Tim Shafer has been very outspoken about Activision since the company decided not to publish his game, Brutal Legend, and later sued Double Fine games over the release of Brutal Legend, which ended up in the hands of Electronic Arts. Back then, Schafer said, “Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it. Oh great, now Beyoncé is going to sue me too.”
In an interview with Eurogamer at the Develop Conference, when interviewer Wesley Yin-Poole said that Bobby Kotick was a bit misunderstood, Schafer replied,
His obligation is to his shareholders. Well, he doesn’t have to be as much of a dick about it, does he? I think there is a way he can do it without being a total prick. It seems like it would be possible. It’s not something he’s interested in.
Schafer believes that Kotick’s attitude towards taking a popular frachise and then ‘squeezing the life out of it’ for profit – won’t help the industry grow in the longer run. He said,
Well, he makes a big deal about not liking games, and I just don’t think that attitude is good for games in general. I don’t think we’re an industry of widgets. I don’t think we can approach it like we approach bars of soap, where you’re just trying to make the cheapest bar of soap.
He definitely has that that kind of widget-maker attitude. I don’t think he’s great for the industry, overall. You can’t just latch onto something when it’s popular and then squeeze the life out of it and then move on to the next one. You have to at some point create something, build something.
He later joked that “Hopefully Kotick will go back to another industry scene. He could go to an industry that makes more money. Ball bearings… Something”
via 1up
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