Activision Blizzard’s CEO also hinted that the Guitar Hero franchise, which has been neglected for about a console generation, could return.

Windows Central reported on an internal Activision Blizzard meeting where Bobby Kotick answered many questions. Most of them were about the future of Activision Blizzard after the UK’s market and competition watchdog, the CMA, decides by tomorrow whether to approve Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal (after initially rejecting it for fear of a cloud monopoly, which is why Ubisoft came into the picture to take over the cloud rights…).

For example, he praised Microsoft’s research into artificial intelligence and deep learning (they are supposedly building their own chip, we wrote about that too): “A lot of what I’ve seen at Microsoft is research. And they are developing in areas that are extraordinary. And so being able to tap into their AI and machine learning capabilities, data analytics, new ways of thinking about graphics – I just see unlimited potential for what we do. If you look at the new technologies that are on the horizon, we’re going to be able to do things with AI and machine learning that we’ve never done before,” Kotick said. Recently, Rob Kostich, another executive at the company, made a similar point (Microsoft’s technology and toolset would help their teams create bigger, more immersive experiences).

He then went on to hint at a possible resurrection of Guitar Hero: “The resurrection of Guitar Hero and other things would not be possible without the different types of resources. And so, you know, just the endless possibilities for the future that are just incredibly exciting. He then went on to suggest that they would need more writers and actors to create more cinematic experiences: “The quality of the art is now so high that we’re going to need more writing talent and more acting talent – because we’re not really going to be able to meet the expectations of our players. Games are always very different from film and television. In film and television, you succeed by creating an emotional connection between you and the audience – our experiences are more visceral, but that’s changing. We have characters on screen and in video games that have mouth movements and facial animations that are realistic – you’re going to have a new dimension of emotional connection that we haven’t mastered yet.

In the past, several former ActiBlizz employees have accused Kotick of treating his employees inhumanely. Why is he still the CEO?

Source: WCCFTech