Kotick hits back at Warner Music

Activision Blizzard's CEO Robert Kotick has struck back at Warner Bros for saying it should be paid higher royalties for use of its songs by videogames - a move that would affect games like Guitar Hero.

Kotick said Warner Music had failed to acknowledge the benefits to music sales from Guitar Hero, according to the Financial Times. The Activision Blizzard boss said the Warner Music's chief executive had made comments that were not "respectful of how much we've done to bring new audiences into the market".

"I think his view was...that [Warner Music] should be compensated the way they might for a performance on iTunes. But this is an entirely different business that is very technically complex. We're going to favour those publishers that recognise and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists," said Kotick.

"We're introducing a whole new group of artists to new audiences that is resulting in their iTunes downloads being exponentially higher than they would otherwise be, [as well as] new album sales and new merchandising opportunities."