CEO Bobby Kotick is to leave Activision Blizzard this month, ending a 32-year tenure at the publishing giant.
It’s been a busy year for Activision Blizzard, with Microsoft finally closing its acquisition deal with the publisher in October after months of courtroom drama in both the US and UK.
It’s been known for some time that Activision Blizzard’s long-time CEO Bobby Kotick would step down once that takeover was completed, but now it’s official: Kotick’s last day as chief executive officer will be the 29th December 2023. It brings to an end a tenure which has lasted 32 years.
That date was uncovered by The Verge (thanks, Eurogamer), with the outlet getting hold of an internal email shared with the publisher’s staff. Meanwhile, a separate message, written by Kotick and also sent to Activision Blizzard employees, sees the executive in a wistful mood.
In it, Kotick talks about how his “passion for video games” began in the Atari 2600 era, and recalls playing the text adventure Mystery House on an Apple II computer as a student. (“Fittingly, we now own Mystery House and the company that published it, Sierra On Line,” Kotick adds.)
“I cannot adequately express the pride I have in the people who continue to contribute to our success and all those who have helped throughout my 32 years leading this company,” Kotick writes.
Of the publisher’s new ownership under Microsoft, Kotick writes that Xbox boss Phil Spencer “has appreciated the magic of [Activision Blizzard] for decades,” adding, “Phil shares our values and recognises our talents. He is passionate about games and the people who make them. He has bold ambition.”
Kotick’s time at the publisher hasn’t been without controversy.
In 2021, Activision Blizzard was sued by the state of California for fostering a culture of “constant sexual harassment”, with one report alleging that Kotick “knew for years” about allegations of sexual misconduct and failed to act. It was even alleged that Kotick had himself harassed his employees, with a report suggesting he “left a voicemail threatening to have his assistant killed.”
Kotick apologised for the threatening voicemail message (“Mr Kotick quickly apologised 16 years ago,” an Activision Blizzard rep told Business Insider) but denied the other allegations. Instead, he appeared to blame the company’s problems on ‘aggressive’ unions.
“We’ve had every possible form of investigation done,” Kotick told Variety in a strange June 2023 interview. “And we did not have a systemic issue with harassment – ever. We didn’t have any of what were mischaracterizations reported in the media. But what we did have was a very aggressive labor movement working hard to try and destabilize the company.”
Kotick hasn’t said what he plans to do after he leaves Activision Blizzard, but it’s unlikely he’ll be in a rush to get a new job to pay the bills. He’s long been one of the highest-earning CEOs in the games industry, and it’s reckoned that the $68.7bn Microsoft buyout of Activision Blizzard may have earned him something like $375m.
