And we’ve seen the issue escalate beyond belief since the initial reports, where, naively, many may have felt the problems were localized to certain former developers within the Blizzard arm of the company alone. At this point, it’s abundantly clear that this culture of toxicity, harassment, and bigotry runs rampant through the whole company. At this point, you would also expect, perhaps out of sheer despair, that there is absolutely no way the situation could somehow get worse. Like, there is absolutely nothing that can happen anymore that makes this culture of harassment and misogyny seem any worse than it already is, right?

Unfortunately, you would be wrong, because we continue to plumb the depths of just how low some people can sink as more and more findings regarding this company continue to come out. More recent reports bring to light even more horrifying facts – a recent report reveals, for example, that Bobby Kotick was not only fully aware of the extent of the harassment going on within the company, but that he was actually involved in keeping things quiet and covering up for the people implicated in harassments. To be fair, almost everyone probably already expected that (because you would have to be quite incompetent to not know something that is so prevalent at the company you run), but there’s more – Kotick himself was involved in multiple incidents of harassment, including many that he settled quietly out of court. According to these reports, he was also instrumental in keeping an employee at Treyarch, accused of having sexually harassed, on board, while he covered up an incident of an employee at Sledgehammer Games having allegedly raped a woman he was a supervisor for (you would think the most basic action for self-preservation and survival a corporation can make is distance itself from any employee accused of something as heinous as raping someone, but nope. You’ll see this continue to be a theme), and, well before any of this, having threatened to have a woman in his employee as an assistant killed in an angry voicemail. His death threat to an employee is something Activision didn’t even deny, admitting that it happened in its statement (this is important, we’ll come back to this in a minute).

At this point, you literally cannot assume this company can fall any lower – we’ve moved on from accusations of toxicity and misogyny to allegedly having driven an employee to commit suicide, an employee allegedly having been raped, and the CEO of the company allegedly having threatened to kill someone. How could it possibly get worse?

The answer is, it can get worse, and it did almost right away, because the Activision board issued a statement almost immediately after these reports broke to confirm that they are going to be standing behind Bobby Kotick and that they are not going to terminate him from his position. That’s right, to be clear – the people running Activision Blizzard have decided, after these new revelations that conclusively establish the culture at this company is rotten because it originates from this one man at the very top, to keep said man at the very top. Presumably because he makes them a lot of money, I don’t know. Their stated reason is that they have no evidence of wrongdoing against Kotick, except, as pointed out just now, even Activision’s own statement doesn’t deny that he was culpable of at least threatening to have his employees killed. There is absolutely no shortage of evidence for that, or any of his other misdeeds, as several of these investigations have conclusively established. And yet the Board refuses to budge. This was in spite of calls from literally over a thousand employees and multiple shareholders to have Kotick removed from his post.

A spontaneous walkout staged by employees saw hundreds of them refusing to work until working conditions improve at the company; meanwhile, a fairly prominent activist shareholder group called for Kotick to be removed. These, however, were very clearly not enough reasons for the Activision board to cut their ties with Kotick, then. However, the ground underneath Kotick’s feet continues to shrink, because in the last two days, PlayStation head Jim Ryan and Xbox head Phil Spencer have both expressed a dissatisfaction with Activision’s response to this entire debacle, with Spencer going as far as to say that Xbox is currently evaluating all aspects of its relationship with the third party publisher. While it’s unclear whether Nintendo and Valve will also censure Kotick and the company shielding him from the comeuppance he deserves for what he has done, even if they do not, the bulk of Activision’s business comes from PlayStation and Xbox – if even one of them decides to terminate their business arrangements with the company to even a minimal degree, it would have a huge impact on Activision’s bottom line.

You have to assume that at that point, surely, the Activision board will decide to finally boot Kotick out? Maybe he gets a nice fat severance package and a golden parachute, but here’s the thing, at this point, I think the important part is getting Kotick out. Him getting another few hundred thousand or million dollars isn’t going to functionally change anything for the man who is already so absurdly rich he could never get paid a single cent for the next few hundred years and still live a life of affluence and opulence. But at least it means he’s no longer in a position of power at this company; at least it means, however symbolic, that there was some comeuppance. If Kotick is actually impacting the company’s bottom line (as indeed he seems to be, Activision’s stock price is down 33% from where it was in July, right before these reports and lawsuits broke out), surely the board decides to take that hit and get him out in order to protect Activision’s financial interests? Right? Because surely the reason they are so protective of him right now is because of how much money he made them, leading Activision and Blizzard to become the largest third party publisher in the world by quite a healthy margin?

