Activision Blizzard is a company filled with creative, talented people. I remember the first time I was shown X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and how genuinely enthused the developers in the room seemed about both the project and the character. When we played the full game it was clear that it wasn't a show; this was made by people who wanted to produce a solid, fun Wolverine title. They succeeded. I can share many, many other stories about good experiences with Activision Blizzard employees and their products.

Which is why it's so frustrating that they seem to be lead by such a joyless man. I'm not sure if a video game beat up Bobby Kotick when he was a young man, but he seems to find the industry genuinely distasteful, even as it makes him rich. Here are some choice quotes from a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco.

He points to the newly acquired business acumen of people in his company. "You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly," he stated. Of course, that may be due to the fact that his incentive program "rewards profit and nothing else."

He continued with that message: money, money, money. "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

"We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression," he stated.

Now, these quotes are taken from GameSpot's reporting, and we don't have the entire speech to give these statements context. The problem is I'm just not sure what kind of context would make these quotes look any less bloodless. This is the man who controls Blizzard. This is the man who controls the Call of Duty franchise. This isn't the first time Kotick has been very upfront about wanting to squeeze his franchises for everything they're worth.

Things may be looking good for Activision Blizzard right now, but gamers are a fickle bunch. When you invite a vampire into your home, it's possible he may be able to simply take a little blood every now and again and be a genial guest, but at some point you know he's going to lose control and bleed you dry. At that point you'll be dead, and he'll be out in the night looking for a new home. The worst part? It's hard to argue that you didn't know what he was when you invited him in.