The Former Call of Duty CEO Becomes Head of Activision Blizzard

In all current ongoings with massive layoffs and companies opting for a change in management, Microsoft has given the biggest hit. In union, Activision Blizzard consists of 22 thousand workers, and Microsoft recently cut 1900 workers' ties with the company for better management after the big acquirement that happened last year. The back and forth with negotiations with both Activision acquiring Blizzard, then Microsoft acquiring Activision happened in a pinch and now we are here.

Although the cuts and layoffs were severe, such as Activision’s long-running Bob Kotick’s departure, Microsoft still needed someone to lead Blizzard. For that, they have brought in Johanna Faries, who worked as the boss of the Call of Duty franchise for some time now. She was brought in as a community manager for Call of Duty esports, but then later converted to the head of the franchise after the merger between Blizzard and Activision.

 

While this seems completely ordinary for Microsoft to employ a higher-ranking official to be responsible for being the head of another section, this move is particularly different than what we have seen. Microsoft, for the first time, employed a member from a subsidiary company. With all the mergers between other gaming studios, we have never seen cross-employment between two subsidiary studios, and Johanna’s new position marks the first one ever.

People might think that Faries would be unsuitable for the position, but she states she has enough experience in Activision, and she is ready to convert her knowledge for different kinds of gamers awaiting her decisions at the end of the day. On the other hand Call of Duty’s management has been given to the project manager Matt Cox to handle.

To be fair, as much as she is ready to take on the role of being the main manager of Blizzard, the company is quite in shambles thanks it its odd position. Blizzard is pretty much prone to making mistakes with every action they take, this was proven by both their underwhelming release schedule of Diablo IV last year and then their decision to bring Overwatch 2 to the Steam platform, which then ended up being negatively bombarded. It is not the same Blizzard we knew from the past and we will see if Johanna Faries will be able to bring the company back on its feet.

Atilla Turan (@burningarrow)
Editor, NoobFeed