You would assume that, and I sincerely hope that’s what happens. I would hope that the spectre of being ostracized by their two biggest platform partners is enough to get Kotick out of there; but as I have emphasized multiple times, whenever you think this company can’t get worse, it does. It would not surprise me to find out that the board is standing behind Kotick out of preemptive solidarity. But even if that doesn’t happen, them standing behind Kotick already makes them every bit as complicit in his crimes, and the crimes he perpetuated, as he himself is. Getting rid of Kotick is a necessity, and maybe, hopefully, that will happen.

But even if it does, the rot in this company wasn’t limited to just this one man’s doing. It wasn’t just Kotick who was behind all of this abject horror – it’s a culture that pervades the entire company. Indeed, one of the demands made by Activision shareholders calling for his removal is also to have Chairman Brian Kelly and Lead Independent Director Robert J. Morgado, both of whom are also in similar positions of leadership within Activision, removed as well. But even that would probably not enough. So much of Activision Blizzard would need to be gutted and start over.

But any action is better than none. Any consequences for any of the involved actors are better than none. Activision Blizzard may never be truly fixed, and Kotick may never have to suffer the full extent of the consequences that his actions beget, but that is no reason for us to accept passivity. To the extent that is possible within this broken, horrific system that allowed something like this to happen in the first place, Kotick must pay and Activision must be reformed. And it all starts by that man getting fired.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

While Activision Blizzard laid off over 800 employees earlier this week, they also reported record revenues. These record revenues have to be going somewhere, if they are not going towards keeping workers employed and paid—apparently some of them go towards CEO Bobby Kotick, who takes home $30 million a year.

Put together, this set of facts seems to have provoked a lot of outrage, with Game Workers Unite, a labor organization representing the interests of game developers and employees in the gaming industry, taking to Twitter to officially call for the termination of Kotick’s employment.

“Upending 800 workers’ lives while raking in millions in bonuses for you and your c-suite buddies isn’t leadership, it’s theft,” Game Workers Unite said on Twitter. “We, the workers of Activision and their friends, have had enough. Join us in saying that it’s time to #FireBobbyKotick.”

The termination of 800 people’s employment is no joke, and Kotick’s leadership is clearly lacking if things have come to this. I can only hope that Activision rights the boat going forward, while those that have lost their jobs land on their feet soon.

https://twitter.com/gameworkers/status/1095783235269779456?s=21

Activision is known to spend an king’s ransom on its franchises, predominantly Call of Duty, but the budget for Bungie’s Destiny could surpass all previous records.

According to Reuters, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick spoke at the Milken conference in LA and revealed that, “If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP. The stakes for us are getting bigger.”

Keep in mind that this isn’t a confirmed figure. Nevertheless, according to analysts, Activision would need to sell 15 to 16 million units to break even on the initial investment. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who expects the game to sell 8 million units, said that, “It’s a head scratcher. For brand new IP, it’s tough but it could post a big surprise.”

Destiny will be out on September 9th for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360. Has Bungie and Activision bitten off more than it can chew? We’ll find out in the coming months.

Kotick responded that, “My sense is consumers are going to be excited about this hardware and I think over the long-term that it will probably be as long as the current cycle. I think you’re going to see new kinds of software that has not been available in this current generation. I’m seeing things we’re working on and developing that we’ve never been able to do before and I think we’ll excite audiences in ways that they haven’t seen before.

He’s also happy with the work that both Microsoft and Sony have been putting in, which benefits third party publishers like Activision Blizzard. “We have much more visibility today than we had even three months ago and both have made great progress. They’ve put more money against the launches than ever before and I think they’ve both learned a lot about how to improve the supply chain and manufacturing efficiencies.”

(Source)

Kotick stated that, “These transactions together represent a tremendous opportunity for Activision Blizzard and all its shareholders, including Vivendi. We should emerge even stronger – an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value and expand our leadership position as one of the world’s most important entertainment companies.

