Legal Niches

Kotick Not Much of a Gamer Anymore

By pete_gallagher

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is definitely not afraid to speak his mind, which may or may not be a good thing for investors in his company. His recent comments at the D.I.C.E. Summit did nothing to change that perception.

While Kotaku labeled his speech 'warm and fuzzy,' one section of his talk centered on why he doesn't play games anymore, and caught our attention:

I play from time to time, but the nature of my personality is such that if I was regularly playing Modern Warfare 2, I would not be able to stop and it would be at the expense of all my regular responsibilities.

What does it say about the addictiveness of videogames if the CEO of the third largest publisher in the world can't play games because of his addictive personality? Granted, as CEO, Kotick's days are probably packed incredibly tight, and, as he admitted, he is a single father to three daughters, so it's probably commendable that he puts aside games for work and his family, Still, it's not a stretch to imagine videogame critics jumping all over Kotick's quote and using it in future assaults on videogames.

What do you think? Another case of Kotick sticking his foot in it, or is this just a case of a CEO letting his hair down and talking from the heart?

Kotick's full speech embedded via G4.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).