Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on fixing Tony Hawk, growing in Europe, the fate of Sierra, and more

Following today's earnings report, I had a brief but interesting chat with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.  He was of course in a good mood after his company's kick ass performance over the holidays (details here). But he also talked about other topics ranging from how Activision will extend its dominance overseas to fixing Tony Hawk to integrating with Vivendi Games on the way to becoming Activision Blizzard this spring.

On expanding overseas, particularly to Europe:

I think that’s an area where there’s some low hanging fruit. We have number 1 market share in US, but we're clearly not there in Europe and there's no reason we see why "Guitar Hero" shouldn’t be the number 1 product in Europe as well… That'll take more local content and better marketing… and investment in our European infrastructure.

"Kung Fu Panda" will be a big international release and the 'Bond' franchise has traditionally done better outside the U.S., particularly in Europe.

Working with Vivendi-owned Universal Music Group following the merger:

Once the deal closes there will likely be lots of opportunities to work with Universal Music Group. [UMG head] Doug Morris will be joining our board.

Will we see any new intellectual property in 2008? Or only the sequels and licensed properties discussed today?

Typically we don't announce new IP without a pretty thoughtful plan. So that wouldn't be something you'd see on an earnings call.

We all know Blizzard will be left alone following the merger. But what about the rest of Vivendi Games, particularly the Sierra label? Will those studios/titles/developers survive?

We haven't said a lot about that process other than the have a lot of terrific products in development and fantastic studios in addition to Blizzard. One of the things that's appealing about this transaction is the ability to get the best of what each company has to offer.

What can we expect from Activision on the Wii in 2008?

The recipe for success when developing for Wii is to take advantage of its unique capabilities. It's not a porting strategy. We are uniquely positioned because understand we physical interface from "Guitar Hero."

Addressing slow sales for "Tony Hawk: Proving Ground," in the wake of a successful launch for EA's "Skate," as Activision prepare for this year's installment in the skateboarding franchise:

We thought having competitive products might increase the overall market. But it didn't really. I think there was just so much product competing in general this year… We didn't expand the market the way we expected. But we're back to a focus on what it will take to succeed in the new environment.