The staggering figure represents the firm’s total investment in next-generation gaming, with half of the cash spent on development tools.

“We’ve spent $100m investing in next-generation technology, and $200m on next-generation games,” Zucker told MCV. “And we’re up to 650 internal development staff across our six studios. We might consider adding another studio but at the moment we’re focused on adding to our existing teams. Over the next couple of years that’s our focus.”

And he went on to state that the firm intends to double its market share on next-gen platforms.

“We have been pushing this for two and a half years now, investing a lot and being very heavily focused on next-generation consoles like 360 and PS3,” he added. “Really this year it’s about gaining market share. We’re around two per cent of the market – if we can go to four per cent that would be a huge win for us and it’s something we really believe we can do. We are looking to do that on next-gen platforms now. We’ve invested a lot of money and we have a lot of good product.”

- For the full in-depth interview, read Friday’s issue of MCV