Double Fine’s Tim Schafer has retreated from his derisive remarks made in an interview with Eurogamer about Activision head Bobby Kotick.

In the interview Schafer labelled Kotick “a total prick” and a “dick,” suggesting he might be better suited to the weapons manufacturing business.

Kotick is a widely vilified figure both within the industry and by gamers. The CEO and president of Activision Blizzard has made many controversial statements in the past, going so far as to quip that he wants to “take the fun out of making videogames.”

Late yesterday Activision's Maryanne Lataif, senior vice president of corporate communications at Activision Blizzard, responded to Schafer’s initial comments, saying, “Tim Schafer's comment that Bobby Kotick ‘makes a big deal about not liking games’ just isn't true. Bobby has always been passionate about games and loves the videogame industry." (via Eurogamer).

“But as CEO of a company that makes games enjoyed by millions of people worldwide, the demands on his time now make it difficult to play games as often as he'd like to or as much as he once did.”

Lataif finished: “As Schafer himself notes, he has never actually met Bobby Kotick.”

Following Activision’s response Schafer backed down, writing in the comments section of the Eurogamer interview, “That was an accident. I was going to change the title of my talk to ‘how to give interviews and remember to check the microphone is off.’

“I need to keep my mouth shut. It is shocking how you really burn bridges in the industry. You start your own company and you don't have to work for that jerky boss any more. Not naming names.

“Then it's like Empire Strikes Back - you walk in the room and, ‘Holy s*** Darth Vader's at the table.’ It's such a small industry, you see the same people over and over again. No one ever goes away.”

Interestingly, Kotick has used the “Darth Vader” analogy to describe himself in the past. In an address to Activision investors last September, Kotick said, “Sometimes that commitment to excellence, well, you can come across as being like a dick.

“I don't know how this happened, but all my life I was the rebel flying the Millennium Falcon or the X-Wing fighter and suddenly I wake up and I'm on board the Death Star.”