A new report on Bobby Kotick’s plan to acquire gaming outlets Kotaku and PC Gamer appeared in the wake of Microsoft’s deal. He allegedly wanted to move the players’ perspective away from Activision Blizzard’s workplace issues.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Activision Blizzard CEO “has been eager to change the public narrative about the company” amid the ongoing harassment scandal.
It is unclear how exactly Kotick wanted to use media outlets for these purposes. Maybe, the plan was to give people new hot topics, which wouldn’t have been related to Activision Blizzard, or prevent one of the biggest gaming websites from criticizing the company.
Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Helaine Klasky disputed the report, while Kotaku and G/O Media, which owns Kotaku, didn’t comment on the matter.
Soon after The Wall Street Journal published the article, journalist Jason Schreie said that “‘Koticku’ was an actual April Fool’s prank by Kotaku circa 2010 where the site pretended it was purchased by Activision and turned [Stephen] Totilo into a full-time Guitar Hero writer.”