Activision Aims for Sweet Spot

Although the video-game industry is about to undergo one of its periodic -- and often disruptive -- console transitions, Activision (ATVI Quote) CEO Robert "Bobby" Kotick thinks his company is in the right place at the right time.

Thanks to key franchise titles such as Tony Hawk and Call of Duty, the past console cycle saw Activision grow from a struggling company to the industry's second-largest games publisher behind Electronic Arts (ERTS Quote). Still, Kotick thinks the company's best days are ahead, and he has a plan to ensure that.

First, though, he will have to navigate the tricky changeover from publishing games largely for Sony's (SNE Quote) PlayStation 2, Microsoft's (MSFT Quote) Xbox and Nintendo's Game Cube to producing titles for those companies' upcoming PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Revolution machines, respectively. ...