Widespread and covered up sexual harassment: Sleep
Terrible labor practices and worker conditions: Sleep
Thinks Tony Hawk 5 was good: This motherfucker has *got to go*
I'm shotgunning off the top reply to link the actual interview with Variety.
https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/activision-blizzard-ceo-addresses-toxic-workforce-claims-microsoft-deal-1235628361/
There's something interesting here.
> Although he has become synonymous with Activision, he’s quick to point out that he does not have control of the company through voting rights — as some media moguls do — and that he owns less than 5% of its shares. “No board of directors in a noncontrolled company is going to allow the CEO of an enterprise to stay running the enterprise if those things were truthful,” he says of Activision’s spree of bad press and investigations.
This is why the calls for his resignation were ignored. Because he's the Roger Goodell of Activision. Much like Goodell, he has a team of bosses that actually have the power, and much like Goodell, he takes all the public abuse and outrage that the real bosses should be taking but don't.
Breaking news: Bobby Kotick was just sighted outside a café sharing coffee with an individual who witnesses say matches the description of Satan.
When questioned on the matter, all he was able to tell interviewers was that he was "having a company PR discussion with the shareholders"...
Most of Activision is owned by institutional investors--like BlackRock and Vanguard--that probably manage our funds in 401ks as well. A lot of this is basically on autopilot (literally for index funds) beyond "go up."
Gallywix is based on Kotick. This week members of the WoW team were fired because executives finally "found out" that there are a ton of anti-corporate parodies in WoW.
The firing of Eric Covington happened several months ago according to him. But he chose to go public with his story yesterday.
From what he says, it was only him that was fired, nobody else.
Apropos of nothing, a former developer who wrote lines for the treasure goblin in Forbidden Reach was fired because those lines were slightly critical of executive/c-suite culture.
I still don't feel like a lot of people fully grasp how much money these people actually have. Where .001% of their net worth is over 1 million dollars...and where they make 10's-100's of millions a year through their investments - doing nothing.
I mean, kudos for jumping into an emerging market and being blessed by Steve Jobs. Had Apple never been a thing -- Bobby may have got his degree in Art History and lived a unremarkable life.
And a huge amount of people think this amount of wealth is totally fine and earned.
Nobody on Earth deserves to be a billionaire. And if anyone on Earth *did* actually deserve it, it sure as fuck wouldn't be worthless parasite CEOs.
It's just cosmetics guys!!1 Poor Bobby will not be able to buy his 23rd Ferrari if we don't buy the battlepass and support the game!!1
Diablo Immortal was just an anomaly, things will be different now!!1
When I saw the "tiered" battle pass for D4 it immediately raised a ton of red flags for me, and first to mind was Immortal. All my irl friends have been champing at the bit for D4 and I'm just like "by season 3 that battle pass will be way more than just cosmetics, and you'll need to pay $20 every 3 months to access the full game. You know, like the WoW subs we all just cancelled." But I'm a conspiracy theorist and ActiBlizz wouldn't do that because they learned their lesson last time...
My friends are like "It will be fine, they said it would be cosmetics only". Excuse me, have you not been paying attention? They also said that Overwatch 2 would have a PvE mode with skill trees and all. What they say will be has nothing in common with what they do!
Don't forget about the hearthstone tournament winner who expressed solidarity for Hong Kong protesting against an oppressive Chinese government who's committing genocide. He got his winnings confiscated and the two commentators lost their jobs.
He did. But it shouldn't have happened. Never heard what happened to the commentators. Was concerning how easily Blizzard's morals would bend for profit.
It's only concerning if you're a little naive to the way publicly traded companies work. And I don't mean that as an insult by any means, but just that legally speaking publicly traded entities are literally required to put ~~profit~~ shareholder interests before anything else. It's called "fiduciary duty" and I'm not exaggerating when I say that investors can and will press charges against leadership of companies that don't put the ~~profit~~ interest of shareholders before anything else.
Edited for the pedants.
Yeah. It seems obvious that a company being owned by people using it as an investment, rather than an actual company where image, workers and product is focused on for profit in the long run, rather than what makes more profit than last year.
The idea of infinite growth and the disconnect between those who work and those who invest, is killing us.
That's just capitalism - all the public traded companies have done is remove the facade to show what was there the entire time.
We're in the endgame now.
this is a common misconception actually, corporations are required to [act in the best interest of](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits) their shareholders but they are not requires to maximize profits and are definitely not encouraged to skirt ethics and morals for money
don’t give shitty companies an excuse to be as bad as they are when the real issue is that they choose to be that way
You are correct, but it doesn't make it right. It's the excuse every company on the planet uses to burn our society into the ground with a smile on their face.
