Name: Former Activision CEO claims they were right to sell to Microsoft
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T04:40:27.395Z
Duration: 5 min 22 s
Description: Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is responding to a lawsuit by claiming he was right to sell Activision to Microsoft a few years ago. The lawsuit claims Kotick rushed through the sale of Activision in order to keep his job and insulate himself from claims he knew about widespread reports of sexual harassment at the company.

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is responding to a lawsuit by claiming he was right to sell Activision to Microsoft a few years ago. The lawsuit claims Kotick rushed through the sale of Activision in order to keep his job and insulate himself from claims he knew about widespread reports of sexual harassment at the company.

San Francisco

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has responded to a lawsuit from investors by defending the company's $69 billion sale to Microsoft, citing declining console sales and a significant drop in Call of Duty sales. Kotick denies allegations that he orchestrated the sale for personal benefit or to avoid fallout from workplace misconduct claims, though he did not provide evidence for his sales decline claims.

The gaming industry continues to face challenges, with Meta announcing major layoffs and the closure of several VR studios. Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus subscribers will see new games added to the service, and PC gamers can access a new Humble Choice bundle.

Former Activision CEO claims they were right to sell to Microsoft

Happy Wednesday everybody Max here with your fix of gaming news coming up former Activision CEO Bobby Kodak has some harsh words about the state Of gaming meta shuts down three VR studios and the PlayStation Plus game catalog gets some awesome additions next week. Let's get into it Former Activision boss Bobby Kodak has made a number of claims about the state of his former company Call of Duty and the console market as a whole as part of a response to a lawsuit Real quick to get you up to speed Kodak left Activision Blizzard in 2023 after the company sold to Microsoft for 69 billion dollars the lawsuit in question was filed by investors who claimed Kodak rigged the sale to keep his job and 400 million dollars in change of control benefits as well as to insulate himself from widespread claims of sexual harassment within the company Kodak has denied any wrongdoing and issued a defense that includes the following statement quote today Given that console sales are at an all-time low and Call of Duty sales are off over 60% from the prior year Plaintiffs should be expressing extreme gratitude for the foresight Activision leadership demonstrated in consummating this Transaction game file who first reported on this points out that Kodak failed to provide evidence of his 60% sales decline claim and either Microsoft Nor Activision have yet announced a sales figure for black ops 7 However Kodak isn't too far off base Otherwise in the US November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales and physical software dollar sales The market has seen since 1995 Xbox series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year making it the company's worst month on record That said you should be thanking me is quite a ballsy rebuttal when a major factor in Kodak's departure was a 2021 lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over workplace misconduct and discrimination while he was in charge of the company to many Kodak's departure seemed less like a Demonstration of a keen business acumen and more like pulling the ripcord when things got a little turbulent though I suppose that is also a pretty smart business move What do y'all think about this is gaming a sinking ship or is this just a rough patch or on a more depressing note? If you had 400 million dollars, what would you spend it on? I would invent a new sport like hot air balloon jousting or perhaps jumbo curling or I don't know Maybe I'd help people sound off in the comments below with your wildest millionaire fantasies Moving on elsewhere in the world of depressing business news meta is making sweeping cuts to its VR gaming division as the company shifts focus away from the metaverse Bloomberg reports the company is laying off around 10% of staff at its reality labs division as part of sweeping cuts set to affect more Than a thousand people this includes the closure of a number of VR first studios including twisted pixel the studio behind last month's Deadpool VR Armature studio who gave us Resident Evil 4 VR and Sanzaru games developers of Asgard's Wrath What really sucks about this is that it's not like meta is shutting down a department that it created It's closing studios that it only recently acquired twisted pixel and Sanzaru games would have both celebrated their 20th anniversaries this year Twisted pixel got its start with XBLA darlings like missplosion man and the maw and was briefly acquired by Xbox before going Independent and then getting scooped up by meta and rolled into oculus labs They might not have been making millions selling game of the year contenders But these were teams that had been consistently shipping games for well over a decade before meta bought them on a whim and now barely Five years later They're being shuttered not to be morbid But it's a little like a rich kid buying a pet and then having it put to sleep the second he gets tired of taking Care of it rather than finding it a new home or letting it run free So best-case scenario we see some of these teams forming new studios that aren't beholden to the whims of a tech giant But at the very least hopefully the developers affected by this get back on their feet sooner rather than later Now finally some good news next week PlayStation Plus premium and extra subscribers We'll have some new games to play on November 20th The PS Plus game catalog will get the following additions for starters a couple of my personal favorites from recent years There is Resident Evil village, which is awesome and well worth replaying before Requiem drops next month There's also like a dragon infinite wealth, which was my personal game of the year for 2024 It's absolutely bonkers. And then there's expeditions a mudrunner game, which is kind of like Death Stranding But you're a truck and there's more physics and obviously mud There's also a quiet place the road ahead Darkest dungeon to the exit eight art of rally and a little to the left All of these are on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 with the exception of a quiet place Which I'm guessing doesn't work so hot on ps4 because the fan is too loud But I'm bump premium subscribers will also get the extra special VIP treatment with one game that is exclusive to that subscription tier and that game is the ps1 classic Ridge Racer. Sorry Ridge racers, so have fun with that. All of these will be available January 20th So go take them for a spin seriously give that mudrunner game a shot if you were into Death Stranding It's really cool in a weird way That is your daily fix for Wednesday January 14th If you want something to play right now on PC go grab this month's humble choice for just $14.99 January's lineup includes Sonic Frontiers Tomb Raider 4 to 6 remastered hunt showdown 1896 entry in Odyssey to HD nice day for fishing metal slug tactics settlement survival and Wizard of Legend 2 This month's choice is available through February 3rd. So head to humble bundle comm and start playing today. I am max Scoville I'm done listing games at you. That is your fix and for everything gaming. You're already in the right place. I GM I'll see you around everybody

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