{"id":1123072,"date":"2026-02-01T15:24:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/FheLshpGVi6adHGNCCgPCF"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:24:41","slug":"bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Kotick says he&#8217;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#8217;s subscription by even a dollar because &#8216;it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads is Blizzard Entertainment, a studio that Kotick clearly feels is capable of best-in-class entertainment but also one that was in some respects mismanaged: This is, of course, from the perspective of a profit-first businessman.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A thing I noticed,&#8221; observes host Bing Gordon at one point, &#8220;nobody who&#8217;s ever left Blizzard seems to have done great\u2026 there&#8217;s some secret sauce there.&#8221; Which is obviously an over-simplification of the situation: Hundreds of hugely talented but lesser-known names have come and gone at Blizzard over the decades. But it&#8217;s clear what he&#8217;s driving at as Gordon names senior leadership like Mike Morhaime and Chris Metzen, which is that sense that nobody&#8217;s really left Blizzard and created the new Blizzard, or even something close to it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Look, when we bought Vivendi Games you can&#8217;t imagine what these guys were doing,&#8221; says Kotick. &#8220;They had 25 different development projects that were not the Blizzard franchises, they had a social media division, they had a mobile gaming business, they had like thousands and thousands of people and the whole company wasn&#8217;t making any money. Only Blizzard is, and only World of Warcraft is making any money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kotick felt such an environment wasn&#8217;t doing Blizzard any favours, and had led to stagnation around the studio&#8217;s golden goose. Necessary context for the start of the next response: Activision merged with French media publisher Vivendi to form Activision-Blizzard in 2008, before five years later Activision-Blizzard spent $8.2 million buying back the majority of Vivendi&#8217;s shares in the company.<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-video\" data-nosnippet >\n<div class=\"video-aspect-box\"><iframe data-lazy-priority=\"low\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D2urSgcuyyo\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;And so we traded for the company and my view is World of Warcraft is going to continue,&#8221; says Kotick. &#8220;But you have to make it less taxing and demanding on your time. Because you couldn&#8217;t enjoy it and be competitive in it without playing four hours a day. And people age out. They have kids. You just couldn&#8217;t play it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the game&#8217;s broad appeal was obvious, and the business model had proven a masterstroke even if, inevitably, players did age out of it (I know I did). &#8220;You&#8217;d be shocked,&#8221; says Kotick. &#8220;150 million people churned out of World of Warcraft [over its history]. That&#8217;s a crazy number. Those are people paying $15 a month. It was the best subscription business of all time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At this point the host, who&#8217;s sure to be a favourite among gamers, suggests that the only issue was that a WoW subscription could&#8217;ve been priced more highly. Surprisingly enough Kotick pushes back against this idea, though that&#8217;s only because he thinks there are better ways to monetise such an audience.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1280px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"qJQmZzfqL4aKB7BDE8oHuG\" name=\"maxresdefault.jpg\" alt=\"The Lich King in World of Warcraft.\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;We never raised the price,&#8221; says Kotick. &#8220;My view was we come up with value-added services, come up with new things to sell, but just leave the price. We could figure out how to come up with other things to sell them. And it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you know? You don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them. And even a dollar increase would&#8217;ve been a problem in my view.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A notable element there is Kotick&#8217;s understanding of WoW&#8217;s audience, which may not be appreciated by many players but I think is broadly accurate from the perspective of a publisher. MMO players tend to be incredibly invested in and protective of their chosen game, and while some suits would think that&#8217;s a no-brainer for a year-on-year increase in the subscription price, Kotick saw even a dollar increase to the baseline subscription as creating a problem the publisher didn&#8217;t want. He was still laser-focused on <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/world-of-warcraft\/alas-its-been-estimated-that-wows-usd90-fomo-dinosaur-mount-probably-made-blizzard-around-usd15-17-million-and-at-this-point-i-think-we-all-deserve-to-be-here\/\" target=\"_blank\">getting money out of players<\/a>, of course, but these kinds of instincts are what saw wild success for Activision-Blizzard and that eventual <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/heres-everything-thats-happened-since-microsoft-acquired-activision-blizzard\/\" target=\"_blank\">$68.7 billion sale<\/a> to Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>Some may find the tone of this business-focused podcast galling, because Kotick left Activision Blizzard in 2023 under something of a cloud and remains something of a villainous figure among gaming fans: <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/bobby-kotick-retrospective\/\" target=\"_blank\">The epitome of the cutthroat capitalist out for profit over artistry<\/a>. Kotick casually pronouncing on the failures of Vivendi should also be taken in the context of his own failure to adequately deal with <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/activision-blizzard-ceo-audaciously-claims-that-sexism-and-harassment-problems-were-made-up-by-an-aggressive-labor-movement-trying-to-destabilize-the-company\/\" target=\"_blank\">systemic sexism and harassment problems<\/a> at Activision Blizzard.