Former Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, widely regarded as one of the worst CEOs in gaming, believes someone else deserves that title in a textbook case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Speaking on the Grit podcast, the former Activision Blizzard CEO and former EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon revealed that they used to consider former EA and Unity CEO John Riccitiello as the worst CEO in the video game industry. At Activision, they thought that he was so bad that they hoped he would continue to be CEO so that they wouldn't have to worry about EA, and Activision would have paid for Riccitiello to be the EA CEO forever. Quite a statement, considering everything that happened at the publisher during Kotick's long tenure, which included prolonged workplace harassment, of which he was reportedly aware for years, that led to a lawsuit in California.
Bobby Kotick has been Activision Blizzard's CEO for over two decades, sitting at the head of the publisher since he took over in 1991. He stayed as CEO for a few weeks after Microsoft's acquisition of the publisher finally went through as per Phil Spencer's request, and finally stepped down on January 1st, 2024. He has always been regarded by many as the actual worst CEO in gaming, although the former EA and Unity CEO could give him a run for his money, as Riccitiello has been involved in a multitude of anti-consumer controversies, including attempting back in late 2023 to introduce a runtime fee for the Unity engine which would essentially charge developer per install. The backlash was so severe that Riccitiello had to step down as CEO of the company shortly after the whole fiasco.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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