Bobby Kotick will remain Activision Blizzard CEO through 2023

Twenty-one months since Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal was announced, the $68.7 million merger is complete. It’s a new era for both Activision Blizzard and Microsoft as the ink dries on the video game industry’s largest acquisition, which puts Microsoft and its Xbox brand in a vital position moving forward. Change is expected at both companies, starting at the top: Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is expected to exit the company after a transition that’ll keep him on “through the end of 2023,” according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

Spencer and Kotick sent emails to staff early Friday morning informing them of the acquisition. Spencer said in that email, published by Microsoft, that Kotick will report directly to him “to ensure a smooth and seamless integration.” An Activision Blizzard representative declined to confirm to Polygon an exact date for Kotick’s resignation; it’s unclear whether he’ll immediately exit come 2024. Spencer said Microsoft will share more on Microsoft’s “new organizational structure” over the coming months.

Ahead of the deal’s finalization, Kotick spoke to staff in an all-hands meeting — hosted by former late night host James Corden — to discuss the future of Activision Blizzard. There, he discussed the future of gaming, which he apparently believes will include controlling games with brain implants like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Corden and Kotick also spoke on the company’s “magic” culture.

Kotick’s future at Activision Blizzard has been of internal and public interest since a California Civil Rights Department investigation into the company led to a major lawsuit, allegedly a culture of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. In a Wall Street Journal article published in 2021, Kotick was alleged to have been informed of employee misconduct including an alleged sexual assault, but minimized its severity for Activision Blizzard’s employees and the board. Following the Journal’s report, hundreds of Activision Blizzard workers walked out of work to call for Kotick’s resignation. Activision Blizzard’s employees protested the response of the company leadership to accusations of sexual harassment, discrimination and racism.

Kotick, who has held the position of Activision CEO for over 32 years, has served in this role since 1991. In 2006, Activision merged with Vivendi’s gaming department, bringing Blizzard under the Activision umbrella — that’s when the company formally became Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard’s acquisition of mobile giant King was finalized in 2016, adding a successful mobile game business to the company’s portfolio. Microsoft’s push to enter the mobile game market is a result of the importance King holds, as well as the number and variety of Activision Blizzard games.

The Activision Blizzard CEO has long-been one of the highest paid CEO’s in the United States. Once he leaves Activision Blizzard, Kotick is expected to receive a massive “golden parachute,” at least $15 million, according to financial documents. That’s seemingly without considering Kotick’s millions of shares in Activision Blizzard. The other top executives are expected to receive $2.6-$4.1 million.

Even before the California Civil Rights Department’s sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit, Kotick was a controversial figure at the gaming company.

The CEO notoriously said during a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco in 2010 that he brought in, years prior, packaged goods executives to “take all the fun out of making video games,” noting that Activision Blizzard succeeded in “instill[ing] the culture, the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like today.” In 2019, Activision Blizzard and Kotick came under fire for announcing widespread layoffs — 800 jobs cut — despite boasting its “record-setting” revenue in 2018. “While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential,” Kotick said at the time.