29 | December | 2023 | The Ancient Gaming Noob

I have always wondered if the Munchkins were just naturally, organically, and spontaneously talented with music or if they had that song queued up and ready to go in hope that the occasion would arise. But that is probably a topic for another post.

Today is Bobby Kotick’s last day with Activision Blizzard. He will be wandering off into the sunset, hopefully never to be heard from again in the context of video games.

Activision Blizzard

Yes, he will be pushing a wheel barrow overflowing with money from the Microsoft acquisition. He was likely the prime beneficiary of the deal, the person with the most to gain. And it is disheartening when objectively bad people succeed so wildly.

I suppose you can console yourself with what my grandmother used to say, which was “If you want to know what God thinks about money, look at who he gives it to.”

Or you can just be happy that his opinions no longer matter when it comes to what happens at Activision Blizzard, or XBox, or any other video game operation. He bought Activision for half a million dollars back in 1991 and, to give him the credit he deserves, he did turn it into a company that Microsoft was willing to pay $69 billion for 30 years later. That is a hell of a rate of return.

But he was also an actively shitty person who was keen to take all the fun out of game development. He was sued multiple times based on his behavior, including for sexual harassment… and at the end of that case he then turned around and tried to stiff his lawyers on the bill, who also sued him.

He established a corporate culture that emulated his views, that led to the company being sued by the State of California after a long investigation which the company actively attempted to derail. He is proof that the culture is set by the leadership, as well as yet another reminder that HR is not there to protect the workers, it is there to protect the owners from the workers. So lots of low level people got the axe when allegations came to light, but leadership in general, and Bobby in particular, suffered no consequences.

You know where the line is drawn at a company by who can actually suffer repercussions for their behavior. J. Allen Brack, below the line. Bobby Kotick, above the line.

Did he have be as shitty as he was in order to get the level or return he saw on that initial half a million dollar investment? Absolutely not. In fact, it is quite demonstrable that his conduct, and the culture he allowed or cultivated at his company, had a price… both in actual, direct monetary terms as well as in the scope of the long term functionality of the company.

Other rats are leaving the ship now that the acquisition has closed and they have gotten their fat pay day. Some are remaining, though a few of them should have been sent packing as well. I guess they didn’t have enough stock to go full miser mode.

This is less of a celebratory post than a feeling of relief that we can all move on from one bad person. I don’t know that Microsoft will necessarily be better… Blizzard, for example, will now be a much smaller fish in a much bigger pond… but it is hard to image that they’ll be worse. They are, in the end, just about business and making money as well, but they might not be as personally awful. The future is not necessarily better, but it may be different now.

A bit of end of the year news on which to reflect.