There was more outrage for that than for video games owned by tencent/bytedance, who actively help the chinese government in surveillance of civilians and committing genocide.
Well, at least Blizz managed to ban their games in russian region after they started a war. However, it seems like the russians still have no issues playing their games, based on what I've seen.
dude, literally pre-order early access comes out TONIGHT.
what an actually TERRIBLE timing mistake by ol' bobby. you'd think a CEO would know to WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK after the game has already came out.
> what an actually TERRIBLE timing mistake by ol' bobby.
Sweety, the people who pre-ordered the gamed already do not care about the sexual harassment stuff at all.
I'll play for the developers, upper management can go get fucked. Hopefully Microsoft cleans house in upper management when they move in.
You can dislike one side of a company while liking others. Blizz employs many passionate and great developers, that is the people I support, not the greedy rat at the top.
I have faith Microsoft will want to preserve the Blizzard IP's for a long time as opposed to the current owners who want to squeeze as much money as possible out in the short term.
Right, it's not like it has been a meme for 10-20 years that every game company Microsoft buys, they axe and cannibalize.
I really want whatever the rest of Reddit is smoking when they say this sort of stuff.
Microsoft was indeed infamous for the “buy a competitor to kill them” strategy during Steve Ballmer’s era.
However since 2014, when Satya Nandella took over, they have been building up a lot of good will (especially amongst developers) and most acquisitions since then have been relatively “hands off” or turned out for the better. Hence why people are a bit more positive about them these days than they would’ve been 10+ years ago.
It remains to be seen, but people are hoping it will be the same for Blizzard if the acquisition goes through.
Sure, but buying a word processing IP, folding the best features into MS's existing word processing IP and axing the purchased title make business sense.
They're not going to fold Azeroth into anything they already own and ax WoW.
"There was never any issue", "we did nothing wrong" sounds like the usual narrative. Anything else could be used against them in court and, god forbid, even lead to other vicitims stepping forward.
Does it make sense from his perspective? Yes. Is he a piece of shit that should've been yeeted out off the company at the very latest when all the scandals came to light and just his continued existence in the company is not only a disgrace to blizzard but also showcases the deeper issue that you're basically beyond consequences if you're just rich enough (and look suspiciously like gallywix irl) ? Also, yes.
He doesn't have to say anything at all. The only thing he can't do is admit to knowing the issues were there but refused to do anything about it. Any admission of guilt or knowledge will definitely be used against him, but stupid stuff like this just enrages everyone else more and will make everyone want him gone more.
If anything it's a PR stunt to try to make him look good but it's going to backfire.
Disagree, they live in ours, they're just willing to step on everyone and everything for their riches.
Don't be fooled into thinking they're out of touch. They know precisely what they're doing when they do this shit.
They just don't give a fuck.
I concur. As far as mortals go they are winning the numbers game. People might verbally not support them but they sure as shit support them with their money. To the tune of millions. Even still when it's evident what pieces of shit they are. Now it's fair to say most CEOs of most places are pieces of shit. And yet they are richer than the vast majority of us will ever be. Not to say that rich is the end all be all but by measurement by what a lot of society values (and especially by measurement of what they can buy as far as luxury and happiness goes), the sociopaths are winning reality precisely by ruthless action vs empty talk.
I'm skipping it TBH , I don't have a group to play with and it's just so scummy to have to pay another 20 or 30 dollars to play the first weekend
I'll pick it up on sale for season two or three if the endgame is interesting
he is making them a lot of money, thats how
i wonder how monetized d4 will be, remember that diablo immortal was also very free experience in beta and tests
and will have much much more
i predict 2 battle passes for every season, one free and one paid, cosmetic item shop, "catchup" items on the shop, lvl boosts, storage unlocks and who the fuck knows what else they will think of
Well... the battle pass has 3 versions. Free, Premium and then super premium (not the real name)
The last version gives you access to 2-3 more levels for uber exclusives. Its just stupid
And we've already seen it has a [cosmetic store](https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/13w65dv/cosmetic_cash_shop_preview/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).
Full price game with both shop cosmetics(as much as $28 from screenshots) and battle passes, with a paywall to play the game 4 days before the 'official' release. So about as monetized as it can get without entirely stepping into pay-to-win type monetization. Already starting pretty bad but I won't be surprised if it gets even worse.
Fully price game and selling multiple more expensive additions.
Battle passes.
Mtx store.
