By In 2013, John Riccitiello resigned from his position as EA’s CEO after a challenging six-year tenure at the company. During Riccitiello’s leadership, Activision’s Call of Duty series surpassed Battlefield in popularity, and the situation worsened when Riccitiello joked that players of Battlefield might have to pay to reload. Now, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed his view that Riccitiello was the worst CEO in the gaming sector.
During a joint discussion on Grit alongside former EA Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon, Kotick revealed that Activision feared Gordon might decide to take control of EA and emerge as a true leader for the organization.
“I’m not stating this because [Gordon is] present here,” said Kotick. “Our concern was always that Bing would end up running [EA]. And we would have gladly paid to keep Riccitiello as CEO indefinitely… as we believed he was the worst CEO in video games.” Gordon also suggested that Riccitiello might have expedited his exit from EA as well.
Despite his feelings regarding Riccitiello, Kotick mentioned that there had been numerous endeavors in the past to unite EA and Activision as one entity.
“[EA] attempted to acquire us multiple times. We engaged in merger discussions,” recalled Kotick. Later in the podcast, Kotick confessed that Activision regarded EA’s “business [as] in many aspects superior to ours,” before Gordon pointed out that Blizzard’s business is even more robust than EA’s.
During that same interview, Gordon remembered that EA