Activision Blizzard’s board of directors wanted to convert the top staff’s equity into “performance shares” that would only vest on certain conditions, like if yearly operating income (profit) hit a predetermined goal. Morhaime was livid about this change, arguing that the system incentivized short-term thinking and would punish his teams if, say, they delayed a game. Kotick and Tippl fired back that the whole point of a bonus was to reward teams for shipping on time—it shouldn’t be guaranteed even if teams failed to deliver. Morhaime said that when things went awry, that was when they wanted
...more
