Activision: EA's Call of Duty Insults 'Bad for Our Industry'

The school playground bickering between Activision and Electronic Arts continues apace at Gamescom, with Activision's publishing boss Eric Hirshberg calling foul at all the Call of Duty mudslinging by EA CEO John Riccitiello.

At the publisher's Gamescom keynote, Hirshberg said, "Competition is of course a good thing. It keeps us all on our toes and ultimately makes the games better. It's healthy. But it's one thing to want your game to succeed and another thing to actively, publicly say you want other games to fail."

He then referenced "a competitor" (EA) who was quoted as saying that Call of Duty should 'rot from the core.' "I've been asked countless times to respond to this comment and I've generally chosen not to," Hirshberg said. "My job is to help our incredibly talented, passionate teams to make the best games they can, not to throw insults around at others. But I actually feel this kind of rhetoric is bad for our industry.

"Can you imagine the head of Dreamworks animation coming out with a new movie and going to the press and saying that he wants Toy Story to 'rot from the core'? It's kind of hard to imagine, right?"

Hirshberg added that he wanted to see every game perform well, so that the industry as a whole can grow. "I say that not only as the CEO of Activision but also as a gamer." Do you believe him? Are you rooting for him? Let us know in the comments box below.

Source: Eurogamer