Poll of the Day > General consensus is Bobby Kotick will have to leave Activision re: WSJ report

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've wanted this guy gone since mid-2000s and hated him before it was cool.
It's FINALLY time for him to GTFO.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/11/16/activision-blizzard-kotick-walkout/

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Could I get a source?

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Sarcasthma posted...

Could I get a source?

Edited OP

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Thank you! :)

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Sterling is going to be so PLEASED when that happens.

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He might be the worst person in all of gaming history.

Activision Blizzard came out in defense of him a couple days ago, what's changed?
Oh, an employee walkout. So the company itself is still in his favor.

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Ferarri619 posted...

It's FINALLY time for him to GTFO.

I'm sure he'll be miserable with his multi-million bank account. He might even have to sell his solid platinum bathtub and replace it with one that's only made out of solid gold. Such a tragedy.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'm sure he'll be miserable with his multi-million bank account. He might even have to sell his solid platinum bathtub and replace it with one that's only made out of solid gold. Such a tragedy.

Thankfully nobody actually loves him so he still has no purpose in life.

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Ferarri619 posted...

Thankfully nobody actually loves him so he still has no purpose in life.

He's probably had a more successful personal life than most people on PotD.

Which, I mean, is a really low bar to hurdle, but still.

As for purpose, he's still on the board of multiple other companies. So, if anything, he might even view this as a positive, because it means he'll have more free time to do stuff he wants.

Don't get me wrong, I think he's kind of a sleazy guy, but it's not like he's the sole reason why Activision sucks, and this isn't really a "victory" in any meaningful way. It's just one corporate asshole leaving to make way for another corporate asshole to take his place, and he personally isn't going to suffer or "be punished" for all the terrible decisions he's made that gamers hate (but which were technically successful because they increased revenue, which is all he's ever really cared about anyway, because that's his actual job). And plenty of other companies would probably be happy to hire him again in the future, especially ones that have less of a public face (meaning people are less likely to react poorly to his hiring).

This is basically a smoke-and-mirrors PR move.

Even Sterling (who hates him with a passion) would probably admit that.
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He makes the company too much money, that'll never happen.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'm sure he'll be miserable with his multi-million bank account.

Multi-billion*. Last I heard, his net worth was ~$7 billion. His platinum bathtub will be fine.

Ferarri619 posted...

Thankfully nobody actually loves him so he still has no purpose in life.

I'm deeply, deeply entertained that he actually made a public plea for the Internet to stop drawing devil horns on his pictures because they showed up so readily on Google searches of his name that they were making it hard for him to date. The guy's literally a billionaire, but even that isn't enough to convince people to be with him, which really tells you everything you need to know about his personality.

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Thought this was going to have to do with their abuse of MTs, but it was just something else.

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He's still one of the richest people in the world, and will be replaced by somebody just as awful. This isn't really a victory for anyone.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

He's still one of the richest people in the world, and will be replaced by somebody just as awful. This isn't really a victory for anyone.

No it's still a victory, about the best victory anyone could hope for when dealing with someone that rich

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zhangliao1 posted...

No it's still a victory, about the best victory anyone could hope for when dealing with someone that rich

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Oh no, he'll just get a hundred million dollars payout and a new job at Ubisoft or EA, whoever. We sure showed him.

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I know everyone hates kotaku but

https://kotaku.com/xbox-boss-disturbed-by-whats-going-on-at-activision-bli-1848085302

Xbox boss gonna help have Kotick ousted

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Ferarri619 posted...

I know everyone hates kotaku but

https://kotaku.com/xbox-boss-disturbed-by-whats-going-on-at-activision-bli-1848085302

Xbox boss gonna help have Kotick ousted

It's bad that every time I see stuff like this I always wonder if they are any better.

Blightzkrieg posted...

Basically

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a drop of blood is the only thing needed, since it means that if they can bleed, they can die.

it gives everyone hope and is a massive morale boost, this is basic shit here.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

He's still one of the richest people in the world, and will be replaced by somebody just as awful. This isn't really a victory for anyone.

Small steps towards a better future. It all has to start somewhere.

Just because it is not "abuse in this industry is now over", does not mean it does not help towards that ultimate goal.

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Now Playstation boss Jim Ryan called him out too!

