Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018, and the position remains open as of February 2019.
(meta data) TITLE: Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving in March | GamesBeat (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2018-01-18T19:20:03+00:00 55 captures 18 Jan 2018 - 06 Sep 2022 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Internet Archive These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved. Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors. The goal is to fix all broken links on the web. Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. Collection: Wikipedia Near Real Time (from IRC) This is a collection of web page captures from links added to, or changed on, Wikipedia pages. The idea is to bring a reliability to Wikipedia outlinks so that if the pages referenced by Wikipedia articles are changed, or go away, a reader can permanently find what was originally referred to. This is part of the Internet Archive's attempt to rid the web of broken links. The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20180908015834/https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/18/activision-publishing-ceo-eric-hirshberg-is-leaving-in-march-after-8-years/ # Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving in March Dean Takahashi@deantak January 18, 2018 11:20 AM Above: Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, is bringing back Call of Duty XP. Image Credit: Activision ## MOST READ Starlink: Battle for Atlas hands-on — Going in hot with Nintendo's Starfox character on the Switch Beyond Spotify and iZettle: How Sweden became Europe's capital of startup exits Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with To-Do ink support, Sticky Notes 3.0, and delay snip How Shadow of the Tomb Raider guides players without the white-paint trail CEO Robin Jung tells why Pearl Abyss bought Eve Online maker ## UPCOMING EVENTS BLUEPRINT: Oct. 9 - 11 VB Summit: The best in AI. An invite-only executive event. Oct. 22 - 23 Eric Hirshberg, the CEO of Call of Duty and Destiny publisher Activision Publishing, will leave his job after eight years in March. Hirshberg just announced to his team that he is leaving, and Activision has confirmed the departure. Hirshberg ran a major division of Activision Blizzard, and he reported to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. At Activision Publishing, Hirshberg was responsible for game series such as Call of Duty, Destiny, and Skylanders. Those franchises are some of the biggest in gaming. "Serving as Activision's CEO has been an honor and a thrill," said Hirshberg in a statement. "This is an amazing company. One which routinely delivers epic experiences for our fans on a scale that no one else can. I have nothing but admiration for the incredible team I have had the privilege to lead. And I have nothing but appreciation for Bobby for giving me this transformational opportunity, and also for having the vision and conviction to champion a creative person for a leadership role on this scale." Kotick thanked Hirshberg for his service. "During Eric's tenure we've had historic performance and great successes," said Kotick, in a statement. "He is an inspiring leader, and we will all miss his creativity and tenacity very much. He is leaving the team, the franchises and the business in a great place, and he goes with my full support and appreciation." Hirshberg has had a great run, and it is ending on a high note. As of December 21, Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the No. 1 and No. 2 top-selling console games of 2017 in North America, based on revenue. Additionally, Call of Duty was the top video game franchise for the ninth year in a row in North America, and eight of the last nine years globally, based on revenue. Activision Blizzard is actively conducting a search for the next CEO of Activision. Under Hirshberg, Activision launched Destiny with developer Bungie in 2014, and in 2013, Activision launched Skylanders, which pioneered the toys-to-life category of games. Under Hirshberg, Activision also launched fan-favorite games such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which became the top-selling remastered collection in PS4 history. One of the biggest hits was Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which generated $1 billion in sales in 15 days. His team also doved into esports with the first $1 million Call of Duty Championship in 2011 and creation of the Call of Duty World League in 2015. Part of what he brought to the job was a creative advertising executive's perspective. Hirshberg wasn't a game developer or game executive when he took the job. The marketing campaigns for his games reflected that creative view. He helped the titles rise above hardcore gaming enthusiasts to mass audiences. Under the tag line, "there's a soldier in all of us," Black Ops commercials billed the game as one that any weekend warrior could play. The Modern Warfare 3 TV commercials promoted the game as playable by both veterans and newcomers, or "noobs." These ads showed that creative marketing could elevate a game to the level of a cultural phenomenon. Hirshberg said in an interview in 2012 that he believed games were not products, but brands. While people buy products, they "buy into brands," he said.
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Activision
History.:Post-merger developments (2009–present).
Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009. Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, former Visceral Games leads that had worked on "Dead Space", Sledgehammer intended to develop a "Call of Duty" spin-off title fashioned after the gameplay in "Dead Space". However, in early 2010, legal issues between Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzad led to several members of Infinity Ward leaving, and Activision assigned Sledgehammer to assist Infinity Ward in the next major "Call of Duty" title, "Modern Warfare 3". Since then, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch share development duties for the flagship series, with support from Raven and other studios as necessary. 
 In February 2010, Activision Blizzard reported significant losses in revenue stemming from a slow down in "Guitar Hero" sales and from its more casual games. Subsequently Activision Publishing shuttered Red Octane, Luxoflux and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft. Within the same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and Bizarre Creations in February 2011. 
