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Controversial World Of Warcraft Quest Removed After Fan Backlash
23.6.2023
Popular fantasy MMO World of Warcraft has come under fire for a questline that pushed up against some of the darker parts of the franchise’s lore, and it was not flattering.Read more
Is PlayStation Really Worried About Losing Call of Duty To Microsoft? Private Emails Say No
22.6.2023
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been fighting Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard tooth-and-nail, claiming it jeopardizes Call of Duty on PlayStation 5. But in a private email when the deal was first announced, Ryan apparently wrote that he didn’t think it was an “exclusivity play” to take...
Square Enix Re-Releases Game Without Its Controversial Microtransactions
20.6.2023
Square Enix’s once-abandoned Chocobo racing game, a Final Fantasy spin-off titled Chocobo GP, has received a second chance at life without all the bad microtransactions, which previously ended up nickle-and-diming players for game features. Read more
Diablo Cosplay Is As Far From Hell As Possible
15.6.2023
Cinderys is a professional cosplayer from France who has been active in the scene for almost a decade now. Over the years she’s cosplayed as a bunch of Blizzard characters, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone, but her latest Diablo work is terrifyingly good.Read more
Report: Big Game Companies Like Square Enix And Roblox Are Ignoring Climate Change
23.11.2022
AfterClimate, a research and consultancy business “on a mission to decarbonise the games industry”, have this week published the results of their “game industry net zero 2022 snapshot”, a report that takes a detailed look at how most of the world’s biggest video game companies are responding to...
Hacker Group Claims Elden Ring Publisher Is Its Latest Victim
11.7.2022
Bandai Namco, the Japanese publisher behind the Ace Combat, Dragon Ball Z, and Dark Souls games, appears to be the latest major gaming company to suffer a major hack. The ransomware group BlackCat added the Elden Ring publisher to its list of victims earlier today, though it’s not yet clear...
Tensions Rise At Bethesda As Employees Pressure Company On Abortion Measures
1.7.2022
In the wake of Roe v. Wade being struck down last week, many employees at Skyrim maker Bethesda Game Studios and its parent company ZeniMax Media have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as their employer’s unwillingness to clearly support employees’ access to reproductive healthcare....
Fantasy Battle Royale Spellbreak Shutting Down, Studio Absorbed By Blizzard
29.6.2022
Spellbreak, the magic-based battle royale, is spellbroken, shutting down early next year, developer Proletariat announced in a blog post. Also, the whole studio is getting absorbed by Blizzard, the result of a recent acquisition intended to beef up development on World of Warcraft.Read more
Xbox Head Defends Bethesda In Wake Of Crunch Allegations
28.6.2022
At an all-hands meeting on Thursday, Xbox addressed the growing employee concerns about labor conditions at Bethesda Game Studios and its parent company, ZeniMax. Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said he was “confident” that the studio was not crunching, and that it was “unfair” to attribute...
RIP Bernie Stolar, Who Helped Launch Both The PlayStation And Dreamcast
27.6.2022
Bernie Stolar, one of the most important video game executives of the 1990s, has passed away at the age of 75, GamesBeat reports.Read more
Bobby Kotick Is Staying On Activision Blizzard's Board, Ew
22.6.2022
Just yesterday, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a report looking into the company’s anti-harassment efforts. While the company itself is “carefully considering” that, stockholders also gave the green light to the Board of Directors nominees, which included shitty CEO Bobby Kotick....
Activision Stockholders Vote To Release Annual Harassment Reports, Company Will 'Consider' It
21.6.2022
Today, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a proposed annual report that would document the company’s ongoing efforts to stop workplace abuse and harassment as well as catalog the company’s total number of sexual harassment settlements and pending complaints. Read more
Tony Hawk Says A Pro Skater 3+4 Remake Was Killed By Activision's Moves
21.6.2022
From 1991 until 2021, Vicarious Visions was the name of a studio that made a ton of pretty cool licensed games, but which had also contributed to the beloved Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Then Activision stepped in and made some changes.Read more
Xbox Boss Says He Will Recognize Raven Software's Union After Acquisition Closes
26.5.2022
In today’s internal all-hands meeting with Xbox Game Studios employees, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said that he would recognize Raven Software’s union. This came after the QA testers at Raven voted to form the first labor union at a major studio.Read more
Activision Blizzard Devs Demand Breastfeeding Protections And Other Reforms
25.5.2022
10 months after a California lawsuit alleged widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, employees at the company don’t feel like it’s made the necessary changes and have created a worker committee to demand further reforms. Chief among them...
Sony Is Being Sued For Gender Discrimination At PlayStation Again
23.5.2022
A former PlayStation employee is suing parent company Sony for a second time over what the lawsuit describes as “gender-based discrimination and gender-based harassment” after a similar legal action was dismissed in April. (h/t Axios)Read more
Lawsuit: Blizzard Lets Minors ‘Gamble’ On ‘Worthless’ Hearthstone Card Packs
19.5.2022
Blizzard is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit over card packs sold to minors in Hearthstone, its popular World of Warcraft-themed trading card game. A parent in Arizona claims his child purchased hundreds of dollars worth of the cards without realizing how rare it is to get good cards out...
Ukrainian Devs Moving To 'Safer Areas' With Grant Money
19.5.2022
Frogwares, a Ukrainian studio known mostly for their Sherlock Holmes games, have somehow kept working through Russia’s unprovoked invasion of their country. And now, thanks to a large injection of cash, they’ll be able to keep on doing that.Read more
Layoffs At EA Austin Following Split With FIFA
18.5.2022
Electronic Arts is laying off a ton of customer service staff at its Austin office, according to internal emails viewed by Kotaku. One source familiar with the decision told Kotaku that as many as 100 employees could be affected, many of whom supported live operations on FIFA 22. Going forward,...
By The Way, Take-Two’s CEO Profits From All Your GTA Online, NBA 2K Microtransactions
7.5.2022
Microtransactions in games like Grand Theft Auto Online have become big business for video game publishers. And it’s likely this won’t be changing anytime soon. New details spotted in a recent contract extension for Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explain that the CEO will earn a big bonus if more...