Tag Archives: Activision Blizzard

While Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to a merger, there are a number of hurdles still left to clear before the acquisition can happen. Aside from regulators, the deal also needs to be approved by Activision Blizzard shareholders. Due to the company's current stock price sitting far below Microsoft's …

Activision Blizzard held its quarterly earnings call last night, sharing new stats on how the business and its current games are doing. It looks like recent controversies have finally caught up to the publisher, leading to a huge drop in active players, particularly for Call of Duty.

This week, Activision Blizzard announced that over 1,000 of its temporary contract QA testers will be converted to full-time contracts and getting a pay bump. The move follows on from months of unionisation efforts.  As reported by Bloomberg, the change will affect roughly 1,100 QA employees at Activision's US studios. …

Activision has a ton of studios under its wing but unfortunately over the last decade, many of them have been relegated to support studio status in an effort to keep the Call of Duty franchise afloat. Soon, Activision studio, Beenox, will be opening up a second studio specifically to work …

Over the last year or so, Activision Blizzard has been hammered with multiple lawsuits, all alleging harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Two of these lawsuits were filed by US government agencies – the EEOC and DFEH. While the latter is still on-going, the former will soon be settled.  The …

In January, Microsoft shocked the gaming industry with the announcement of its agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard. Despite on-going troubles at the publisher, the idea of Kotick selling the company still seemed inconceivable. As time goes on though, we are learning more about the timeline of this deal and what …

Over the last year, Activision Blizzard has been dealing with a series of internal disasters, including a major lawsuit brought on by the state of California, alleging misconduct and management issues throughout the company. With Activision Blizzard now set to become part of Microsoft, the company is keeping a close …

In January, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for a record-setting $70 billion. Upon regulatory approval, that will give Xbox full control over some of the biggest franchises in gaming. To avoid setting off alarm bells for regulators, this week Microsoft has made some public assurances, such as keeping Call of Duty multiplatform, even after Activision Blizzard's current contracts with rival console makers expire. 

In the wake of Microsoft's proposed $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the publisher has been making some interesting announcements. Not only have we received information on new games from Blizzard, but we're also getting some early confirmation on this year's Call of Duty, with Infinity Ward now confirmed to …

Microsoft has been the force behind many industry-shaking moments: from the original announcement of Xbox Game Pass to the reveal that they had bought Zenimax Media (i.e. Bethesda). Even so, the recent announcement made by Microsoft may be the biggest piece of industry news ever.

Earlier this summer, Xbox's Phil Spencer admitted that the team did not announce Halo Infinite's release date at E3 this year as it wanted to wait and see where Call of Duty and Battlefield would land on the calendar. Unfortunately, those efforts to avoid being too close to a major …

It has been a couple of years since Blizzard first announced Overwatch 2, but since then, there has been no word on when the game will actually release. According to reports this week, executives are pushing for work on the game to be wrapped up, with plans to launch in …

As we know, Activision Blizzard is currently being sued by the State of California over its workplace practices. Today, the case against the company was updated, accusing it of shredding HR documents related to staff complaints and previous internal workplace investigations.  In the initial lawsuit, former Activision Blizzard employees talked …

GeForce Now has had an unfortunate few weeks. After finally launching to a positive reception, the game streaming service immediately began to have issues due to Activision-Blizzard removing their games from the service. Since then, a number of other companies have also withdrawn. Amid all this, Ubisoft have come out …

Earlier this week, we learned that Activision Blizzard's games were being pulled from Nvidia's recently launched GeForce Now cloud gaming service. The move came as a bit of a shock and not much explanation for the change was provided. Now, we know that the change came down to a misunderstanding …

It’s fair to say that Activision Blizzard isn’t the world’s favourite company after its cost cutting measures resulted in mass layoffs and its investors claim to have been misled by Bungie’s split. Recent reports of the company offering to collect data from its employees isn’t going to help matters, but …

Earlier this week, Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick and EA’s Andrew Wilson were placed on a list of “most overpaid” CEOs in the US with salaries more than 300 times that of their employees. This is in stark contrast to Nintendo Japan, which has revealed that its average employee earns $80,000 …

Contrary to Activision’s usual business choices, the publisher surprisingly allowed Treyarch to release Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 without controversial loot boxes. Sadly, 4 months of bliss has come to an end, as Operation Grand Heist introduces paid Reserve Crates. The change isn’t entirely unexpected given that the series …

Game Workers Unite has been expanding its reach, joining the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) at the end of last year to do away with wrongful practices in the UK’s biggest industry. Now, the organisation is attempting to see Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick fired for his hand …

Although Activision’s split with Bungie was largely welcomed by the Destiny community, company investors are suspicious that there has been fraudulent activity from behind the scenes. Third-party lawyers from Pomerantz LLP are currently investigating the sudden announcement, which has been linked to sizeable dips in the company’s stock. Activision Blizzard …

Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime stepped down as the company’s president in October, 2018, initially retaining his position as a strategic advisor. After 28 long years at the firm and a handful of recent shake-ups at parent company Activision Blizzard, it looks like Morhaime is leaving for good in just a …

Activision Blizzard ended 2018 with a filing that strong armed chief financial officer Spencer Neumann out of the company, effectively replacing him with former CFO Dennis Durkin. Whispers of Neumann joining Netflix shortly followed, turning out to be true as the streaming giant revealed his appointment yesterday. Inside sources at …

Update: Inside sources at Reuters supposedly “familiar with the matter” suggest that Neumann has been “poached” by Netflix. An official announcement is yet to be made, however Neumann is supposedly pegged to replace current CFO David Wells after 14 years of service. This has since been confirmed. Original Story: Activision …

Most video game companies have begun to invest in cloud gaming, with some believing that the technology will come to replace traditional consoles within the next two generations. Activision Blizzard disagrees, however, stating that there are issues with the current state of streaming technology that make mobile gaming a more …

Activision Blizzard has released another record breaking financial earnings report for the company, resulting in its stock steadily rising. Unfortunately for many, this showcases why the controversial practice of microtransactions isn’t going anywhere any time soon. In total, Activision made a record $7.16 billion in revenue throughout 2017, up from …

Earlier this year Disney made the surprising move to end the game development branch of its business. That meant the incredibly popular and profitable Disney Infinity is also set to be shut down. Rival mixed reality game series Skylanders however, is gunning hard to pick up the leftover audience, with …

In its quarterly earnings report, Activision Blizzard has announced that Destiny has more than 16 million registered users and was the largest new video game franchise launch in history. It also goes on to talk about how successful Hearthstone has been and new as of yet “Unannounced Initiatives”. It seem as though 2015 could be a …

Activision Blizzard has finally completed its buyback from parent company Vivendi, for a total of $8.2 billion, and has once again become an independent company, despite a stall in the process during the earlier days of October, where a share holder brought legal action against the publishing giant for not …