Current market conditions be damned, the gaming industry remains poised to finish out 2008 with double-digit year-over-year growth. One of the leaders fueling that unabated rise is Activision Blizzard. The superpublisher--formed in July after Activision merged its games group with Blizzard Entertainment parent Vivendi SI--accounts for many of the industry's biggest money-minting hits, including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft.

　　Though Activision Blizzard technically remains a subsidiary of Vivendi, the French megacorp handed over the company's reins to former Activision CEO Robert Kotick. That decision seems to be working out pretty well so far, given that Market Watch today announced Kotick as a finalist in the analyst-oriented publication's CEO of the Year awards.

　　Market Watch called out Kotick's role in engineering the aforementioned business combination, mentioning the PC-centric Blizzard and his own company's console bent as notable accomplishments. Market Watch also noted that though the publisher's stock price is off 21 percent on the year, it remains well above rival EA's 67 percent dip and THQ's 83 percent slide.

　　Kotick, a protege of Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, copurchased Mediagenic for $500,000 in 1990, restoring the company to its original Activision moniker and refocusing the software developer on its gaming roots. Market Watch notes that over the past decade, Kotick has guided the company to a 1,000 percent return on investments, meteorically higher than the 118 percent return EA has generated for investors over the same period of time.

　　Market Watch awarded newly installed Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner as its top executive in 2008. Other brass named alongside Kotick as finalists include JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, Southwest's Gary Kelly, and Heinz's Bill Johnson.