The boss of games company Activision, who make the 'Guitar Hero' game, has hit out at Warner Music chief Edgar Bronfman Jr over those previously reported remarks to the effect that the gaming firms behind 'Hero' and rival 'Rock Star' were not paying big enough royalties for the music they use, and that they were getting rich through the hugely successful gaming franchises at the record companies' expense.
But Activision chief Bobby Kotick says the record labels should be more appreciative of the new revenue streams the gaming companies are bringing to them. According to the FT, Kotick said Bronfman was not "respectful of how much we've done to bring new audiences into the market", adding that "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 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".
According to gaming industry mag MCV, a Warner spokesman responded to Kotick's remarks by saying it had "enormous respect" for the game-publishers and the creativity and investment they had made in music games, but that "we hope that our partners in the gaming space appreciate not only the value of their own contributions but also those of the recording artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers on which their games are significantly based".