Former Activision CEO reckons Riccitiello was ‘the worst CEO in video games’

Bobbt Kotick wasn't exactly a fan favourite figure of the games industry, but he may be right about one thing. In a recent interview, Kotick spoke on his view of “the worst CEO in video games” – John Riccitiello. 

Kotick left Activision Blizzard in late 2023, after completing the merger with Microsoft. Since then, he has kept a pretty low profile, rarely appearing in the news. That changed this week thanks to an interview (spotted by VGC), in which Kotick spoke quite candidly about his view of one CEO competitor.

Kotick admitted that as a rival, Activision “would have paid for Riccitiello to stay as CEO [of EA] forever”. While they viewed Riccitiello as “the worst CEO in video games”, they were worried that EA's COO at the time, Bing Gordon, would take over as CEO. John Riccitiello ended up running EA up until 2013, after which Andrew Wilson took over.

Kotick may have a point here, after all, Riccitiello did reportedly float the idea of charging for ammo in Battlefield, and in 2023 he made headlines again as the CEO of Unity due to some incredibly controversial policy changes. Ultimately, he stepped down and many changes were reversed but reputational damage was sustained.

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KitGuru Says: Agree or disagree on this one? 

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