PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has reportedly criticised Activision’s response to an explosive report published this week, which aimed allegations at its CEO Bobby Kotick.
This really shows just how much trouble Kotick is in... This is like a 9.0 earthquake in the industry, you don't just go talking trash publicly (or even commenting at all) about a CEO of one of the world's biggest gaming publishers when you're the owner of the world's best selling consoles, unless you mean business... Sony seems to be throwing their weight behind his resignation, be it voluntary or not. Activision shareholders are sure to take notice of this.
It's not like Activision can really retaliate in any way. Last time I looked they got around 1/3 of their revenue from consoles, and probably about half of that would be from playstation. What are they going to do, stop making games for playstation and give up on 1/6 of their revenue? If they don't force Kotick out for the current issues they surely would for that, money talks
Kotick is going to be forced out. No way he stays after this. Too much bad press. Good job, Jim. Maybe they will get a leader that knows how to produce more than one game and the talented developers at their dozen studios can be unshackled from their Call of Duty bondage.
So all the employees at Activision/Blizzard should suffer because of a crooked CEO? What about the developers and all other thousands of good people at the company whose livelihoods depend on the games selling? Their bonuses, future job security etc.
Why would Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer punish them by not letting them sell games on their platforms because of a bad CEO and other bad eggs?
These guys are CEOs for very important companies in their industry. They can’t come out and make public comments trashing another company until they feel it’s totally safe to and their won’t be any possible lash back against them or misinformation spread. Their PR would never allow it even if it was safe. I
And also…this was an internal email and not even a public statement. It just got leaked.
Worse case scenario for Kotick is that he resigns as a billionaire and moves onto another CEO position. You just can't touch people this powerful unfortunately. There will be no consequences for the scumbag.
People need to let the process play out. Not saying that bad things didn’t happen, but that’s why their is a process to the whole thing. Let the mob decide how and when things should happen and to whom without due process is just why the “woke” culture is toxic. He should be investigated and if guilty, then exit , not a bunch of hearsay with no actual emails published. Just a bunch of he said, she said. Wait for the facts to surface.
Bobby Kotick sent a voicemail threatening to kill one of his employees, and his own spokesperson had to acknowledge that it happened while trying to both apologize for it and downplay it.
You lads need to stop acting as if the only way that a billionaire should be fired for wrongdoing is if they go to jail. Even in court, they just end up setting due to their immense wealth, e.g. Kotick threatened to "destroy" a flight attendant for his private plane if she reported that the pilot sexually harassed her (e.g. asking her to clean the toilet just so he could stare at her ass). He fired her and then lost his legal battle for that wrongful termination, and the ruling easily stood up against appeals. This is a pattern of behaviour.
This is what the arbitrator said: "Mr. Kotick wanted to destroy the other side and not to pay Ms. Madvig anything.... Mr. Kotick realised this was not a good business proposition, but said 'that he was worth one-half billion dollars and he didn't mind spending some of it on attorneys' fees." He thinks he can do whatever he wants.
Even if a person is guilty their is a right way to go about it. That way everyone from poor to rich has the same due process. Again, once all the facts are in and indeed all the allegations are true, then he exits. He should be put on temporary leave while the investigation is carried out. But letting a bunch of vested emotional people become judge and executioner. Is not the way to go about it, that’s why there is a separate process that involves an unemotional third party.
Jim gets a bad rap for some reason but he's a stand up guy. It takes guts to call out the guy responsible for the most played games on your platform!