Robert Bowling Unexpectedly Announces He is Exiting Activision [UPDATED]

"... many years of service" ? Did he just resign from the military?

was totally looking forward to whatever Respawn was coming up with.

if they hire this guy, i need to hear him say "activision MADE me tell all those lies so i quit" or else i'm not interested in anything that Respawn does.

One shot, center mass.

@Enigma777 said:

@Sooty said:

Is Creative Strategist (Community Manager) sort of like how Subway call their employees Sandwich Artists? fourzerotwo always struck me as either incredibly ignorant of the PC platform or he was being told what to say by Activision.

Hey, it takes a real artist to make a sandwich like that.

It must, because none of the people working at any Subway I go to can seem to keep it together.

@Mystyr_E said:

<checks pockets>

<checks under bed>

Hm, can't seem to find a fuck to give

And yet, here you are. That reminds me, I have to find a Rugby message board, so I can go there and tell them how much I don't care about Rugby.

Because this is behavior that makes sense.

$20 he's going at Respawn.

I wouldn't entirely expect him to show up at Respawn, they already has a community manager http://www.giantbomb.com/abbie-heppe/72-99837/. Mind you, I don't even know what 'creative strategist' means in the context of CoD. I really doubt he had any creative control over the game.

The dude's married and has kids, so yeah, I can understand the hover hands.

Robert Bowling gets hired at Respawn Entertainment confirmed?

@Diablos1125 said:

Robert Bowling gets hired at Respawn Entertainment confirmed?

@deerokus said:

I wouldn't entirely expect him to show up at Respawn, they already has a community manager http://www.giantbomb.com/abbie-heppe/72-99837/. Mind you, I don't even know what 'creative strategist' means in the context of CoD. I really doubt he had any creative control over the game.

@AuthenticM said:

$20 he's going at Respawn.

@YukoAsho said:

So tomorrow he gets hired by Respawn?

@adoggz said:

so what are the odds he ends up at respawn?

@slyspider said:

respawn got a new person?

@wsowen02 said:

Respawn needs a mod for their message boards.

Random picture is random.

@Rmack said:

One shot, center mass.

Does nothing In Call of Duty

@Mystyr_E said:

<checks pockets>

<checks under bed>

Hm, can't seem to find a fuck to give

heh.

Does he do any sort of game design or is he just a glorified forum mod?

Respawn: Yo, Robby! We could probably use your services now, afford to pay you, etc. You ready?

Robert Bowling: "Today, I resign my...."

@ArcLyte said:

@Mystyr_E said:

<checks pockets>

<checks under bed>

Hm, can't seem to find a fuck to give

\end of thread.

I've got no problem with him. but good. Maybe we can get someone that doesn't use twitter to get fixes and news out to people. (Oh, who the hell am I kidding?

You just know he's headed to Respawn... West and Zampella made an offer he couldn't refuse perhaps?

You know. I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't a long time coming since the fallout at IW after MW2 launched.

Haha, hover hands.

@Sekoku: Sorry but you're going to have to get used to this. A lot of companies do this already so I'm not sure why you'd give him any guff for doing it as well.

I know 402 got a lot of crap, some deserved but most of it is unwarranted. Serving as the voice of an entire company or franchise that is as popular as Call of Duty/Modern Warfare is a thankless job. He put a smile on as best he could despite threats, insults, and God knows what else slung at him for being the voice of Infinity Ward and Activision (to a lesser extent). Best of luck to him.

Call of Duty? Is that some new Mass Effect DLC? :D

Wait this dude was a community manager as recently as MW2 -- who cares?

I'm pretty sure this means that MW is drawing to a close. 

Well the deal was that you had to stick around at Infinity Ward and make Modern Warfare 3 to get Infinity Wards share of the Modern Warfare 2 profits right? He is one of only a handful that stuck around it seems so I suspect he recently received a large payout.

@aurahack said:

These comments, as usual, are terrible. Dude was always upfront and should be respected for that. Sad to see him go, though I'll giggle some if he ends up at Respawn.

To the contrary, I'd say these comments perfectly capture how much of a fucking loudmouthed shit Robert Bowling is, between his constant lying to the community about features and patches and fucking awful stunts like that "one shot center mass" shit.

Creative Strategist?, give me a break, its fancy talk for community manager. So nobody should really care about him leaving.

Look at Bowling in that picture! Hover-handing those ladies like a bawse!!!

