Yeah, but Kotick was not really the real issue. He's a straw man of sorts, a target dummy, designed to draw fire for unpopular decisions.
It is the board and shareholders who massively incentivized him into that behaviour. CEOs are brought in to act in the interests of shareholders, while also abstracting them away from blame and direct culpability.
The goal of blizzard (and any other publically listed company) is wealth creation for shareholders via share price growth, not making games per se.
The CEO and his management team created this, they did not take care of the workforce, and they cultivated the most recent reputational damage.
I believe the answer is "A lot of Americans".
Doesn't matter, company will just try it again later in some other way. The decision making process that went along with trying to change the monetary model under the feet of developers is still there. The greed.
Corporates gonna corporate I guess.
Congratulations, which sport?
If this game releases with good quality my friends and I are day 2 customers for sure. Seems fun as hell from the videos.
This guy was brought on the team as a distraction, and his axing is already planned for a moment where they want to steal the news cycle
And for them to both be eclipsing at the same time, crazy odds... or, dare I say it, astronomical
So you want to try create the right moments for deeper conversation, I think that would be more likely away from his mates? I don't know them so just guessing.
With that in mind, maybe Google around for anything interesting or different happening in the area. A gardening or book faire, wine or coffee festival, anything relaxed. Then ask him if he wants to go. Ideally something quiet that has some walking around?
That might create helpful conditions.
Tricky, but you could take the approach of just putting it on the table:
"Hey, I have a weird random question... " And then ask if he thinks there is life elsewhere in the universe or what he thinks is going on with flat earthers or whatever. It isn't bad to be a bit random in timing.
In terms of timing specifics though, you don't want to do it in the middle of some other discussion, so you normally wait for a quiet moment or a lull in the current conversation. Typically depends on what's going on. I find something like building puzzles together is great for this, because you've both got something to do but it's not so intense as to block easy conversation that just meanders a bit. Just an example though.
When you are together, what are you normally doing? Long drives are easier to find ok moments, studying in the library or in the middle of a dentist appointment less so
You could try asking some deep questions, see what comes out of that.
Let me try.
By creating a culture that singularly valued money and production over all other concerns, including the well-being of staff, Kotick created and cultivated the conditions needed for abuse to set in.
And Kotick is the kind of sociopath that leads to this when other things are swept under the rug.
Maybe it wasn't a line item on his payslip though.