Bobby Kotick exits on December 29 and Microsoft details other management changes
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Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick formally announced that December 29 will be his last day at Microsoft Gaming after decades of running Activision and Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion on October 13, 20 months after announcing the deal that led to a tangle with regulators over antitrust concerns. Kotick and Brian Kelly bought a 25% stake in the near-bankrupt Activision (then Mediagenic) in 1990. In 1991, Kotick became CEO and they changed the name back to Activision and restructured it. Over the years, Kotick built it into the largest third-party publisher of games.
In 2006, Activision started talks with Vivendi to acquire its games business, which included Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment. By 2008, the deal was approved, and Activision Blizzard was formed with Kotick as the CEO.
One of his biggest deals was funding Infinity Ward, a team of first-person shooter experts (led by Grant Collier, Vince Zampella and Jason West) who broke off from 2015, maker of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which was published by archrival Electronic Arts. The Infinity Ward team, later fully acquired by Activision, created Call of Duty on the PC in 2003. It became a rival to Medal of Honor and outlived that franchise (now dormant under EA’s ownership). And now on its 20th anniversary, Call of Duty has sold more than 425 million copies (2021 numbers) and become the juggernaut of the whole games industry.
To make Call of Duty so big, Kotick engaged in controversial tactics. He got in a dispute over royalty payments and creative control with Zampella and West
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