Everyone’s favorite entrepreneur, Bobby Kotick, is back in the business of games again, sorta. He’s been named to the board of the newly formed Skydance Corp., which now controls both Paramount and Warner Bros. Both of those companies have gaming divisions, and while Kotick hasn’t been announced to be taking any sort of direct management role in either of those, the connection is hard to ignore after the titan’s many esteemed years running gaming giant Activision Blizzard.
“Bobby led a global entertainment company through three decades of sustained growth, and he brings real perspective on building enduring franchises and connecting with fans,” nepo-baby-in-chief David Ellison wrote in the press release. “His record of pairing bold strategic moves with disciplined capital allocation is exactly the experience we need as we bring our businesses together.”
If there’s one thing people will remember the former boss of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft for, it’s “building enduring franchises” like Guitar Hero, and “connecting with fans” through the Overwatch League. Kotick left Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023 after selling it to Microsoft for $70 billion following an especially uneventful couple of years.
“Perhaps the most important part of my job has been to help bring talented people together, provide the best resources possible, and foster an environment that encourages inspiration, creativity, and unwavering commitment to excellence,” he wrote upon his departure. “I cannot adequately express the pride I have in the people who continue to contribute to our success and all those who have helped throughout my 32 years leading this company.”
In the time since, Kotick reportedly flirted with trying to buy TikTok, which was ultimately sold to David Ellison’s dad. He also partook in the occasional investor podcast to opine on the virtues of unions and the media. His love of fearless accountability journalism runs so deep that he not only invested in Bari Weiss’ Free Press, which Ellison later bought, but he’s even reportedly spent an usual amount of his days in retirement sending thoughtful emails to other reporters about their work. But now he’s back in the saddle, though it remains to bee seen just how involved he will be in Skydance’s future.
Board seats can be mostly ceremonial, with rich investors essentially just rubber-stamping whatever the CEO tells them to, or they can be more involved roles with the people filling the seats acting as backroom ambassadors and advisors for big deals and new ventures. Whichever Kotick ends up being, the announcement will likely aim to send a message to Wall Street that Skydance has assembled plenty of adults in the room to help manage the new, unwieldy, hyper-leveraged media beast Ellison has now unleashed.
As for the future of Skydance’s gaming ambitions, the company confirmed last night that its recently announced Paramount Games Studio will merge with Warner Bros. Games, and the combined division will report up to Tony Driscoll, a former Disney Imagineer who previously helped lead strategy at AT&T after it acquired Time Warner back in 2016, a merger that many agreed was almost a huge success. Big projects currently in the works remain Hogwarts Legacy 2 and a new Batman: Arkham-style game from Rocksteady Studios.
“We immerse our guests in theme parks, resorts, restaurants, retail, studio tours and more. We immerse our players in action, adventure, combat, competition and creativity, from Batman to SpongeBob,” Driscoll wrote in a memo to staff this week. “And no matter your role on this team, you are a creator, builder, operator, and steward of those worlds. We have the opportunity to create amazing spaces where friendships are formed and communities grow. That is only possible because of your hard work and talent. Whether it’s on Zoom or in person, my first priority in the coming weeks is meeting as many of you as I can from LA to London, Montreal to Tokyo, and beyond.”
We’ll see if Kotick accompanies Driscoll during any of these tours. Maybe they can both ride on the former Activision boss’ private jet.
