It’s official: Bobby Kotick, the well-known CEO of Activision Blizzard, will leave his position on December 29th. Although his departure has been announced now, Kotick himself already revealed the news last October.
Kotick is known for having led Activision to high levels of turnover thanks to great franchises such as Call of Duty, but also for being involved in an internal scandal revealed by the WSJ and echoed by different media such as Ars Technica. However, as WSJ reported later last year, these accusations couldn’t be proved.
Kotick’s departure comes just two months after changes were made to the Xbox leadership. First, Sarah Bond was promoted to the position of Xbox president. Then, Matt Booty was appointed as president of gaming content and development studios. This also includes overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax.
However, this is not the only departure. Both Lulu Meservey, CCO of Activision Blizzard, and Humam Sakhnini, vice president of King and Blizzard, will also leave the company along with Kotick. In addition, another group of Activision Blizzard executives will also depart in March, although we do not know who they are.
The very own Phil Spencer sent an internal statement, where he thanks Kotick “for his invaluable contribution to this industry, his involvement in the closing of the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and his collaboration after the closing”.
At the moment, Microsoft continues with the integration of Activision Blizzard into the gaming division. And the truth is, we don’t know yet what plans Microsoft has regarding Activision Blizzard games and their inclusion in Xbox Game Pass. However, the company’s official account has already announced some bad news: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV will not be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year.
