Ex-Activision CEO Told Xbox To Quit Gaming; Believes It Lacks Creativity

The former Activision Blizzard CEO has recalled his first meeting with Satya Nadella, stating that he advised Microsoft to give up on Xbox by saying: "You shouldn’t be in gaming. You’re not a creative company".

[Jin_Sakai]

As much as I despise Bobby Kotick he knows what he’s doing.

[darthv72]

..if he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't have sold Activision. By saying to them they lacked creativity... and then selling them the creativity, his words ring hollow.

[Iceball2000]

$69 billion … I’m selling.

[PitbullMonster]

Bobby sold ABK at highest price they will achieve. After the end of the pandemic the entertainment industry lost a lot of value.

[lukasmain]

He made the most money for the investors and himself. Best deal he ever made. I never liked it, but it is what it is.

[Profchaos]

He saw the writing on the wall and cod was the only thing keeping Activision afloat MW3 wasn't received all that well and extended development times have forced this weird half release followed by a full games schedule eg mw3 was a half release compared to MW2 and bo6 is a full release with the rumoured game this year being bo7

This has impacted them negatively but Microsoft spins the numbers constantly

[goken]

At 70B I would sell to Hitler

[Cellblock11]

He sold them the creative becasue they didn't have any of their own so his words rang true. He also sold for the golden parachute.

[kayoss]

He knew exactly what he was doing. He convince Xbox that they had zero creativity. You know why Xbox bought Activision, because they knew they had zero creativity. They way i looked at it, Xbox bought creativity.

[badz149]

@darthv72

You do know that MS bought his shares in ABK for way over the market value, right? Bobby is the biggest winner in that ABK deal.

[8bitAssassin]

He was in deep shit with the employees.

[thorstein]

Stifling creativity at Activision. Bravo!

Activision used to be visionary, releasing games that were hits and misses with the only endeavor of creating something.

[Lightning77]

This is coming from a guy who put more than half their teams to make COD. Not saying MS is creative but at least their not making Halo Sweat shops like he did with COD.

Sacrificing all kinds of potential studios and ips.

[porkChop]

To be fair, it's a bit rich for him to say that Xbox lacks creativity when Bobby had like 11 or 12 studios all just working on Call of Duty. He refused to let Infinity Ward make their sci fi shooter which is what ultimately led to the firing of Jason West and Vince Zampella, the mass exodus of IW devs, the creation of Respawn, and Titanfall/Apex Legends. Bobby is not in any position to talk about creativity.

[Reaper22_]

Lol.. you people are so gullible. You see the title and just go with it. If you watch the video you will see that he said Microsoft was the best choice. But of course that would be left out purposely. Same old crap , different day.🤷‍♂️

[jznrpg]

Best choice because they offered the most money of course

[italiangamer]

Damn now that's a roast 💀

[Gamingsince1981]

And also a fact

[Lightning77]

What kind of creative and new games has he launched in the last 10 years?

[Relientk77]

Wow Bobby Kotick actually being right for once. That's crazy

[pwnmaster3000]

It’s pretty bad if Bobby has that opinion lol.

[-Foxtrot]

Damn. That's pretty brutal.

Wonder what his response was in real time

[goken]

I imagine

Satya Nadella: I know right? I just work here, I get paid either way, so heck if I care

[kayoss]

"Are you selling your creativity?"

[XiNatsuDragnel]

To be honest Bobby ain't wrong which is sad, funny, and downright rare me and the community agree with him.

[babadivad]

He's trashing Xbox so of course the majority here will agree with him.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

It's not even trashing xbox if he said the same thing about ps if they were in the same position then I will still agree It's not about preference It's the situation.

[Reaper22_]

Lol...absolutely. 😆 if it's even true. You can expect to see more stuff like this. Created negativity.

[rudero]

By all means..
Educate us how Microsoft has brought innovation and creativity in gaming when they have not made one single new AAA ip in over a decade.
And I’ll save you the “they brought online gaming” argument… because that is even older than their last new AAA game.

[isarai]

Game recognize game, and MS was looking real familiar.

[gold_drake]

i mean.... nothing has changed since then haha

[BlaqMagiq1]

The one time Bobby Kotick wasn't wrong.

[Elda]

He was right.

[PrecursorOrb]

Self Awareness 100

[RhinoGamer88]

Bobby is a super rich tool, but he was right. Phil and his lackeys...still survived and became rich.