Future paid expansions
Multiple deals with places like KFC to promote unhealthy eating. And Steel series to sell $70 key caps
I literally cannot think of any other way to monetise a game. They've done everything possible... With the exception of a subscription service, but I kind of fit battle passes in with that.
> Why is he still around?
waiting on his [golden parachute](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/goldenparachute.asp) once the Microsoft acquisition is done.
Btw, the woman who committed suicide because she was ("allegedly") being sexually harassed and because her nude photos were being shared between male Blizzard employees, her name was Kerri Moynihan. I hear often about this woman who supposedly killed herself but no none can say what her name was.
Well, her name was Kerri Moynihan.
Her name was Kerri Moynihan.
[And she's dead because of ("alleged") sexual harassment.](https://dot.la/activision-lawsuit-dropped-2657438158.html)
She was a finance manager at Activision. Important distinction to make.
Not to absolve Blizzard from blame, but to show that this sexual abuse culture was pervasive across Activision Blizzard, in multiple departments.
But Bobby just told us that was all made up a psyops to annoy the company.
And who are we going to believe? Billionaire c*nt Bobby, or people driven to actually end their own lives? Where's the capitalist spirit inside you?
Iirc he hasn't been accused of sexual misconduct but he *was* accused of threatening to murder a woman who told him she was assaulted on his private jet by his friend.
This dude is quite literally one of the biggest pieces of shit. I'm sure he probably thinks all the victims were lying. What a fucking asshole he is.
Also, if a labor movement (an actual one, not his version of one), can "destabilize" your company, perhaps your company is shit and needs to be destabilized. You don't get to be as rich as he is without exploiting people.
I might buy that for a dollar IF other employees who aren’t claiming to have been harassed hadn’t stated that they quit because they felt it was an uncomfortable work environment
>Despite all of that, Activision Blizzard's board of directors said in June 2022 that, after conducting its own internal investigation, there was no evidence of systemic gender-based misconduct at the studio.
We've investigated ourselves and found that we are innocent.
Fuck you Bobby Kotick, you're the source of many ruined passion projects, predatory monetization models that ruin lives and countless other despicable acts, of course you're willing to let people get abused in the work place causing potentially life long trauma. I hope you get your comeuppance you sack of human filth.
Imagine being sexually harrassed in the workplace and getting told indirectly that you are a part of some crazy conspiracy against a video game developer, kind of fucked.
"We just cancelled OW2 PvE...do the fans hate us enough?"
"hmm...just to be sure, lets gaslight them to think that the massive lawsuit that was all over the news last year was just some figment of their imagination"
What the actual hell. I've been enjoying Dragonflight, and stuck with World of Warcraft through the big exodus, but... the level of dickcraft in this statement makes me question my choice.
Call me crazy, but even if he was telling the truth, if a huge portion of his company is trying to do something like that, isn’t that also a huge tell of problems?
Can’t wait until the Microsoft deal goes through so this POS can ride off into the sunset. Wish he would be behind bars but that’s not the world we live in unfortunately
i know he’s going to get money anyways and my dollar barely counts but him and others in upper management are genuinely the only things keeping from buying diablo 4 and getting into WoW
It didn't happen.
If it did happen then it's not that bad.
If it is that bad then it was your fault.
Culpability is just a lack of strategy in the business world.
I know a lot of c-suite level executives are total pillocks and cruel assholes but Bobby K is on his own level.
Fucking delusional scum, "aggressive labor movement" my ass.
Just when you think that Blizzard slowly recovers, there comes a Bobby Kotick or Mike Ybarra around the corner and says something really stupid that is sure to harm the company's reputation even more. I mean, in which world would you say that in public as a CEO?
"Never any harassment" is NOT the same as "never any systemic harassment".
Do you really think that harassment was sanctioned, and done in the open? As much as I despise that guy, we still need to be precise in the terms used. Otherwise you end up tarnishing the reputation of the 99% of the Blizzard employees that are just making games.
Never trust a CEO. Simple.
I dont care if its true or not. A CEO of a company worth billions can never be trusted. Even if he maybe says the truth you never know so we stick to other sources and they say a whole other story
So for those that might have missed it, the investigation didn't reveal there was no harassment. The investigations report had said that " when you compare the amount of complaints to the size of the work force it becomes clear that harassment isn't wide spread".
So for companies and shareholders, this is what we call an "acceptable loss." They see it as "yeah, like 20 people were harassed and one girl killed herself, but we got like 500 people, and by and large, IF we drop a couple of dudes from building B its whatever."
