This interview on Gamasutra chats with Activision Publishing's Eric Hirshberg, talking with the gaming giant's CEO about Activision's image as being the "bad guy" in the industry.  "Of course," he says, when asked if he cares about this perception. "Who would wish for that? Who would be wished to be cast as the bad guy in your own industry or as the villain or the evil empire?" He also says he thinks this view of Activision is exaggerated: "I think that the case is drastically overstated in terms of the reality that I see. I see a very creative company that gives its developers the tools and the resources they need to do great things, that isn't afraid to [delay] games if that's what it takes to get them right." That said, he goes on to discuss what he thinks needs to be done to repair their reputation:

Hirshberg says the best he can do is change perceptions little-by-little. "It's about putting a human face on the company. It's about being transparent and honest and human in our dealings with our community." He points towards the company's cool-headed reaction to the pre-E3 Modern Warfare 3 Kotaku leak. "We got a lot of props and a lot of pleasantly surprised people in our reaction to that," he says. "People assumed that we would go silverback gorilla crazy, and we didn't."

He also says that while the initial reaction to Elite was negative, gamers are beginning to see that it's a valuable optional package and not, as was widely feared, a gruesome attempt to monetize multiplay. Two million people have now signed up to the beta, but on day one of the announcement, the forums were crying foul.