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Activision Blizzard boss Kotick says games shouldn't be political

Activision Blizzard boss Kotick says games shouldn't be political

The CEO of Activision Blizzard Robert Kotick has said that he doesn't feel video games should be political.

Speaking in an interview on CNBC - as reported by Kotaku - the chief exec said the responsibility of games companies was to make sure that people are kept entertained. He said he doesn't feel that the releases Activision puts out should be in any way platforms for political discussion.

“We’re not the operator of the world’s town halls,” Kotick said.

“We’re the operator of the communities that allow you to have fun through the lens of a video game.”

He continued: “My responsibility is to make sure that our communities feel safe, secure, comfortable and satisfied and entertained. That doesn’t convey to me the right to have a platform for a lot of political views, I don’t think. I think my responsibility is to satisfy our audiences and our stakeholders, our employees, our shareholders.”

Activision's Infinity Ward studio came under fire earlier in the year for saying that its new Call of Duty title Modern Warfare wasn't political, despite it dealing with deeply political themes


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.