Schafer and Kotick exchange insults

Exchange brings new meaning to insult sword fighting

At one point, Brutal Legend, the EA-published action game from Tim Schafer's Double Fine Productions, was set to be published by Activision. However, after the firm's merger with Vivendi, the project was ultimately dropped from Activision's catalog.

The debacle, which almost resulted in the closure of Double Fine, caused a personal rift between studio head Tim Schafer and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Kotick took a swipe at Schafer as he recalled when Activision dropped Brutal Legend. "That seemed like a sensible thing to do ... It turns out, [Schafer] was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game," he explained.

Schafer reacted to Kotick's comments in a response to Eurogamer, saying "It's sad is that instead of just insulting me personally, he goes after the product of my hard-working team - a group of people he almost put out of work a while back. But what's even sadder is that it took him two months to think of a comeback."

While the incident is still seems to affect both Activision and Double Fine Productions, Schafer's studio has since moved on to other projects. The developer is currently working with THQ on the upcoming downloadable title Costume Quest.

By Nicholas Gasse