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[HeisenbergFX4]

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down officially December 29th. Microsoft has not appointed a direct replacement and instead has rolled the suite of Activision Blizzard executives including Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, Activision publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl under Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty.
Kotick’s departure comes just two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond promoted to Xbox president, leading all Xbox platform and hardware work, and Matt Booty promoted to president of game content and studios, including overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax studios. Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with Bethesda, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox Game Studios all under his watch.
Microsoft is largely keeping the leadership team of Activision Blizzard in place, with a few executive-level exceptions. Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey will leave the company at the end of January. Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King) will also depart at the end of December. A number of Activision Blizzard executives will depart in March, too.

Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer), Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer), Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer), and Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer) are all reporting to their Microsoft Gaming equivalents. “Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will continue to help us with the transition through March 2024,” says Spencer.
Microsoft continues to integrate Activision Blizzard into its expanded Microsoft Gaming business, and it’s clear Matt Booty is now taking more responsibility than ever before. Xbox fans are now waiting to hear from Microsoft on its plans to add Activision Blizzard games to Xbox Game Pass. Spencer previously blamed the deal’s long regulatory process for not having a back catalog of Activision Blizzard games available on Game Pass, warning we’d have to wait until 2024 for news on game additions. Activision Blizzard also revealed on X (formerly Twitter), ahead of the Microsoft deal closing, that Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV both wouldn’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year.
Here’s Phil Spencer’s full internal memo:

Earlier today, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick formally announced that Friday December 29th, 2023 will be his last day at Microsoft Gaming. Under Bobby’s watch, Activision Blizzard in its many incarnations has been an enduring pillar of video games. Whether it’s Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush Saga or any number of other titles, his teams have created beloved franchises and entertained hundreds of millions of players for decades. I’d like to thank Bobby—for his invaluable contributions to this industry, his partnership in closing the Activision Blizzard acquisition and his collaboration following the close—and I wish him and his family the very best in his next chapter.
With Bobby’s impending departure, we are taking the next step in aligning Activision Blizzard with Microsoft Gaming, by making the following organizational changes:
Thomas Tippl (Vice Chairman, Activision Blizzard), Rob Kostich (President, Activision Publishing), Mike Ybarra (President, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tjodolf Sommestad (President, King) will report to Matt Booty (President, Game Content and Studios). The leadership teams for Activision Publishing, Blizzard and King will remain in place, with no changes to the structure of how the studios and business units are run.
Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer) will report to Dave McCarthy (Chief Operations Officer, Microsoft Gaming).
Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer) will report to Cynthia Per-Lee (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Human Resources).
Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer) will report to Linda Norman (Corporate Vice President, Gaming CELA).
Armin Zerza (Chief Financial Officer) will continue to report to Tim Stuart (Corporate Vice President, Finance), as we previously announced to the Finance team in October.
Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will continue to help us with the transition through March 2024.
Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer) will be leaving ABK at the end of January. She has agreed to support Kari Perez (General Manager, Communications) on a leadership transition plan for the ABK Communications team, which will report to Kari. Additionally, Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King) will depart at the end of December. We thank Humam and Lulu for their leadership over the past year.
For most of you, your day-to-day work will remain the same—it’s still business as usual in bringing more groundbreaking experiences to more players around the world. At the leadership level, these changes will provide the clarity and accountability that is necessary to achieve our ambitious goals and foster a culture that is welcoming, empowering, and committed to Gaming for Everyone. We have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King and Xbox Game Studios, and I know that we all look forward to sharing more details with our player communities when the time is right.
Phil

And other moves if a mod wants to change the title a bit to reflect all the news

 

[R3TRODYCE]

He made out like a bandit.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

 

[EverydayBeast]

Bobby Kotick is a non factor for Activison’s downfall when you aren’t working on your franchises everyday and developing them you will hurt your business so forget all the Bobby kotick hate.

 

[GHG]

Big mistake for them to be letting him go.

But hey, can't keep someone competent around can we now?

