Last week, Activision boss Bobby Kotick said that a rival publisher might need to invest as much as 1 billion USD to rival World of Warcraft, and even then there would be no guarantee of success.

Former EA online boss Lars Buttler, however, reckons these claims add up to very little, and states that while Kotick has a good stab at selling the progressing VU merger to shareholders, the reality is that another developer could come up with a game to rival WoW.

"Nice try, Mr. Kotick," Buttler told GameDaily. "We understand that Activision has to defend its merger and scare competition - but I have to call his bluff."

"It's pretty wild to suggest that there's only one team that could ever realize the potential of the connected era - and that there's no one out there that can deliver, no matter what the investment. [Blizzard] are a great team but there are other great teams out there."

Buttler, for his part, is now CEO and co-founder of online publisher Trion World Network. Presumably he'd like to give WoW something to worry about, then...

By Luke Guttridge

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