UPDATED – Bobby Kotick Claims Lawsuit Against Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Activision Was Aimed At Helping Rival Publisher Embracer Group

EDITORIAL UPDATE – 20/01/2026 – PLEASE READ:

A previous version of this article erroneously and incorrectly stated that Mr. Kotick rushed the sale of the Call of Duty publisher in order to circumvent the fallout of the sexual misconduct accusations that been reported during his last few years at the company. This is false.

No court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that: there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard; that Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned, or tolerated a culture of systemic harassment, retaliation, or discrimination; or that Activision Blizzard’s.

We have updated this article accordingly to properly represent these facts.

UPDATED STORY

According to GameFile, Bobby Kotick filed an answer to a lawsuit which erroneously referenced a culture of sexual and systemic harassment with his lawyers arguing that these claims were not only false, but in a counterclaim stated that the lawsuit was filed for ulterior motives, such as “to exert collateral harm on Activision” and to aid its rival publisher, Embracer Group.

This Delaware lawsuit was apparently aimed to help pave the way for Embracer to increase its foothold in the California market at the expense of Activision, making it more difficult for Activision to recruit talent and expand through [merges and acquisitions] activity of the sort that Activision relied on to grow historically.

The false allegations of widespread harassment originate from a now withdrawn lawsuit filed in 2021 by California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD) which consecutively gained traction in some media outlets as a result. In May 2023, Activision publicly released its landmark Transparency Report, which further confirmed that there has never been widespread or systemic harassment or discrimination at Activision.

In December 2023, the CRD made the determination that the allegations of widespread misconduct were unsubstantiated in a highlighted editor’s note, and voluntarily withdrew the claims (see end of page 6, start of page 7).

Furthermore, the former Activision boss noted that Emma Ihre, the view chairman of AP7, was an executive at Embracer when the lawsuit was filed, and as such was used to launch a “collateral attack on Activision [that] also appears to be tied to Embracer’s desire to boost sales of its games while leaving Activision hamstrung in the development of its own games that competed against Embracer’s titles.”

Embracer has denied these claims in a statement to GameFile.

We are humbled of Mr Kotick’s remark that we were competing with Activision on this level. Nevertheless, perhaps difficult to accept for Mr Kotick, but we did not and do not need any help from a Swedish pension fund in competing with Activision. Thus, in short, there were no coordination or collaboration between Embracer and AP7 relating to any of Mr. Kotick’s statements. No agenda or instructions were directed from Embracer via Emma Ihre or directly to AP7.

As previously reported, Bobby Kotick also took time to discuss the decline in sales of the Call of Duty franchise, stating that the downtick in sales were down to increased competition from the likes of Battlefield 6.

[Original Source – GameFile via VGC]