Is Robert Kotick...evil?

[JourneyThroughHell]

Nope, he is just a dipshit or at least extremely bad at presenting his own persona.

He is also one of the most highly rated CEO's in the software industry when considering his compensation package with respect to earnings year over year since he took office.

Hey, I never said anything about his business tactics, I just said that he's not very good at PR.

 

[slowpoke999]

No, people who steal software are evil, he is a buisness man.

How does one 'steal' software?Do they break into the developers homes and download it onto their memeory sticks? Why don't they just pirate it online?

 

[RelexCryo]

Please help me be less ignorant. This will require patience on your part, and explaining to me how this makes him evil.

Like I said, Bobby's logic was probably "Hey, everyone's doing it, so it can't be that bad!"

But scamming the sheriff's when they come to reposses your stuff is still illegal, and a form of theft. And selling rights to stuff you don't own is both illegal and dishonest. Bobby didn't initate a lot of these things, but he played along with them. And I think that philosophy of doing anything to get ahead- even committing theft and lying- is evil. Today, Bobby is just continuing that philosophy he was exposed to.

I thank you for the intelligent and logical reply.

I find this part of the article to justify Bobby as the better man tho:

"We didn?t own Knight Rider! The deal he did was ?You make the game, you get to publish it in Japan, and Activision gets to publish it everywhere else.? So he calls us and says ?I just sold Knight Rider? ? it was to Tecmo, I think [actually Pack-in-Video]. I said ?How much did you sell it for?? He said ?$400,000.? I said ?That?s incredible, but we don?t own Knight Rider!? So we had to go get the Knight Rider rights."

An overseas employee broke the law, and Bobby called him out on it, then he did the right thing by working to fix the illegal action. He admitted to not having the rights, then tried to legally get said rights so as not to be a dishonest guy.

Please link the sheriff story, and I will respond to that one too.

I admit I only know what I read from his (Kotick) wiki page, and what I have seen in these posts. I can easily see why his comments upset gamers, but I think they are justifiable and the furthest thing from evil.

It's true he tried to fix it, but he allowed the practice of selling rights to games they didn't have- and then trying to acquire said rights- to continue. I'm fairly sure telling investors you have the rights to something when you don't is a form of investor fraud.

Oh, the thing with the sheriffs was also in Feburaury 2010 game informer. Same Article. Anotehr employee scammed the sheriffs when they tried to repossess something, and he went along with it- and never called them on it.


Basically, I think Bobby was one of the least evil guys in a company of corrupt, lying bussinessmen. And I think the overall philosophy of that company ist still alive today.

 

[SimuLord]

No, people who steal software are evil, he is a buisness man.

My thoughts exactly. Kotick's got a job to do. And just like the rest of us, he's not keen on having to explain to his wife and kids why he just got fired, so he does what's expected of him.