Former Activision Blizzard Employees Break Silence On Ex-CEO’s Conduct

Former Activision Blizzard employees have broken silence on the conduct of ex-CEO Bobby Kotick after his departure from the company.

One of the former Activision Blizzard employees who chose to break silence on ex-CEO Bobby Kotick’s conduct at the company, chhopsky, had worked on Call of Duty for two years as a programmer at demonware. They mentioned that Kotick’s decisions made the publisher’s games worse. In their first month at Activision Blizzard, it was revealed to them that Kotick had threatened to have an employee killed.

Meanwhile, andybelford, former Senior Manager for Community Development at Activision Blizzard, mentioned that when him his team had planned Overwatch 2’ss steam launch, they warned (months in advance) that the game would get review bombed. The team “begged” for more information, more details, and more resources to help with the anticipated influx, all of which were flatly denied by Kotick.

Moderation of Steam was put on the community team, despite Belford’s refusal to want to expose its members to the high level of toxic posts. When asked who’s decision it was to launch on Steam with no additional help, he was informed it was none other than Kotick. Belford mentioned that this is only one example of the culture Kotick bred at Activision Blizzard. Usually, the lowest paid and most overworked individuals had it the worst. The company’s management was too busy reacting to wildly vacillating direction and decisions that made zero sense. At the end of everything, player and worker experience meant nothing to the executive leadership at Activision Blizzard. Belford added that, at the end of the day, it had always been about quarterly earnings calls.

Bobby Kotick is officially no longer the CEO of Activision Blizzard. December 30, 2023 was his final day in office. Microsoft, the new owner of the company, has yet to announce his replacement.