BWAHAHAHA

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Apparently their "Zero Tolerance" policy doesn't apply to Kotick
That means it's a "Slight Tolerance" policy

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BlackScythe0 posted...

It's bad that every time I see stuff like this I always wonder if they are any better.

Indeed. I'm much more inclined to believe criticizing him is a matter of optics than to believe it's a matter of genuinely disapproving of how he's run the company.

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Rotpar posted...

Oh no, he'll just get a hundred million dollars payout and a new job at Ubisoft or EA, whoever. We sure showed him.

better than him continuing to be in charge

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The biggest con the rich ever pulled is convincing the masses that incremental improvements will lead to systemic change

The AAA game industry is literally racing to the bottom right now and this is just a branch they hit on the way down

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adjl posted...

Indeed. I'm much more inclined to believe criticizing him is a matter of optics than to believe it's a matter of genuinely disapproving of how he's run the company.

It's sad but facts are people don't get into ceo positions by being good people.

It's not that I wouldn't want to see Bobby Kotick gone, but I really doubt he'll be pushed out forcibly, because the entire reason he's been CEO this long is because Activision keeps making tons of money while he was CEO, and at the end of the day that's all that matters to anyone who could make him leave.

Given, it's not like I expect Activison to change as a company even if Bobby Kotick left. Fact of the matter is Activison being scummy works for them (and lots of other companies) and brings in the money in absurd amounts.
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adjl posted...

Indeed. I'm much more inclined to believe criticizing him is a matter of optics than to believe it's a matter of genuinely disapproving of how he's run the company.

Especially considering how long it took them to say something, and they're only coming out on record once it feels "safe" to do so.

It would feel a hell of a lot more meaningful if they'd said something before the shit started hitting the fan, when they'd actually be taking a bit of a risk to put their opinion out there. Especially since their opinion might have been the thing to start a push for reform in the first place.

It's sort of like Harvey Weinstein - apparently everyone in Hollywood knew what he was up to, but almost no one ever said anything. The only people who ever really spoke up generally presented it in the context of jokes, which meant people didn't take them entirely seriously. Even most of the victims refused to say anything until much later. Which leaves the question, how many women might have been saved from harassment (or worse) if someone had just taken a strong stance against it 10 years earlier? Or 20? If you knew and said nothing, coming out after the fact to denounce him or support the victims starts to feel more self-serving than genuine.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Especially considering how long it took them to say something, and they're only coming out on record once it feels "safe" to do so.

Specifically, once it looks like that's the direction things are going to go and speaking out against him becomes a matter of aligning with the current popular PR position. If it's been all but confirmed that he's leaving, calling for him to leave doesn't change his fate, it just means you reap the PR benefits of being one of the first to publicly (claim to) agree with what's happening.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's sort of like Harvey Weinstein - apparently everyone in Hollywood knew what he was up to, but almost no one ever said anything. The only people who ever really spoke up generally presented it in the context of jokes, which meant people didn't take them entirely seriously. Even most of the victims refused to say anything until much later. Which leaves the question, how many women might have been saved from harassment (or worse) if someone had just taken a strong stance against it 10 years earlier? Or 20? If you knew and said nothing, coming out after the fact to denounce him or support the victims starts to feel more self-serving than genuine.

Eeyup. Throwing a few more testimonies into the mix after allegations have come out does lend some credibility to those allegations, so it's not like there's no value at all in doing so, but it's not exactly a secret that the people sitting on those testimonies for years did so because they were more concerned about not stepping on the establishment's toes than about the safety of Weinstein's victims.

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ForteEXE3850 posted...

It's not that I wouldn't want to see Bobby Kotick gone, but I really doubt he'll be pushed out forcibly, because the entire reason he's been CEO this long is because Activision keeps making tons of money while he was CEO, and at the end of the day that's all that matters to anyone who could make him leave.

That's so stupid though, ceos aren't why people buy goods/services. They are just along for the ride.

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Muscles posted...

That's so stupid though, ceos aren't why people buy goods/services.

They are, however, why companies shift their focus away from producing quality games and into producing addictive "live services" with predatory monetization schemes woven throughout them to exploit whatever vulnerable people they can sink their teeth into. And *that* is what's made Activision so many buttloads of money.

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ABAB
All Billionaires Are Bastards

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