Now that Bobby Kotick has officially exited Activision Blizzard — and possibly the games industry — a number of former developers have spoken out against his leadership, accusing him of actively making games worse. In his 30-year tenure as Activision Blizzard CEO, Kotick became one of the most controversial figures in the games industry.
Bobby Kotick’s decisions negatively impacted Activision Blizzard games
One former developer, Andy Belford, took to Twitter to corroborate reports that Kotick harmed Overwatch 2‘s development, causing unnecessary delays and blaming a decline in company’s stock price on those delays in order to cover up scandals.
“Fun fact: when we planned OW2’s Steam launch, my team warned (months in advance) that we’re going to be review bombed,” Belford wrote. “We begged for more information, more details, and more resources to help us with the anticipated influx, all flatly denied.” Belford added that it was Kotick who decided to launch Overwatch 2 on Steam without providing any help to the team.
This is only one example of the culture Kotick bred at AB: shit flowed downstream, usually landing on the lowest paid and most overworked individuals. Management was too busy reacting to wildly vacillating direction and decisions that made zero sense.— Andy Belford (he/him) ? (@andybelford) December 29, 2023
Former Call of Duty programmer Christine Pollock claimed that during her first month at the company, it emerged that Kotick had threatened to have an employee killed and she subsequently demanded his firing. She also said that Kotick’s decisions made games “worse.”
i get that i am very loud and very annoying and that with my seniority and ease of other opportunities, that affords me certain protections and safety to do such thingsbut you all need to get on board this train. we all need to revolt against people like this, every time— christina 死神 (@chhopsky) December 29, 2023
The general consensus is that Kotick’s departure is good news.