Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick has made a number of claims about the state of his former company, Call of Duty, and the console market as part of a response to a lawsuit.
Kotick, who left Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023 having sold the company to Xbox maker Microsoft for $69 billion dollars, is battling investors who claim he rigged the sale to keep his job and $400 million in change-of-control benefits, and to insulate himself from claims he knew about widespread sexual harassment at Activision. Kotick has denied any wrongdoing.
The investors are led by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-fonden (AP7). They have accused Kotick of rushing into the Microsoft merger, and contend the $95 per share takeover price was too low from the outset. AP7 names Kotick, Activision Blizzard, and its owner, Microsoft, as defendants.
As reported by Game File, Kotick has now issued his response to the allegations. In it he accuses Swedish game company Embracer, which owns the rights to the likes of Tomb Raider, Dead Island, and Lord of the Rings, of being involved with the lawsuit and benefitting from it, something the company has denied.
Part of Kotick’s defence uses the declining financial performance of Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty, and the console market in recent years to back up his claim that selling to Microsoft at $95 a share was the right thing to do at that time. And one quote in particular is being picked up by the Call of Duty community as being of interest:
“Today, given that console sales are at an all-time low and Call of Duty sales are off over 60% from the prior year, Plaintiff should be expressing extreme gratitude for the foresight Activision leadership demonstrated in consummating this transaction.”
As Game File points out, Kotick failed to provide evidence of his 60% sales decline claim, and neither Microsoft nor Activision have announced a sales figure for Black Ops 7 yet. But we do know Black Ops 7 has struggled in sales terms compared to Black Ops 6, a fact that’s reflected in everything from European sales figures to Activision’s own admissions. Circana has reported that November full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 finished below those of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last November, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launching in the October 2024 tracking period.
Of course, none of this takes into account the Game Pass effect. Call of Duty now launches day one on Microsoft’s subscription service, which will no doubt have an impact on sales at least on Xbox consoles. But a 60% sales decline is an enormous drop-off even with Game Pass considered. IGN has asked Activision for comment.
There is data to back up Kotick’s claim about consoles. November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. Indeed it was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995. More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005’s $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995’s 1.4 million.
And that’s representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Kotick repeated his 60% claim elsewhere in his response, where he took a shot at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout. Part of the FTC’s argument was that Microsoft owning Call of Duty would give it an unfair advantage in the gaming market. But Kotick insists that the struggles of Call of Duty in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Battlefield show that not to be the case.
“The Company’s actual performance since January 2022 is telling, uniformly missing the Long Range Plans’ target metrics — which should come as no surprise, given that the Company historically missed nearly all of the ambitious targets set forth in its Long Range Plans, a fact known well to the Board when the deal was negotiated,” Kotick’s response reads. “All told, had the deal not gone through, this would have likely resulted in a substantially lower stock price, as is easily established by Activision’s financial performance post-closing, which has been far below the ambitious targets contained in the plans.
“Call of Duty is on track to perform over 60% below last year because of intense competition from titles like Battlefield — destroying the FTC’s now defeated argument about Call of Duty’s purported monopoly and the lack of competition in the first-person action game category.”
Following the release of Black Ops 7, Activision announced significant changes to the Call of Duty franchise, including promising never to release back to back games in the same sub-brand (Modern Warfare, Black Ops). Activision released Modern Warfare 2 in 2022, Modern Warfare 3 in 2023, Black Ops 6 in 2024, and Black Ops 7 in 2025. Activision Blizzard is expected to announce this year’s Call of Duty in the summer.
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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