Lars Buttler isn’t shy in this story in GameDaily. The CEO of Redwood City, Calif.-based Trion World Network says that Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision (whose merger with Vivendi’s game unit is pending), was really just trying to scare away rivals when he said recently that it would take $500 million for a competitor to dislodge World of Warcraft from its No. 1 position in the massively multiplayer (MMO) online game market.
Buttler’s own start-up is focused on creating original online games. He previously served as head of online gaming at Electronic Arts and so far has proven adept at raising large sums for his startup. EA itself is going to take on World of Warcraft with the upcoming launch of its Warhammer Online MMO.
“Nice try Mr. Kotick. We understand that Activision has to defend its merger and scare competition — but I have to call his bluff,” Buttler told GameDaily BIZ. It’s not entirely clear how Buttler will compete with WoW, which has 10 million paying subscribers. But he has been building up his arsenal.
6 Comments
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syed said:
Interesting to see what will happen next
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Ashish said:
Who on earth plays these games? I’ve heard stories of people playing for 10-14 hours a day!!
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EA employee said:
Lars was never the “head of online gaming at EA” - though he would have liked to have been. Eric Hachenberg was.
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Dean Takahashi said:
Lars was the former vice president for Global Online at Electronic Arts
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Rudolf said:
Warhammer’s graphics are years behind. I don’t care how good the game play is, people are not going to play a game that looks like it was made in 1999.
Age of Conan had amazing graphics, and it still fell prey to WoW due to its lack of content.
This is all so fascinating considering how flawed WoW is right now. It just goes to show: those who have, get.
5 Trackbacks
11:09 am
Lars Buttler says online games are just getting started » VentureBeat said:
[...] popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion World Network, promptly said that Kotick was just trying to scare off the [...]
11:09 am
Lars Buttler says online games are just getting started » VentureBeat said:
[...] popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion World Network, promptly said that Kotick was just trying to scare off the [...]
11:09 am
Lars Buttler says online games are just getting started » VentureBeat said:
[...] popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion World Network, promptly said that Kotick was just trying to scare off the [...]
11:09 am
Lars Buttler says online games are just getting started » VentureBeat said:
[...] popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion World Network, promptly said that Kotick was just trying to scare off the [...]
4:15 pm
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