Kotick says Microsoft isn’t a ‘creative’ company

The huge Redmond corp is too big to adapt as quickly as any creative company must, writes Shaun Prescott.

Former Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick gave a frank interview to the Grit Podcast last month, wherein he ridiculed former EA boss John Riccitiello and spoke candidly about the sale of Activision-Blizzard to Microsoft. As some have long suspected, the sale was precipitated by the desire of both Kotick and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to purchase TikTok’s American interests during the first Trump administration. Kotick had an advantage, in the sense that he was closer to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, but Activision’s pockets, while astonishingly deep, were not as astonishingly deep as Microsoft’s. The solution? Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard combining forces to buy TikTok. The call between Nadella and Kotick to discuss this possibility proved historical for another reason, because that was when the duo first discussed the possibility of Microsoft buying…

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APC (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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