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Bobby Kotick is apparently not too interested in going gently into that good night following his retirement. The former Activision Blizzard CEO is taking G/O Media, specifically naming video game news sites Kotaku and Gizmodo in the suit, to court. Kotick alleges that Kotaku and Gizmodo went out of their way to intentionally defame him by reporting on withdrawn allegations in an article that wasn’t even related to the subject; indeed, the articles were about a rumored bid to acquire TikTok that Kotick was supposedly a part of and were in no way related to Activision Blizzard.
Kotick’s tenure as CEO was marred by a string of accusations that the CEO did not act appropriately when dealing with the rash of sexual misconduct allegations that had been levied at Activision Blizzard staffers. Those accusations were settled in court in 2023 with a ruling that stated “No court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations.” Yet, in 2024 both Kotaku and Gizmodo wrote articles drawing attention to Kotick and the misconduct allegations, thus drawing the former’s ire.
Although Kotick’s request for changed to both the Kotaku and Gizmodo articles ultimately did see both sites amend the writing in question, the litigation is nonetheless moving forward. Kotick feels that the original articles as-written were done so with malicious intent, with the goal being to smear him. Kotick is seeking an amount in damages that will be determined during the trial. This comes at a particularly troubled time for gaming news websites as a whole, but particularly Kotaku, which has been embroiled in various controversies over the years and has laid off multiple staff members in recent times.
