Former Activision Blizzard Boss Bobby Kotick Slams Warcraft Film, Calls It 'One of the Worst Movies I've Ever Seen'

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick slammed the 2016 Warcraft film adaptation, calling it "one of the worst movies I've ever seen" in a recent interview with Grit. Kotick, who helmed Activision Blizzard for 32 years before his departure in December 2023, attributed the film's negative impact to resource diversion and creative disruption within Blizzard.

He specifically cited the film's role in the departure of veteran designer Chris Metzen in 2016, stating Metzen, "the heart and soul of creativity at the company," suffered burnout due to the project. Kotick explained that the film, a pre-existing agreement before Activision's acquisition, demanded significant resources, pulling developers away from their core game development responsibilities. The resulting delays in World of Warcraft expansions and patches, coupled with the film's poor quality, contributed to the overall negative experience.

"They're helping with the casting, and they're on the set... it's just a huge distraction," Kotick elaborated, highlighting the significant time commitment from game developers.

While the Warcraft film failed to achieve box office success in North America, grossing only $47 million domestically, its international performance, particularly in China, reached $439 million. However, this wasn't enough to offset the massive budget, leading Legendary Pictures to consider it a failure.

Kotick revealed that Metzen took the film's shortcomings personally, prompting his departure to establish a board game company. Kotick subsequently attempted to persuade Metzen to return as a consultant, but Metzen expressed dissatisfaction with the planned expansions, advocating for a complete overhaul.

Despite a subsequent consultancy, Kotick admitted limited interaction with Metzen post-return, prioritizing Metzen's creative autonomy. He expressed confidence in the quality of the latest expansion, stating, "The last expansion, he had his fingertips all over it. It's excellent. The next one is going to be great." This sentiment is echoed by the positive reception of the latest expansion, which received a 9/10 rating in our World of Warcraft The War Within review, described as "the best World of Warcraft has been on all fronts in many years." The review praised the expansion for revitalizing the two-decade-old MMO.