In an interview with Condé Nast Portfolio, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick attacked EA for being inconsiderate of the cultures in the game studios they buy. 

“We built a model that celebrates entrepreneurial, opportunistic, independent values. It’s almost the opposite of Electronic Arts, which has commoditized development. It did a very good job of taking the soul out of a lot of the studios it acquired.”

Such levels of soul stealing hasn’t been witnessed since reformed vampire Raziel was at large. However, it is possible that he’s been seconded from normal duties in order to support studio acquisition for EA.

Raziel was unavailable for comment at this time.

Source: Condé Nast Portfolio

*Update* -  Jeff Brown, EA’s vice president of communications has responded to Bobby Kotick’s recent comments about his company stealing souls.

The truth is, everyone laughed, it’s too early to declare victory but if you talk to people like Patrick Soderlund at dice in Stockholm, Mark Jacobs at Mythic in Virginia or Josh Resnick at Pandemic - they’ll probably tell you that it’s working. They get a lot of resources and creative freedom. That freedom has already contributed new start-ups like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and Boom Blox and there’s a lot of others to be announced soon.

Obviously no comment on the allegation that Raziel is working for EA as chief soul stealer, but more updates may be forthcoming in the battle of the titans.

Source: Newsweek

Tags: Activision, condé_nast, electronic_arts, independent_values, vampire_raziel

• EA Takes a Jab Back at Activision
• Soul Calibur 1 HD Remix, If You Will
• Soul Calibur IV Install Shrinks, Possibly Optional
• Soul Calibur IV Coming Soon
• Soul Wars Anyone? Soul Calibur IV To Include Star Wars Characters
• New Game Releases: 7/28-8/02
• Play.com Live: Soul Calibur IV Impressions
• Soul Calibur 4: Barack Obama vs John McCain

1 Comment »