Kotick sometimes borrows trouble. Like when he told a gathering of developers that he doesn't play games.
That's not exactly true.
"I have three kids, I'm a single dad," Kotick said. "If they want to play video games I would love to play with them but if they don't I gotta do what they want to do. I also have an addictive personality."
But much more importantly, both for Kotick and the many developers who work for him, he knows that if he plays a game, he might very well ruin it.
"I really like video games and that passion has never really gone away," said Kotick, who rattles off an impressive list of consoles he's owned in the past and games he loved. "If I go play Modern Warfare, I'll find a hundred different things I'd like done differently. And I don't have the discipline to not express my opinion."