The Financial Times speaks with Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick, who responds to Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman's recently expressed opinion that music games should be paying a higher royalty rate to music publishers for using "content [they] own and control" (story). Kotick says Bronfman's "one-sided comments" were not "respectful of how much we’ve done to bring new audiences into the market." He goes on to say: "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." In response F.T. quotes a (presumably different) Warner rep, who says: "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." Most significant is Kotick's comment that seems to be a warning that they do not foresee bowing to pressure to increase royalties:

“I think his view was ... that [Warner Music] should be compensated the way they might for a performance on iTunes,” said Mr Kotick. “But this is an entirely different business that is very technically complex. We’re going to favour those publishers that recognise and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists.”