Just to put it out there

Activision = EA in 2000ish
You love them now, but you'll hate them soon enough.

It'll become stale.  Agree?  Disagree?  I think it's safe to say Guitar Hero has- sad too as it was so fun the first time.  COD hasn't yet, but it will hit it.  (although I do hope they pulla  Rainbow Six like revamp again soon to keep interest)
Yearly franchises with little change FTL!
--- Activision also relies on gimmicks quite a bit,.  shoving plastic onto us with great success.

Huh?

I thought everyone had already caught on to the whole "Activision is the new EA" thing.

Yeah... Activision being the more "evil" evil corporation is a 2008 phenomenon.

^ Well they've had much success lately.  It's the acquisition of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty that did that pretty much alone.  They rely way to much on these for all their revenue and these franchises are yearly and don't change significantly from one iteration to the next.  Sound familiar?

Activision now is much worse in this sense than EA ever was.  People used to bash EA unfairly IMO.  I mean, the CEO of Activivision said he wanted to "exploit" their IPs on a yearly basis.  Afterward he probably sacrificed some small animal to the financial gods.

I am not going to disagree with you. Activision has become the corporate exploiter that EA used to be, especially in the way that they whore out Guitar Hero every 6 months to a naive and willing public.

Here's something though:

Everyone may feel much better about EA now that they have this great partners program and are making interesting new IPs, but what has it gotten them?  The evil corporation Activision Blizzard is doing well and they are not.  The industry seems to be, in itself, rewarding to those who are evil.  Hopefully EA proves me wrong and starts making a profit because I am a big fan of what they are doing as a company now.

^ EA isn't doing bad though.  Dead Space sold 1.4 million and Mirror's Edge sold 1.3 million (source vgchartz)

EA: Quality up, but Q309 earnings 'below' expectations

EA loses $310 million in Q209, 6% of employees being let go

^ i meant in term of their new more ambitious games.  Obviously they're not doing the best ever, we're in a recession.

What are you on about?

Activision revenues $981 million in Q1 2009

^ Oh, I know.  But they'd be doing better if we weren't.  What I'm saying is that the creative venture EA is taking isn't exactly doing poorly.  Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, which are what we're talking about, sold quite well.

I realize that milking franchises for all their worth will get you money.  I also realize that when these games become monotonous no one cares about them anymore.

Activision is a joke. They own a few amazing companies, But everything that leaves there door is crap.