2023-12-20 20:51:27
We already knew that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King by Microsoft would lead to the departure of Bobby Kotick at the start of 2024 and it will ultimately be a little bit earlier. But he’s not alone, and Xbox is reorganizing itself once more.
Bobby Kotick leaves and is not replaced
Bobby Kotick was officially supposed to remain the boss of Activision Blizzard King until the end of the year, and we now know his departure date. The controversial CEO will leave office on December 29, 2023, at the end of this week.
We might wonder who would take over, but the position was simply eliminated. Microsoft has not named anyone in his place and the leaders of the various Activision Blizzard King entities will report directly to Matt Booty, promoted last October to head all Xbox studios, including those of Bethesda. Information made official by Phil Spencer, boss of Xbox, in an internal memo retrieved by TheVerge.
Earlier today, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick officially announced that Friday, December 29, 2023 would be his last day at Microsoft Gaming. Under Bobby’s leadership, Activision Blizzard, in its many incarnations, has been an enduring pillar of video games. Whether it’s Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush Saga or other titles, its teams have created beloved franchises and entertained hundreds of millions of gamers for decades. I want to thank Bobby for his invaluable contribution to this industry, for his partnership in closing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and for his collaboration following that closing, and I wish him and his family the best for the rest of his career.
With Bobby’s imminent departure, we are taking the next step in Activision Blizzard’s alignment with Microsoft Gaming, making the following organizational changes:
Thomas Tippl (vice president of Activision Blizzard), Rob Kostich (president of Activision Publishing), Mike Ybarra (president of Blizzard Entertainment) and Tjodolf Sommestad (president of King) will report to Matt Booty (president of Game Content and Studios ). The management teams of Activision Publishing, Blizzard and King will remain in place, with no changes to the management structure of the studios and business units.
Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer) will report to Dave McCarthy (Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Gaming).
Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer) rendra compte à Cynthia Per-Lee (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Human Resources).
Grant Dixton (General Counsel) will report to Linda Norman (Corporate Vice President, CELA).
Armin Zerza (CFO) will continue to report to Tim Stuart (Corporate Vice President of Finance), as we announced to the finance team in October.
Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will continue to help us during the transition until March 2024.
Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer) will be leaving ABK at the end of January. She agreed to help Kari Perez (General Manager of Communications) develop a transition plan for ABK’s communications team, which will report to Kari. In addition, Humam Sakhnini (vice president of Blizzard and King) will leave at the end of December. We thank Humam and Lulu for their leadership over the past year.
For most of you, your day-to-day work will remain the same – it’s still regarding business as usual to deliver game-changing experiences to more players around the world. At the leadership level, these changes will provide the clarity and accountability needed to achieve our ambitious goals and foster a culture that is welcoming, empowering and committed to play for all. We have an exciting gaming schedule for 2024 across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King, and Xbox Game Studios, and I know we all look forward to sharing more details with our gaming communities when the time is right.
Phil
Matt Booty also revamps Zenimax
The departure of Lulu Meservey is not really a surprise when we follow what the communications director has said in recent months. She had, for example, posted messages on Slack saying that unionizing employees might lead to lower raises and difficult confrontations with management.
Other changes mentioned will take place between now and March, and Matt Booty also announced some changes within ZeniMax and Bethesda, such as the appointment of Jill Braff to lead the development teams at these studios.
Jill has a wealth of experience in gaming and entertainment, with previous roles at Nintendo, Sega, Glu Mobile, Home Shopping Network and at Warner Bros. developing online and marketing businesses for The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She was our lead on integration work when ZeniMax/Bethesda joined Xbox, and through that work she got to know many of their teams and leaders well.
Jill will be responsible for leading the ZeniMax/Bethesda game development teams, which will continue to operate as limited integration entities, as well as continuing to oversee the Microsoft Casual Games team. Todd Howard, Todd Vaughn, Matt Firor, Paul Jensen and Heather Cooper will report to Jill.
Jamie Leder will remain in his role as CEO of ZeniMax/Bethesda, reporting to me, and will continue to support the ongoing integration work. To support the development of the ZeniMax/Bethesda games portfolio, Robert Gray (ZeniMax Quality Assurance) and Timothy Beggs (ZeniMax Release Management) will take over from Todd Vaughn.
Matt Booty
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