遊戲王科蒂克 Bobby Kotick king of the gamers
Two years ago, 150m iPhones sold and $10bn in annual App Store spending could not persuade Bobby Kotick to take an interest in mobile gaming. The chief executive of Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest video games company, still worried that mobile games were all one-hit wonders, like Angry Birds and Flappy Bird, at a time when its latest Call of Duty title was minting $1bn on its first day on sale.
兩年前，1.5億部iPhone的銷量以及App Store 100億美元的年消費額都沒能使得鮑比科蒂克(Bobby Kotick)對手遊產生些許興趣。全球最大視頻遊戲公司——動視暴雪(Activision Blizzard)的首席執行官當時仍然擔心手遊只是曇花一現，就像《憤怒的小鳥》(Angry Birds)和Flappy Bird一樣，而當時動視最新版《使命召喚》(Call of Duty)首日發行就將10億美元收入囊中。
“Right now we just don’t see anything that would suggest that changing the way we approach investing against mobile would be a good idea,” Mr Kotick told analysts on an earnings call in 2013.
“眼下我們只是不認爲有任何跡象表明，我們改變不投資手遊的姿態會是個好主意，”科蒂克在2013年一次財報電話會議中向分析師們表示。
At the beginning of the decade, when many in the industry were chasing after Zynga’s FarmVille and other “social” games for Facebook, Mr Kotick had made a similarly counterintuitive move by launching Skylanders, a range of interactive toys. Sparking copycats from Disney to Nintendo, Skylanders became a $3bn franchise selling 250m action figures, while Zynga’s business has shrunk into irrelevance.
本十年初，在遊戲行業很多公司都在追逐Zynga的《鄉村度假》(FarmVille)以及Facebook上其他“社交”遊戲之際，科蒂克作出了同樣貌似違反直覺的舉動——推出互動玩具系列《小龍斯派羅》(Skylanders)。已引起迪士尼(Disney)和任天堂(Nintendo)效仿的《小龍斯派羅》，成爲了一個售出2.5億人形玩偶、總值30億美元的特許銷售系列，與此同時Zynga的業務則縮水至無足輕重的規模。
Even if social gaming turned out to be a fad, however, the decision to overlook mobile would soon catch up with Mr Kotick. By the end of 2013, an addictive puzzle app called Candy Crush Saga was being played by 93m people every day. Last year, it drove revenues of $2.2bn for its developers, King Digital.
然而，儘管社交遊戲到頭來被證明是一時的風尚，但對手遊不屑一顧的決定很快就讓科蒂克蒙受損失。2013年底，令人慾罷不能的益智App《糖果粉碎傳奇》(Candy Crush Saga)的日均遊戲玩家達到9300萬。去年，該款遊戲爲其開發公司King Digital帶來了22億美元的收入。
This week, the 52-year-old Mr Kotick finally responded in bold style. Activision agreed to buy King for $5.9bn, creating a company with a combined audience of 500m monthly players.
最近，52歲的科蒂克終於決定大膽出手。動視同意斥資59億美元收購King Digital，締造一家擁有月均5億玩家受衆的公司。
What Mr Kotick calls his “disciplined, deliberate and methodical” dealmaking has made Activision Blizzard the most valuable company in videogaming, its market capitalisation hitting a new all-time high this week of $27bn.
被科蒂克稱爲“中規中矩、深思熟慮、有條有理”的交易撮合，使動視暴雪成爲視頻遊戲界估值最高的公司，最近其總市值創下了270億美元的歷史新高。
Growing up in Long Island, New York, Mr Kotick was hustling from an early age, selling sandwiches and wallets at school. He started his first company, selling software for the Apple II personal computer, while studying art and literature at the University of Michigan. Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder, persuaded him to drop out to pursue it full-time.
科蒂克在紐約州長島長大，從小就忙於賺錢，在學校裏賣三明治和錢包。在密歇根大學(University of Michigan)學習藝術和文學期間，他創辦了自己第一家公司，出售蘋果二代(Apple II)個人電腦所用的軟件。蘋果(Apple)聯合創始人史蒂夫吠布斯(Steve Jobs)說服科蒂克輟學，全職經營公司。
Among the big names in Mr Kotick’s vast network, it was Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas hotels billionaire, who gave Mr Kotick his start, writing a $300,000 cheque for the 20-year-old after they met at the Cattle Barons’ Ball in Dallas.
科蒂克的龐大人脈網中包含許多大名鼎鼎的人物，拉斯維加斯酒店業億萬富翁史蒂夫韋恩(Steve Wynn)便是其中之一。韋恩給科蒂克提供了一個起點，兩人在達拉斯的募款活動Cattle Barons’ Ball上見面後，韋恩給這位20歲的小夥子簽了一張30萬美元的支票。
The Apple software business was shortlived but, a few years later, Mr Wynn supported another venture by Mr Kotick: his attempt to revive a struggling games company called mediagenic. Spun out of Atari, a maker of home computers, in 1979, the company had made popular games with titles such as Kaboom! and Pitfall. But by 1990, it had lost all its founders and the video games market had stalled.
