The audience for 'World of Warcraft' is a pretty committed group of players.
— Bobby Kotick
I'm not really a music person.
I never studied business. It's either in your DNA, or it isn't.
I just don't want to pay taxes.
In the mid 1980s, video games as an industry had lost its way a bit. Atari had collapsed. There was this widespread collective belief that it was because video games were a fad.
I've been very, very lucky because I've had so many great mentors.
If I go play 'Modern Warfare,' I'll find a hundred different things I'd like done differently. And I don't have the discipline to not express my opinion.
I ran a hot-dog-and-soda stand at Little League, and I started a business planning parties in high school.
As business models evolve, as the way you distribute content evolves, as the ability to do things online changes in terms of pricing or trial or sample, I think we've definitely always been out in front of the rest of our competitors.
We'd love to see Led Zeppelin on 'Guitar Hero.'
To allow our audiences to watch more professionally produced video content, we acquired Major League Gaming - MLG - and we expect MLG to become the 'ESPN of Videogames' with a focus on the celebration of gamers, both amateur and professionals.
Our mission is to inspire audiences to play, connect, and compete by making the most engaging entertainment in the world, and our talent evaluation process ensures that each new hire shares that commitment.
When employees can bring their full selves to work, we get the full benefit of all their perspectives and experiences.
I go to these cocktail parties now, and I say I make video games, and people go, 'Wow.' I can attract crowds.
Our responsibility is to deliver the most compelling content to our players. and if we do that, the audiences are there.
If you want to retain your identity and culture, we're a really great mothership. If you want to sell out... there are definitely other companies to talk to.
Mobile gaming is the largest and fastest-growing opportunity for interactive entertainment, and we will have one of the world's most successful mobile game companies and its talented teams providing great content to new customers, in new geographies, throughout the world.
We don't view the App Store as a really big opportunity for dedicated games.
You put some things out there. Some work, some don't, and then one really takes off, and that pays for your failures. Then you go on to the next one.
What I'm good at is making sure we have the best resources, the best talent, the best marketing, and the best access to distribution.
One of the reasons the games business has become more popular and more broadly appealing is that it's gone from this very solitary experience to this very social experience.
I think Steve Wynn, who was like my mentor and a second father, has been a great inspiration. He's a great mentor because he's a guy who's had great business success but also has always been driven by creativity - and inspired creativity.
I think running Apple is a great job, but it suits Steve Jobs so well. I wouldn't want to be the person that ran Apple after Steve, but he has a great job.
I really like video games, and that passion has never really gone away.
It's about really being considerate of the culture in the game studios that Activision buys. That's the biggest difference between us and any of our competitors.
Our customers need to be satisfied that there is a price-value relationship that they feel great about.
What you do in film and television is really different than what you do in video games.
Professional gaming competitions are creating celebrities who are recognized and revered as athletes were in prior generations. Spectator gaming is becoming as popular as mainstream sports.
Don't focus on reaching the C-Suite. Focus on doing great work and serving your customers and community. That's how you can find the right opportunities and get the skills and experience to get to the top in your career.
Activision Blizzard has always been about inspiring play, competition, and community for our fans and employees, and that hasn't changed.
The video game business is primarily a male-oriented business. And I have three girls. And you see the things that are important to them in their game experiences are the social interaction. They love the ability to chat with their friends. They love the ability to have some connection online with other people.
We want to give our audiences flexibility in the way they're commercially engaged in the content.
All my life, I've been the rebel in the X-wing fighter, and then one morning, I woke up, and I was on board the Death Star.
I think that's the responsibility of the CEO and the CEOs below me: to make sure that we're constantly putting people in places where they have the opportunity to develop into those careers but also having a rewards and recognition system that allows a great programmer to stay as a great programmer.
We've always operated under the belief that you could run a video game business as professionally as you could run a consumer packaged goods business, and you wouldn't diminish creativity.
It's very easy to criticize the CEO of the market leader.
When I got to Activision, it was like a carnival. They had a recycling container filled with cans and a sign over it that said 'Activision Takeover Defense Fund.' Activision was making games based on passion and gut instinct. We needed to develop games based on P&L statements and what was going to sell.
I think the reason why video games are more popular as entertainment in difficult economies is that the cost per hour of video games is lower than any other form of entertainment.
Very early on, when I was in my twenties, Steve Jobs convinced me to quit college. He talked to me after I had spent about a year in Michigan studying the history of art.
If you talk to people about the history of the games business during economic downturns, they'll tell you that it's a recession-proof industry.
Most people play games alone, against the machine. But if you're playing against a real person, it's going to be that much more fun.
Treyarch contributed so significantly to the multiplayer technology that's in 'Modern Warfare 2,' and they didn't really get the credit for that.
We have an obligation to provide a return for our shareholders.
The social element has really transformed the gaming experience.
The ways that you innovate within a franchise are not inconsistent with the ways that you create new franchises.
The Call of Duty Endowment is a natural philanthropic extension of our brand.
Veterans Day is a time to reflect and renew our commitment to ensure our military heroes have the tools to reintegrate successfully back to civilian life.
How do you expect people to actually join the military if, when they leave the military, they can't integrate back into the free market they're supposed to be protecting?
If it's compelling and engaging enough, customers will consider paying for it. If we don't deliver something that has value, we won't expect value in return.
I would have 'Call of Duty' be an online subscription service tomorrow. I think our audiences are clamouring for it.
