Blizzard has had a number of shakeups in recent times, and now they’re beginning to shake things up from the top. Activision Blizzard has officially named Google’s Daniel Alegre as their new President and Chief Operating Officer as of April 7th.
Currently, Alegre serves as the President of Google’s President of their Global Retail, Shopping, and Payment systems, a role that he’s worked at for nearly three years. Alegre has worked as an executive for Google for the better part of the last sixteen years, all in all.
“Activision Blizzard is at an exciting point in its history,” Alegre said as he spoke to the future of his new position. “In addition to a deep library of owned and internationally beloved franchises, the company has tremendous talent that has built a culture committed to inspiration and creativity. more importantly, through thoughtful and creative games, it connects and engages over 400,000,000 people around the world through epic entertainment.”
Activision Blizzard has named Daniel Alegre as their new President and Chief Operating Officer. Daniel will assume its new roles starting April 7th, reporting directly to Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick.https://t.co/CYCKQ5zGN3 pic.twitter.com/BGO6rxnjzZ
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) March 12, 2020
Blizzard’s current President, Coddy Johnson, will remain on as a special advisor for Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. Johnson has been with the company for more than a decade, and while he’s moving out of the Presidential role, he will remain an experienced voice for the future in his special advisor position.
All in all, it’s been a crazy few years for Blizzard. Naming a new President will have an effect on much of the way the company is run from the top-down, though the average player likely won’t notice much in the way of changes.
Activision Blizzard has also had a rough time recently. They found themselves facing a massive amount of backlash last year from the Hearthstone player base after the company joined with China in suppressing the political movements in Hong Kong. Many fans of the company found themselves incensed by Activision Blizzard’s decisions to suspend multiple players who voiced support of Hong Kong.
It hasn’t all been politics, of course. Activision Blizzard also received incredible backlash as they released the long-awaited remaster of Warcraft III, which set a record for how poorly a game can be received. Swiftly becoming their worst release, the title still sits at a 0.6/10 on Metacritic after tens of thousands of reviews and was received poorly enough that the developers had to reconsider their refund policy to appease fans.
So welcome aboard, Daniel! You have your work cut out for you, but you’re at the helm of a company that has defined the childhood and adolescence of millions of gamers across the world. Good luck!
