As Bobby Kotick leaves Microsoft and Activision for good, an ex-employee describes how he once threatened to "have an employee killed"

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 334 points –
As Bobby Kotick leaves Microsoft and Activision for good, an ex-employee describes how he once threatened to "have an employee killed"
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As Bobby Kotick leaves Microsoft and Activision for good, an ex-employee describes how he once threatened to "have an employee killed"::Today marks Bobby Kotick's last day at the helm of Activision Blizzard King, a day this former employee chose to share an interesting tale of Kotick's alledged behaviour while CEO of the company.

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Gosh that sounds like a crime.

The board of directors chose to keep him on after this was revealed 2 years ago. They made a statement along the lines of "we stand by him".

You know its bad when Blizzard fans are happy that the company was bought by Microsoft.

Microsoft. And they're happy.

What a time to be alive.

That said, if Microsoft revived HotS I'd tatoo Bill Gates face on my face. That game is way too good to go out the way it did.

To be fair, Microsoft has been a surprisingly good steward of the gaming companies they've acquired

Just a reminder that he is a rapist and a pedophile.

Fun fact: Bobby Kotnik was in Moneyball, he played the owner that didn't want to pony up extra crash.

And because he was in a SAG-AFTRA movie, he had to join the union. And then proceeded to use this as a reason add onto his union busting

I guess HAWP called it.

I miss that show. I also miss that era of YouTube.

It was like a golden age of Internet. I remember being in some gaming chatroom with Ash's brother, who talked about how him and Ash just made these silly videos for the fuck of it. Now I'm seeing Ashley Burch kill it as an actress on Mythic Quest and get incredible voice acting roles like Tiny Tina and Aloy. Go Ash!

This is the best summary I could come up with:


As foretold in a memo to staff earlier this December, swooping leadership changes have been made at Activision Blizzard as the company enters 2024 as its first year under the helm of Microsoft following the $69 billion acquisition.

While it's not confirmed if the allegation is true, Kotick has faced accusations from multiple employees over the years, either of direct mistreatment or disregarding problematic workplace attitudes and swiftly settling complaints out of court.

Andy Belford, formerly of the community team at Activision-Blizzard, sounded the alarm that Overwatch 2 would be immediately review bombed after hitting Steam.

Belford recounted how Bobby Kotick himself was happy to drop the game straight on Steam without giving the community team any form of additional support.

With allegations of the company and Kotick himself not taking sexual harassment, assault, and unequal pay complaints seriously dating back to 2006.

According to WSJ, Activision has said the state has agreed to file an amended complaint that withdraws its 2021 claims alleging widespread and systemic workplace harassment at the company.


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Another reason why piracy is justified. You're pandering to corporations and lining the wallets of rich douches like Kotick if you're paying for video games. ^♪