Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick to Leave the Company on December 29

Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard announced today that will leave the company after 32 years on December 29. Kotick continued to lead the company after Microsoft completed its $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in December, but the time has come for some leadership changes.

In an email sent to employees today, Kotick praised the leadership and ambition of Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Notably, Kotick said that when Spencer pitched his acquisition offer two years ago, “it was immediately obvious that the combination of our businesses would enable us to continue to lead as the list of capable, well-resourced competitors grows.” Kotick added that “Phil shares our values and recognizes our talents” and said to Activision Blizzard employees that “you could not be in better hands.”

In another email from Phil Spencer to employees obtained by The Verge, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming detailed several upcoming leadership changes that will follow the recent promotion of Sarah Bond to President of Xbox and Matt Booty to President of Game Content and Studios. While Kotick won’t be replaced as CEO of Activision Blizzard, Mike Ybarra (President, Blizzard Entertainment), Thomas Tippl (Vice Chairman, Activision Blizzard), Rob Kostich (President, Activision Publishing), and Tjodolf Sommestad (President, King) will report directly to Booty going forward.

While there are other leadership changes mentioned by Spencer, including the departure of Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King) and Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer), the exec emphasized that “the leadership teams for Activision Publishing, Blizzard and King will remain in place, with no changes to the structure of how the studios and business units are run.” However, with Matt Booty now overseeing Activision Blizzard Studios in addition to Bethesda/Zenimax and Xbox’s internal studios, the sotfware giant is making sure to better align Activision Blizzard with the Microsoft Gaming division.

While Microsoft is expected to finally bring Activision Blizzard games to its Game Pass service in 2024, Spencer ended his email to employees with a note of confidence for the year to come. “We have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King and Xbox Game Studios, and I know that we all look forward to sharing more details with our player communities when the time is right,” Spencer said.