Think what you will about Activision with their waxing and waning in the eyes of the gaming community but never doubt the company is successful. Having just released yet another record-breaking entry in one of their most profitable series, Call of Duty, Activision is certainly at a place to tout themselves as the best and while they label themselves the leader amongst publishers, they are not complacent in their dominance.

In a recent conference, COO of Activision Thomas Tippl labeled the company as the “clear industry leader” but kept humble by saying that Activision is constantly looking at their competitor’s style of business to find inspiration:

“We constantly look around. We look at our competitors but also - and maybe even more importantly - we look at other media companies, other online companies, companies in places like China and Korea and see what they do best."

It might seem that way but Activision doesn’t have the ego to think they are the best at everything. Instead, the company tries to set the bar in areas like marketing and retail by looking towards its opposition for new strategies. Tippl didn’t name any companies in particular but acknowledges that Activision reapplies certain techniques in their own work.

While it might be hard to stomach the fact that Activision is more or less proclaiming themselves the top dog in the games industry you would be hard pressed to find a company that puts out such a dominating product as Call of Duty. The team has come under fire this past year for many of their and CEO Bobby Kotick’s decisions/remarks. After each speed bump along the way Activision was able to bounce back stronger than ever leading up to the earnings fiesta that was the launch of Black Ops.

Looking forward, the company plans to take the Call of Duty franchise, arguably the only viable franchise under their banner, and push it for all its worth. If they can top the largest offering of digital content ever, then they might top themselves as leader once again.

Do you feel that Activision is the industry leader as Tippl proclaimed them to be? If no, which company do you see as setting the standards for the publishing arena?

Source: CVG