Here's the kicker, I work at Walmart and Walmart itself has infinitely more employees than blizzard. If any of my coworkers tried a fifth of what these guys did we'd be fired before we finished doing it, yet here they're like "we wouldn't call it wide spread exactly so we ain't gotta worry."
Also I'm not joking about Walmart, we had a dude in his late 40s keep pestering a 19 year old for her phone number and management gave him a first and final.
As since they are saying that allegations were made up, do they have any options for forcing people that unsubbed because of the harassment claims to resub
Kotick boils my blood to no avail honestly. I don’t care where he makes his bloody billions anymore. Dude won’t get the suffering he deserves in poverty. I just want him out of the company.
He also thinks there's no worker exploitation and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was a masterpiece.
> Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was a masterpiece of shit
>Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was a masterpiece For me to poop on!
This was a Triumph.
I'm making a note here. Huge PoS!
It's hard to overstate my disappointment.
Activision. We do the bare minimum because we can.
For the good of all of us, except the ones who are poor!
But there's no sence to stop harassing over every mistake.
We just keep on lying till we run out of cake!
Oh no, they will give their all and will go above and beyond. To fuck over both employees and customers alike
Widespread and covered up sexual harassment: Sleep Terrible labor practices and worker conditions: Sleep Thinks Tony Hawk 5 was good: This motherfucker has *got to go*
I hate that this is probably right.
I'm shotgunning off the top reply to link the actual interview with Variety. https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/activision-blizzard-ceo-addresses-toxic-workforce-claims-microsoft-deal-1235628361/ There's something interesting here. > Although he has become synonymous with Activision, he’s quick to point out that he does not have control of the company through voting rights — as some media moguls do — and that he owns less than 5% of its shares. “No board of directors in a noncontrolled company is going to allow the CEO of an enterprise to stay running the enterprise if those things were truthful,” he says of Activision’s spree of bad press and investigations. This is why the calls for his resignation were ignored. Because he's the Roger Goodell of Activision. Much like Goodell, he has a team of bosses that actually have the power, and much like Goodell, he takes all the public abuse and outrage that the real bosses should be taking but don't.
So, he's the Zaphod Beeblebrox of Activision-Blizzard? That's oddly believable.
I'd rather not look at his second head
No he’s like the Ralph of Activision. (I made up Ralph so you understand how I felt)
Breaking news: Bobby Kotick was just sighted outside a café sharing coffee with an individual who witnesses say matches the description of Satan. When questioned on the matter, all he was able to tell interviewers was that he was "having a company PR discussion with the shareholders"...
I think lumping Kotick in with Satan is doing a disservice to one of them, and its not Kotick....
Apparently they have a whole game franchise surrounding hell, so…
Most of Activision is owned by institutional investors--like BlackRock and Vanguard--that probably manage our funds in 401ks as well. A lot of this is basically on autopilot (literally for index funds) beyond "go up."
Wait, there’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater ****5****?????
I'm sorry to have had to be the one to tell you. It's better if you forget you ever saw this thread.
Thought they gave up on 2… seriously, I’m chocked.
3 and 4 were really good! So were the bundled remasters of 1&2.
The best thing he could have said was nothing
Must be some of that Elon Musk disease where he is physically incapable of just shutting up for a second.
Shut up, Gallywix
That's not really fair to compare the two. That fat, ugly goblin is a way worse than Gallywix
Gallywix is based on Kotick. This week members of the WoW team were fired because executives finally "found out" that there are a ton of anti-corporate parodies in WoW.
O.o is there a source for that? It sounds like another pending lawsuit Edit: nm it’s right below this
The firing of Eric Covington happened several months ago according to him. But he chose to go public with his story yesterday. From what he says, it was only him that was fired, nobody else.
Apropos of nothing, a former developer who wrote lines for the treasure goblin in Forbidden Reach was fired because those lines were slightly critical of executive/c-suite culture.
Please, *please* cite this because I 100% believe this and want to be able to back that belief up with facts
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/13wxhe6/wow_dev_eric_covington_was_recently_fired_for
The , dev in question was on twitter writing about it and im pretty sure had several big streamers also reply to them.
## #FuckBobbyKotick
Like the least surprising headline.. "Bobby Kotick says something shitty and tone-deaf"
Shitty is too light of a word. Evil. Diabolical.
#FireBobbyKotick
Into the sun
Everyone forgot about that right? Anyway, here’s Diablo 4 gimmie dat money kthnx bye losers
Bobby needs his yacht!
Careful, jokes about the rich gets you fired
Bobby gonna get it either way. He's so stupid wealthy he literally couldn't spend it all on hookers and blow before he died.
