Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Is Stepping Down on 29th December, 2023

Good riddance

You and your cronies won't be missed.

Frankly, much like government and the corporatocracy as a whole, this entire medium needs a purging of the aging executive class.

The 29th will be a good day for gamers of all creeds. It's just sad he's made so much money from his tenure

From the original article:

Kotick is set to make $375 million from the acquisition, and he's expecting a golden parachute of $14.6 million.

A disgusting billionaire, being given millions on his way out the door. All of that money should be going to the ABK employees that had to endure the hostile workplace he oversaw for 22 years.

We don't really need progress updates on this, it's enough to let us know once he's gone, so we can pop a champagne!

Well………Bye Tombstone gif here.

A horrible person is gone another comes.its a repeating cycle.not only in video games but everywhere.from corrupt cops.judge.working in a work place.celebrities.etc.word up son

Horrible person gone with his golden parachute. At least he is gone. But the damage was done.

Bittersweet, really. He's an ***** of the highest order and yet whomever replaces him will likely continue the trend

He will not be missed, but I'm not sure how much this will realistically change.

He gets an unprecedented paycheck, and Microsoft gets unprecedented control over the game industry.
What a bleak reminder that the bad guys always win.

Activision about to get worse now that Microsoft will have full control over it but this is what people cheer for.

Matt Booty? Bruh lol I sadly know he got bullied over his name in school…

first dim ryan , now this guy! this is better than actual gaming news !!

@HotGoomba smoking a kotick pack right now 💨💨🌳🌳😂😂

@nomither6 @HotGoomba 😂😂

@Impossibilium that's a lot of money 💰 for a pos that's so sad 😞

If anything good has come from MS buying Activision its this.

How nice of Phil to upgrade Bobby's golden parachute to a platinum one.

Really glad to see the back of Lulu aswell, she was the absolute worst troll when it came to Microsoft buying Actiblizz, so toxic towards PlayStation, it was unreal.

Good for the company I guess but no interest to me as they are a M$studio now. Just as bad in my book.

People like him should just go extinct.

The end of is kotick is great news. Finally something we can all agree on regarding the merger, it's a Christmas miracle!

So much rage against him in the comments.

Regardless, I'm sure we can celebrate Kotick's carrier the way French people did with royalty and nobility in the past. There must be a few working guillotines lying around

You do know that Phil is head of Xbox, not Microsoft, don't you, @TheCollector316? Phil will not have been undertaking the terms of Bobbies departure, that will have been done by the lawyers working for both parties, and signed off by Satya Nadella (the head of Microsoft).

It's not Xbox that owns Activision. It is Microsoft. Activision now come under the umbrella, and leadership, of Xbox. There is a difference. Phil will have been involved in the acquisition of Activision, but is highly unlikely to have had any control whatsoever over the payment to Bobbie. Phil will have been responsible for sorting his replacement though.

Regardless, it is good to see the end of Bobbie's reign...

Why wait? Leave now! Take Christmas and just go.

@Impossibilium He owned huge amount of shares so his compensation is not surprising in the slightest.

And whatever you might think of him, he saved Activision from bankruptcy and he made it one of the most successful gaming companies in history.

So this is how Activision dies at the hands of Microsoft, quite sad.
I'm not fond of Bobby, however he IS the guy that made Activision a powerhouse company.

He should’ve left years ago. Goodbye and good riddance. Won’t be missed.

Can't stand the guy, but with his $400m 'go-away' payout safely in the Bank of Bob, I doubt the insults of the internet will bother him unduly.

@Godot25 @CielloArc Jeez, Bobby, there’s no need to make two alt accounts. — we know it’s you! 🤣

And while there’s no argument that Activision is a successful company — there’s a reason Microsoft paid $69 billion for them — the way he made it that way is by doing exactly what Microsoft is doing now, by splashing their cash around, buying their way into the IP and talent.

And the way he ran the company was based solely on profit, with no regard to the art of making video games, or the people that make and play them.

They ran popular IP — like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk — into the ground, releasing so many of them in a short period of time, with a steady decline of quality, that people got sick of them.

They got lucky with Call of Duty, where it caught on with a mainstream audience, so that it would thrive no matter the quality of that year’s release. So much so, that they began to put all of the studios they had acquired over the years onto making CoD, letting other IP rot away.

Blizzard was successful, but only because Activision left them alone to do their own thing after they acquired them, a situation that has been eroding in recent years.

They exploited game players with an egregious amount of microtransactions and loot boxes, taking free-to-play tactics from (also acquired) King, their mobile division, and putting them in their full-priced games.

All while treating their own developers like garbage, underpaying them, union busting, and laying them off — while ignoring a toxic environment of sexism, discrimination, and harassment.

But all of that’s fine, because he made the investors, shareholders, and himself very rich. Got it. 🤔

@Impossibilium Well. I don't want to ruin a dream for you, but making money for investors/shareholders is purpose of publicly traded company

@Impossibilium Okay. You clearly can't separate disgusting personality of Kotick from his ability to run successful business. So there is literally no point to talk to you about it.

@Fiendish-Beaver
I do know Phil is the head of Xbox. He won't ever shut up about it. I also know he didn't singlehandedly complete the acquisition nor negotiate its terms. However, he was the one who initially pursued the deal and lobbied Satya to open the purse strings for it. It's also Phil's performance or lack thereof that made a purchase of ABK even a thing to be considered. It's not an unfair nor incorrect statement to say Phil is directly responsible for the ABK acquisition even if Xbox itself never made enough money to buy even Bethesda.

@Godot25 Correct. I cannot separate a “successful business” — which to you means “profit margins are the only thing that matters” — with the human cost of running that business. Where you can ignore the lives and wellbeing of employees, as long as you get your multi-million dollar bonuses. Where you have workers that can’t afford to buy food from the company cafeteria, get laid off by the hundreds, and are brought past the point of suicide because of the harassment they face — and the only consequences you face are $89 million in fines (pocket change for the corporation), and nearly $400 million extra in your bank account just for walking out the door.

I’m so sorry that I care more about people than I care about money. I’m funny like that. 🤷‍♂️

Anyways, have a good day, and happy holidays! I sincerely wish you the best! ✌️

Only hope is some sort of drug fuelled heart attack. He does look like he’s halfway there. Remember when Treyarch’s boss was recommended for firing after a misconduct investigation, and it all disappeared when Bobby stepped in? And then it all came out anyway when the guy was fired? Or when he threatened to have an assistant killed?

Not sure where you get your figures, @TheCollector316, but Bethesda cost Microsoft $7.5 billion. In 2021 Xbox made $16.28 billion, and in 2022 they made $15.56. I'm no mathematician, but I'm fairly sure that they made much more than it cost to buy Bethesda in both of those years... 😜