Earlier today MyGaming reported on remarks made by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in which he lambasted rival publisher EA, labeled ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella as unethical criminals, and decried Tim Schafer’s name calling.
Both EA and Schafer have now responded. Kotick said that Schafer’s Brutal Legend project was pulled by Activision because the team wasn’t meeting development requirements. Speaking to Eurogamer, Schafer, whom had famously referred to Kotick as a ‘total prick,’ said: “It’s sad that instead of just insulting me personally, he goes after the product of my hard-working team – a group of people he almost put out of work a while back.”
“But what’s even sadder is that it took him two months to think of a comeback,” Schafer hit back with a zinger.
As for EA, Kotick essentially said that EA’s practice of buying out any independent studio it comes across, stifles creativity, and he went so far as to say that their big problem is that “great people don’t really want to work there.”
EA leapt to their own defense, as well as that of West and Zampella. EA has taken on West and Zampella’s new outfit, Respawn Entertainment, a development company that snagged many top level Infinity Ward employees from the post-Modern Warfare 2 studio blowout.
“Kotick’s relationship with studio talent is well-documented in litigation,” stated EA corporate communications VP Jeff Brown, speaking to Gamasutra.
“His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick’s own hubris,” said Brown. Presumably he is referring to WoW, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty.
Serious words from industry bigwigs. The battle is likely to continue over the holiday season as Activision and EA go head-to-head in the FPS arena, with Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and EA’s Medal of Honor reboot looking to snag the top sales spot.
Discuss the Schafer and EA counter attack on the MyGaming forum.
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