Items tagged with Activision-Blizzard
Mike Ybarra, former president of Blizzard, is using the extra time on his hands to come up with ideas on how to help game developers survive this difficult moment in the gaming industry. Ybarra thinks that tipping might be a viable solution when gamers feel a single player game exceeds expectation once the credits...
Read more...
Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees from its gaming division, or roughly 9% of its workforce, mere months after finalizing its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft isn’t only limiting its maneuvering to personnel, as it’s also cancelling a survival game project that Blizzard had been working...
Read more...
Now that CEO Bobby Kotick is out at Activision-Blizzard, many are airing their grievances with the former leader. Among the many scandals or incidents that Kotick weathered, it would seem that Overwatch 2’s team was left to hang out and dry when it came to launching the game on Steam, according to emerging reports...
Read more...
After what feels like ages and ages (but has really been less than two years), Microsoft is finally drawing near the finish line of its $68.7 billion dollar attempt to purchase Activision-Blizzard. The last roadblock, placed in the way of the acquisition by the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)...
Read more...
If you're against the Microsoft purchase of Activision-Blizzard-King, what would be some potential reasons that you might present in a court to convince the judge that the deal shouldn't proceed? Would you talk about Call of Duty, or perhaps the massive back catalog of beloved IPs held by ABK? Or would you focus on...
Read more...
Microsoft's purchase of Activision-Blizzard is practically a done deal at this point, and while it does result in the formation of a gargantuan gaming juggernaut the likes of which the world has hardly seen, there are some good things that could feasibly come out of the conglomerate entity. Microsoft's game publishing...
Read more...
Microsoft has been trying to close its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard for more than a year, and a recent court victory has moved the Xbox maker to within a hair's breadth of the goal line. The Federal Trade Commission failed to convince a court to block the deal, but the FTC has appealed the ruling...
Read more...
You read the headline so we probably don't need to re-state it, but just in case you're reading this on an ancient archive in the year 2330 and the headline has been lost to history, here it is: Microsoft has been given the go-ahead to pay $69 billion dollars for competing publisher Activision-Blizzard. That green...
Read more...
Who could have expected that it would be rather difficult to spend $69 billion to acquire another company? Despite the green light from the European Union for Microsoft to acquire Activision-Blizzard last month, the Redmond-based company has hit yet another roadblock. The FTC has elected to go after a temporary...
Read more...
It wouldn't have been unreasonable for Activision-Blizzard's board to be worried about the prospects of Diablo IV. After all, Diablo III wasn't exactly well-received by the fanbase initially, and while Diablo Immortal has been a financial success, buzz on the title has been largely negative. Likewise, reactions to...
Read more...
Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision-Blizzard-King has a new lease on life, as the EU gives its seal of approval. European Union regulators say Microsoft offered remedies that alleviate any concerns it may have had concerning the $69 billion deal.
Since its announcement, the controversial deal has had...
Read more...
AI systems like ChatGPT for text or Midjourney for imagery have improved to the point where they can be used in some day-to-day work. For example, the hero image above was created by Midjourney in response to the prompt “game developers working.” While AI-generated content isn’t always perfect (just check out the...
Read more...
Microsoft is looking increasingly desperate to lock down Activision Blizzard in the face of increasing regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft is on its best behavior, licensing its game properties like there's no tomorrow, and that's a good thing for gamers. After inking long-term content deals with Nintendo and NVIDIA...
Read more...
Sony expressed concerns in new documents that, if the Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard-King deal goes through, Call of Duty games will be buggier on its PlayStation consoles. The documents from Sony are in response to the provisional findings of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concerning the Microsoft...
Read more...
Microsoft has announced two 10-year deals today that have been signed, sealed, and delivered. The first is between itself and Nintendo. In a tweet, Smith confirmed that deal had been closed between the two tech giants as part of Microsoft's commitment "to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to...
Read more...
It's been 27 years since the first Diablo game was released. The game received numerous awards, and every sequel of the Blizzard title has garnered almost the same success. The most recent iteration of Diablo was Diablo: Immortal. This game was met with significant disdain from fans but didn't stop Blizzard from...
Read more...
It's only been four months since launch and the remake of Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has broken yet another record. After being the fastest title in the series to reach $1B in sales, the game is now also the proud owner of the most sales in its release quarter since the very first game in the series...
Read more...
We have been talking about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard for over a year now, and the company has nothing to show for it. Thanks to a number of roadblocks, including pushback from several companies and countries alike, the deal that was expected to close this fiscal year is going up against even more...
Read more...
This whole Microsoft-buys-Activision deal is looking less and less likely by the week. Last week, NVIDIA and Google spoke up against the purchase, and the week before that, Microsoft had to revise its response to the FTC to remove remarks that recommended the outright destruction of the commission. Now, a new...
Read more...
Following the case of Microsoft attempting to acquire Activision-Blizzard-King is like watching a stage play put on by middle-schoolers: full of drama, unscripted twists, and surprise setbacks. The latest event in this grand saga is a big one: both Google and NVIDIA have thrown their hats into the ring, providing...
Read more...
This attempt by Microsoft to purchase Activision-Blizzard has been incredibly contentious. Besides challenges from the industry, the attempted acquisition has seen push-back from legislators in several places, including the EU, the UK, and here at home in the US. The FTC filed a lawsuit to block the purchase, and what...
Read more...
This Activision-Blizzard-King sale to Microsoft has been contentious, to say the least. Regulators from the UK and the EU have piped up on the issue, a group of individual gamers are suing to block the purchase, and even the United States Federal Trade Commission is stepping in to nix the merger. Microsoft has now...
Read more...
