Matt making Peter Moore look like child's play lol although....where's that tattoo Matt?!?!

Microsoft is largely keeping the leadership team of Activision Blizzard in place, with some executive-level exceptions. Activision Blizzard chief communications officer Lulu Meservey will leave the company at the end of January. Humam Sakhnini (vice chairman, Blizzard and King) will also depart at the end of December. A number of Activision Blizzard executives will depart in March, too.

Brian Bulatao (chief administrative officer), Julie Hodges (chief people officer), Armin Zerza (chief financial officer), and Grant Dixton (chief legal officer) are all reporting to their Microsoft Gaming equivalents. While Thomas Tippl (vice chairman, Activision Blizzard) is reporting to Matt Booty for now, he will depart Microsoft in March alongside other Activision Blizzard executives. “Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will continue to help us with the transition through March 2024,” says Xbox chief Phil Spencer, in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

Here’s Phil Spencer’s full internal memo:

Earlier today, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick formally announced that Friday December 29th, 2023 will be his last day at Microsoft Gaming. Under Bobby’s watch, Activision Blizzard in its many incarnations has been an enduring pillar of video games. Whether it’s Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush Saga or any number of other titles, his teams have created beloved franchises and entertained hundreds of millions of players for decades. I’d like to thank Bobby—for his invaluable contributions to this industry, his partnership in closing the Activision Blizzard acquisition and his collaboration following the close—and I wish him and his family the very best in his next chapter.

With Bobby’s impending departure, we are taking the next step in aligning Activision Blizzard with Microsoft Gaming, by making the following organizational changes:

Thomas Tippl (Vice Chairman, Activision Blizzard), Rob Kostich (President, Activision Publishing), Mike Ybarra (President, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tjodolf Sommestad (President, King) will report to Matt Booty (President, Game Content and Studios). The leadership teams for Activision Publishing, Blizzard and King will remain in place, with no changes to the structure of how the studios and business units are run.

Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer) will report to Dave McCarthy (Chief Operations Officer, Microsoft Gaming).

Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer) will report to Cynthia Per-Lee (Corporate Vice President, Gaming Human Resources).

Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer) will report to Linda Norman (Corporate Vice President, Gaming CELA).

Armin Zerza (Chief Financial Officer) will continue to report to Tim Stuart (Corporate Vice President, Finance), as we previously announced to the Finance team in October.

Thomas, Brian, Julie, Grant and Armin will continue to help us with the transition through March 2024.

Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer) will be leaving ABK at the end of January. She has agreed to support Kari Perez (General Manager, Communications) on a leadership transition plan for the ABK Communications team, which will report to Kari. Additionally, Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King) will depart at the end of December. We thank Humam and Lulu for their leadership over the past year.

For most of you, your day-to-day work will remain the same—it’s still business as usual in bringing more groundbreaking experiences to more players around the world. At the leadership level, these changes will provide the clarity and accountability that is necessary to achieve our ambitious goals and foster a culture that is welcoming, empowering, and committed to Gaming for Everyone. We have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King and Xbox Game Studios, and I know that we all look forward to sharing more details with our player communities when the time is right.

Phil

AoE 1 DE being further thrown into irrelevancy lol

So...

Leaving:

• Bobby Kotick (CEO, Activision-Blizzard King)
• Thomas Tippl (Vice Chairman, Activision Blizzard)
• Brian Bulatao (Chief Administrative Officer)
• Julie Hodges (Chief People Officer)
• Grant Dixton (Chief Legal Officer)
• Armin Zerza (Chief Financial Officer)
• Lulu Meservey (Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer)
• Humam Sakhnini (Vice Chairman, Blizzard and King)

Someone want to explain to me why Activision-Blizzard had a Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard and a Vice Chairman of Blizzard and King? Lol.

Anyway, these roles are all being absorbed by Microsoft Gaming leadership team it seems and so they aren't needed. Happy to see that the gaming leadership team remains unchanged, also Matt's chillness could be majorly beneficial to Activision. It would seem to be, the roles which incorporate two entities (I.E. Activision Blizzard being overseen by one person) are being dissolved.

Phil in the closing line as well: "We have an exciting 2024 lineup of games across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King and Xbox Game Studios"

Putting Bethesda in between Activision and Blizzard, not labelling them as Activision-Blizzard and the above changes, it does feel like Activision and Blizzard are finally split from a executive, business and leadership standpoint aside from them both reporting to Matt Booty.

Unsure who she is replacing.

Slowly but surely, it feels like Xbox folk are being placed into Bethesda, first with Matt Booty overseeing them and now Jill as Head of Bethesda (comes from Xbox team), it could help them be better aligned with Xbox but with Activision, Blizzard and King, it's happening in an instant, Lmao. With the ABK executives transitioning their teams over to their MS Gaming counterparts, Booty in charge of Activision, etc.

It seems like Microsoft wants Activision and Blizzard integrated into MS Gaming fast, I think the FTC could play a part in this decision but I think it's more likely down to a business and cultural perspective, the amount of toxicity that happened under these executives and the fact that, it is far more important to quickly get ABK aligned with MS Gaming business plan for the future and nobody is attached to these executives.

Nice! One of my favorites from the 360. American Nightmare also plays a part in the story with the main villian, but not as necessary to understand the story.