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Not Bobby “Moneyball” Kotick!

All of the swag of Jacky T. but none of his endearing charisma. But he was one hell of a sonuva bitch.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Miracles exist... this year 2 rats are leaving... Jim Ryan and Bobby Kotick

 

[Punished Miku]

Definitely is a trip to watch your business transform from Atari 2600 to Call of Duty. Not the kind of thing people are able to see in one lifetime very often.

 

[ungalo]

i'm gonna miss him

 

[tmlDan]

Wait, Matt Booty is in charge of them? Oh god, they're doomed.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Matthew Vernon Booty be like:

 

[Dick Jones]

Matthew Vernon Booty be like:

Matthew Vermin Booty

 

[adamsapple]

 

[Punished Miku]

Wait, Matt Booty is in charge of them? Oh god, they're doomed.

Activision has their own leadership. Booty knows MS and will likely serve primarily as communication and release planning coordinating the calender for all of it so people are somewhat on the same page. Just that requires a whole job.

There are many layers of management before it gets to him, with game directors, studio leads, activision publishing and development, activision ceo, etc etc.

 

[mansoor1980]

i hope bobby can fly

 

[Dick Jones]

I wish Bobby Kotick well and hope he lands on his feet working in the prison kitchen for the period of his future stay.

Fuck that piece of shit.

 

[Krieger]

Dude jumped out of the Hindenburg with a golden parachute.

 

[Chukhopops]

The Phil Spencer reference is hilarious when you remember the actual circumstances of the ABK buyout.

Anyway not going to miss him much, I respect his achievements but he definitely fucked up covering all this abuse from ABK management.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Get to the Choplifter.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Definitely is a trip to watch your business transform from Atari 2600 to Call of Duty. Not the kind of thing people are able to see in one lifetime very often.

He wasn’t around for the 2600. He bought Activision cheap in the early 90s.

A true career moment.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Big mistake for them to be letting him go.

But hey, can't keep someone competent around can we now?

GL with the way they make choices

 

[Zannegan]

Bobby Kotick is a non factor for Activison’s downfall when you aren’t working on your franchises everyday and developing them you will hurt your business so forget all the Bobby kotick hate.

I mean, he's still determining the overall direction, and I'd imagine he has final say in terms of greenlighting projects, approving milestones, etc. If it happened on his watch, then he's at least partly to blame.

CoD has mostly thrived under his leadership, but he ran Guitar Hero into the ground.

 

[KingT731]

"Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey will leave the company at the end of January" the real news

 

[GHG]

Lulu making out like a bandit from all of this as well.

 

[DeepEnigma]

"Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey will leave the company at the end of January" the real news

Saw that one coming from a mile away. Probably will land a political lobbyist gig next.

 

[ManaByte]

Definitely is a trip to watch your business transform from Atari 2600 to Call of Duty. Not the kind of thing people are able to see in one lifetime very often.

He wasn’t around for the 2600. He bought Activision cheap in the early 90s.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

 

[Darkkahn]

Hope he lands on his feet, rough time to be laid off.

 

[Punished Miku]

"Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey will leave the company at the end of January" the real news

Fuck ... that one hurt.

 

[tmlDan]

Activision has their own leadership. Booty knows MS and will likely serve primarily as communication and release planning coordinating the calender for all of it so people are somewhat on the same page. Just that requires a whole job.

There are many layers of management before it gets to him, with game directors, studio leads, activision publishing and development, activision ceo, etc etc.

You could say the same for Bethesda, yet Starfield and Redfall exist. Maybe he can only manage to greenlight good small games like HiFi Rush.

Just saying, despite his position, his track record running the production pipeline has not been good.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Gonna miss Lulu.

 

[LordCBH]

How does Matt Booty keep getting more work when he legitimately sucks at his job lol

 

[Hudo]

This motherfucker, together with the management of Blizzard, was responsible for fucking up WarCraft 3 with Reforged and never did anything to rectify it. Not even commanding those morons at Blizzard to reinstate WarCraft 3 classic to be playable officially on Battle.net. Let alone re-remaking the game properly.
Good riddance.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Shame Lulu is leaving. She was really cool.
I cannot help but Bobby for the way he handled ABK business - absolutely crazy business acumen (albeit petty).

