Business; Face value;Top of his game;Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard has helped the video-game industry grow up;Like many teenagers, Bobby Kotick was drawn to video games when they first appeared in the 1970s.He had an Atari, with its chunky plug-in cartridges and blocky graphics, and he liked to play “Defender” at the arcade.The young Mr Kotick also had an entrepreneurial streak:he sold bagels and soft drinks to people waiting in line for petrol during the 1979 energy crisis.How appropriate, then, that he has ended up as the boss of Activision Blizzard, the world's largest publisher of video games.So did Mr Kotick and the industry grow up together?Not quite. It would be more accurate to say that Mr Kotick was one of the peoplewho helped the chaotic games business grow up, by applying a more rigorous approach to management.Many gamers dislike him, complaining that his bean-counting approach stifles creativity.But there is no denying his ability to get results:earlier this month his firm reported impressive sales and higher than expected profits of $195m for the three months to June.Mr Kotick's big break came in 1983, when he was a student at the University of Michigan.He was about to leave for New York to meet potential investors in a firm he was setting upto make software for the Apple II computer when he met Steve Wynn, a casino tycoon, at a party.Mr Wynn was also heading to New York and offered Mr Kotick a lift in his private jet.
