Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, discusses how mobile phones expanded gaming beyond high-end PC and console owners in developed markets.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Video games will eventually become as popular as traditional sports
“Video games is the only competitive medium that is going to give me that experience, and that purpose, and that sense of belonging, and that camaraderie that you get from sport. And so of course it's going to be as popular as sport, if not more popular as spor…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Augmented reality will have more near-term impact than virtual reality
“AR is gonna have more near-term impact than VR.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Steve Jobs threatened to cancel Apple's contract unless Kotick dropped out
“I will rip, and I can't say the word, I will rip this effing contract up right now if you don't quit college. So I quit the next day.”
Disclosure
Building a WoW competitor internally would have cost $1B and seven years
“And we looked at it and said, if we even could figure out how to do it would take us Five, six, seven years, and a billion dollars, and the likelihood is we wouldn't do a good job of it”
Assertion Contradicted
Activision offered up to $7B to buy Blizzard standalone from Vivendi
“And I asked them to sell us Blizzard, and we didn't have any interest in the rest of their games business, but we wanted Blizzard. And they said no repeatedly, and we offered them four billion, and then five billion, and then six billion, and then seven billio…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fortnite was the first game where spectating drove viewers to play
“Fortnite, I think, was the first game where people would spectate, and it would actually be a catalyst for them to play.”