Corporate Spat of the Year: EA and Oddworld creator exchange blows

There’s nobody who enjoys a good corporate slanging match more than me, and so it is with great relish that I bring you this latest exchange between Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning and EA. Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Lanning mentioned that EA had once tried to buy their company, something he had fiercely rejected.

“When you say that to us we go ‘[censored] you very much’, quite frankly. That’s not a sustainable model, that’s a hostile acquisition,” Lanning said. “That’s why we had to strive to get independent. Rather than get into bed with someone we knew was a horrible bed partner we said ‘let’s stay virgins for longer’.”

“You won’t be seeing our profit being spent on Ferraris and [censored] like that,” he continued. “Our profits are going back into games so we can ultimately raise to the point where we can grow our audience, who are expecting new content (…) Publishers are flying jets, do you think they care about the customers just one [censored] percent? Not at all.”

EA weren’t one to take this lying down. Their corporate spokesman Jeff Brown put it as un-diplomatically as possible: “We wish Lorne luck on the game and recommend Lithium for the paranoia and Tourette Syndrome. Nobody here remembers a jet, a Ferrari or an offer to buy his company.”

Where’d I put that popcorn gif?