Being able to evolve great franchises over time is the foundation of world-class entertainment companies.
The social element has really transformed the gaming experience.
Autonomy leads to empowerment. We work hard to maintain a balance between collaboration and cooperation and independence.
In our early days, being recognized on any list of great companies was hard to imagine. There were times when we sold the office furniture to make payroll.
It's about really being considerate of the culture in the game studios that Activision buys. That's the biggest difference between us and any of our competitors.
Successful business leaders who have helped build institutions of lasting value - all are committed to talent and a culture of excellence. This is usually accomplished by the identification, retention, and development of great people.
Looking ahead, we see the popularity of eSports exploding as competitive gaming becomes more mainstream and eSports leagues like 'Call of Duty' World League and Overwatch League driving greater engagement and viewership.
Our customers need to be satisfied that there is a price-value relationship that they feel great about.
I think that's the responsibility of the CEO and the CEOs below me: to make sure that we're constantly putting people in places where they have the opportunity to develop into those careers but also having a rewards and recognition system that allows a great programmer to stay as a great programmer.
The video game business is primarily a male-oriented business. And I have three girls. And you see the things that are important to them in their game experiences are the social interaction. They love the ability to chat with their friends. They love the ability to have some connection online with other people.
One thing that probably is unique at Activision is that we really spend a lot of time up front with our audiences, and in big quantities and with a very thoughtful process, to really try and draw out from them what it is that they would like to play. So we have a pretty good sense going in what the expectation of the audience is.
In the mid 1980s, video games as an industry had lost its way a bit. Atari had collapsed. There was this widespread collective belief that it was because video games were a fad.
The engineering, analytics, design, testing, and delivery behind our products offer some of the hardest engineering and business challenges in the world. As we've brought our franchises into eSports and moved to digital delivery, it's become even more complex and exciting - which, in turn, has allowed us attract even more top talent.