Community: Message List - Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:29:21 GMT

I believe what you have just described, is called a "Golden Handshake" and it's not the first time it would have happened!

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:26:03 GMT

Lets throw this out there. West And Zampella were fired 2 years ago this month (March). Many of the staff followed them out the door. I speculate that Activation became fearful of the total upheaval of IW and hastely signed Mr. Bowling to a two year employment contract with a guaranteed fat bonus payout at the end of the contracts term. This contract would carry them through the life cycle of MW2 and get them through half of MW3's life cycle. This would be meant to show stability to the community by having the same face around for the release of MW3. At the conclusion of this contract, Mr. Bowling received his pay and bonus and walked away like he probably wanted to two years ago when the rest of the firm left.

This is just speculation, but this makes the most sense for the sudden departure when it would have made more sense to leave a long time ago.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:11:54 GMT

anyone who sticks up for this guy is a moron

Your right he didnt make the game ,but he was the guy who should have been fighting for the community to the bigges money maker in the word .How stupid that any info was put on twitter first most of the time .Seriously Not once did he try to help the community so i say good riddance .Hopefully they all resign so we neednt put up with the shite they released again

And op dropshotting for every kill is weak as **** ,get yourself together

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:52:05 GMT

I think Respawn would at least offer him a position. Or at least consider it.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:45:46 GMT

Who cares

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:40:40 GMT

MW2 was the pinicle of FPS games and the obvious peak of COD as far as I am concerned. Now everybody who had significant involvement in the creation and the peak of COD are gone. The COD brand will sell itself for years to come but true innovation and market domination for the next generation of consoles is up for grabs. Best of luck to Bowling. He wanted it to be great and did all that he could to make it that way.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:51:06 GMT

First of all, the community isn't garbage. The unacceptable and mediocore put together game that's mw3 is partially garbabe due to being "sometimes a fail, and sometimes a success". Depending how "their" lag comp wants to appy itself, which in itself is a huge part of the fail side.

Second, the voice of the community may be interpreted as mostly negative or "garbage" but with good reason. If mw3 was a total success or mostly a success it would get as much epic praise as the classic mw1! I'm not knocking nor praising this game in this reply. But for those of you who find it the best form of entertainment please do tell of the long list of wonderful and exciting praises this game earned or did right. I am curious.

LMAO you asked for it!

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:43:23 GMT

are u kidding mw2 is the best cod ever for multi-player

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:53:29 GMT

I think the OP hit on some viable reasons as to why Bowling resigned. At the end of the day, what ever the reason was, I'm certain it had at least something to do with the current state of MW3 and the IW mutiny that happened a couple of years ago. The COD franchise seems to be going in the wrong direction and you'd have to be blind not to see that. I think Bowling saw with wide open eyes...

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:11:51 GMT

I am willing to bet that he didn't even know that final stand and deadman's hand were going to be in the game... He was probably going off of what he was told or understood to be the case.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:35:56 GMT

Arrrrggggg Respawn? Teh company that is known for horrible spawns that names themselves Respawn? As if Activision wasnt bad enough, you guys think hes goin to EA? HAHAHAH

I bet hes lost intrest in the billion dollar companies and is no most likely to jump on board with a small and more focused studio.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:14:58 GMT

Doesnt matter. He had nothing to do with the game.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:16:15 GMT

Community Managers are nothing more than scapegoats for the "main guys". They take the brunt of the community anger and I'm quite certain it's a thankless job. I'm sure he was a nice guy and meant well, but when the "higher ups" are telling you to do one thing it's hard to tell them no, especially since they sign your paycheck. I'm sure the dude already has a job lined up as I'm sure any gaming company would pick him up in a second.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:23:18 GMT

I don't blame Bowling for leaving. BUT I don't regret giving him the **** I did. It was his job to take ****. That's what he was there for and he got paid 6 figures a year for it. He didn't help himself with his "**** you last stand" lies etc ( I know not technically a lie, but deliberately misleading never the less) . Maybe he had to say that, maybe it was his job to tell a few lies - but if it's your job to tell lies, don't be surprised if everyone hates you!

Unfortunately it's very obvious to anyone with a brain what would fix this game. but unfortunately there's key people at IW/Activison/Sledghammer/Raven/Beachhead etc that are either too stupid or too incompetant to do it.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:33:58 GMT

I think its sad that we've lost 402 - he took a TON of abuse as most people blame him for everything they don't like about the game. He didn't create the game - he was the public face of Modern Warfare - taking fan feedback to the developers and telling fans what the developers were working on for fixes. Having met him personally I can assure you he's a great guy and having all this hate directed at you has to wear you down eventually.

I wish 402 all the best for the future and wonder where Call of Duty is headed with all the losses lately.

Activision needs to ask itself if it can sustain its success while losing all their best people.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:18:39 GMT

ive said it for quite awhile..... it really seemed like 402 was fed up with development of mw3... he quit his job over it....

i think either activision or IW pretty much **** all over the game he loved in the name of profits... he towed the company line for awhile but it was getting clearer to me by the week that he hated this game as much as the rest of us....

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:43:51 GMT

chuba2 wrote:

Do you play on PC? well go check out COD4 on PC before bowling then go play MW2 or MW3 on PC after bowling's input, enough said and BTW 20 years in the gaming industry here.

Bowling's was mearly a puppet, the PR/"Punching-Bag" of IW. His other job was to simply hype the game up.

Not everything was his fault considering he does not develop the game. He simply reports whatever the developers or Activision want him to say.

The decision of listen servers/P2P servers in MW2 & MW3 (for ranked lobbies) was a developers/Activision's decision, not Robert Bowling.

MW2 hacks on all platforms & not fixing OMA/DC noobtubes was not fixed due to Activision firing most of IW's staff leaving Bowling and a couple of IW staff to take the abuse from the community. Activision IMO did not allow the remaining staff to fix MW2 on all platforms.

The only really stupid thing he did was go up stage at COD XP and burst out "F U Last Stand!" in front of hardcore COD fans.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:42:11 GMT

So by you own statement you should know better than to make such silly claims & FYI RB was working at IW when Mw1 was released. As i've already stated with the amount of people it takes to create these games you just simply cannot attribute all the success or failings of this franchise to just 1 person it is nothing but dumb to do so!

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:25:09 GMT

Do you play on PC? well go check out COD4 on PC before bowling then go play MW2 or MW3 on PC after bowling's input, enough said and BTW 20 years in the gaming industry here.

Re: Speculation on Robert Bowling Resignation... Could he Be going to Respawn Entertainment?

donotreply@activision.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:08:06 GMT

Not a very clever or well thought out comment bud no offence but do you really think that 1 guy is responsible for all the success or failings of the COD games? Do you have any Idea how many people work on these games? Clearly you have no idea, im not trying to be rude just pointing out the truth!