這家蘋果軟件公司經營的時間不長，但是，幾年後韋恩又出資支持了科蒂克另一項冒險：試圖重振舉步維艱的遊戲公司Mediagenic。1979年從家用電腦製造商雅達利(Atari)分離出來後，Mediagenic曾打造了Kaboom!和《逃離險境》(Pitfall)等熱門遊戲。但是到了1990年，該公司失去了所有的創始人，同時視頻遊戲市場陷入停滯。
Mr Kotick bought a stake of the company for $400,000, moved it to Los Angeles and gave it back its original name: Activision. Gamers started gravitating towards the couch, playing games on televisions hooked up to powerful set-top consoles instead of sitting at computer screens, and the company followed them, doing ever-larger deals. LA studio Neversoft produced its first hit of the PlayStation era, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, in 1999. He picked up Guitar Hero — in which players put themselves in the shoes of Freddie Mercury, sporting plastic guitars that plug in to all major brands of console — for $100m in 2007. It became the first such game to reach $1bn in sales. That year also saw the first big hit of the Call of Duty franchise: Modern Warfare, which centres around special forces missions.
科蒂克以40萬美元購買了該公司的股份，將公司遷往洛杉磯，並重新啓用了原有名稱——動視(Activision)。遊戲玩家開始沉迷於坐在沙發上，將電視連上強大的機頂遊戲機後玩遊戲、而不是坐在電腦屏幕前，而動視追隨着遊戲玩家，交易越做越大。1999年，位於洛杉磯的遊戲工作室Neversoft憑藉《職業滑板高手》(Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater)在PlayStation時代一鳴驚人。2007年，科蒂克斥資1億美元收購了《吉他英雄》(Guitar Hero)——在該遊戲中，玩家扮成弗雷迪墨丘利(Freddie Mercury)，彈起可以連接所有主要品牌遊戲機的塑料吉他。該遊戲成爲了同類遊戲中首款銷售額突破10億美元的遊戲。那一年也見證了《使命召喚》系列的首款成功遊戲《現代戰爭》(Modern Warfare)一炮打響。該遊戲以特種部隊的任務爲題材。
Mr Kotick has a knack for minting blockbuster franchises that makes his friends in Hollywood jealous. But to critics — who have compared him with everyone from Star Wars baddie Emperor Palpatine to the cartoon villain Scrooge McDuck — the annual Call of Duty update puts profit ahead of creativity.
科蒂克締造暢銷系列的本事讓他在好萊塢的朋友們眼紅。但是對批評者而言——他們把科蒂克比作各色人物，從《星球大戰》(Star Wars)中的大反派皇帝帕爾普廷(Emperor Palpatine)，到卡通反派角色史高治麥克老鴨(Scrooge McDuck)——每年一個新版的《使命召喚》將利潤置於創造力之上。
Friends call that unfair. “He is an entrepreneur and a very bottom-line businessman,” says Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation. “But beyond that he is a very smart and intuitively great creative talent.”
朋友們認爲這樣說不公平。“他是企業家，是非常注重盈虧的商人，”夢工廠動畫電影公司(DreamWorks Animation)的首席執行官傑弗裏慍森伯格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)稱，“但是除此之外，他還是一個非常聰明、在直覺上極具創造力的天才。”
Mr Kotick certainly has a sizeable pay packet: he earned $6.9m last year, and made $64.9m in 2012, including a four-year stock scheme. Among the other beneficiaries of that wealth is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Mr Kotick is a trustee.
當然，科蒂克有着非常可觀的薪水：去年他賺了690萬美元，2012年賺了6490萬美元，其中包括一項爲期4年的股票計劃。他的財富的受益人包括洛杉磯藝術博物館(Los Angeles County Museum of Art)，他是該博物館的一個受託人。
“He’s very generous and has been key to assembling the next generation of philanthropists,” says Lacma director Michael Govan, whom Mr Kotick convinced to move to LA from New York to take the post in 2006. “I can tell you first hand, he is a very persuasive person.”
“他非常慷慨，對組織下一代慈善家起着關鍵性的作用，”洛杉磯藝術博物館的總監邁克爾戈萬(Michael Govan)稱，“我能以自己的親身經歷告訴你，他是一個非常有說服力的人。”2006年，戈萬被科蒂克說服從紐約搬到洛杉磯接受這個職位。
But at Activision, Mr Kotick can be less generous with company funds. “Bobby is really tight and makes sure they don’t overpay for anything,” says Michael Pachter, games analyst at Wedbush Securities. “He throws nickels around like they are manhole covers.”
但是在動視，科蒂克對公司的資金就沒那麼大度了。“鮑比管錢真的很緊，確保不花任何冤枉錢，”韋德布希證券公司(Wedbush Securities)的遊戲分析師邁克爾帕赫特(Michael Pachter)稱，“他花5分錢的硬幣就像它們像窨井蓋那麼沉重似的。”
Mr Kotick’s own nickels are on the line. Together with Activision’s co-chairman Brian Kelly, he invested $100m two years ago as part of the $8.2bn deal to buy out Vivendi, the French media group that held a majority stake in the game maker. Even after that huge transaction and now the King deal, he is not standing still. Last month he hired the former chief executive of sports network ESPN to broadcast video games being played competitively. Movie offshoots are in the works, too.
經營好壞關係到科蒂克自己的硬幣。兩年前，在那筆總值82億美元、回購維旺迪（Vivendi，持有動視大部分股份的法國媒體集團）所持股份的交易中，科蒂克與動視聯名主席布賴恩凱利(Brian Kelly)聯手投入了1億美元。即使是在完成了那筆鉅額交易、以及如今又收購King Digital後，他仍然沒有停下腳步。10月份，他聘請了體育電視網ESPN的前首席執行官來播放競爭性的視頻遊戲。電影項目也在籌備中。
“He’s a great storyteller,” says Mr Katzenberg. “I don’t think I could touch him at his game.”
“他是一個出色的講述者，”夢工廠動畫電影公司的卡森伯格稱，“我覺得我沒法在他的領域望其項背。”
