Former CEO Bobby Kotick Absolutely Hated the ‘Warcraft’ Movie, Thinks It Was a “Terrible Idea”

In 2016, Universal and Activision Blizzard released Warcraft, a film based on the popular game series World of Warcraft. While the movie didn’t do well in the U.S., earning only $47.4 million, it made a global total of $439.1 million.

Despite the worldwide success, Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, didn’t hold back his opinion on the film. He recently admitted that he thought it was one of the worst movies he’d ever seen.

On the Grit podcast, Kotick explained that the movie caused major issues for Blizzard. He mentioned that Chris Metzen, a veteran designer at Blizzard, became burned out during the film’s production.

Kotick felt the movie was a “terrible idea” and that Blizzard was distracted by it. He said the movie took up resources and pulled Blizzard’s attention away from creating games, which led to delays in expansions and patches. The focus on the movie caused issues for Blizzard’s game development.

Kotick went on to mention that he begged Metzen to return to Blizzard in 2022. Since then, however, the two haven’t spoken much, with Kotick humorously wondering what he could even tell Metzen about game design.

Despite Microsoft now owning Activision Blizzard, World of Warcraft is not coming to Game Pass, even though the game just celebrated its 20th anniversary. The game continues to thrive with no end in sight.

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