Microsoft Merger Officially Closed - Bobby Kotick to Stay on Throughout 2023

Blizzard Posted 2023/10/13 at 9:25 AM by Archimtiros

21-month struggle with regulatorshis desire to remain working with Microsoft

Bobby Kotick

Team,

Today marks a milestone in our company’s celebrated history.

Combining with Microsoft will bring new resources and new opportunities to our extraordinary teams worldwide. It will also enable us to deliver more fun, more joy, and more connection to more players than ever before.

This moment is possible because of your efforts over four decades to innovate, inspire, and achieve.

When Brian Kelly and I began this journey in 1991, we intended to build a company that would have great impact and lasting value. Your tireless work and unwavering commitment to excellence enabled us to do just that. In the 1980s, we pioneered independent, third-party game development with Pitfall, River Raid, and Kaboom. In the 1990s, we united the world with online multiplayer games like MechWarrior, Warcraft, and StarCraft. In the 2000s, we introduced Call of Duty, which became one of the most successful entertainment franchises in history. We also introduced Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which entered popular culture in ways few videogames ever have. In the 2010s, we debuted Candy Crush Saga, which to date has been downloaded more than five billion times and contributed to our total worldwide players being fifty percent female.

Your dedication is what makes it possible for us to continually push envelopes, break records, and delight players. Amid the uncertainty of the last 21 months, you’ve remained focused, as always, on serving our players and supporting each other.

I have long said that I am fully committed to helping with the transition. Phil has asked me to stay on as CEO of ABK, reporting to him, and we have agreed that I will do that through the end of 2023. We both look forward to working together on a smooth integration for our teams and players.

Brian and I couldn’t be more excited for the next chapter for ABK. We now join one of the most successful global companies, poised for unprecedented opportunities to connect the world through our games.

As a part of Microsoft, we will be even better, together.

Bobby
his own message to Microsoft employees

Our Next Adventure

It’s a big day for us at Activision Blizzard. For more than four decades, our players have inspired us to push the boundaries of imagination with iconic universes including Call of Duty, Candy Crush Saga, Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, Overwatch, and Warcraft.

Today we begin a new chapter as we officially become a part of the Microsoft family, uniting with the amazing Xbox team and co-creating the future of gaming together.

In our earliest days we were a modest collective of designers who raided rivers, commanded choppers, and avoided pitfalls. Now as part of Xbox, we will continue our mission to deliver the world’s most epic interactive entertainment experiences to more people, more platforms, and across more worlds than ever before.

All of our history and success leading to this moment is because of you, our incredible gaming community.

To the reapers, fighters, rogues, and airstrikers,
The sharpshooters, revivers, healers, and bubble bursters,
Sorcerers, shamans, slayers, and survivors,

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for playing with us. We do everything we do for you, and we can't wait to embark on our next adventure together.

–The team at Activision Blizzard

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Comment by AsherrTheRedbye bye bobbyComment by hashtagfredI just hoped this will lead to increased and fair wages for blizzard employees and ensure anything left of the bro culture of afrasiabi is eliminatedComment by HistoryxGood riddanceComment by cilaxe4Why phrase it like that lol.

Bobby Kotick is LEAVING at the end of THIS YEAR. (2 months max)

Good Riddance.Comment by youmeandgravityDon't let the door smack the back of your big ass head on your way out BobComment by Wahoo123gaCan't wait for him to be replaced by someone with identical goals and values but with less baggage. If I didn't know better there might be problems with large companies as a concept that extend past whoever's in charge of them.Comment by Xinaydernice, he's staying so he can harass more women and threaten to kill them, that's all he wanted. all that while he gets a $500mi check on his pocket. job well fucking done Microsoft.Comment by des007WOW to gamepass, let it be so!Comment by Happiio7, let's see if Microsoft saves Blizzard, or just drives a semi truck full of gasoline into an already burning house.Comment by SilentStorm182why we gotta use that image of bobby, my skylanders deserve more respect than that.Comment by dabone1337I can't wait to hear who we will hate next!

Metzen?Comment by Seb24285Bobby is done destroying the lives of his co-workers (slave laborer).Comment by NarhwalsBobby leaving is the best thing that could have happened because of this mergerComment by ShadowlootCEO? Whatever a CEO actually is good for.

I am more interested in what will happen next with WoW as a consequence of the merger.Comment by DandydemonBYE BYE BOBBYComment by VobicIt's Just bobbys WorldComment by WikiWeaponnPeople celebrating as if Bobby has anything to do with the incompetent and stubborn WoW dev team we have now.Comment by W1plashOMG why does he stay, he is the real problem............... :(Comment by TofkeBe gone devil spawn, may you never ever find your way back into the gaming industry!

We should all be happy when people like these leave a company or an industry. Even if it does zilch for WoW. I was celebrating Jim Ryan's retirement, John Riccitiello retirement, more of that please. :>Comment by MoonChknHere come the layoffs. This saves nothing.

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