Robert Kotick on economic recession
From Activision CEO Bobby Kotick: Would be surprised if the FTC wastes taxpayer money on appeal · · CNBC Television
“There's always a belief in a recession or difficult economic times, video games as an industry does better. I think there's not necessarily supportable data to that effect. I think you've seen console releases that happened to come at the same time as recessions, new games have come out, but business is good. We just launched Diablo 4, which is the most successful Blizzard launch ever. Candy Crush is at record numbers, Call of Duty is a great franchise that's evolving into not historically what it's been, but now offers free to play. Mobile gaming has been transformative in our industry, more people in more places than ever.”
On , Robert Kotick, Former Chief Executive Officer at ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC, spoke about economic recession during Activision CEO Bobby Kotick: Would be surprised if the FTC wastes taxpayer money on appeal on CNBC Television.
About Robert Kotick
In a July 2023 interview, Kotick discussed the pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, noting that 98% of shareholders approved the transaction and describing it as a "great deal." He stated that the company extracted "significant additional value" through a short extension, a dividend, and a termination fee he characterized as one of the largest in history. Kotick expressed personal concerns about the economy, citing interest rate increases and a deficit substantially greater than GDP, and said he did not believe any business is recession-proof. He also identified Chinese companies like Tencent, ByteDance, and Alibaba, along with Nintendo, Sony, and Netflix, as major competitors in the video game industry. Earlier, in 2016, Kotick described the acquisition of King Digital, the maker of "Candy Crush Saga," as an opportunity to enter the fastest-growing mobile game market and to attract a female audience, noting that 60% of King's audience was female. In 2010, he stated that over 60% of Activision Blizzard's profits came from online-related games and described Facebook as a "great platform for gaming" that could grow to be significant over five years, though he noted it was then too small to influence the company's operating profit. He also said the company was "platform agnostic," aiming to make its games playable on any device with a display and microprocessor.