Who knew being the head honcho of a big multi-national games publisher conglomerate could be so fun!
Bobby Kotick has opened his mouth again, this time slagging off his arch-nemesis Electronic Arts (amongst the many other companies that stand in the way of him obtaining more money for his vast money bin).
During an interview with EDGE, the demon lord himself proclaimed that Electronic Arts are the real evil in the game publishing world, suffocating purchased developers as they attempt to crowbar them into their corporate structures.
The core principle of how we run the company is the exact opposite of EA. EA will buy a developer and then it will become ‘EA Florida’, ‘EA Vancouver’, ‘EA New Jersey’, whatever.
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We always looked and said, ‘You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that’s what makes them so successful.
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You can’t be a floor wax and then decide that you’re going to become a dessert topping. That doesn’t work, it’s your DNA. Their DNA isn’t oriented towards that model – it doesn’t know how to do it, as a culture or as a company, and it never has… Look, EA has a lot of resources, it’s a big company that’s been in business for a long time, maybe it’ll figure it out eventually. But it’s been struggling for a really long time. The most difficult challenge it faces today is: great people don’t really want to work there.
Of course, such inflammatory comments only breed contempt from the masses, many who watched Kotick’s vendetta against Infinity Ward develop when its key members decided they didn’t just want to make more Call of Duty games. The fact that a core part of the Infinity Ward team upped sticks, moved to EA then sued Activision for their money says that his last statement couldn’t be more wrong!
Conjecture aside, stories like this are best, however, when the target of said attack responds. It’s even better still when the response is as fantastic as the one Electronic Arts gave during an interview with CVG.
Kotick’s relationship with studio talent is well documented in litigation.
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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.
M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!