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Bobby Kotick to Leave Activision Blizzard in January 2024

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As the Microsoft-Activision deal closes, Bobby Kotick will only stay on as CEO through the end of the year and leave on January 1, 2024.

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Based on the value of his shares, Robert Kotick will leave with around $400 million and if Microsoft/Xbox wants to get rid of Kotick, he will also receive a minimum payout of $250 million.

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Image courtesy of Dexterto.

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I'd celebrate if I wasn't scared of who / what is replacing him.
The people in charge of games are no longer gamers, so there's no real "good ending" in these cases.

PS; And the amount of money these people "earn" is dumb, to say the least....

Edited by TheCake
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Overwatch Bluepost after January: So we noticed some negative reception on last years pve campaign bundle so we decided that this years bundle will be free for everyone to play. Also Skins from the shop will go down from 25 $ too 10$ from now on

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9 hours ago, TheCake said:

I'd celebrate if I wasn't scared of who / what is replacing him.
The people in charge of games are no longer gamers, so there's no real "good ending" in these cases.

PS; And the amount of money these people "earn" is dumb, to say the least....

Exactly, Bobby was just a part of the problem, there are others. A lot of damage Blizzard has done was self-inflicted. 

Edited by Arcling

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On 10/13/2023 at 6:22 PM, Arcling said:

Exactly, Bobby was just a part of the problem, there are others. A lot of damage Blizzard has done was self-inflicted. 

The CEO sets the tone, directs policy, and ultimately has the final say. So, getting rid of him is like resetting a broken bone. There's still other healing to take place, but the major injury is fixed.

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2 hours ago, TheRagingwolf said:

The CEO sets the tone, directs policy, and ultimately has the final say. So, getting rid of him is like resetting a broken bone. There's still other healing to take place, but the major injury is fixed.

He still doesn't make many direct decisions. There is Blizzard's president, VPs, game directors, game producers (producers allocate team's resources and people for example), so "chain of command" is rather complicated. Depends how much MS will decide to intervene or if they will leave things as they are. Bethesda is still Bethesda for example, so I wouldn't have too much hope.

Anyway, Blizzard's guys were never flawless or that great (lawsuit and so on). Just because they made some great games in the past, doesn't mean they don't make mistakes themselves or they will always keep making good games. While Kotick is obviously a horrible person, it wasn't just him who was the problem. They were overconfident, had that infamous "rockstar personalities" and they themselves got too greedy and it shows.

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12 minutes ago, Arcling said:

He still doesn't make many direct decisions. There is Blizzard's president, VPs, game directors, game producers (producers allocate team's resources and people for example), so "chain of command" is rather complicated. Depends how much MS will decide to intervene or if they will leave things as they are. Bethesda is still Bethesda for example, so I wouldn't have too much hope.

Anyway, Blizzard's guys were never flawless or that great (lawsuit and so on). Just because they made some great games in the past, doesn't mean they don't make mistakes themselves or they will always keep making good games. While Kotick is obviously a horrible person, it wasn't just him who was the problem. They were overconfident, had that infamous "rockstar personalities" and they themselves got too greedy and it shows.

You're absolutely correct, the CEO doesn't make those day-to-day, ground level decisions. However, the CEO is the person putting the policies in place that guide all of those decisions. So, getting rid of Kotick is a major step in fixing whatever may be broken.

And yeah, Blizzard was never perfect, no one is, but the opportunity for new leadership is at least a dim ray of light in the dark dungeon of Blizzard.

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