Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, didn't hold back his opinions on John Riccitiello, the ex-CEO of Electronic Arts (EA), during a recent appearance on the podcast Grit. Alongside former EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon, Kotick labeled Riccitiello as "the worst CEO in video games." Despite acknowledging that EA's business was in many ways superior to Activision's, Kotick humorously suggested that they would have paid to keep Riccitiello as CEO indefinitely.
Kotick's comments were made in the context of a broader discussion about the video game industry, where he also revealed that EA had made multiple attempts to acquire Activision Blizzard. "EA tried to buy us a bunch of times. We had merger conversations a bunch of times," Kotick shared, adding that he viewed EA's business as more stable than Activision's.
John Riccitiello's tenure at EA from 2007 to 2013 was marked by financial struggles and significant layoffs, culminating in his departure following poor financial results. One of his more controversial proposals was suggesting to shareholders that Battlefield players could pay a dollar each time they reloaded their weapons. After leaving EA, Riccitiello took the helm at Unity Technologies in 2014, but his time there was also fraught with controversy, including a major backlash over proposed install fees that were later retracted. His tenure at Unity was further highlighted by his apology for describing developers opposed to microtransactions as "the biggest f*cking idiots."
Kotick's own leadership at Activision Blizzard, which ended with the company's historic $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft in 2023, was also not without its challenges. His time at the company was marked by numerous employee complaints about sexism and a toxic work culture, leading to walkouts and a lawsuit by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021. The lawsuit alleged a retaliatory "frat boy" culture, but a settlement reached in December 2023 for $54 million found no substantiation of systemic sexual harassment or improper actions by the board, including Kotick.
In the same interview, Kotick didn't shy away from critiquing other ventures related to Activision Blizzard, such as the 2016 film adaptation of Warcraft, which he bluntly described as "one of the worst movies I've ever seen."
