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Raven's New 'Organizational Change' Conveniently Breaks Up Union Members
25.1.2022
It was only a few days ago that 34 quality assurance testers at Raven, one of the studios working exclusively on the Call Of Duty series, formed the first ever union among Activision Blizzard employees. Today, management has responded to their success with some changes.Read more
Raven QA Testers Form Activision Blizzard’s First Union
21.1.2022
Thirty four quality assurance testers at Raven Softwarew, the Activision Blizzard studio in charge of its massively popular battle royale, Call of Duty: Warzone, announced today they are unionizing after weeks of striking over recently announced layoffs in their department. Calling themselves...
Report: Bobby Kotick Meeting Leaves Activision Blizzard Staffers Unimpressed, Worried
20.1.2022
This morning, Bobby Kotick held an all-hands meeting with Activision Blizzard employees to address Microsoft’s acquisition of the company for $68.7 billion dollars. He stated that Microsoft would be trying to “retain as many of our people as possible,” and that he planned to stay on as the CEO...
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Purchase Isn’t Great, But Isn’t An Illegal Monopoly Either
19.1.2022
Yesterday’s announcement of Microsoft’s plan to purchase Activision Blizzard King for nearly $70 billion immediately sparked discussions about antitrust laws and monopolies, financial terms that pop up whenever a high-profile company purchases another high-profile company. While the merging...
Report: Bobby Kotick Is Still Trying To Hide The Scale Of Activision's Problems
17.1.2022
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that not only has Activision Blizzard fired dozens of staff in the last few months, but that CEO Bobby Kotick has been hiding that information from the public. Because it might look bad...Read more
Riot Games Offers Resignation Bonuses As Company Announces New Direction
13.1.2022
Hot on the heels of announcing plans to head in a somewhat new direction over the next five years, Riot Games has expanded its Queue Dodge buyout program–normally available to new hires during the first six months of their employment–to all employees. In other words, employees who opt to leave...
Lego Delays Overwatch 2 Set Over Activision Blizzard Allegations
11.1.2022
Lego’s Overwatch 2 Titan set won’t come out next month as planned. The Danish toy maker announced today that it’s delaying the release until it can finish reviewing its partnership with Activision Blizzard, in light of workplace misconduct issues made public in recent months.Read more
Xbox Boss Not Interested In 'Virtue Shaming' Activision
10.1.2022
Back in November, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, told staff he was “evaluating all aspects” of the Microsoft gaming division’s relationship with Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard following a bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal of workplace misconduct and coverups at the massive...
14,000 Chinese Game Companies Have Gone Out Of Business Due To Regulation Freeze
4.1.2022
China’s freeze on video game licenses continues. South China Morning Post notes that the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has not released a list of newly approved titles since July 2021. Because of this, state-run newspaper Securities Daily reports that approximately 14,000...
The Year In Video Game Companies Buying Other Video Game Companies
30.12.2021
The video game industry went on a shopping spree in 2021. Throughout the year, a handful of larger companies consistently bought up a boatload of smaller ones, at a rate where it seemed a new acquisition was announced every few weeks.Read more
Ubisoft Says 'We Understand' Where NFT Hate Comes From, Does Not Actually Understand
22.12.2021
Ubisoft’s entry into the maelstrom of NFTs, which has so far been comically inept, has also been received by the wider public with an enormous amount of outright hostility. And how has the company responded to this backlash? Exactly as you would expect.Read more
Call of Duty Studio Vaguely Promises To Do Better A Month After Sexual Harassment Report
21.12.2021
Call of Duty studio Treyarch just issued the latest in a long series of murky apologies from Activision-owned studios regarding the ongoing investigation into company-wide sexism, harassment, discrimination, and bullying. In a tweet issued today, a little over a month after the Wall Street Journal...
Tencent Buys Up Back 4 Blood Devs Turtle Rock, Its Sixth Studio Purchase In 2021
17.12.2021
Today, one of the largest companies in the world, Tencent, announced it acquired Turtle Rock Studios, the developers behind the recently released zombie shooter Back 4 Blood. The deal is just the latest in a long list of acquisitions over the last few years for the Chinese tech giant, including...
Call Of Duty: Warzone Devs Stage Walkout Over Layoffs
6.12.2021
Quality assurance testers and other developers at Raven Software, the Activision studio in charge of the extremely lucrative free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone, are walking out on the job today to protest surprise layoffs that were foisted on staff beginning last Friday. The group...
Less Than 5 Percent Of Managers At Nintendo HQ Are Women
30.11.2021
Following internal comments by Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser earlier this month about allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination at Activision Blizzard, Nintendo has updated its Corporate Governance document today with a new commitment to “increase the proportion of women...
Arcades In Japan Keep Closing, Which Sucks
24.11.2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the Japanese arcade industry hard. With the country closed off to tourism, it might only seem like big city arcades are the ones that are hurting the most. That’s simply not the case. Earlier this year, Kotaku reported that things were horrible for Japanese arcades....
Activision's Damage Control Reaches Sad New Low
23.11.2021
Faced with internal unrest, plummeting share prices and a growing public relations disaster, the men and women at the very top of Activision Blizzard—the senior executives and board of directors—should all be resigning. Instead, they’ve put out a desperate press release in the middle of the night...
Report: Activision Took Years To Fire Someone Who Signed Emails '1-800-ALLCOCK'
20.11.2021
A California lawsuit earlier this year alleged sexual harassment, discrimination, and a pervasive “frat boy culture” at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. At least in one instance, that culture included an employee signing all of his work emails as “1-800-ALLCOCK.” Read more
Girls Who Code Ends Relationship With Activision Blizzard Following Latest Revelations
19.11.2021
Nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, which specializes in teaching computer science to young women and other marginalized groups, will no longer affiliate itself with Activision Blizzard, after the multibillion-dollar corporation came under fire yet again in a scathing new round...
Over 1200 Activision Blizzard Employees Sign Petition Demanding CEO Bobby Kotick Quit
19.11.2021
The ABK Workers Alliance, a group of Activision Blizzard workers formed in response to the company’s treatment of its employees, began circulating a petition earlier today for anyone working at the publisher’s studios and offices to sign. It has now been endorsed by over 1200 workers.Read more