Robert A. "Bobby" Kotick is an American businessman who serves as president and
CEO of Activision Blizzard. After starting his business career as
co-founder of a software development company in the 1980s, in 1986 he founded
International Consumer Technologies, serving as president until 1995. He
subsequently purchased a controlling stake in 4Kids Entertainment, serving as
CEO until 1990. In 1990 Kotick was part of the reformation of the video game
company Activision, becoming CEO and overseeing a number of major
acquisitions. With Activision Blizzard since the 2007 merger of the two
companies, on February 16, 2012, he was elected an outside director of The
Coca-Cola Company. Career
= Early years and acquisitions = Kotick began his career in 1983 while he
was still in college at the University of Michigan, when he began creating
software for the Apple II with financial backing from Steve Wynn. Kotick credits
Steve Jobs for advising him to drop out of college to pursue his entrepreneurial
interests in the software business. In 1987, he tried to acquire Commodore
International. He planned to remove the keyboard and disk drive from the Amiga
500 and turn it into the first 16 bit video game system. He was unsuccessful
in persuading Commodore's then-Chairman Irving Gould to sell control of the
company. He subsequently purchased a controlling stake in Leisure Concepts,
Nintendo's licensing agent, which was renamed 4Kids Entertainment.
Kotick and his partner Brian Kelly bought a 25% stake in Activision in
December 1990, and became CEO in February 1991. Kotick also served as a
founder of International Consumer Technologies and was President from 1986
to January 1995. In 1995, International Consumer Technologies became a wholly
owned subsidiary of Activision. = Work with Activision Blizzard =
At Activision, Kotick set out to build "an institutional quality, well managed
company with a focus on the independent developer." In a 14 June 2010 interview
with gaming blog Kotaku, Kotick stated, "…[P]art of the whole philosophy of
Activision was whether you're owned outright or not, if you're a studio you
have control of your destiny, you could make decisions about who to hire,
flexibility on what products to make, how to make them, schedules appropriate
to make them, budgets." Kotick engineered the Activision
Blizzard merge, and stockholders of Activision Blizzard approved Kotick as
CEO of the combined company on 9 July 2008. In 2009, as reported by Forbes
magazine, Robert Kotick received approximately $3.2 million USD in
salary, benefits, options and incentives for his work with Activision Blizzard,
of which $953,654 was his actual salary. By 2013, Kotick was the second highest
compensated CEO in the United States, earning $64.9 million USD, mostly in
stock. Kotick has used Activision Blizzard's
industry position to push partners for changes that he maintains would benefit
the gaming community. In July 2009, Kotick threatened to stop making games
for the PlayStation 3 platform if Sony did not cut the price of the console.
Kotick also urged the British government to reward Activision for continuing to
invest in the country's pool of game developers by providing Activision with
the same kinds of tax incentives provided by Canada, Singapore and
eastern bloc countries. Kotick has launched an Independent Games
Competition with $500,000 in total available prize money for small
developers working with new platforms and has stated that "keeping passion in
game development is something that's important to him."
In October 2009, under Kotick’s direction, Activision Blizzard launched
Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit public benefit corporation, which helps
soldiers transition to civilian careers after their military service, with a
commitment to create thousands of jobs for veterans including those returning
from the Middle East. Kotick recruited an advisory board composed of veterans
representing the various service branches.
= Boards = Kotick was also a Yahoo! board member
from March 2003 to August 2008, and is currently a board member for the Center
for Early Education, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tony Hawk
Foundation. On February 16, 2012, he was elected an
outside director of The Coca-Cola Company.
Gaming controversy Kotick has at times been a controversial
figure in the gaming community. In part this can be attributed to advocating a
business strategy focused on only developing intellectual property which
can be, in his words, "exploited" over a long period, to the exclusion of new
titles which cannot guarantee sequels. In responding to why Activision Blizzard
chose not to publish certain games following the Activision/Blizzard
merger, he stated that focusing on franchises that "have the potential to
be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and
have the potential to become $100 million franchises" has "worked very
well for Activision Blizzard". Kotick described this business strategy as
"narrow and deep" or "annualizable" and cited it as key to attracting
development talent who may not be drawn to "speculative franchises".
Kotick also created a stir when commenting on Activision Blizzard's
peripheral-driven franchises. During Activision Blizzard's Q2 2009 financial
results conference, Kotick was challenged over his "comfort level"
around high prices attached to "new games that have some expensive
controllers" and said, "if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even
further." While Spong took the comment at face value, Gamesindustry.biz thought
the comment was a joke, but could be seen as "insensitive at a time when
consumers are likely to be feeling the economic pinch".
A frequent complaint from the gaming press is the gap between Kotick and
Activision's chief consumers. Ars Technica editor Ben Kuchera wrote,
"Kotick doesn't play his games, and it shows." Video game developer Tim Schafer
said Kotick "doesn't have to be as much of a dick" in his attitude towards
Activision's customers. Gaming blog Kotaku reported, however, that Kotick
confessed to a passion for video games that "has never really gone away," and
"rattle[d] off an impressive list of consoles he's owned in the past and
games he loved." Personal life
A native of Long Island, New York, Kotick resides in California with his
family. He divorced his wife in late 2012. He had a cameo role in the 2011
film Moneyball. See also
List of video game developers References
External links Media related to Robert Kotick at
Wikimedia Commons