When did we care so much about PR people? He was really just community manager, not "lead developer" or "developer" by any means.

Never been a huge fan of Robert if I'm honest.

@deerokus said:

I wouldn't entirely expect him to show up at Respawn, they already has a community manager http://www.giantbomb.com/abbie-heppe/72-99837/. Mind you, I don't even know what 'creative strategist' means in the context of CoD. I really doubt he had any creative control over the game.

Hahm I've had this person on my twitter for a while as "person who works in gaming" had no idea it was a girl. The more you know!

Never really understood why the GB community hates everything Call of Duty related, and this barely qualifies as that. He's a community manager, much like the gentleman who wrote this post was once for Harmonix. Would you say that Alex wasn't important in the promotion and PR of Rockband? Bowling became the face of CoD and the voice for the fans and there are a lot of CoD fans. Plus how can you not be a fan of Bowling after " super-douche?"

The increasingly fancy titles for an identical job always made me smile, and all the train wrecks along the way were certainly interesting, but he always seemed like a nice enough guy who tried to make the most of a shitty job. Sometimes it must have been impossible to avoid fucking it up.

But despite an impressive résumé which includes leading Infinity Ward, creating Call of Duty, and writing lyrics for Chris Remo, I'd be shocked to see him at Respawn.

@sandweed said:

@deerokus said:

I wouldn't entirely expect him to show up at Respawn, they already has a community manager http://www.giantbomb.com/abbie-heppe/72-99837/. Mind you, I don't even know what 'creative strategist' means in the context of CoD. I really doubt he had any creative control over the game.

Hahm I've had this person on my twitter for a while as "person who works in gaming" had no idea it was a girl. The more you know!

It's basically a generic catch-all for "I talk on twitter and facebook and put out updates in the forums and sometimes give interviews". I don't know about Bowling, but most of these type of titles mean "nothing to do with the actual game and everything to do with interactive marketing and promotion of it". Hence, why these are often positions held by GAME JOURNALISTS.

@MB said:

@kpaadet

Creative Strategist?, give me a break, its fancy talk for community manager. So nobody should really care about him leaving.

Exactly. This move is completely inconsequential, its not like he was a developer or a designer or anything like that. May he fade away into obscurity in silence.

A good community manager who can create a solid rapport with people is important to gamers, "journalists", and developers/marketing, but as you point out, they are inconsequential to the game itself.

Meh, It's like if Larry Hyrb left Microsoft. It would be news but not really significant to the product.

Now that's a man that appreciates a mature woman.

Only Alex would bust out a pic like that. Pun intended.

@Mystyr_E said:

<checks pockets>

<checks under bed>

Hm, can't seem to find a fuck to give

bravo.

@gorkamorkaorka said:

HOVER HANDS

Good catch, now lets speculate how much of a loser he is.

Looks like the era of Call of Duty is truly over.

These comments, as usual, are terrible

I'll never forgive him for saying MW2 on PC will be just like Call of Duty has always been and then, a few weeks before release, spilling the details that they gutted it and you may as well buy the console version so you can trade it in. I don't know how he lasted this long lying to customers and twisting statements to make it sound like Activision cares.

Even before that though, he always struck me as someone who dodged any real questions and he never seemed to have any knowledge of what was going on other than what he was prepped to say for interviews. Hopefully someone more honest and straightforward takes his place (although I doubt it with how Activision is managing IW).

@Sooty said:

Is Creative Strategist (Community Manager) sort of like how Subway call their employees Sandwich Artists? fourzerotwo always struck me as either incredibly ignorant of the PC platform or he was being told what to say by Activision.

The difference is that Sandwich Artists probably have more self-respect.

@dvorak said:

@Sooty said:

Is Creative Strategist (Community Manager) sort of like how Subway call their employees Sandwich Artists? fourzerotwo always struck me as either incredibly ignorant of the PC platform or he was being told what to say by Activision.

The difference is that Sandwich Artists probably have more self-respect.

Four slices of roast beef, ham, turkey, slami, and provolone/swiss/some semblance of cheddar to a footlong sub. Your choice of veggies. That's art.

All he's ever been to me is the guy who told me that MW:2 wouldn't have dedicated servers.

Listening to that podcast was painful.

@gorkamorkaorka said:

HOVER HANDS

Hah, totally

@LegendaryChopChop said:

Looks like the era of Call of Duty is truly over.

One can surely hope.