UPDATE: Both Tim Schafer and EA's Jeff Brown have since made responses to Kotick's remarks.

ORIGINAL: Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has hit back at Tim Schafer two months after the Double Fine boss called him a “total prick” in an interview with Eurogamer.

In that interview, Schafer said of Kotick, “His obligation is to his shareholders. Well, he doesn't have to be as much of a dick about it, does he? I think there is a way he can do it without being a total prick. It seems like it would be possible. It's not something he's interested in.”

Speaking with Edge magazine, Kotick has responded to those (since withdrawn) remarks, saying that the Schafer’s anger likely stemmed from Activision’s cancellation of Double Fine’s Brütal Legend.

Brütal Legend was originally to be published by Vivendi. The cancellation occurred when Activision merged with Blizzard Entertainment, then a Vivendi company.

“The guy comes out and says I'm a prick,” says Kotick.

"I've never met him in my life – I've never had anything to do with him. I never had any involvement in the Vivendi project that they were doing, Brütal Legend, other than I was in one meeting where the guys looked at it and said, 'He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it.'

"And do you know what? That seemed like a sensible thing to do. And it turns out, he was late, he missed every milestone, the game was not a particularly good game..."

Brütal Legend went on to be published by rival company Electronic Arts and received generally favourable reviews, but not before Activision sued Double Fine in an attempt to shut down its distribution. At that time, EA called Activision’s suit as ridiculous as, “a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy.”

Today, Kotick said, “EA will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', EA New Jersey', whatever.

“We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that's what makes them so successful.'

“We don't have an Activision anything – it's Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer. That, to me, is one of the unassailable rules of building a publishing company. And in every case except for two, the original founders of the studio are still running the studios today.

“The only thing that we try to do is to provide a support structure to make them more successful. If you do a really god job – and a lot of our studios do – you get to pick what is, in my view, the most difficult thing to pick in the industry: to make original intellectual property.”

Kotick dismisses the growing sentiment that Electronic Arts – once derided by gamers as a soulless, margin-driven company – is undergoing reformation.

“I've been an oppressed EA developer!” said Kotick.

“The thing is, it doesn't work that way – you can't be a floor wax and then decide that you're going to become a dessert topping.

“That doesn't work, it's your DNA. [EA's] DNA isn't oriented towards that model – it doesn't know how to do it, as a culture or as a company, and it never has.”