Controversial boss of Activision Blizzard for nearly 32 years, Bobby Kotick will officially resign from his position on December 29 and bid farewell in an email published on the company’s blog. A departure which is not really a surprise. Indeed, the company had only confirmed the presence of Bobby Kotick until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition within the framework of the acquisition by Microsoft.
More surprising, however, is that no replacement has been named to take over from him. Microsoft indeed seems to be banking on the same strategy as with Bethesda. Thus, the leaders of Activision Blizzard’s various departments will all report to Matt Booty, recently promoted to President of Content and Studios. The latter now has Bethesda, Activision Blizzard and Xbox Game Studios under his management.
If Microsoft retains a large part of the management team, other departures are already planned. Thus, Lulu Meservey, director of communications for Activision Blizzard, will leave the company at the end of January. Humam Sakhnini, current vice-president of Blizzard and King, will leave at the end of December. Other executives are expected to leave by the end of March.
Departures but not only
This management reshuffle is not only synonymous with departure since Jill Braff is appointed head of the ZeniMax and Bethesda studios. So creative leaders like Todd Howard will have to report to him. News confirmed by a note from Matt Booty.
“Today we are announcing Jill Braff as head of ZeniMax/Bethesda 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. Todd Howard, Todd Vaughn, Matt Firor, Paul Jensen and Heather Cooper will report to Jill. »
Matt Booty
Microsoft is therefore continuing its process of integrating Activision Blizzard into its business and entrusting Matt Booty with more responsibilities than ever.