The former CEO of Activision at the former CEO of EA: “He was the worst CEO of video games.”

Both Activision and Electronic Arts, at least before Microsoft’s acquisition of the former, can demand that they are publishers at the third party. So it is not surprising that the two companies have been some competition in the past. This competition seems to have become a personality between the former CEO of Activision Bobby Kotik and former CEO of EA John Riccitiello, like Kotick EXplained in an episode of Beloved PodcastShow focusing on the business managed by the capitalism company Kleiner Perkins.

KOTICK appeared in the show alongside the great creativity officials at EA Bing Gordon, who left this role in 2008 after ten years.

“I don’t just say this because (Bing) is sitting here.” Our fear was that Bing was running (electronic arts). We had paid the price of Riccitiello to stay the CEO forever. We thought he was the worst CEO of video games. ”

Gordon stopped the explicit agreement with Kouth about Riccitiello as an executive president, but it means that his departure from EA was linked to the leadership of Riccitiello.

Despite this part, KOTICK confirmed during the podcast that Activision and EA have shared the similar work goals that they thought about merging on multiple occasions. The two companies sometimes talked about EA Buying Activision “A set of times”, according to Cotik.

“Their works were better than our ways,” Kotik admitted.

Riccitiello resigned from EA in 2013 due to the loss of financial goals, then joined the Unity Technologies as CEO the following year. While the CEO of Riccitiello has supervised the digital tools for Weta as part of a batch to expand the unit beyond games to produce films and entertainment. Riccitiello Unity left in 2023 after announcing a catastrophic policy that was charged with the engine with the download that was quickly deported.

Kotick itself of Activision Blizzard in 2023 after being acquired by Microsoft. While the CEO of Activision Blizzard, the California Housing and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against the publisher for allegations of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. According to the Wall Street Journal reportKotik threatened to kill his assistant in an audio mail, which is Activision spokesman has not denied But he made it clear that KOTICK apologized for it.