14 DAY TRIAL // Responding to comments made by Bobby Kotick, the Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, regarding the quality of the working environment at the rival company a representative from Electronic Arts has shot back by saying that the success of the publisher has nothing to do with its leadership and with CEO specifically.
The toughest line from Kotick, coming in an interview for Edge, was that “great people don’t really want to work” at Electronic Arts.
Jeff Brown, who is the corporate communications vice president at Electronic Arts, told Gamasutra in a statement that, “Kotick’s relationship with studio talent is well-documented in litigation.”
He added, “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.”
The exchange is just the latest episode in a long running rivalry between Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts, who are battling for the position of biggest publisher in the world of video games.
When Brown talks about a franchise that is being destroyed by Kotick's hubris he is referring to Call of Duty, a series that has a cloudy future following the very public spat that lead to the departure of Vince Zampella and Jason West, the original creators of the success of Modern Warfare.
The persistent game universe is, of course, World of Warcraft, which has been created and is run by Blizzard in pretty independent fashion, while the “steep decline” is linked with Guitar Hero.
Now Respawn Entertainment is working with Electronic Arts on a new multiplatform franchise but Activision Blizzard has managed to secure the services of Bungie, which is moving on from Halo and will create a new game universe over the course of ten years of exclusivity.