Activision Blizzard workers speak out after Bobby Kotick’s CEO exit
Activision Blizzard workers speak out after Bobby Kotick’s CEO exit
After former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick finally stepped down, current and ex-employees have spoken out about his awful leadership.
Rest in peace Blizzard, you deserved better than someone who went the full extra mile to lick Xi Jinping's boots. I wouldn't ever expect a gaming company to stand up to a full-blown authoritarian government, but there's no denying that that incident was the one to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that any heart and soul and principle that really made Blizzard special was dead and gone and never coming back.
We stand with Hong Kong.
Warcraft 3 was basically my childhood, and it's so extremely sad to see what happened to blizzard. It was THE game company that cared about it's fans, bringing out balance patches and new features many many years after games were released. Now, even with Kotick gone, I'm never gonna spend a penny on any of their games ever again
Edit: BlitzChung was right, we stand with HongKong
I feel the same. But if they do WC4 I know I'll cave.
32 years is a long reign of terror
I don't know if I want to tell them, they've been through enough.
Kotick’s legacy as CEO may have brought in record profits for Activision Blizzard, but it’s clear from employee accounts that he wasn’t concerned with their needs. The hope for current workers is that his exit inspires a new, positive age for the company under Microsoft, but only time will tell.
To be fair, it did also bring in record losses. That acquisition by Microsoft would not have happened at that price point, without all those scandals coming to light. So, maybe Microsoft is actually the tiniest bit inclined to do better.
At the same time, it drives me completely mad how the whole industry seems to have decided that because it's being acquired by Microsoft, we can just roll up the shitstorm and put it away again. I guess, we don't anymore need to boycott until they enact real changes within the company, because Kotick is being let go. I am not on board with this.
The game will probably do fine, but I live in Seattle so I've known others that worked for Microsoft. They're not known for treating their gaming employees that great. The workers could get lucky though and get a good head of that game, who knows.
I’ve been boycotting Acti/blizz for a long time now. It saddens me that it took being bought by a company to get Kotick out. I hope we see some positive social changes out of them, but I am not going to start buying just because of a change in leadership.
Show don't tell