Hope he lands on his feet, rough time to be laid off.

Will probably manage some football club.

CoD has mostly thrived under his leadership, but he ran Guitar Hero into the ground.

And I believe the reason for that was really really petty.

 

[Tsaki]

Saw that one coming from a mile away. Probably will land a political lobbyist gig next.

She will have the perfect friends for it then

 

[adamsapple]

Lulu making out like a bandit from all of this as well.

I hope she starts a twitch (or an OF if we're lucky).

 

[Punished Miku]

You could say the same for Bethesda, yet Starfield and Redfall exist. Maybe he can only manage to greenlight good small games like HiFi Rush.

Just saying, despite his position his track record running the production pipeline has not been good.

They fired Pete Hines. I get the sense MS was lied to about Redfall on some level. Bethesda still has layers of management that will run itself as well. These companies are too big for Booty to be personally coding every game. Try to be realistic about what his job even is.

 

[Fake]

Now finally Twitter can stop bitching like a little girls.

 

[mansoor1980]

How does Matt Booty keep getting more work when he legitimately sucks at his job lol

 

[ProtoByte]

Wait, Matt Booty is in charge of them? Oh god, they're doomed.

Unironically. It's going to be harder than ever to sustain the COD pipeline, and Booty wouldn't have been able to manage it if COD came out bi-annually in '09.

 

[analog_future]

Big mistake for them to be letting him go.

But hey, can't keep someone competent around can we now?

"competent"

If the guy that is facing several discrimination and harassment lawsuits costing the company many millions of dollars, the guy that killed Overwatch as an IP, the guy that just released the most hated Diablo game, and the guy that just released the worst reviewed COD game in franchise history is competent, then I'd hate to see what incompetent leadership looks like.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Now finally Twitter can stop bitching like a little girls.

Spoiler: They/Them/Its won't

 

[Banjo64]

Bobby serveying Xbox management

Lulu leaving too Rich idiot got paid.

 

[adamsapple]

Outside of some executives, the leadership team will remain the same.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Big mistake for them to be letting him go.

But hey, can't keep someone competent around can we now?

You’re joking right? Sure he know how to turn a profit, but Jesus dude, you miss the memo on how acti/Blizz female staff were treated under his watch?

 

[Godot25]

So they did what I expected they will do
The just removed Kotick and left Activision, Blizzard and King as separate entities with their own presidents.

Not surprising.

 

[DeepEnigma]

"competent"

If the guy that is facing several discrimination and harassment lawsuits costing the company many millions of dollars, the guy that killed Overwatch as an IP, the guy that just released the most hated Diablo game, and the guy that just released the worst reviewed COD game in franchise history is competent, then I'd hate to see what incompetent leadership looks like.

The guy that has them with the most revenue/profits in company history and built the largest 3rd party publishing house prior to the consolidation, that a CEO is supposed to do? Yeah, that guy.

All that other drama is forum and twitter ether.

You’re joking right? Sure he know how to turn a profit, but Jesus dude, you miss the memo on how acti/Blizz female staff were treated under his watch?

That's literally his job. Chief Executive Officer (derpy me, I know this). Let those failings fall the HR and level management.

 

[Banjo64]

"competent"

If the guy that is facing several discrimination and harassment lawsuits costing the company many millions of dollars, the guy that killed Overwatch as an IP, the guy that just released the most hated Diablo game, and the guy that just released the worst reviewed COD game in franchise history is competent, then I'd hate to see what incompetent leadership looks like.

they were the biggest third party publisher in the world under his stewardship.

his competency is eons above muppets like Spencer and Bond.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

a true gaming legend. i hope he lands on his feet.()

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

Dude can just retire happily, but I’m sure he’ll land somewhere else.