Board 8 > Wall Street Journal dropping the bombs on Bobby Kotick

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/Megan_Nicolett/status/1460645566375940099

Big Bobby

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Pewpew

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That death threat, oof.


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how do we destroy tech company executives

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

That death threat, oof.

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jfc it gets worse and worse as the details trickle out too

https://twitter.com/DiscordianKitty/status/1460694570103103492

Kotick wrote that batshit crazy company-wide letter doubling down after the previous harrassment and discrimination reporting came out this summer - had it released under a (female) employee's name, then turned around and publicly criticized that very letter to make himself look better.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1460646958226362368

Also, when they ousted Blizzard's president amid the sexual discrimination lawsuit which included among the very many other things, pay discrimination they replaced him with two "co-leaders" - a man and a woman. And allegedly paid her less than her male co-leader!

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1460658830703042569

https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1407658278893592579

And of course he's doubling down and the board released a statement maintaining confidence in him. There was an employee walkout over all of this though idk if it changes anything. Apparently the company is on the hook for $292m if they fire or replace Kotick.

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Why not specify it as Activision or Activision-Blizzard instead of just Blizzard? Allegedly all of this horrible shit is why several Blizzard members (a lot of big ones from the Overwatch team in particular) left the company because they couldnt take the environment anymore. The company is spiraling and it feels like Bobby and most of the guys he picked to serve under him are the leading cause of the cancerous state theyre in?

xp1337 posted...

jfc it gets worse and worse as the details trickle out too

https://twitter.com/DiscordianKitty/status/1460694570103103492

Kotick wrote that batshit crazy company-wide letter doubling down after the previous harrassment and discrimination reporting came out this summer - had it released under a (female) employee's name, then turned around and publicly criticized that very letter to make himself look better.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1460646958226362368

Also, when they ousted Blizzard's president amid the sexual discrimination lawsuit which included among the very many other things, pay discrimination they replaced him with two "co-leaders" - a man and a woman. And allegedly paid her less than her male co-leader!

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1460658830703042569

https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1407658278893592579

And of course he's doubling down and the board released a statement maintaining confidence in him. There was an employee walkout over all of this though idk if it changes anything. Apparently the company is on the hook for $292m if they fire or replace Kotick.

I don't understand how "employee revolt and destruction of company reputation" is not "cause" but I'm no employment lawyer.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/17/bobby-kotick-resignation-shareholders/

A day after Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout and called for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick and several other executives, a group of Activision Blizzard shareholders with a total of 4.8 million shares is similarly asking for the company CEOs resignation in a letter to the companys board of directors. The walkout and the letter from shareholders follows a Wall Street Journal report that Kotick was aware of sexual misconduct allegations at the firm but did not inform his board of directors.

It's not many shares but maybe other shares will join in.

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Do I even want to know what type of takes I'm not seeing here?

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It's just someone talking about how he knew all along that blizz sucks
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Ahead of the curve

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Ah. I mean there's a difference between all of us knowing Blizzard was shit for years now because of their awful practices and him screaming about how Blizzard is shit because he hates Warcraft 3 and is bad at Hearthstone, but sure.

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He's been pretty vocal about Blizzard across the board though.

Not that you're going to see this as I'm pretty sure you have me ignored too lmao. Easy to not think anyone who disagrees with you said anything of merit when you ignore everyone who does.

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Lopen posted...

He's been pretty vocal about Blizzard across the board though.

Not that you're going to see this as I'm pretty sure you have me ignored too lmao. Easy to not think anyone who disagrees with you said anything of merit when you ignore everyone who does.

I still don't understand why anyone ignores but doesn't block

Might as well go all the way
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Well personally I appreciate him not blocking me. As insipid as his posts tend to be on the whole I'd rather see them so I can follow the flow of conversation. I'd ignore a bit more often but I find empty spaces more annoying than actually reading the bad posts so I try to reserve it for people who aren't ever going to contribute to a conversation in a way that anyone will respond to.

But yeah saying Ulti hasn't been super against Blizzard at pretty much every front possible is just too dumb to not respond to. You wanna argue right stance wrong reasons and put it on Hearthstone, well, that's just like, your opinion, man, but I think that's kinda got it backwards-- Blizzard's shady business practices fed Ulti's hate of the games moreso than the other way around.

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Lopen posted...

He's been pretty vocal about Blizzard across the board though.

I mean, Ulti has been ranting about how Blizzard is a shit developer for well over a decade because he doesnt like any of their games from WC III on.

And then he will try to use his long standing hatred of their games to claim that he knew there had to be shady shit going on within the company itself all along. And then brag about how he is so much smarter than all of us for being ahead of the curve in hating them.


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Yeah I get that you appreciate it. It gives you an information advantage!
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redrocket posted...

because he doesnt like any of their games from WC III on.

I would point out that's largely because they've let bad business practices leak into the games for most releases since then.

