Between 1997 and 2003, Kotick proceeded to buy no fewer than nine studios, but his concept of a video-game studio system was quite different from that of EA, which was determined to make production more effi-cient by centralizing groups of designers and program-mers into regional offices. Kotick allowed his studios keep their own names, often let them stay where they were, and further encouraged autonomy by providing seed money for Activision alumni who wanted to launch out on their own. He still conduct market resear ch out of the company’s L.A. headquarters but does not use the results to put pressure on his creative teams; rather, he shares the data with his studios and lets them draw their own conclusions. Each studio issues its own financial statements and draws on its own bonus pool, and the paychecks of studio heads reflect both company-wide profits and losses.