Items tagged with Activision
We have the feeling that Activision Blizzard wasn’t anticipating that backlash that came with the announcement of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in May of last year. However, once the initial trailer for the game popped up on YouTube, the venom flew furiously at the thought of not only taking combat into space, but also messing around with gameplay mechanics. The Moonraker-esque battles in the trailer lead gamers to launch a massive “dislike” campaign on YouTube (as of today, the reveal trailer has 3.4 million dislikes compared to 567,000 likes). So, what is Activision Blizzard to do in order to right the ship? Well, it was announced that Sledgehammer Games is taking the lead for the 2017 Call...
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Activision Blizzard Launches Consumer Products Division Spearheaded By Former Mattel And Disney Exec
If you're a fan of any Activision or Blizzard game series, then there's a new reason to be excited. Announced today, parent company Activision Blizzard is launching a new division focused squarely on consumer products. Love Overwatch? Expect to see an even greater selection with your geek gear soon. To launch this division, former Mattel and Disney executive Tim Kilpin was brought in, who helped both companies achieve great success in similar areas. He says, "I’m excited to lead this newly-formed division and join Activision Blizzard’s already incredibly talented consumer products team in delivering powerful new partnerships and even more touchpoints to audiences." While fans of Blizzard or Activision...
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It's the end of an era. In a new post made on the World of Warcraft website, Blizzard announced that the Battle.net name is being pushed aside. From now on, the company will begin transitioning its front-facing services to ones that begin with the name "Blizzard", such as Blizzard Voice and Blizzard Streaming, which have already been revealed. When launched twenty years ago, Battle.net was setup to become an integral service for all forthcoming Blizzard titles. It was in effect the portal that allowed people to play their favorite Blizzard titles together, with the original Diablo becoming the first to make use of it on November 30, 1996. The biggest reasons for Blizzard's decision? One is the...
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Following months of intense anticipation, Destiny players can finally geek it up with the game's newest expansion: Rise of Iron. While it's been said that RoI is not quite as large as The Taken King was, players shouldn't be at a loss of things to do for quite a while. If you pushed hard to hit a Light Level of 335 prior to the launch of Rise of Iron, prepare to weep as it's now unimpressive. As of today, the maximum Light Level becomes 385, and as soon as Bungie decides to release the Heroic version of the new raid, it'll jump to 400. Speaking of raid, because no one is going to be an appropriate Light Level for the new raid right now, Bungie is holding off on releasing it for a couple of days....
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One of the most frustrating things to occur in an online first-person shooter is to die when you truly believe you shouldn't have. Just made it around the corner in the nick of time? While it might appear that you should have lived, the server's netcode couldn't keep up, and still registered it as a kill for the opposition. Apparently, this happens a bit too much in Overwatch, reducing the fun in what's supposed to be a premier online FPS. Well, this issue is one that Blizzard has been taking very seriously, and the fruits of its labor can now be seen through a "High Bandwidth" mode. Based on the original netcode, it's clear that Blizzard designed Overwatch to support low-bandwidth gamers, but...
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Blizzard Introduces Live Facebook Streaming For Battle.net Games Like Overwatch, WoW And Hearthstone
Streaming is big business, and almost every developer and gamer wants in. For gamers, this couldn't be more true than with Blizzard's portfolio of games. Games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch are full of moments well-worth streaming, so in the latest version of Blizzard's own game client the company has built new streaming options right in. Unfortunately for many gamers, Blizzard's streaming platform of choice is Facebook. While Facebook itself would love for its own social network to become the de facto place for streaming, it's a website that tries to cater to everyone and everything and thus it hasn't had great success attracting hardcore game streamers that don't care for all of the...
