Now that Bobby Kotick has officially exited Activision Blizzard — and possibly the games industry — a number of former developers have spoken out against his leadership, accusing him of actively making games worse. In his 30-year tenure as Activision Blizzard CEO, Kotick became one of the most controversial figures in the games industry.
Bobby Kotick’s decisions negatively impacted Activision Blizzard games
One former developer, Andy Belford, took to Twitter to corroborate reports that Kotick harmed Overwatch 2‘s development, causing unnecessary delays and blaming a decline in company’s stock price on those delays in order to cover up scandals.
“Fun fact: when we planned OW2’s Steam launch, my team warned (months in advance) that we’re going to be review bombed,” Belford wrote. “We begged for more information, more details, and more resources to help us with the anticipated influx, all flatly denied.” Belford added that it was Kotick who decided to launch Overwatch 2 on Steam without providing any help to the team.
Former Call of Duty programmer Christine Pollock claimed that during her first month at the company, it emerged that Kotick had threatened to have an employee killed and she subsequently demanded his firing. She also said that Kotick’s decisions made games “worse.”
The general consensus is that Kotick’s departure is good news.