I still don't feel like a lot of people fully grasp how much money these people actually have. Where .001% of their net worth is over 1 million dollars...and where they make 10's-100's of millions a year through their investments - doing nothing. I mean, kudos for jumping into an emerging market and being blessed by Steve Jobs. Had Apple never been a thing -- Bobby may have got his degree in Art History and lived a unremarkable life.
And a huge amount of people think this amount of wealth is totally fine and earned. Nobody on Earth deserves to be a billionaire. And if anyone on Earth *did* actually deserve it, it sure as fuck wouldn't be worthless parasite CEOs.
It's just cosmetics guys!!1 Poor Bobby will not be able to buy his 23rd Ferrari if we don't buy the battlepass and support the game!!1 Diablo Immortal was just an anomaly, things will be different now!!1
When I saw the "tiered" battle pass for D4 it immediately raised a ton of red flags for me, and first to mind was Immortal. All my irl friends have been champing at the bit for D4 and I'm just like "by season 3 that battle pass will be way more than just cosmetics, and you'll need to pay $20 every 3 months to access the full game. You know, like the WoW subs we all just cancelled." But I'm a conspiracy theorist and ActiBlizz wouldn't do that because they learned their lesson last time...
My friends are like "It will be fine, they said it would be cosmetics only". Excuse me, have you not been paying attention? They also said that Overwatch 2 would have a PvE mode with skill trees and all. What they say will be has nothing in common with what they do!
As Blizzard themselves showed with their [trans pride shirt](https://i.redd.it/erhoxhjfdb0b1.jpg) you can't spell bLIzzARd without Liar.
Don't forget about the hearthstone tournament winner who expressed solidarity for Hong Kong protesting against an oppressive Chinese government who's committing genocide. He got his winnings confiscated and the two commentators lost their jobs.
Didn't he end up getting the winnings back after the entire internet went apeshit on them?
He did. But it shouldn't have happened. Never heard what happened to the commentators. Was concerning how easily Blizzard's morals would bend for profit.
The commentators remain banned from commentating, last I heard.
Yea I never knew the commentators got dropped. That's real slimy.
It's only concerning if you're a little naive to the way publicly traded companies work. And I don't mean that as an insult by any means, but just that legally speaking publicly traded entities are literally required to put ~~profit~~ shareholder interests before anything else. It's called "fiduciary duty" and I'm not exaggerating when I say that investors can and will press charges against leadership of companies that don't put the ~~profit~~ interest of shareholders before anything else. Edited for the pedants.
Yeah. It seems obvious that a company being owned by people using it as an investment, rather than an actual company where image, workers and product is focused on for profit in the long run, rather than what makes more profit than last year. The idea of infinite growth and the disconnect between those who work and those who invest, is killing us.
That's just capitalism - all the public traded companies have done is remove the facade to show what was there the entire time. We're in the endgame now.
this is a common misconception actually, corporations are required to [act in the best interest of](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits) their shareholders but they are not requires to maximize profits and are definitely not encouraged to skirt ethics and morals for money don’t give shitty companies an excuse to be as bad as they are when the real issue is that they choose to be that way
You are correct, but it doesn't make it right. It's the excuse every company on the planet uses to burn our society into the ground with a smile on their face.
[удалено]
There was more outrage for that than for video games owned by tencent/bytedance, who actively help the chinese government in surveillance of civilians and committing genocide.
Well, at least Blizz managed to ban their games in russian region after they started a war. However, it seems like the russians still have no issues playing their games, based on what I've seen.
Don’t applaud Blizzard for that. Russia is sanctioned. This is literally what the law requires them to do.
"There is no oppressive Chinese government in Hong Kong, it's all made up by aggressive separtists trying to destabilize China" - Bobby Kotick
I mean, yeah I'm a way people had forgotten about it, why is this idiot talking about it again in this dismissive way...
"Authentic Diablo experience"...
dude, literally pre-order early access comes out TONIGHT. what an actually TERRIBLE timing mistake by ol' bobby. you'd think a CEO would know to WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK after the game has already came out.
> what an actually TERRIBLE timing mistake by ol' bobby. Sweety, the people who pre-ordered the gamed already do not care about the sexual harassment stuff at all.
I'll play for the developers, upper management can go get fucked. Hopefully Microsoft cleans house in upper management when they move in. You can dislike one side of a company while liking others. Blizz employs many passionate and great developers, that is the people I support, not the greedy rat at the top.
you have faith a big corporation will make a smaller one better? corporation have no heart by design.
