I know I could have just posted this in General VG Discussion, but come on. It's so hilariously ironic and downright cowardly of them.
@Kotaku:
EA CEO John Riccitiello, head of the company making this fall's premiere Call of Duty competitor, Battlefield 3, recently said he hopes that he hopes Call of Duty would "rot from the core."
In Germany, this week, Riccitiello's counterpart at Actvision, CEO Eric Hirshberg, fired back, defending not just his company's Call of Duty/_Modern Warfare_franchise but saying that smack talk like that is bad for everyone making games.
"This isn't politics," Hirshberg said, as he wrapped up an awards ceremony keynote at the Gamescom event in Cologne. "In order for one to win, the other doesn't have to lose. This is an entertainment industry, it's an innovation industry, and at best, it's an art form… We shouldn't be tearing each other apart, fighting for a larger slice of the pie. We should all be focused on trying to grow a bigger pie. If we as an industry act like there are a finite number of games in the world, then there will be."
While he never mentioned Riccitiello, EA or Battlefield, Hirshberg was clearly talking about them. He called the EA boss's comments and similar rhetoric "bad for our industry. "
Riccitiello's comments were originally reported by website Industry Gamers in June. While discussing Battlefield's ability to unseat Call of Duty he had said, "The question is, 'So, if the gamer buys our game and the mass audience buys their game, where do the two meet?' And all I want to do, if you will, is to have them rot from the core. And so if we can start that process, we're in a good spot."
