As chief executive officer before the violent snowstorm, Bobby Kotick, who had been in charge of the company for decades, continued to be the subject of controversy over various “hot operations” during his tenure. In particular, after the Microsoft takeovers of 2023, the company was caught up in a sexual harassment scandal as the “old-age cases” were turned over, while the outgoing Bobby Cortick turned into a vested interest, causing displeasure among employees and public opinion.
In January 2022, Microsoft announced the acquisition of the industry-renowned studios, Operation Snow, at $68.7 billion, which was officially completed on 23 October 2023. In view of the “tired crime” of Bobby Kotick, then Chief Executive Officer for the Operation, the transaction was also seen by the outside world as “covering the scandal with the acquisition”. The Swedish Pension Fund Sjunde AP-Fonden (AP7) also accused Bobby Kotik of rushing Microsoft’s acquisition of violence to avoid legal risk and to earn substantial personal gain. According to Game File, Bobby Cortick “spokes out” to justify his sale of the riot. He stated that the choice of Microsoft was the most sensible decision-making, as the Call to Mission series had fallen by over 60 per cent the same year. As the largest visual IP, this data, if true, will support its argument that “a sale is better than holding and bears the risk of a valuation collapse as early as possible”.
The lawsuit to which Bobby Cortick responded was brought by the Swedish Pension Fund in 2022 at the United States State of Delaware. AP7 charged Bobby Cortick with rushing to advance the Microsoft acquisition in late 2021, with the aim of “evading the effects of corporate scandals” and obtaining additional personal remuneration, demanding additional compensation for shareholders and even attempting to reverse the transaction. The formal defence of Bobby Kotik not only denied the charges, but also sought to divert the focus from suggesting that another distributor might benefit from the proceedings. In his paper, his team wrote: “This Delaware lawsuit is clearly intended to help Embracer (the Swedish game developer, parent companies THQ, Gearbox, etc.) expand its presence in the California market at the cost of violence.”
Embracer has refuted this statement, stating to Game File: “We did and do not need AP7 help to compete with moving vision”. Bobby Cortick maintained that “if the transaction is not completed, it is likely that the stock price will fall significantly”. Its defence focuses on the ” Mission Call ” series: “In view of the current historically low sales of the mainframe, which fell by 60 per cent from the previous year, the plaintiffs should have been grateful for the forward-looking manner in which the AV leadership had completed the transaction.” In criticizing the United States Federal Trade Commission for obstructing Microsoft’s acquisition of violence, he again quoted the figure: “The Call to Mission is expected to fall by more than 60 per cent from last year due to intense competition for works such as Fields”.
Jame File states that Bobby Kotik did not provide specific evidence of a 60 per cent decline and that Microsoft and moving vision did not publish full mission call sales data. However, Circana, the industry tracker, confirmed that Operation Black 7 did sell less in full dollar terms in November of last year than it had previously done in Operation Black 6, confirming that the series faced a decline in real sales. The term “historical low-marketing of the mainframe” is also valid: November 2025 became the worst-selling month since November 1995. The November sales season, usually driven by Black Friday and Web Monday, was characterized last year by difficulties in providing substantial discounts for retailers because of rising AI-related costs across the industry. In addition, the impact of Game Pass has not been factored into the analysis. The Microsoft subscription service includes in its final version the annual Call to Mission work, which has a major impact on the sales of the full game. Bloomberg earlier reported that Operation Black 6 had cost Microsoft $300 million in sales revenue by landing at Game Pass.