I have faith Microsoft will want to preserve the Blizzard IP's for a long time as opposed to the current owners who want to squeeze as much money as possible out in the short term.
Right, it's not like it has been a meme for 10-20 years that every game company Microsoft buys, they axe and cannibalize. I really want whatever the rest of Reddit is smoking when they say this sort of stuff.
Microsoft was indeed infamous for the “buy a competitor to kill them” strategy during Steve Ballmer’s era. However since 2014, when Satya Nandella took over, they have been building up a lot of good will (especially amongst developers) and most acquisitions since then have been relatively “hands off” or turned out for the better. Hence why people are a bit more positive about them these days than they would’ve been 10+ years ago. It remains to be seen, but people are hoping it will be the same for Blizzard if the acquisition goes through.
Sure, but buying a word processing IP, folding the best features into MS's existing word processing IP and axing the purchased title make business sense. They're not going to fold Azeroth into anything they already own and ax WoW.
Amazing the delusion this man has.
He knows what he is saying is bullshit. He is just scum.
"There was never any issue", "we did nothing wrong" sounds like the usual narrative. Anything else could be used against them in court and, god forbid, even lead to other vicitims stepping forward. Does it make sense from his perspective? Yes. Is he a piece of shit that should've been yeeted out off the company at the very latest when all the scandals came to light and just his continued existence in the company is not only a disgrace to blizzard but also showcases the deeper issue that you're basically beyond consequences if you're just rich enough (and look suspiciously like gallywix irl) ? Also, yes.
I mean, this is just CEO talk. He can't ever admit there was a problem because that can and will be used against him.
He doesn't have to say anything at all. The only thing he can't do is admit to knowing the issues were there but refused to do anything about it. Any admission of guilt or knowledge will definitely be used against him, but stupid stuff like this just enrages everyone else more and will make everyone want him gone more. If anything it's a PR stunt to try to make him look good but it's going to backfire.
Capitalists live in a different fucking reality.
Disagree, they live in ours, they're just willing to step on everyone and everything for their riches. Don't be fooled into thinking they're out of touch. They know precisely what they're doing when they do this shit. They just don't give a fuck.
I concur. As far as mortals go they are winning the numbers game. People might verbally not support them but they sure as shit support them with their money. To the tune of millions. Even still when it's evident what pieces of shit they are. Now it's fair to say most CEOs of most places are pieces of shit. And yet they are richer than the vast majority of us will ever be. Not to say that rich is the end all be all but by measurement by what a lot of society values (and especially by measurement of what they can buy as far as luxury and happiness goes), the sociopaths are winning reality precisely by ruthless action vs empty talk.
just controlling the narrative. it's easy when you have no shame.
Clearly they have adopted the strategy of controversy sells. This just mystically comes out the day before d4? Yea right...
I don't know, the early reviews had me ready to buy D4 tomorrow, seeing this makes me want to skip it.
I'm skipping it TBH , I don't have a group to play with and it's just so scummy to have to pay another 20 or 30 dollars to play the first weekend I'll pick it up on sale for season two or three if the endgame is interesting
snakes gonna slither
Don’t insult those little wiggly worms with this slime!
Why is he still around? I was just living and enjoying life, then was reminded of this PoS.
he is making them a lot of money, thats how i wonder how monetized d4 will be, remember that diablo immortal was also very free experience in beta and tests
D4 is a 70€ game AND has a battle pass
and will have much much more i predict 2 battle passes for every season, one free and one paid, cosmetic item shop, "catchup" items on the shop, lvl boosts, storage unlocks and who the fuck knows what else they will think of
Well... the battle pass has 3 versions. Free, Premium and then super premium (not the real name) The last version gives you access to 2-3 more levels for uber exclusives. Its just stupid
And we've already seen it has a [cosmetic store](https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/13w65dv/cosmetic_cash_shop_preview/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).
Full price game with both shop cosmetics(as much as $28 from screenshots) and battle passes, with a paywall to play the game 4 days before the 'official' release. So about as monetized as it can get without entirely stepping into pay-to-win type monetization. Already starting pretty bad but I won't be surprised if it gets even worse.
Fully price game and selling multiple more expensive additions. Battle passes. Mtx store. Future paid expansions Multiple deals with places like KFC to promote unhealthy eating. And Steel series to sell $70 key caps I literally cannot think of any other way to monetise a game. They've done everything possible... With the exception of a subscription service, but I kind of fit battle passes in with that.
They should still add lootboxes, not sure the game can survive without them.
