize the designers and programmers of their games that hardware manufacturers before then refused to give. Back then, the words Electronic Arts were meant quite literally to EA. Things have change quite drastically since then obviously.

 

[geordiemp]

They make a boatload of money while keeping an IP that should have been killed off years ago alive with Call of Duty.

I think of it like The Simpsons, far past it's prime, kept around for nostalgia purposes and guest appearances, fleeces the sheep.

They used to be one of the very best developers, now I view them as a bottom feeder.

Get of your JRPG high horse, what a load of crap.

The games I like are high brow, the games i dont are for dirty sheeple. Really ?

Personally, Activison bring COD, Destiny, quake back in the day....also I enjoyed transformers cybertron series and generally they are OK in my book and they make the most popular console shooter by far (although some people up there own arses may look down on it)

 

[Fractal]

You may not like them or the directions they're taking, but that hardly changes the fact Activision is very influential and has definitely left a mark on the gaming industry... as covered by this thread.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I don't even know what threads like these are trying to get at? The op is full of subjectivity that colors the topic in a certain way. What do you want explained to you? How are activision any different than Nintendo? Or Sega? Because you in your mind seem to have already (for reasons I don't think hold much weight and in some instances are fairly petty in the grand scheme) have decided they are worthless greedy blood suckers. "Activision are bad, how bad are they? Let's sit in a circle and discuss..."

 

[Sword Of Doom]

They've only been around since like forever

Not sure what you're asking or what you expect from major game publishers

 

[jesu]

https://youtu.be/9foi342LXQE?t=55s

First thing I thought of when I saw the thread title!

 

[Timu]

A lot of people forget the company Activision used to be. They've had at least a few major shifts over the years, but despite how boring they are today, they were huge in the development of the industry, particularly in the 80s and late 90s.

Yep, there was a time when they were great.

 

[Tizoc]

They saved two studios from bankruptcy. Raven and Neversoft.
They paid to found Pandemic and Infinity Ward.

Imagine a world where this didn't happen.

Anything worthwhile they made recently in the past year or so?

 

[Nirolak]

Um, they're the world's largest game publisher and also one of the oldest.

Much of the industry's core structure derives from what they did, especially in the West. Hell, for the West they basically created the idea of a third party publisher.

They're still a huge trendsetter. The whole AAA megablockbuster trend we have right now was heavily pioneered by them, and they were the people that made Toys To Life actually work.

 

[Spine_Ripper]

They make a boatload of money while keeping an IP that should have been killed off years ago alive with Call of Duty.

I think of it like The Simpsons, far past it's prime, kept around for nostalgia purposes and guest appearances, fleeces the sheep.

They used to be one of the very best developers, now I view them as a bottom feeder.

Lol, so wrong on so many counts.

 

[CosmicQueso]

They make great games that sell.

 

[cHaOs667]

They made prob all the best games Atari 2600 had.

This.

And I have to admit that H.E.R.O. is still one of the best games I have ever played (and Pitfall).

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

Anything worthwhile they made recently in the past year or so?

lol it only counts if they made something in the last year? Why not count all the games they've made since Activision saved them IE games that wouldn't have gotten made without Activision.

 

[Interficium]

I don't even know what threads like these are trying to get at? The op is full of subjectivity that colors the topic in a certain way. What do you want explained to you? How are activision any different than Nintendo? Or Sega? Because you in your mind seem to have already (for reasons I don't think hold much weight and in some instances are fairly petty in the grand scheme) have decided they are worthless greedy blood suckers. "Activision are bad, how bad are they? Let's sit in a circle and discuss..."

Notice that OP hasn't made many appearances in this thread since he realized people weren't biting on his confirmation bias thread.

 

[Apathy]

I mean if people want to bitch about Activision with short sighted interpretations that's up to them, but it would be ignoring huge, and very significant contributions that Activision as a company brought upon the video game world. The same can be said about ea to a different degree as well. You may not like their products, but the fact is many many people do, and they are where they are with their huge properties and are as big as they are because of how long they have been around.

 

[Con_Smith]

In my opinion they killed creativity last gen when everyone focused on getting the COD market and the dumbing down of gaming experiences.

 

[Woo-Fu]

You'd have to realize that there were videogames before Call of Duty to answer this question. Then again if you did realize that you wouldn't have made this topic in the first place.

 

[Nosgotham]

After hearing that apparently Destiny 2 might be delayed I wondered what has Activision done for gaming as a whole and it's history? Some of it's most notable IPs: Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk have pretty much been run into the ground. It could be said that it helped gaming become mainstream with the popularity of Call of Duty, but what else?

Edit: Also what are your most notable memories of the company?

I remember they over ran the Atari with garbage games.just tons and tons of trash

 

[Ninja Scooter]

In my opinion they killed creativity last gen when everyone focused on getting the COD market and the dumbing down of gaming experiences.

And that's their fault somehow?