Bobby Kotick, Who “Made Their Games Worse”, Leaves Activision After 32 Years
After 32 years, Bobby Kotick has retired at Activision Blizzard King, and possibly, from the video game industry as a whole.
Kotick agreed to this retirement as part of finishing up the Activision deal with Microsoft, but as reported by The Verge, it was made official on December 29, 2023, hours short of the end of the year.
As head of Activision, and later Activision Blizzard King, Kotick was one of the most successful executives in the business – and in the same breath, one of the most reviled. His trek to success started when he acquired Mediagenic in December 1990. He fired all but eight of its employees and brought back its original name, Activision.
Nearly bankrupt, Kotick pushed the company back to recovery by rereleasing the company’s original titles on PC, and publishing the Mechwarrior games in the early 1990s. Kotick then started pursuing the business strategy Activision had for the rest of his tenure, by acquiring studios to publish their games and rake in the profits. That included Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Toys for Bob.
Then in 2008 came Bobby’s greatest success, forming Activision Blizzard. This came about as a result of merging with French media conglomerate Vivendi, whose games division owned Blizzard and Sierra. In the terms of this deal, Bobby would remain head of the company, but Vivendi held 52 % in shares.
Kotick would continue moving his business, and the industry, adapting to the times. He brokered Vivendi’s buyout from the company in 2013, putting him back in charge, and in 2015, Activision Blizzard bought King for $ 5.9 billion.
In that time Activision Blizzard brought many all-time classics and powerhouse franchises to video games, including Call of Duty, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, World of
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