They're not exactly independent. Most stuff he really harps on about their games being bad is directly caused by poor business practices. Diablo 3's auction house, server problems, botched remakes, milking games with expansions/dlc when they should have had them to begin with. These are not "the game was poorly designed" these are "the game was rushed or intentionally designed in a way to maximize profits"

(the rest is him being bad at Hearthstone) (though a lot of the poor design decisions in Hearthstone possibly trace back to money too since the game wants you to buy boosters)

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https://twitter.com/eurogamer/status/1461290490473689090

In awe that this isn't from Hard-Drive.

Lopen posted...

He's been pretty vocal about Blizzard across the board though.

Not that you're going to see this as I'm pretty sure you have me ignored too lmao. Easy to not think anyone who disagrees with you said anything of merit when you ignore everyone who does.

What, why would I have you ignored? With complete sincerity and no intention to offend I literally don't remember anything you've posted before.

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I wouldn't be offended. I don't really talk to you much because I think most of your posts are pretentious, tripe, or both. This is no intent to offend either (though no intent to NOT offend)

However I'm pretty sure calling them out on that has had you block me before. You having me blocked at one point and then later unblocking me because you couldn't remember blocking me could explain why you don't remember anything I've posted before too.

But maybe it was some other weeaboo sounding alt of someone else who gloats a lot about blocking people, or one of your alts or something. Can't honestly be sure!

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UltimaterializerX posted...

And the only user here better than me at Hearthstone is @VeryInsane . That isnt an opinion, either. Its a factual data-driven claim. Ive hit legend every month (except one) for more than 2 years. Thats something that only the top 0.1% of players can claim. The percentage might even be much less than that, but Ill just go with Vicious Syndicates data and call it a day.

I think a lot of people on b8 are better than you at the game. They just don't want to play enough to hit legend that much.

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Well you're being a pretty big dick here so maybe I just blocked you for that.

But yeah nothing ringing a bell at all.

Also "pretentious" lol sure buddy, whatever the hell that could be referring to.

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As for getting at me for blocking Ulti, the guy once started calling me a pedo in an argument like a decade ago not based on anything that had actually been seen or said, but because he thought doing so would make people turn on me just because he started saying it, so like....forgive me for not exactly respecting him enough to deal with his shit.

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I'm not being a dick. I'm not playing with kid gloves, but I'm not trying to be a dick.

You're posting stuff that is pretty patently wrong, and I'm calling it dumb. Pretty simple!

If you want a good example of pretentious

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Do I even want to know what type of takes I'm not seeing here?

Believe it or not, no one cares what you're not seeing. There is no reason to post that than other than to try and exhibit some sort of unmerited superiority over whoever's posts you aren't seeing-- and you make empty posts like that all the time. Posts like that are literally just a waste of time to read. Literally no one cares but you, but you go ahead and say you're not pretentious while posting an endless spew of empty opinion posts and observations that no one else is interested in because you can't be bothered to elaborate on anything or do anything beyond make the statement, because we should all care what your opinion or observation is even though it adds nothing to our lives.

Reading your posts is like if we had youtube comments that everyone skips attached to our topics, minus the "thumbs up if you agree" at the end

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Ok.

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*Thumbs up*

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Oh, to get back on topic

Just one step closer to the Crash.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

In awe that this isn't from Hard-Drive.

It certainly reads like it is. Amazing.

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Yeah I wish I hadn't put that in the same post as whatever the heck that altercation ended up being. Everyone needs to read that to believe it.

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https://twitter.com/LauncherWP/status/1461397578059239425

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Xbox contemplating no longer allowing Activision games on their platform.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1461420439004188673

I don't actually buy it, but...would be wild.

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I dont think thats what that means, probably more like we will stop actively promoting ABK games on our platforms/channels if they dont fix this

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That's the safer bet, but I see it as leaving it open to interpretation.

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Yeah that's totally performative and won't happen, but it's good anti-Activision PR regardless.

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Look at it this way, for Microsoft at least.

The only Activision thing that matters on consoles nowadays is CoD. Microsoft just released F2P Halo multiplayer which people are LOVING, and right after Activision releases a CoD that people HATE.

This is basically perfect timing for them.

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What is the problem with the new CoD?

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It's the most uninspired, samey game they've released in years on the multiplayer side, without even an attempt at a narrative for the single player, but the biggest thing is that people absolutely hate what they did with Zombies.

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CoD has just been on a general downward slide since what, Advanced Warfare? With a minor uptick for Modern Warfare 2019. It has also seen dropping sales (heavily for the last two) and that is an issue when it is literally the only thing you make anymore. Hard to see how Kotick survives this when it looked rough even in good conditions.

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I'm sure Microsoft has the means to make their own 'realistic' shooter if they really wanted to with all the studios they've acquired over the years.

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Lightning Strikes posted...

CoD has just been on a general downward slide since what, Advanced Warfare? With a minor uptick for Modern Warfare 2019. It has also seen dropping sales (heavily for the last two) and that is an issue when it is literally the only thing you make anymore. Hard to see how Kotick survives this when it looked rough even in good conditions.

If things have been trending down so hard, why was Kotick able to renew his contract recently for massive bucks?

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