Activision hits back at Schafer jibes

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is "passionate" about videogames, according to a statement released by the company yesterday following comments made by Double Fine boss Tim Schafer.

The Brutal Legend developer, who was subject to legal action by the publisher in a bid to prevent rival company EA from bringing the Jack Black game to market, hit out at Kotick in an interview, describing his attitude of "not liking games" as not good for the industry.

But the publisher has hit back at those jibes, claiming that Kotick does care deeply about games - but admitting that his day-to-day duties prevent him from playing too often

"Tim Schafer's comment that Bobby Kotick 'makes a big deal about not liking games' just isn't true," Maryanne Lataif, senior VP of corporate communications at Activision Blizzard told IndustryGamers. "Bobby has always been passionate about games, and loves the videogame industry.

"But as CEO of a company that makes games enjoyed by millions of people worldwide, the demands on his time now make it difficult to play games as often as he'd like to or as much as he once did."

Bobby Kotick has become known for certain controversial statements in the past couple of years, quipping to investors at one point that he'd like to see the price point for games to rise even higher than the above average tag given to Modern Warfare 2 last year.

As CEO of Activision Blizzard he can be credited with guiding the super-publisher to a consistently strong business performance, and overseeing the rise to record-breaking prominence of the Infinity Ward title last year, which became the biggest entertainment launch in history.

However, he's also regarded as a tough businessman, and many saw his hard line personality in the way that Jason West and Vince Zampella departed from the FPS developer earlier this year.