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Activision Blizzard’s Diversity Tool Has A Long, Even More Embarrassing History
17.5.2022
Activision Blizzard touted its Diversity Space Tool in a blog post on May 12, in which it claimed that both the Call of Duty: Vanguard and Overwatch 2 development teams beta tested the tool with much enthusiasm, then quickly walked this statement back on May 13 and said the tool “is not being used...
Activision Blizzard's New Diversity Game Tool Comes Across Terribly
14.5.2022
Today Activision Blizzard fulfilled its daily oopsie quota by blogging about how the publisher’s subsidiaries have apparently been using a special tool to help develop more “diverse” characters. It apparently thinks it can accomplish this without, I don’t know, actually talking to or hiring...
Elden Ring Officially Mainstream As Sales Top Call of Duty
13.5.2022
Recent NPD figures reveal that FromSoftware’s latest grueling action-RPG, Elden Ring, is toppling over literal titans as it outsells Call of Duty: Vanguard, challenges Cyberpunk 2077, and, as Forbes’ Paul Tassi highlights, has shipped up to “half the lifetime sales of the entire Dark Souls...
Nintendo Still Silent On Workplace Allegations Despite Acknowledging Them Internally
12.5.2022
It’s been nearly a month since a former employee filed a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Nintendo alleging surveillance, coercion, and retaliation. Outside of an initial statement denying the company engaged in union-busting, the house of Mario has remained publicly silent in...
Overwatch 2 Beta Visuals Aren't Helping Perception That It's Barely An Update
9.5.2022
The Overwatch 2 technical beta started on April 26, and players have already started mining the build for content. One player even made a side-by-side lighting comparison video of the differences between the beta and the original game, which recently took off on Twitter. The two video captures...
Activision Has The Population Of A Small Town Working On Call Of Duty Games
6.5.2022
The Call of Duty machine can never stop. It must endlessly push forward, through lawsuits, controversies, and layoffs. To stop would mean…well, we don’t know, because it never has. And to help keep the machine going, Activision now has over 3,000 human souls working tirelessly on the publisher’s...
Now New York City Is Suing Activision Blizzard
4.5.2022
Activision Blizzard is facing (what feels like) its 8,583,129th lawsuit, as first reported by Axios. This one’s from New York City, and alleges that longtime CEO Bobby Kotick raced to find a buyer for the mega-publisher he has been leading for 30 years to explicitly avoid consequences for turning...
Activision Blames Disappointing Call Of Duty Sales On World War II
3.5.2022
The Call of Duty machine stalled last year, in response to which publisher Activision Blizzard is blaming the slowdown on the latest game’s World War II setting and lack of “innovation.” Sure.Read more
Tomb Raider's New Owners Have Been Snatching Up Old Series For Years Now
2.5.2022
The video game industry is undergoing a tidal wave of consolidation right now, and Swedish holding company Embracer Group is riding it to become one of the newest players in a rapidly shrinking space. A few years ago most people had never heard of it. Now it’s bigger than rivals like Ubisoft...
Activision Shareholders Approve Xbox Deal, But Wall Street Has Doubts
28.4.2022
Shareholders at Call of Duty and Overwatch 2 publisher Activision Blizzard voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve a $69 billion sale to tech giant Microsoft. The deal gives golden parachutes to top execs at Activision, including embattled CEO Bobby Kotick. But despite gaming’s biggest...
Dragon Age 4 QA Devs Say They're Unionizing Over Bad Pay And Covid Safety
27.4.2022
The video game industry is currently undergoing a small but unprecedented wave of developer organizing. Last week it even reached the halls of famed RPG maker BioWare, where a group of QA contractors working on Dragon Age 4 revealed their intention to unionize. The two biggest reasons why? Bad...
Diablo Immortal Is Hitting PC Because Players Would Just Emulate It Anyway
25.4.2022
Today, Blizzard announced that Diablo Immortal will be out on June 2 for iOS, Android, and PC. The PC version was a surprise as Blizzard had previously said that this new entry in the ARPG dungeon-crawlin’ franchise was built for mobile devices from the ground up. But according to the Warcraft...
Report: Private Equity Eyeing Ubisoft As The Next Big Gaming Acquisition
23.4.2022
Private equity firms could be beginning to circle over Ubisoft, Bloomberg reported Friday. Talks are early, but include interest from firms like Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. Even if it’s not private equity, senior current and former Ubisoft developers Kotaku has spoken with in recent months...
Report: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Killed News About Bobby Kotick’s Restraining Order
21.4.2022
Between 2016 and 2019, Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg used her political clout to bury two news stories about a restraining order filed against Activision Blizzard exec Bobby Kotick, according to a bombshell report this morning from The Wall Street Journal. Sandberg was dating Kotick at...
Game Studio Blizzard Is Polling Players About Crypto and NFTs
21.4.2022
Blizzard, a game studio and part of the Activision-Blizzard company, has started polling some gamers about the use of NFTs and cryptocurrency elements. The survey, which was only directed to some of its players, raised rumors about the possibility of the company introducing some of these elements...
Blizzard Boss Tries To Shut Down Player Speculation After NFT Survey
18.4.2022
While some companies are doubling down on the lucrative scam behind NFTs, others are trying to head off any association right from the start. After an Activision Blizzard survey went out polling players on their interest in the blockchain technology, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra was quick to shoot...
The Ways Shanghai's Food Crisis Is Impacting Chinese Game Devs
15.4.2022
For the past few days, Genshin Impact players have been speculating about how extended lockdowns and food crises in Shanghai have been affecting the game’s development. The promised teapot event was never released, and the Serenitea housing system has been in extended maintenance mode since...
Amouranth Says She's 'Quitting' OnlyFans, Invests In Twitch
15.4.2022
On April 12, top Twitch streamer and content creator Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa announced her intention to quit OnlyFans this June. She tweeted that she had made a $350,000-$400,000 investment in Twitch, and that she had plans for “moving “influencer” and “creator economy” into what...
Report: California Governor Gavin Newson Accused Of Interfering In Activision Lawsuit
13.4.2022
California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) recently lost the top two lawyers in its ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. The chief counsel was fired by the state governor, Gavin Newsom, while the assistant chief counsel resigned today in protest....
While Sony And Microsoft Acquire Studios, Nintendo Buys Land
12.4.2022
While the rest of the video game industry is consolidating, Nintendo is spreading out. The Switch manufacturer has finally responded to massive moves by competitors Sony and Microsoft by announcing a $39.8 million land deal to break ground on a new R&D office. Whatever it takes to finally port...