Items tagged with Activision Blizzard
NVIDIA's GeForce NOW game streaming service exited beta last week and became a commercially avail product to the masses. What makes GeForce NOW so special is that it connects to existing PC game stores, allowing you to stream games that you have already purchased, to various computing platforms regardless of horsepower and capability, from set top box devices like NVIDIA Shield, to laptops, Macs, mobile devices and everything in between. So, despite the fact that you might have an underpowered PC, a Mac, Chromebook, or even an Android smartphone, it's still possible to partake in 1080p 60fps PC gaming from anywhere, as long as you have a stable internet connection (~30Mbps, 5GHz WiFi...
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Activision Blizzard and Google have announced a multi-year strategic relationship that will see Google Cloud services as the preferred provider for Activision Blizzard's game hosting infrastructure. YouTube will act as the exclusive streaming partner globally, excluding China, for live broadcasts of Activision Blizzard's popular eSports leagues and events. Activision Blizzard says that it sought a partner to help enhance its gaming infrastructure while delivering superior, low-latency player experiences. It says it turned to Google Cloud because of its highly reliable global footprint, advanced data analytics, and AI capabilities. Benefits for players under the new arrangement include low...
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Thanks to key game franchises such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and even Candy Crush, publisher Activision Blizzard was able to rake in a record $7.5 billion in revenue last year, which is nearly half a billion dollars more than it collected in 2017. Nevertheless, layoffs are coming in a bid to reach the company's "full potential." "While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential. To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes. These changes should enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities,...
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On the surface, the breakup between Activision Blizzard and Bungie has been mostly amicable, despite tensions that ultimately led to the divorce. That has come as little consolation to investors, though, some of which have banded together in a potential class action lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in the wake of the separation. The class action suit is being handled by Pomerantz LLC on behalf of investors. At present, the law firm is gathering investors to participate, and is investigating "whether Activision and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices." No suit has yet been filed. At the heart of the investigation is...
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We don't know if it was bound to happen, but it did—publisher Activision Blizzard and developer Bungie have split up. Perhaps it was...destiny? Or more precisely, the Destiny franchise, which Bungie will assume complete creative control and publishing rights, Activision Blizzard and Bungie announced in a joint statement. "Going forward, Bungie will own and develop the [Destiny] franchise, and Activision will increase its focus on owned IP and other projects. Activision and Bungie are committed to a seamless transition for the Destiny franchise and will continue to work closely together during the transition on behalf of the community of Destiny players around the world," the companies stated....
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The Overwatch community has been shaken by a controversial “social experiment”. “Ellie”, the first female North American Overwatch Contenders player, was actually an imposter. Both Blizzard and Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind have confirmed the sad truth. Overwatch Contenders is a tournament for potential pro players. Twelve teams in each of the seven Contender regions battle it out multiple times a year, and the winners have a chance of joining the Overwatch League. Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind signed on a player only known as Ellie at the last minute. Every other player has listed their full name and gaming handle, but Ellie reportedly did not want...
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If you haven’t been bombarded at some point with numerous Facebook notifications to join your friends for a round of Candy Crush, consider yourself lucky. You can’t shake a stick without hitting somehow hitting something related to Candy Crush (an iOS users know all too well about tricky banners that automatically transports you to App Store in an effort to get you to download the freemium game). Given the hysteria surrounding the Candy Crush franchise, developer King Digital must be doing something right. Activision Blizzard was definitely taking notice, and this week announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to purchase King Digital for a staggering $5.9 billion. At $18 per share,...
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Like many MMORPGs, World of Warcraft can be a grind. To sidestep the time commitment required to continually level up a character, gather resources, improve skills, or whatever else is desired, some gamers turn to bots, software that automates the process. The only problem is, Activision Blizzard isn't so keen on this behavior and has dropped the ban hammer hard on gamers who've been using them. Activision Blizzard didn't specify exactly how many people it booted, saying only that it was a "large number of World of Warcraft accounts." However, a screenshot of a conversation between a player, Game Master, and Activision Blizzard employee suggests that over 100,000 World of Warcraft accounts were...
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When it comes to lucrative game franchises two of the most well-known ones happen to be Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Activision publishes the CoD franchise while Take-Two Interactive is responsible for publishing GTA. However, there are rumors floating around that Activision might be trying to purchase Take-Two. Speculation began when a research note from Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey talked about “an emerging romance” between both companies. Hickey said, “For Activision, acquiring Take-Two Interactive would be a no-brainer, in our view, circling some of the strongest development talent and owned IP in the world, within a company that has nearly $1 billion in cash and...
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Let's face it, the Call of Duty franchise is practically a license to print money at this point. As if we need reminding of that, Activision sent out a press release today announcing that it sold more than $1 billion of Call of Duty: Ghosts into retail stores worldwide on the very first day of availability. Helping to reach that figure is that fact that Ghosts launched at 15,000 midnight openings around the globe. "Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II,...
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Activision Blizzard, Inc. has finally managed to buy back billions of dollars of shares from parent company Vivendi Universal as part of a deal that first announced back in July. That deal hit a snag after several shareholders filed a lawsuit, prompting a U.S. court to halt the transaction in September. On Friday, however, a Delaware court cleared the way for Activision Blizzard's proposed $8.2 billion buyout of Vivendi's majority stake in the company. The deal includes an acquisition of around 429 million shares for approximately $5.83 billion, or $13.60 per share in cash, by Activision Blizzard. In addition, an investment group led by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and Chairman Brian...
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Fans of the best-selling Guitar Hero video game series will have even more songs to fuel their fantasies of pop glory. Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is in the works according to video-game blog Joystiq. No specific tracks have been named, but Activision has said it will include music from guest bands such as Queen, Weezer, blink-182, The Offspring, and Queens of the Stone Age. The company also plans to release three new music-based video games this year: DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, and Band Hero. DJ Hero will use a new controller shaped like a record turntable. The controller will have three colored buttons similar to the five fret buttons featured on Guitar Hero....
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