PSP World

The Battle Between Activision and EA Heats Up

Make no mistake, video games are serious business. And nobody knows that more than Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision and John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts. These two companies represent the two largest video game publishers in North America, each comprising dozens of production studios working on the next hit games for our consoles, handhelds and computers. In fact, when Activision merged with Vivendi in 2008, taking PC publisher Blizzard under its wing, the newly merged company became the largest digital entertainment conglomerate in the world. With so much at stake, its not surprising to find out that there is considerable enmity between the two companies. Total market domination and making friends are two things that just don't mix.

In terms of portfolios, the two companies are somewhat different. But a certain amount of copycatting on both sides has meant that their catalog of franchises have started to resemble one another more and more. Activision has the incredibly successful Guitar Hero franchise, while EA earns nearly as much from its own music rhythm title, Rock Band. Electronic Arts has its own stable of first-person shooters, in the form of the Battlefield franchise. Activision has proven incredibly successful with its Call of Duty and later Modern Warfare games. Of course, the two sides are fond of sniping at one another in the real world, hurtling insults back and forth every few months.

For example, last year Activision threatened to sue EA over the latter's plans to publish Brutal Legend, a game that Activision had dropped from its roster following the Vivendi Merger. EA fired back with some classic advice, saying, "We doubt that Activision would try to sue. That would be like a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy." Zing! Activision did sue the developer, Double Fine, but the two parties settled their differences out of court.

The latest insult comes as two high-profile developers were fired from their role in creating the Call of Duty Franchise at Activision. Jason West and Vince Zampella, the two CEOs of Infinity Ward, were removed in March after the company determined that they were in breach of contract. Now, the two executives have formed a new company, fittingly called Respawn Entertainment. Their first order of business after establishing the new studio was to award Electronic Arts "exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to future games." That'll show the jerks back at Activision.

A fight broke out at E3 over which company ate all of the baby shrimp at the lunch buffet.