[mastershredder]

While he eats steak that was earned by the creative team’s efforts from his time at activation. He’s not wrong. At least he can recognize it. He still a greedy chut. Not the best person to herald the stance, but hey someone did and it’s snickerable.

[lukasmain]

What's a 'chut' ??

[cthulhucultist]

Coming from him that doesnt say much.

He diverted all those studio resources for developing call of duty:

Activision Central Design, Beenox, Activision Localization Dublin, Demonware, Activision Shanghai Studio, Activision QA, Digital Legends Entertainment, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Team Ricochet, Sledgehammer Games, Solid State Studios, Toys for Bob, Treyarch.

https://www.essentiallyspor...

Then we have microsoft who authorized new IP projects such as

Pentiment
Grounded
South of Midnight
Clockwork revolution
Avowed
Everwild
Project Mara

While I dont like MS due to its digital software push, I can not say that Bobby is right in this instance.

[dveio]

• "Bobby Kotick also believes that Microsoft needed Activision to survive."

Well, even from my perspective as a person totally not involved professionally in the gaming business, I could count 1 & 1 together when I looked at the very first quarter report with ABK included.

Without ABK, the Xbox brand today would ist at roughly 11 to 14 billion USD annual revenue.

Quite possibly with net losses deep in the realm of red.

[jznrpg]

Without PS they would shut down Xbox

[PhillyDonJawn]

FTC showed Xbox was more profitable than PS before the Activision deal

[dveio]

Interesting.

Would you share your source(s)?

[PhillyDonJawn]

It's was all over n4g. Ftc leaked a bunch of stuff in those documents.

[dveio]

Hm.

Well, if you can't or simply don't want to share sources backing *your* argument, then I have no other choice than to take your statement as just a claim.

Which is totally fine for me.

But no proof.

[PhillyDonJawn]

https://n4g.com/news/256761...

I can't stand you lazy folk. Couldve easily done this yourself

[dveio]

"This is different from the gross profit margin, the difference between sales revenue and the cost of goods sold."

"While contribution margins only count the variable costs, the gross profit margin includes all of the costs that a company incurs in order to make sales."

The contribution margin shows how much additional revenue is generated by making each additional unit product after the company has reached the breakeven point. In other words, it measures how much money each additional sale "contributes" to the company's total profits.

https://www.investopedia.co...

"Without a breakdown of what "accountability margin" means strictly for MS, from their own mouth, that number is just, well, a number. Unless we get a leak that strictly breaks down how accountability margin for MS is calculated, and most importantly, what is left out of the equation, nobody outside MS knows what that number ultimately represents."

https://icon-era.com/thread...

I can't stand you lazy folk that misinform.

[Deathdeliverer]

People need to realize that he needed to sell that company. He was being outed and needed the largest take he could get. Nintendo and Sony could afford to wait until Activision hit the bargain bin. They had no invisible clocks counting down on them. Not to mention their own IPS are doing great in their own right. Any creative company that was doing well for itself would have seen that offer and bought sections of it. Hell, Marvel couldn't even find a single entity to take ALL their properties, so they let people pick and choose. Sony or Nintendo would have undoubtedly taken that route. Take ALL of this trash and dead IPs with a handful off bangers for an inflated price? Who would be desperate enough to take an all or nothing because they can't seem to create ANYTHING of substance? Who really needs SOMETHING to get the back into the conversation. "Sir, Microsoft's gaming division is on line one."

[attilayavuzer]

Sony/Nintendo couldn't afford that acquisition so they wouldn't have a choice. Sony did get desperate and overpay for all their GaaS studios though. Nintendo has been the only company this gen that's stuck to their guns and executed this gen.

[Reaper22_]

The irony is just too funny. But hey it turned out much better than that Bungie deal.🤭

[Inverno]

When the father of no creativity tells you you have no creativity then you know you've done goofed. MS and Acti were made for each other, a match made in greed/AI heaven.

[127maXimus]

Where is the "creativity" at Activision? Turning COD into modern audience Fortnite trash? Making money is not creativity.

[Asterphoenix]

Yup he knew this and he knew after starting Activision years ago he made it the juggernaut it become. That his time was limited due to scrutiny he's been facing over a long time so he didn't care knew MS sucked at creativity in the gaming industry and took the golden parachute.