Are you sure about that ? I don’t know that much about these kind of dynamics because I am not a soulless capitalist ghoul, but I remember reading that Kotick actually did that kind of stuff mostly by himself and was quite good at it (which did translate into more money being made, which probably kept investors happy and cemented his position)
Can confirm, grandpa was a WW2 vet (+ a few of the postcolonial wars that followed). He used to say that soldiers morale hinges on wine and cigarettes.
Also he died of lung cancer after surviving all that shit, including being a POW for 4+ years in extremely shitty conditions in Cambodia