Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty MW3, place your bets, pick your side and get ready for a back-stabbing, abusive war of the words in the lead up to two of the most highly anticipated FPS to date. And all this months before either is meant to be released on any platform. There’s no doubt that competition in any market is healthy, but one needs to know when to intelligently draw the line. Recently when responding to Activision Blizzards CEO, Bobby Kotick’s doubting of Battlefields console ports, “Activision are threatened by Battlefield” was the EA bosses only response. John Riccitello went further telling Eurogamer he wishes the franchise would “rot from the core.”
Activisions CEO of publishing Eric Hirschberg criticised the EA CEO’s comments, encouraging competitors to focus on development rather than talking negatively to the press. “Imagine if the head of DreamWorks …..Says he wants Toy Story to rot from the core.” It’s kind of hard to imagine right? We don’t hear other companies like Sony or Coke or McDonalds saying these kinds of things about their competitors. Saying that your product is superior and quoting specs is all part of the selling propaganda but comments such as these just sound downright childish. Hirschberg went on to say he wants nothing but the best for every company in the industry. He also believes the market is big enough to accommodate anyone capable of producing a great game. It’s not a fight someone has to lose for the other to win; both can benefit from each others success.
While I don’t side with either particular franchise I also don’t believe in childish unintelligent comments which are clearly motivated by greed, pride and market share.