Bobby Kotick slags off Tim Schafer

Bobby Kotick has hit back at Brütal Legend developer Tim Schafer – who famously called the Activision Blizzard CEO a "total prick" in a Eurogamer interview.

Double Fine boss Schafer told Eurogamer in July: "His [Kotick's] 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."

Activision hit the headlines last year when it tried to prevent EA from releasing Brütal Legend.

Brütal Legend was originally a Vivendi game, but was dropped after Activision merged with Blizzard Entertainment.

"The guy comes out and says I'm a prick," Kotick told the latest issue of Edge magazine.

"I've never met him in my life – I've never had anything to do with him. I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it.'

"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."

Kotick also insisted his infamous "taking the fun out of videogame development" quote was just a quip.

"That was a joke! The fact that there are people – and it's a small vocal minority – that actually think that I meant it... How do you combat that?"

He added: "This is my dream job. I've been playing games since I was 18 years old. I could have bought any company, but I bought a bankrupt game company, and I've been doing it for 21 years. This idea that I'm not passionate about videogames is ludicrous. But you say something and it gets taken out of context."