Overwatch producer Tracy Kennedy has alleged that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick caused “months of Overwatch 2 [development] to have been lost”.
Yesterday (January 19), Kennedy responded to a quote from Kotick that said Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 delays were key factors in Activision Blizzard’s reduced share price.
“Bobby, tell everyone about the random projects for [Overwatch] you all would shove on us, the team would do [overtime] for only them to get cancelled and for months of OW2 dev to have been lost. Or how almost entire teams are turning over and citing you as the reason. Don’t be shy,” said Kennedy in a tweet.
In November 2021, both Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 were delayed to an unspecified “later launch”.
Kennedy also called Kotick a “coward” and claimed the Overwatch team has “outlasted” Kotick, which follows the CEO declining to comment on his future at the company after Microsoft’s shock acquisition.
Speaking to GamesBeat on January 18, Kotick blamed falling Activision Blizzard stock on “pushing out Overwatch and Diablo,” as well as people starting “to see that this year’s Call of Duty wasn’t performing as well”. That being said, Activision Blizzard stock drew close to a 19-month low in the same week that a report alleged that Bobby Kotick was aware of sexual misconduct claims within the company.
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That claim is also at odds with a story this week, which claimed Microsoft‘s £50billion purchase of Activision Blizzard started because of the publisher’s sexual misconduct scandal.
In other news, ex-developers from Firaxis have formed a new studio called Bit Reactor. The new studio is built from several lead XCOM developers and will continue to make strategy games, with co-founder Greg Foertsch adding that “a golden age of turn-based games is upon us”.