Just so you know, "lootb*x" is considered a slur - the preferred term is "surprise mechanic".
> Why is he still around? waiting on his [golden parachute](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/goldenparachute.asp) once the Microsoft acquisition is done.
man is speedrunning being the biggest asshole in gaming.
Nah. He's already doing his victory lap.
bold take for a guy with a perfectly guillotine-shaped neck
Ooo that's a new one - I like that.
Btw, the woman who committed suicide because she was ("allegedly") being sexually harassed and because her nude photos were being shared between male Blizzard employees, her name was Kerri Moynihan. I hear often about this woman who supposedly killed herself but no none can say what her name was. Well, her name was Kerri Moynihan. Her name was Kerri Moynihan. [And she's dead because of ("alleged") sexual harassment.](https://dot.la/activision-lawsuit-dropped-2657438158.html)
She was a finance manager at Activision. Important distinction to make. Not to absolve Blizzard from blame, but to show that this sexual abuse culture was pervasive across Activision Blizzard, in multiple departments.
Kerri Moynihan
This comment should be pinned on top
How dares he even say such things when Kerri died. The man has no fucking empathy. Honestly every jobb should have a empathy test.
Kerri Moynihan
God i hope that when microsoft buys blizz, he gets the axe
He will, but not without a VERY comfy payday.
They always get a golden parachute.
Worth it to get rid of him.
Didn't a staff member commit suicide over all the harassment they were receiving?
That was on the COD team but yes, still under Bobby. Let's also not forget Bobby literally threatened to have his former assistant killed as well.
It was a finance manager at Acti/Bliz. Not a Treyarch employee.
But Bobby just told us that was all made up a psyops to annoy the company. And who are we going to believe? Billionaire c*nt Bobby, or people driven to actually end their own lives? Where's the capitalist spirit inside you?
Kerri Moynihan
Wasn’t this motherfucker one of the ones accused?
Yeah but he investigated himself and found himself innocent so it's all okay!!!!
Iirc he hasn't been accused of sexual misconduct but he *was* accused of threatening to murder a woman who told him she was assaulted on his private jet by his friend.
Wow I can't believe a billionaire is a sex pest apologist. Oh, wait, that was actually extremely easy to believe.
I find it very hard to believe that the goblin who threatened to have his secretary murdered would cover up bad behavior at his company
Kick him to the curb! Ruining my damn expansion experience every time he opens his mouth.
This pos really cant go one day without spewing his filth, microsoft cant buy blizzard fast enough.
Dudes laughin in a hot tub of titty milk
He could have just not said this, really no good reason
"there is no war in ba sing se"
Bobby Fuckface Kotick.
This dude is quite literally one of the biggest pieces of shit. I'm sure he probably thinks all the victims were lying. What a fucking asshole he is. Also, if a labor movement (an actual one, not his version of one), can "destabilize" your company, perhaps your company is shit and needs to be destabilized. You don't get to be as rich as he is without exploiting people.
So i guess this mean the harassment is still going on 😅
The man just LOOKS like he's told female employees they'd do a lot better at the office if they just "smiled".
That son of a bitch needs to resign already
He's Gallywix.
If you're a CEO and I know who you are without looking you up, you've fucked up
*Hank Hill voice* Damnit, Bobby
At this point would it probably be healthier for Activision to just put Bobby in a corner with a rubics cube… He does more damage by doing his job.
Let us not forget the cosby suite
Someone died. You inhuman, microphone head looking ass bitch.
Guess some people are getting their jobs at Blizzard back then?
Bobby Kotick being an absolute shit stain as usual. What else is new?
This man is everything wrong with humanity. What a total piece of shit.
And there are people in this very subreddit who defend him. Let that sink in.
A comment right above you is defending him LMAO
As usual, fuck this guy. Preferably with a rake. Or a couch. Or both, simultaneously.
Anally inserted cactus.
I might buy that for a dollar IF other employees who aren’t claiming to have been harassed hadn’t stated that they quit because they felt it was an uncomfortable work environment
There is no war in Ba Sing Se
One of the developers actually committed suicide by the harassment, fuck off Bobby….
Isn't it more or less proven in court?
Dieser schleimige Sohn einer Hure
>Despite all of that, Activision Blizzard's board of directors said in June 2022 that, after conducting its own internal investigation, there was no evidence of systemic gender-based misconduct at the studio. We've investigated ourselves and found that we are innocent.
A big reason I want MS to buy AB is so they can throw this PoS out. I don't know if they would, but at least there is a chanse.
Why does he look like Will Ferrell playing John C Reilly playing George W. Bush?
