Activision CEO Shoots Back At Greedy Warner Music
Hey gaymers! I suppose it's a Warner Music day here in the land of gaming news: Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick fired back at Warner Music after the latter sought higher royalties for its songs used in games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Firstly came Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr.'s charming condescension to Activision last week:
"There is what I would call a very paltry licensing fee per song," Bronfman said."I think the industry as a whole needs to take a very different look at this business and participate more fully and in a much more partnership way," he said. "And if that does not become the case, as far as Warner Music is concerned, we will not license to those games."
Now Activision's Kotick has responded by calling out Bronfman's comments as "one sided" and not "respectful of how much we've done to bring new audiences into the market."
I heard that - I wouldn't have even thought of the name "Aerosmith" this year had it not been for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. With record sales slumping for the umpteenth year in a row, maybe the record industry should be paying Activision and EA instead?
Activision Hits Back at Warner Music [VE3D]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 15 August 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: activision, guitar hero, music industry, royalties, warner, warner music group
This whole thing only further illustrates how the 'old' media doesn't 'get' the shifts in the market.
I still can't believe the outrageous pricing on the PSN video download store. $9.99 to download a digital copy (in standard definition, no less) to own? Many of those movies can be picked up at Wal-Mart or Best Buy for $4.99 or $9.99 on an actual DVD. It's ridiculous. It's as if they have no concept of 'perceived value.'
Add to that the fact that it takes 2 hours to download a 300 mb game via PSN (with broadband internet, even) and the whole thing is just lame. I can only imagine how long it would take to download a high-def movie. I guess you just need to plan several days ahead...
I would say what I think, but honestly, it'd just be a ramble of curse words aimed at Activision for dropping Ghostbusters, so, I better not.