this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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CEO Bobby Kotick will leave Activision Blizzard on January 1, 2024 | Schreier: Kotick will depart after 33 years, employees are "very excited."::Schreier: Kotick will depart after 33 years, employees are "very excited."

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[–] Yewb@lemmy.world 151 points 1 year ago (24 children)

This 1 fucking guy ruined a whole generation of gaming with his greedy dumb fuck business ideas.

[–] Bobert@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 year ago

This 1 fucking guy ruined ~~a whole~~ future generations of gaming with his greedy dumb fuck business ideas.

Ftfy

[–] MagicPterodactyl@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair he probably didn't come up with any ideas. Just approved the worst ones that were presented to him.

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

That's not the problem. The problem is him not doing anything about all the toxic culture and sexual assault in his company, causing the best employees to leave.

[–] chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org 28 points 1 year ago

Who would win?

  • A massive entertainment industry filled to the brim with passionate creatives
  • One greedy boy

Dude has ruined multiple generations

[–] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

It would be ruined if people didn't buy the stuff, but they do, so it's a success.

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[–] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 106 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hope he burn in hell. He's the best example of how not to run a company. It's insane that he's not been let go for years now.

[–] Mudface@lemmy.world 85 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

That entirely depends on your expectations of a company CEO

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/stock-price-history

I can’t think of a company that wouldn’t hire someone with this kind of stock performance over 30 years.

The issue is really that consumers just keep spending money on things that they hate.

If they didnt do that, Bobby would have been gone a long long time ago

[–] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you're right. I'm pointing moee to his leadership and how he has allowed sexism and other bad behavior to go on without any consequences. He even told an assistant that he would have her killed.. https://www.pcgamer.com/more-shocking-activision-blizzard-revelations-bobby-kotick-once-told-an-assistant-he-was-going-to-have-her-killed/

He might earn himself and the stockholders a lot of money.. But in my eyes he's a great example of why I don't like capitalism, but that is another discussion tho!

[–] Mudface@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He’s obviously a terrible human being, I think you have to be to be a wildly successful CEO.

But those are the people who are best at running companies. I wouldn’t be good at it, because I’m not a piece of shit

[–] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

That's what sucks about capitalism. We're allowing thhattype of trash to run it.

Wow I'm very anti capitalist today!

[–] tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The thing that sucks even more about it is no one even has to 'allow' that type of trash to run it, it's just what tends to happen if the profit motive is the main driver of people's behavior.

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[–] CountVon@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago (10 children)

ATVI's stock performance only looks impressive if you don't compare it to anything. Here's a graph comparing ATVI to ONEQ, which is an ETF that tracks the NASDAQ composite index. If anything, ATVI has been slightly underperforming the market average for most of Kotick's tenure as CEO.

To see what "outperforming the market" looks like, compare ATVI to NVDA. NVDA's stock has increased 16,000% in the 15 years that Kotick has been CEO of ATVI.

Or to see some video game company stocks that have outperformed the market, compare ATVI to TTWO (Take Two) or CCOEY (Capcom).

From a purely financial perspective, Kotick was middling at best. He deserves no plaudits. There were plenty of other NASDAQ companies that outperformed the market during the time he was CEO of ActiBlizz, including other video game companies.

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[–] iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago

This fucking goblin enabled systemic rape in his organization. He deserves prison.

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Which ring of hell is he planning on spending his retirement within?

Edit: Also, give me an example of another human being that looks more like a testicle with eyeballs.

[–] nxdefiant@startrek.website 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Harvey Weinstein, but using him is practically cheating.

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[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago

John Riccitiello , former EA CEO, and now former unity CEO

[–] Domille@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am so glad he is gone. I stopped playing any blizzaed games partially because of this shmuck... and partially because the games became trash. Here's hoping things will turn around now that he is gone.

[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Yeah, i'm sure microsoft won't do anything to increase monetization on their 69 billion dollar purchase. The objective is to make blizzard's games better by minimizing highly profitable systems like microtransactions, battle passes, DLC season passes, xp boosters, in game real money stores.

They wouldn't be buying these properties to try and milk as much profit as possible at all. No sir.

[–] Domille@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

Hey, this is the last hope I have. There's not a lot of it, but there is a tiny chance that maybe maybe maybe things will get better. Very likely not, but, you know, one could hope.

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[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Limp dick Kotick should have been fired long ago.

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[–] Elivey@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago (4 children)

He looks like Bilbo Baggins in the scene where he's overcome with desire for the ring and tries to take it from Frodo.

[–] synae@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago
[–] Heratiki@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He looks like the the love child of Bilbo Baggins and Elon Musk.

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[–] Retrograde@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And yet I would still rather hang out with fiend bilbo

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[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While CEO of Activision, Kotick's termination without cause, or "Termination by employee for good reason following a change of control," guaranteed him nearly $300 million. Bloomberg reports that Kotick's windfall will likely be $375 million now that Microsoft's acquisition has gone through.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

That'll teach 'em

[–] Boggy@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Such a punchable face. Damn

[–] SitD@feddit.de 35 points 1 year ago

the shareholders will identify a suitable replacement my dudes, no need to cheer up over this

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Blizzard will stay the rotten corpse of something great it is right now

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[–] Fades@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

What a piece of shit

[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nice to see Microsoft is cleaning house one day after the aquisition went through, starting with the root of the problem. This is very likely part of the deal and is gonna bring about some long needed changes.

[–] Chunk@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is standard. You always get rid of the upper management. You give them a lot of money and a round of applause and then you put your own people in. Everyone at the top will be Microsoft.

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[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This was likely the plan before the acquisition. I doubt this came as a surprise to Kotick.

[–] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Remember when kotick threatened to kill an assistant, and then they were fired and paid to not talk about it?

[–] jwagner7813@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We've replaced Kotick with Microsoft lol

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago

And there was much rejoicing

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Microsoft must have a policy of no stealing breast milk, poor guy lost his job to that (fr tho, he will get a really nice bonus and will never 'pay' for the terrible work environment he created)

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

employees are "very excited."

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[–] funker@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Vote me as a CEO I will

  • bring back original maps from several CoD titles, make more, compact 3-4 row maps.
  • remove skins from the game and replace buyable weapon skins with unlocks
  • create 4-5 paid dlc with good content.
  • revert matchmaking to OLD days…. No SBBM
  • Actually invest in an working Anti-Cheat
  • Reduce the amount of „Celebrities“ in-Game and Trailer
  • continuing zombie lore
  • console crossplay no pc
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[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Time to polish up my resume.

[–] cantrips@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Add some kielbasa

[–] AtmaJnana@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

ITT: people who think the guy getting a $375M golden parachute is taking a huge L.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


It's "a massive change for the video game industry," Schreier writes, which seems almost restrained, given Kotick's longevity and recent history.

Kotick, who has led Activision for more than 30 years and orchestrated its merger with Blizzard, had considered stepping down in late 2021.

Activision was also sued by its shareholders and pressured by state treasurers over its secrecy and responses regarding the California lawsuit.

In early 2022, Microsoft announced its intent to buy Activision, and the timing, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, was not a coincidence.

Kotick told VentureBeat after the Microsoft announcement that he didn't believe the harassment and mismanagement accusations hurt the company's stock.

He cited delays in shipping Overwatch and Diablo titles, along with Call of Duty's sales performance.


The original article contains 376 words, the summary contains 128 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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