A new Activision Blizzard publishing president has been announced. Rob Kostich will be the new head honcho for all of Activision’s publishing projects. He’s a fine choice for the role as he has spent a solid decade working on the Call of Duty franchise, arguably one of Activision’s strongest offerings and one of the biggest gaming brands in the world. The Call of Duty games have been some of the best-selling titles in recent years and that all took place under Mr. Kostich’s stewardship. He’ll now have to take that success and apply it to a much bigger picture.
As the new Activision Blizzard publishing president, Mr. Kostich will be responsible for the strategy and operations of the company’s publishing unit. In effect, he’ll be managing the work of the thousands of talented developers that crank out new releases for Activision throughout the year. He’s certainly had no problem juggling all of the different Call of Duty games over the years, so it seems like the company has picked the right man for the job.
The appointment of Rob Kostich as the new president of publishing isn’t the only change in the company’s leadership announced in a press release from the company. Human Sakhnini has moved from his role as chief financial officer and chief strategy officer of the operating unit to the position of President of King Digital Entertainment, effectively making him the boss of all things Candy Crush. Dennis Durkin is picking up a second job in addition to his role as Activision chief financial officer with his appointment to President of Activision Blizzard’s Emerging Businesses.
All three of these new appointments have more than a few years under their belt at Activision and in the gaming industry in general. There are still going to be some vacancies for them to fill, though—the company lost CFOs Spencer Neumann to Netflix and Amirita Ahuja to Square Inc. One of today’s new appointments has taken on double duty, but the company is probably going to also need to look into bringing in some new blood to replace the people they’ve lost.
