Andre Yoskowitz
15 Aug 2008 13:34
Last week we reported that large music studio Warner wanted higher royalties for use of their music in games such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero.
In a statement today, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick has struck back at Warner, calling the company disrespectful.
Kotick added that Warner Music's comments were not "respectful of how much we've done to bring new audiences into the market". Kotick also added that his company and others had to invest heavily to make the games "fun to play."
"I think his view was...that [Warner Music] should be compensated the way they might for a performance on iTunes. But this is an entirely different business that is very technically complex. We're going to favour those publishers that recognise and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists," added Kotick.
"We're introducing a whole new group of artists to new audiences that is resulting in their iTunes downloads being exponentially higher than they would otherwise be, [as well as] new album sales and new merchandising opportunities."
Kotick obviously has a logical point, but will Warner see it that way?