Activision: Call of Duty Endowment announces scholarship winners at Madison Area Technical College

Media Contacts: Ted Kresse (CODE)

202.777.3719

Bill Bessette (MATC)

608.246.6127

WASHINGTON – Today the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE) announced the four students chosen to receive $2,500 scholarships at Madison Area Technical College. The scholarship program, which was created by CODE earlier this year, allows the Madison Area Technical College Foundation to award $10,000 in scholarships to four students annually through 2014. The scholarships were created to help address the issue of veterans’ unemployment, and will help students who are former service members pursue their education in video game design, graphic arts, and information technology fields. The Madison College recipients are Alissa Andrus, Robert Howe, Matt Minnis and Eric Sutton.

The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit, public benefit corporation and was created by Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) in November 2009. The organization seeks to help veterans transitioning to civilian life find work and establish careers and to assist other organizations that provide job placement and training.

Steve Robinson, a member of the CODE advisory board, explained why the scholarship program was created: “The Call of Duty Endowment has provided numerous organizations with the financial dollars to help continue their work towards getting more veterans employed. With that in mind, we also wanted to provide resources to the vets themselves, who are back in school studying a field that will let them begin a new career once their service has been completed.”

Robinson added, “We chose students in the field of graphic design and video game development, because it’s a natural link to Activision Blizzard, the creators of the Call of Duty Endowment and largest video game publisher in the world. It was important for us to show how some of our nation’s proudest young veterans can find fulfilling and rewarding 21st century careers in this industry.”

The students chosen are all full -time or part-time students currently enrolled this fall at Madison College. They have diverse backgrounds and variety of experiences in the military. Andrus and Howe are serving in the Army National Guard, Minnis served in the Marines and Sutton served in the Army.

The issue of unemployment among veterans is a grave issue facing the nation. This past spring, the Labor Department announced the unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was at 21.1 percent, almost double the national average.

Activision Blizzard, a worldwide online, PC and console video game publisher and publisher of the best-selling Call of Duty® video game franchise, created CODE with a commitment to donate and raise millions of dollars to help increase awareness of veterans’ unemployment.

Media Contacts:

Call of Duty Endowment

Ted Kresse

202.777.3719

media@callofdutyendowment.org

Bill Bessette (Madison College)

608.246.6127

wbesstette@madisoncollege.org

About the Call of Duty Endowment:

The Call of Duty Endowment (CODE) is a non-profit, public benefit corporation created by Activision Blizzard. The organization seeks to help soldiers transitioning to civilian life find work and establish careers and to assist organizations that provide job placement and training. For more information about CODE, please visit http://www.callofdutyendowment.org.

About Madison Area Technical College:

Madison Area Technical College serves approximately 40,000 individuals annually, providing “real world smart” education through a comprehensive curriculum of technical, liberal arts and sciences, adult basic education and continuing education, as well as customized training for employers.

About Madison Area Technical College Foundation

The Madison Area Technical College Foundation was established in 1973 as a private, nonprofit corporation to support the students and faculty of the college through gifts from alumni, faculty, staff, corporations, foundations and other friends of the College. The Foundation has distributed more then $11 million in financial assistance to nearly 32,000 students.