“The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability.”

The investment group will hold 24.9 per cent of the publisher, while Vivendi still maintains 12 per cent in shares.

“We continue to face the uncertainties of the console transition. There are still many unknown factors, such as pricing, launch dates and quantities, the level of first-party support and, importantly, consumer purchase intent in a world where consoles are no longer just competing with each other, but also with new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.”

Kotick has a point. Activision has pretty much perfected the sales model it has going with the current generation. Who knows what factors like the changes in Xbox Live and PSN, Cloud Gaming and always online consoles will have on that formula?

Right now though, Activision is teasing Call of Duty: Ghosts’ reveal at the May 21st event showcasing the next generation Xbox.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says that he is not expecting any ‘dramatic shift in next-gen console monetization’.

Here is his full explanation:

“I can’t comment specifically on the next generation consoles, but our general view is, we approach new business models skeptically, and we take our time and we look for those that will turn out to be something that is sustainable for the long term,” said Kotick during an earnings call today.

“I think we’re seeing a lot of exciting new ways for customers to pay for their experiences, there are a lot of new ways for us to monetize our content, but I can’t say that you’re going to see any dramatic shifts in the way things are monetized on consoles,” he explained.

Activision recently have witnessed loss of 1.3 million World of World subscribers in three months – even though other MMOs are moving away from the subscription based model such as Defiance  and last year’s Guild Wars 2. New and upcoming MMORPG games mostly rely on free-to-play content as opposed to monthly paid subscriptions.

Do you think next-generation consoles will take a full advantage of Season Passes and micro-transactions? Let us know in the comments below. Check back on GamingBolt for more news.

The publisher has stated that they have lost approximately 1.3 million subscribers from the MMO behemoth World of Warcraft. Majority of the losses come from Eastern territories where most of the game’s player-base reside, said Activision during financials call today.

Current subscription count is now sitting at more than eight million, and Activision states that the game still “remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world”.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has mentioned that the decline in World of Warcraft’s subscriptions and other factors, “raise concerns” as the company is heading into the competitive holiday season.

Kotick mentions “Further declines are likely,” and that the company plans to release new content more frequently in order to keep players interested in the game and to re-gain original fans of World of Warcraft.

Are you still playing World of Warcraft? Let us know in the comments below. Check back on GamingBolt for more news regarding the future of Blizzard franchises.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is a rich man. He’s also in the board of Coca Cola co. and a proxy statement filed with the SEC reveals that he made $64.9 million last year.

The Call of Duty publisher has been making a lot of profits for the past few years due to the phenomenal success of the Call of Duty and the Skylanders brand, and when you look at it, the amount of money he made is way less than what his company did.

He made $2 million in salary, and got $2.5 million in bonuses along with $4.4 million which Activision gave him.

Company executives making so much money isn’t really surprising because when you look at people like Tim Cook or any official who is at a top position in a successful company, their earnings are through the roof.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Via Reuters.

Once he bluntly told the gaming press that he would considering dropping PS3 support if Sony doesn’t drop the PS3 price. Say what you want, he is a man that knows how to conduct business. After all, he has guided a series into astronomical success without making people fatigued. Yes, you probably don’t play Call of Duty any more but when it is not reflected in Activision’s financial statements, well, Kotick doesn’t care.

In a fantastic interview with the New York Times, he revealed how people were photoshoping horns onto his face signifying that he is some sort of a devil. Yes, he knows, and apparently searches about himself in Google. Not a bad thing though, all that fame… yumm.

“Think about what it’s like for my dating life when the first picture that comes up is me as the Devil,” he told The New York Times. This kind of shows that he is also someone who has a good sense of humour considering he is actually ready to talk about all these things and brush it off with a smile on his face.

He also recently revealed that he felt no remorse in firing former Infinity Ward employees who were embroiled in the Modern Warfare 2 fiasco because they tried to take 40 employees from him and tried to break the contract.

“You find out two executives are planning to break their contracts, keep the money you gave them and steal 40 employees. What do you do? You fire them,” he said. That must have been fun, you know, firing people and all.

Do you like Kotick or absolutely loathe him? Let us know below.

Thanks, Kotaku.