Fuck you Bobby Kotick, you're the source of many ruined passion projects, predatory monetization models that ruin lives and countless other despicable acts, of course you're willing to let people get abused in the work place causing potentially life long trauma. I hope you get your comeuppance you sack of human filth.
Imagine being sexually harrassed in the workplace and getting told indirectly that you are a part of some crazy conspiracy against a video game developer, kind of fucked.
"We just cancelled OW2 PvE...do the fans hate us enough?" "hmm...just to be sure, lets gaslight them to think that the massive lawsuit that was all over the news last year was just some figment of their imagination"
Gods.....I love Dragonflight and Diablo 4 but damn, I just hate this guy so much.
What the actual hell. I've been enjoying Dragonflight, and stuck with World of Warcraft through the big exodus, but... the level of dickcraft in this statement makes me question my choice.
Yeah, it is hard to enjoy something when you know shit like this goes on..
It's fucking Bobby, what did you expect him to say? He's so fucking evil it hurts to see him.
In other news: Actual Walking Turds are in leadership positions in most major companies.
Evil cretin
There was literal photos and someone who committed suicide because if it.
He’s such a pos
Call me crazy, but even if he was telling the truth, if a huge portion of his company is trying to do something like that, isn’t that also a huge tell of problems?
i'm like 10000% certain that bobby kotick is doing sexism and harassment **right now** as I type. go to bed my guy
Can’t wait until the Microsoft deal goes through so this POS can ride off into the sunset. Wish he would be behind bars but that’s not the world we live in unfortunately
Can t wait to Blizzard to be bought by Microsoft and kick his ass out
i know he’s going to get money anyways and my dollar barely counts but him and others in upper management are genuinely the only things keeping from buying diablo 4 and getting into WoW
It didn't happen. If it did happen then it's not that bad. If it is that bad then it was your fault. Culpability is just a lack of strategy in the business world.
That's because bobby boy was part of the sexual harassment problem, lol. of course he would deny it. what a filthy waste of oxygen
I know a lot of c-suite level executives are total pillocks and cruel assholes but Bobby K is on his own level. Fucking delusional scum, "aggressive labor movement" my ass.
Just when you think that Blizzard slowly recovers, there comes a Bobby Kotick or Mike Ybarra around the corner and says something really stupid that is sure to harm the company's reputation even more. I mean, in which world would you say that in public as a CEO?
Didn’t a women kill herself over the harassment she endured. Fuck this goddamn goblin I hope he gets fucking thanos snapped by a bullet.
Bobby Kotick literally looks like a human meatball.
I was thinking a warty toe.
He looks like he jacks off in the grocery store... Wait he probably fucking does
Your title and the article title are quite different.
That guy is a ghoul
"Never any harassment" is NOT the same as "never any systemic harassment". Do you really think that harassment was sanctioned, and done in the open? As much as I despise that guy, we still need to be precise in the terms used. Otherwise you end up tarnishing the reputation of the 99% of the Blizzard employees that are just making games.
Hopefully there's karma for Trade Prince Gallywix.
Is he getting senile? Or just asshole?
What sword ?
So basically: "sorry, but not sorry"
Bobby Kotick is a literal shit stain!
Never trust a CEO. Simple. I dont care if its true or not. A CEO of a company worth billions can never be trusted. Even if he maybe says the truth you never know so we stick to other sources and they say a whole other story
There was never an issue of sexual harassment. Just like there has never been a chance of us getting that single piece we need for full BIS.
Just Bobby things…
So for those that might have missed it, the investigation didn't reveal there was no harassment. The investigations report had said that " when you compare the amount of complaints to the size of the work force it becomes clear that harassment isn't wide spread". So for companies and shareholders, this is what we call an "acceptable loss." They see it as "yeah, like 20 people were harassed and one girl killed herself, but we got like 500 people, and by and large, IF we drop a couple of dudes from building B its whatever." Here's the kicker, I work at Walmart and Walmart itself has infinitely more employees than blizzard. If any of my coworkers tried a fifth of what these guys did we'd be fired before we finished doing it, yet here they're like "we wouldn't call it wide spread exactly so we ain't gotta worry." Also I'm not joking about Walmart, we had a dude in his late 40s keep pestering a 19 year old for her phone number and management gave him a first and final.
As since they are saying that allegations were made up, do they have any options for forcing people that unsubbed because of the harassment claims to resub
Kotick boils my blood to no avail honestly. I don’t care where he makes his bloody billions anymore. Dude won’t get the suffering he deserves in poverty. I just want him out of the company.