Kotick Labels Riccitiello as Gaming's Worst CEO

In a candid discussion on the Grit podcast, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick didn't hold back his thoughts on ex-EA CEO John Riccitiello, labeling him "the worst CEO in video games." Joined by former EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon, who suggested Riccitiello's leadership contributed to his exit, Kotick acknowledged that EA's business model in many ways surpassed Activision's. However, Kotick humorously remarked that they would have paid to keep Riccitiello as CEO indefinitely, emphasizing his disdain.

"I'm not saying this because [Gordon] is sitting here," Kotick clarified. "Our fear was always that Bing was going to run [EA]. And we would have paid for Riccitiello to stay a CEO forever. We thought he was the worst CEO in video games."

Riccitiello's tenure at EA ended in 2013 after a period marked by poor financial performance and significant layoffs. During his time as CEO since 2007, he proposed a controversial idea to shareholders about charging Battlefield players a dollar for each reload. Following his departure from EA, Riccitiello took the helm at Unity Technologies in 2014, only to leave in 2023 amidst a storm over proposed install fees that were eventually retracted. His time at Unity was not without its own controversies, including a public apology for referring to developers who shunned microtransactions as the "biggest f*cking idiots."

Kotick, who oversaw Activision Blizzard's historic $68.7 billion acquisition by Microsoft in 2023, revealed that EA had made several attempts to buy the Call of Duty publisher. "EA tried to buy us a bunch of times. We had merger conversations a bunch of times," Kotick noted. "We actually thought their business, in a lot of ways, was better than ours. More stable."

While Kotick's leadership at Activision Blizzard was financially successful, it was also fraught with controversy. Employees raised issues of sexism and a toxic work environment, culminating in a walkout over allegations that Kotick had failed to inform the board about serious misconduct, including rape. Activision Blizzard maintained that independent investigations disproved these allegations. In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (now the Civil Rights Department) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, accusing it of fostering a retaliatory "frat boy" culture. The dispute was settled in December 2023 for $54 million, with the Civil Rights Department finding no substantiation for claims of systemic sexual harassment or improper actions by the board.

During the podcast, Kotick also critiqued Universal's 2016 adaptation of Activision Blizzard's Warcraft, bluntly stating it was "one of the worst movies I've ever seen."