When he bought the bankrupt Activision for the price of a moderately priced home in 1991.
Still in his 20s. Younger than a lot of WoW players.
He was basically still a stupid kid at the time but managed to turn that small investment into a games industry juggernaut.
As much as I dislike the man for what he’s done to commodify gaming, you’ve got to admire, no… hmmm…. Find interesting?… that achievement.
Microsoft is a whale shark.
To be fair, with all the c’cane people did in the 80’s, 28 in 1991 would be like 48 in today’s years.
If only I were a sociopath who only cared about making money, then maybe I could achieve great things like Bobby has.
Different economic times and privileged upbringing? Nah.
Twenty-something in age does not equal stupid kid.
And, in this case, clearly the 20-something was not a stupid kid but a very smart person.
What is it with people infantilizing grown adults?
And he was a grown adult at that time. For a more accurate account of what transpired:
There’s no difference in frontal lobe development between someone who is 28 or 48 or 68. In fact, if there is a difference, it’s decay.
Stop acting like young age is an excuse for laziness or stupidity.
Unpopular opinion but I don’t think Kotick is some inhumane monster and people just need someone at the top to blame. We on the lower end of the totem pole usually like to blame people more fortunate than us for our societal issues. Big CEO’s, Governmental figureheads, Billionaires etc. Media does a great job of mass manipulating the populace with hyperbole to draw them into a frenzy and keep them locked in on the drama, fuel for their articles to keep following the train wreck of a story they painted for their own revenue. Life gets a lot easier when you stop focusing so much on the perceived corruption of others and just looking at the things you can actually fix around you to improve your own circumstances in life.
Not saying Kotick is a saint, but more so that there likely is some foul play in how he’s written out to be by the media. I’m sure there will still be corruption stories with the Microsoft merger in the future. Media can’t survive in a perfect world without drama, nor can hatebait YouTubers, they need it to garnish views.
He still is. A complete disregard for the actions and choices he has made demonstrates a lack of maturity. You may call it shrewd business practice to fire your employees just to boost quarterly profits. I call it a child with no real concept of other people’s lives.
There are a lot of people that “make” it in our society and far, far more that fails. It’s the way it has always been and will be for a very long time. What makes a real difference are very rich people that see that things aren’t right and actually try do something about it. They’re very few but they do exist. The rest of us are just zombies, sleep and work until the end.
There are no morally good billionaires.
Tax the rich.
I remember some old interview in Game Informer where he admitted to selling the rights of an IP that he didn’t own. Think it was Knight Rider or something like that.
Guy is a shark in the business world. Companies like guys like him.
Your confusing intelligence with wisdom. When people say “stupid kid” they are talking about wisdom not intelligence.
Most 20somethings are naive and ill equipped to understand the true nature of the world and are still viewing it with the romanticism of a child.
Thats not infantilizing them, its understanding the nature of reality.
Have you met any 20 somethings? Most of them are pretty stupid (ie unwise and naive).
As a business man yeah he is inspiring but as a person I question it.
Definitely an unpopular opinion, especially if you talk to literally anyone who has worked for the guy who wasn’t on the Board of Directors. That sort of hatred doesn’t develop in a vaccuum.
…Frauds?
I mean, it seems more impressive that Bill Gates co-created microsoft at 19, and went public with it at 31, and it continues to grow.
not a fan of giving credit to people that’s only accomplishment was having $$$. That’s like saying that arms dealers are heroes for making a profit off war and that those that fought and died should be thanking said arms dealer for their great investment.
They scrambled to pick up the rights before it became official, but still a risky move on their part.
The way I see it is Bobby Kotick’s dirty laundry sort of aired when all this Blizzard drama was already unfolding. His name wasn’t really a thing even though he’s been around since 2008 (WOTLK era) and more. I feel it’s become hyper focus and likely with a lot of false narratives mixed in, simply for the sake of drama and needing a good figurehead to blame. I’m sure once Kotick is out of the picture, give it a couple years, but there’ll be a new name to the face of Blizzard / Microsoft’s corruption.
Similar to how there must always be a Lich King (well once) there must always be someone to blame for corruption in gaming. Bungie got a lot of flack and crapped on for quite some time. People moved onto BioWare and their CEO’s for a bit. Activision has always been pretty hated. CD Project Red became the hyper focus with their Cyberpunk Debacle. I definitely don’t think Kotick is a “good” man, more than likely all that money has lead him to do heinous things. But I definitely think he’s being credited with too much of the corruption in the company. It’ll likely still very much be there in its own way, whether true or not, long after he’s gone imho.