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If your brain hasn't already shut down from the sheer amount of details to come out of this year's E3, then here's something else to shove down your gullet: a new Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare trailer. Let's state the obvious: Call of Duty trailers are never received well by those who love to troll. Even those who wouldn't have played the game anyway love to jump in and toss in their ridicule. It's a bit odd, but it is what it is. The backlash led the original trailer release to score a staggering 2.8 million dislikes at YouTube, versus its 460 thousand likes. That caused Activision's CEO to come out and handle the situation like a champ. With how that first trailer was received, though, it...
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While the world's leading GPU vendors can't seem to get enough of 4K resolutions, making sure to promote it with the release of each new top-end model in recent years, those who've discovered ultrawide resolutions tend to just not care about it. The reasons for that can be explained with simple math. At 21:9, ultrawide monitors can increase what you see in a game by just over 30% compared to 16:9 (4K, 1080p, etc) models. That benefit ties into a second one: even the mammoth resolution of 3440x1440 (as is equipped with Acer's incredible Predator X34) has just 2/3rds the pixels of 4K, meaning that you not only see more of your game, it'll perform a lot better, too. Acer's Predator X34...
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There are few things that can ruin an online game quite as fast as a cheater. If a bug is exploited, a cheater can turn an otherwise great game into a downright frustrating one, and it seems this is a point Blizzard understands well. While cheaters are almost expected in any online game, Blizzard is having none of it with Overwatch. In an official forum post, Blizzard Community Manager Lylirra says, "Play nice; play fair" is one of the company's core values, and it's something that's built into each and every Blizzard title. What does that mean in Overwatch? There's no lenience with cheaters - none. Lylirra writes, "If a player is found to be cheating—or using hacks, bots, or third-party software...
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If there was any doubt about Activision's interest in eSports, it was squashed this past January when the company acquired Major League Gaming - MLG for short - for $46 million. Furthering its love for all things competitive gaming is a brand-new eSports network that runs through its MLG.tv Web portal. Oh - things are going to be getting good. At the IAB Digital Content NewFronts 2016 conference, Activision showed off "EVE". No, not the game, but 'Enhanced Viewing Experience', an HD video stream that delivers a wealth of statistics during a match. The network's host is Chris Pucket, someone who has a ton of experience in the eSports realm, from both the gaming and broadcasting standpoint. Activision...
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Hate is alive and well in the online community. If companies, movies studios or even game studios put out a product that ticks off the wrong group of people, the backlash can come swiftly. We saw that earlier this week as the new Ghostbusters reboot became the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history. Now, gamers are drinking gallons of Haterade to express their displeasure with the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare trailer that debuted on Monday. Like we saw with the Ghostbusters trailer, the online community organized a massive “dislike” campaign to trash the upcoming “sci-fi” title. As of this writing, the reveal trailer has nearly 9.2 million views, almost 202,000 likes and a whopping...
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When can you pretty much guarantee that the multiplayer part of a certain game is more popular than its single-player campaign? When the publisher decides to release an MP-only "starter pack", of course. That's exactly what Activision has just done with Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It's no secret that the Call of Duty series is one of the most popular destinations for gaming on Earth, with each release selling in quantities that are enviable by every other developer and publisher out there. So why, then, would Activision risk hurting its sales by releasing an MP-only pack? By stripping many features and capping the level - those crafty buggers! But what else can we expect for the asking price...
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According to an eSports tracking website, Activision has just purchased "substantially all" of the assets belonging to Major League Gaming. At the moment, this should be considered a rumor, as only a single source has information on it. However, the "proof" does look quite convincing. If the information is accurate, Activision will have paid a total of $46,000,000 to absorb MLG. That's a hefty sum, but apparently worth it to a company that wants to make a major impact on the market. It's increasingly becoming evident that many game publishers would rather run their own events than partake in someone else's. Valve has seen major success running its own show with Dota 2, and the same goes for Riot...
