The boss of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has stirred up controversy with an interview. Employees are responding to some of his statements, including a former developer of World of Warcraft. He says he was fired for a rather strange reason.
Who is the developer?
- Eric Covington worked at Blizzard from May 2014 to March 2023. Just before his 9th anniversary, he was fired.
- At WoW, Covington was involved in Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, and Dragonflight, and designed various systems, including enemy design and content in the world. One of his projects was the new area in Patch 10.0.7.
- Covington also contributed to Diablo, having worked on Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls and the new Diablo 4.
Why was he fired? As Covington explained in a tweet, he wrote a few lines for the dialogue of the Goblins of Venture Co. These goblins are part of an extremely greedy association that wants to exploit everything without regard for the environment.
Accordingly, these NPCs often come across as quite unsympathetic and only concerned with their own advantage. The lines include statements like:
- “Let’s call it a cost of living adjustment!”
- “Sounds like a new yacht for me!”
- “No sharing of profits!”
- “Time to go back to the office!”
- “Another record for the quarterly report!”
According to Covington, these lines were meant to be just general corporate speak that one might expect from particularly ruthless companies. After the submission for new lines was closed, he returned to developing Dragonflight.
The management of Activision Blizzard, however, was so incensed by the lines that they decided on his termination behind his back without giving him a chance to change anything.
Interview with Bobby Kotick causes criticism
Covington shared his story on Twitter after a new interview with Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, was released. In an interview with Vanity, Kotick claimed that there had been a “malicious distortion” of Blizzard’s image in recent years since he has been running the company.
After the interview, other voices also emerged, such as Dylan Snyder, a Senior Designer at Blizzard for Overwatch 2. He explained on Twitter: everyone at Blizzard wants the public to know about Activision’s nonsense.
And Activision punishes everyone in the Blizzard team by talking nonsense about the things he and his colleagues have worked tirelessly on.
Snyder did not speak out to pander to Activision but because he believes in his colleagues and “Team 4” (the internal name for the Overwatch department).
MeinMMO has asked Blizzard for a statement on the matter. A response is still pending.
Recently, many big names have been leaving Blizzard to pursue other goals. Most recently, the studio lost the developer who fulfilled one of the players’ biggest wishes:
Another one gone: WoW loses the lead developer who brought back the talent trees
