UK boss Peter Hepworth leaves Activision

Activision’s UK and Ireland MD Peter Hepworth has left the Call of Duty publisher, MCV can reveal.

Hepworth joined the company in 2005 and he replaced Andrew Brown as UK MD in August 2011. But he has decided to leave the firm to pursue new opportunities. Brown will now take back his UK responsibilities on an interim basis.

Hepworth’s departure comes as redundancies are made across Activision’s Minneapolis Business Unit. The publisher revealed back in October that it would be ‘realigning the structure’ of the unit, which focuses on licensed games such as Spider-Man and Transformers. Activision says it will release fewer games based on third-party licences.

"Peter Hepworth, Managing Director of Activision’s UK operations has decided to leave the company to pursue new career opportunities," an Activision spokesperson told MCV.

"We will be continuing to work with Peter on UKIE initiatives andwould like to thank him for his many years of service. In the interim, the Activision Blizzard UK and Ireland business will be overseen by Andrew Brown, Vice-President of Sales Excellence, while we look at a longer term solution."

As for the wider redundancies, the firm said back in October: "Like any successful business, Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process. In 2013, we expect that our Minneapolis division will release fewer games based on third-party licenses than we released during 2012.

"As a result, we are realigning the structure of our Activision Minneapolis division to better reflect our slate and the market opportunities. We are working to redirect those employees that are impacted to other parts of the company where possible, as well as offering them outplacement counselling services."

Also departing Activision is the firm’s European PR manager Sophie Orlando. She joins a PR agency in Australia.