If Activision CEO Bobby Kotick was hoping to rattle some cages at Electronic Arts by criticizing the company's acquisitions strategies, he missed the mark, according Jeff Brown, EA's vice president of corporate communications.
In a recent interview with Portfolio, Kotick described Activision as being considerate of the culture of the studios it buys, "almost the opposite of Electronic Arts."
Kotick went on to say that EA "did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired."
Brown told Newsweek that the execs at EA took Kotick's comments in stride. "The truth is, everyone laughed. In the past year EA has made radical changes to decentralize the company and put creative control back in the hands of development teams," said Brown.
Brown's sanguine response perhaps stems from the fact that EA's CEO John Riccitiello has himself admitted that his company's previous strategy for acquiring studios frequently ended in disaster.
"The command and conquer model doesn't work. If you think you're going to buy a developer and put your name on the label... you're making a profound mistake," Riccitiello said during his presentation at this year's DICE Summit.
See Also:
- Activision, Vivendi Quit ESA
- EA's CEO: How I Learned to Acquire Developers And Not Screw Them Up
- EA Not Giving Up on Take-Two
- Merger Brings Guitar Hero, Warcraft Under One Roof
Photo: 2493/Flickr, Wired.com
War of Wordcraft [Newsweek]