<\/p>\n<p>But no one can deny that Bobby Kotick understands the videogame business. And arguably wasn&#8217;t wrong about Blizzard either: Among other things Kotick thinks <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/world-of-warcraft\/bobby-kotick-reckons-the-warcraft-film-was-a-terrible-idea-for-blizzard-and-in-the-end-was-one-of-the-worst-movies-ive-ever-seen\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Warcraft movie was a disaster<\/a>, burning out Chris Metzen to the point he left was a huge mistake (and Kotick was behind his return), and that the studio had lost focus on serving WoW players. WoW is now arguably <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/world-of-warcraft\/world-of-warcraft-is-enjoying-a-golden-age-and-weve-never-had-it-so-good\/\" target=\"_blank\">in something of a golden age<\/a>. You do wonder where it would be now if Vivendi stayed in charge.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/world-of-warcraft\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads is Blizzard Entertainment, a studio that Kotick clearly feels is capable of best-in-class entertainment but also one that was in some respects mismanaged: This is, of course, from the perspective of a profit-first businessman. &#8220;A thing I noticed,&#8221; observes host Bing Gordon at one point, &#8220;nobody who&#8217;s ever left Blizzard seems to have done great\u2026 there&#8217;s some secret sauce there.&#8221; Which is obviously an over-simplification of the situation: Hundreds of hugely talented but lesser-known names have come and gone at Blizzard over the decades. But it&#8217;s clear what he&#8217;s driving at as Gordon names senior leadership like Mike Morhaime and&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1123073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[748,135,1080],"class_list":["post-1123072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-games","tag-mmo","tag-world-of-warcraft"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bobby Kotick says he&#039;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#039;s subscription by even a dollar because &#039;it&#039;s a prickly audience, you don&#039;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#039; | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bobby Kotick says he&#039;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#039;s subscription by even a dollar because &#039;it&#039;s a prickly audience, you don&#039;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#039; | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Bobby Kotick says he&#8217;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#8217;s subscription by even a dollar because &#8216;it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":846,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"games\",\"MMO\",\"World of Warcraft\"],\"articleSection\":[\"PC Gamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them' | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Bobby Kotick says he\u2019d never have raised World of Warcraft\u2019s subscription by even a dollar because \u2018it\u2019s a prickly audience, you don\u2019t wanna do too much to agitate them\u2019\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bobby Kotick says he&#8217;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#8217;s subscription by even a dollar because &#8216;it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them' | Arcader News","description":"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them' | Arcader News","og_description":"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Bobby Kotick says he&#8217;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#8217;s subscription by even a dollar because &#8216;it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#8217;","datePublished":"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/"},"wordCount":846,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg","keywords":["games","MMO","World of Warcraft"],"articleSection":["PC Gamer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/","name":"Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them' | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-01T15:24:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, made a recent appearance on the Grit podcast discussing his career in videogames. One of the threads","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"Bobby Kotick says he\u2019d never have raised World of Warcraft\u2019s subscription by even a dollar because \u2018it\u2019s a prickly audience, you don\u2019t wanna do too much to agitate them\u2019"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bobby-kotick-says-hed-never-have-raised-world-of-warcrafts-subscription-by-even-a-dollar-because-its-a-prickly-audience-you-dont-wanna-do-too-much-to-agitate-them\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bobby Kotick says he&#8217;d never have raised World of Warcraft&#8217;s subscription by even a dollar because &#8216;it&#8217;s a prickly audience, you don&#8217;t wanna do too much to agitate them&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482631,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123072\/revisions\/1482631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}