‘We are taking the next step’: Microsoft confirms Bobby Kotick is leaving Activision Blizzard

videogameschronicle.com:

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will officially leave the company on December 29, it’s been confirmed.

Microsoft, who completed its acquisition of the publisher in October, shared the news via an internal memo on Wednesday.

Kotick sent the following email to employees:

Extraordinary People,

Over the years, my passion for video games has often been attributed to Pitfall! , River Raid, and Kaboom! . I love those Atari 2600 games, but the game that first captured my imagination was Mystery House , developed by Roberta and Ken Williams. I played it on a borrowed Apple II night after night while in college at the University of Michigan.

Mystery House was a text adventure with some primitive sprite-based graphics. (Fittingly, we now own Mystery House and the company that published it, Sierra On Line.) The world in which the game was played was largely left to the player’s imagination. I envisioned rich, vast worlds with all sorts of interactive, animated life that would enable players to fulfill their varied aspirations—all in a simulated universe that offered unlimited possibilities for challenge, connection, and fun.

Forty years later, as my last day leading this company inches closer, I marvel at how far the talented people at our company have come toward realizing the great potential of games. You have transformed a hobbyist form of entertainment into the world’s most engaging medium. It has been the privilege of my lifetime to work alongside you as we broadened the appeal of games.

Perhaps the most important part of my job has been to help bring talented people together, provide the best resources possible, and foster an environment that encourages inspiration, creativity, and unwavering commitment to excellence.

I