EA is clearly not averse to taking off the gloves for a little sparring. Activision is the heavyweight fighter in this battle though, as Call of Duty has set entertainment records two years in a row. EA believes Battlefield 3 will take a chunk of the pie this fall and has been very vocal about it. Activision's Eric Hirshberg has said that as a "challenger brand," EA's attacks are "not a new strategy." But in terms of who actually began throwing mud first, the details are starting to look a bit fuzzy.
Hirshberg is still relatively new to Activision, and while he's been taking the high road when asked about the mudslinging, what he's forgetting is that his boss, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, has demonstrated numerous times that he'll attack rival EA without batting an eye.
There's plenty of history before John Riccitiello ever told IndustryGamers that he'd like to see Call of Duty "rot from the core." Here are some prime examples:
Egamer, “Bobby Kotick: EA Developer Oppression Doesn’t Work,” June 14, 2011
- “The EA model was to have lots of independent developers but oppress them. I always said I don’t want to do what was done to me. So part of the whole philosophy of Activision was whether you’re owned outright or no, if you’re a studio you have control of your destiny. You could make decisions on who to hire, flexibility on what products to make, how to make them.”
- “You still have responsibilities to make great games and make a profit doing them. But it was the opposite philosophy of EA at the time. They’d buy a developer and it’d become EA this, EA Vancouver regional, and we like the idea that you’re an entrepreneur, you have an identity, keep your identity. That spirit is what helps to be successful in making great games.”
Tgdaily, “Bobby Kotick says EA has lost its way,” September 27, 2010
- "We have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA - that's their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value. It's lost its way. And until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it's going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."
- "The core principle of how we run the company is the exact opposite of EA. [They] will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', 'EA New Jersey', whatever. 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.' We don't have an Activision anything - it's Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer."
- "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. It's like, if you have no other option, you might consider them."
Destructoid, “Activision bitchslaps Electronic Arts, or tries to,” April 25, 2008
- Kotick then went for the cheap shot, comparing his company to EA and stating that "it did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired."
In the end, it doesn't actually matter who "started it." It's a very competitive industry, and sometimes competitors get into heated battles. And ultimately, the competition should produce better games for consumers to enjoy, so we're certainly not complaining.
