San Francisco - Activision Blizzard (NASD: ATVI), the company recently formed through the merger of Activision and Vivendi's games division, is considering launching an alternative digital music platform to compete with Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes, company CEO Bobby Kotick said in an interview with the Financial Times. "I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential," Kotick told FT.

While Activision publishes the near-20-million unit-selling "Guitar Hero" game franchise, which is credited with bolstering digital music sales for artists whose songs are featured in the game, with the merger the company is now in the same family as Vivendi's Universal Music Group, one of the four major record labels.

"These are all the things that enable you to be a successful competitor [to iTunes]," Kotick added.

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