Morhaime sticks up for Kotick

Blizzard founder Mike Morhaime has defended Activision boss Bobby Kotick, saying that his status as the game development industry’s bogeyman is undeserved.

The two companies merged in 2008 and Morhaime told MCV that his colleague is completely simpatico with Blizzard’s creative values and is often judged harshly by people who don’t (or won’t) see the whole story.

I have an advantage there because I know Bobby personally and we have very long, in-depth conversations, so my view of him is not limited to small sound bites taken out of context.

"I can tell you that Bobby has been very supportive of Blizzard and that we have a great relationship with him. I don’t think the public image that some people have of him is fair or accurate.”

He added that since the merger Activision and Kotick have been a hundred per cent true to their word of giving Blizzard complete autonomy post-merger. We wouldn’t have been supportive of the deal had we believed that Bobby and Activision didn’t have an understanding of how special Blizzard entertainment is and weren’t supportive of our values.

We were convinced that they did and that they were doing this for the right reasons, that the two businesses were complementary and that we wouldn’t be giving up our creative autonomy in any way. And that’s exactly how it’s panned out.”

To read MCV’s full interview with Morhaime and Pearce, click here.