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Activision Blizzard is sitting on several lucrative game franchises, and to squeeze even more money out of them, it's launching a new film and television studio that will create original content based on its library of iconic intellectual properties. Former Disney executive Nick van Dyk will co-head the new venture, which has been dubbed Activision Blizzard Studios. The studio's first production will be Skylanders Academy, an animated TV series based on Skylanders. It has the backing of some talented people, like Eric Rogers (Futurama), who's supervising the project, and Justin Long (Alvin and Chipmunks, Ask Me Anything) as the voice of Spyro. Ashley Tisdale will also provide voice over talent....
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Yesterday, we received great news from Activision with the formation of the Call of Duty World League, which will launch in January 2016. Today, however, we’re getting some not-so-great news for owners of last generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming consoles. Treyarch announced today that the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will not feature a single-player campaign mode. Treyarch explains that “delivering the best possible gameplay experience on all platforms is always our highest priority,” but that it “could not be faithfully recreated on old generation hardware.” “With that in mind, Black Ops 3 PS3 and Xbox 360 players can continue to look forward to a new experience...
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The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise is set to launch in later this year, and the gaming community is eagerly awaiting its arrival. The official launch date for Call of Duty: Black Ops III is set for November 6th, and it’s bound to be another sales blockbuster (like the previous entries in the franchise). To take advantage of the huge hype surrounding the upcoming title and the enthusiasm generated by the eSports realm in general, Activision has announced that it will create the Call of Duty World League. Thankfully, Activision is dividing the Call of Duty World League by offering two divisions: The Pro Division and The Challenge Division. As its name implies, the Pro circuit...
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After a string of disappointing game launches (some of which were possibly made worse by inadequate testing), it’s good to see Activision and developer Treyarch running a large-scale beta ahead of its Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 release. Scott Lowe of Activision announced this week that that the companies will run a worldwide multiplayer beta starting next month, giving it plenty of time to work out any kinks before the official November 6 release date. “During the beta, fans will have an opportunity to try the new momentum-based, chained movement system, find the perfect Specialist to fit their play style, get a feel for the new multiplayer maps and more,” Lowe wrote in a blog post. So what are...
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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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The next installment in the Call of Duty series now has an official launch date: November 6. It’s a rather interesting date because November 6 is actually on a Friday, which is more typical of a new movie release than the usual Tuesday that is more common for new music and video game releases. Regardless of its launch date, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be available on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles as well as PC. There’s no word yet on when gamers still rocking a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 will have the honor of picking up the game, but that information will come in due time. It should also be noted that eager gamers will also be able to gain access to a beta of Black Ops 3 ahead...
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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is another success story for Activision. The latest installment has helped advance the franchise to grossing $10 billion in sales to date and, according to Activision, Advanced Warfare is the number one best-selling console game for this year in the U.S. While the latest Call of Duty game continues the trend of being one the year’s biggest sellers, Advanced Warfare also continues the trend of declining sales numbers over the past couple of years for the franchise. According to Edward Williams of BMO Capital Markets, the sales numbers for Advanced Warfare were 23 percent lower, year-over-year, than those posted by last year’s release, Call of Duty: Ghosts....
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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games has announced that it is currently working on an update for the FPS game. The incoming update will make some changes that are based on feedback from the player community and will add bug fixes, optimize connectivity, address certain issues, and polish several things ingame. “Our team has been working hard on improvements to the game,” said Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey in a post on the developer’s website. “We’ve also had our ears to the ground, listening to your feedback. Our commitment to continuing to support the game and community is as strong as ever, and we have the whole team focused...
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Kevin Spacey's acting chops are on full display in Activision's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Day Zero Edition, which is now available worldwide. It's an interesting launch on a number of levels, not the least of which is that this is the first CoD title led by developer Sledgehammer Games, the first time for a three-year development cycle, and it uses a entirely new game engine. "Three years ago we made some big decisions to invest in a three-year development cycle and to enlist Sledgehammer Games to be the first new lead studio for Call of Duty in a decade," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. "We believe that those decisions have paid off, resulting in a fantastic game,...
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