Activision Slams Social Games

Activision's first foray into social gaming has a warm, friendly group-hug kinda logo, doesn't it?

The surprise isn't that someone from Activision is saying something amusing; the surprise is that it's not Bobby Kotick, for once. This time the quote comes from Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, speaking at Gamescom, when asked about Activision possibly making an acquisition to get into social games:

Valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack, so that’s an issue when it comes to acquisitions…But don’t mistake careful, methodical planning for inaction. Any new place where people are playing games, at scale, is something that we’re interested in.


Don't mistake careful, methodical planning for inaction? Is that like when I tell my wife that I was just thinking, and she says I was snoring while I was thinking? Yeah, I think sometimes planning and inaction are difficult to distinguish except in an autopsy.

Investors may be getting a trifle weary of dismissive statements from execs about market segments they're not in; see Nintendo for how that works. Activision has floated along without too much criticism with Blizzard and Call of Duty to buoy their sales. If there's ever a hiccup in one of those, expect the criticism to become a deafening roar.