Bobby Kotick may not leave Activision Blizzard until mid-2023

metro.co.uk:

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard does not mean the exit of CEO Bobby Kotick, who will stay until at least later this year.

There’re a million questions surrounding the shock buyout of Activision Blizzard right now, but one that we do have an answer to already is that Bobby Kotick is not going anywhere – at least not right away.

Microsoft has clarified that, if everything goes well, the acquisition should be completed sometime in their next financial year, which runs from July 2022 to June 2023. Until the deal is closed though Bobby Kotick will remain as CEO of Activision Blizzard and the publisher will still be an independent company.

Kotick himself confirmed as much in an email sent to employees today, and obtained by Charlie Intel, but he gave no indication of whether he’d stay on after that. If he does though, he’ll be reporting directly to Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

The most notable part of Kotick’s email is where he talks about the metaverse and cloud computing, talking points that he’s never mentioned before but which, judging by the initial announcement, are at the forefront of Microsoft’s mind.

‘We’ve transformed games into social experiences and enabled players to find purpose and meaning through the most engaging form of entertainment – our games. By doing so, we’ve created and entertained communities of hundreds of millions of players’, writes Kotick.

‘Connecting these communities is the next step. Facebook, Google, Tencent, NetEase, Amazon, Apple, Sony, Disney – and many more – have ambitions for their own gaming and metaverse initiatives. Established and emerging competitors see opportunity for virtual worlds filled with professionally produced content, user generated content, and rich social