Enlarge / Brack promoting World of Warcraft onstage at Blizzcon 2017. (credit: Blizzard) Blizzard President J. Allen Brack, who was recently named in a California state discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the company, is leaving “to pursue new opportunities,” the company announced this morning. In his place, Blizzard Executive VPs Mike Ybarra (a former long-time […]
Enlarge / Ex-Blizzard developer Alex Afrasiabi as he appeared in a 2019 video promoting World of Warcraft . (credit: Blizzard ) Last year, reports started to bubble up among Blizzard-watchers that longtime World of Warcraft developer Alex Afrasiabi, who was first hired in 2004, had quietly left the company without any official explanation. Now that […]
Enlarge / Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. (credit: Flickr / bobby-kotick) Ahead of Wednesday’s planned “Walkout for Equality” among Activision Blizzard employees, CEO Bobby Kotick has issued a new statement criticizing the company’s initial response as “tone deaf” and promising immediate and ongoing action on some issues raised by employees. After acknowledging what he called […]
Enlarge (credit: CHUYN / Getty Images) Criminals have been hiding malware inside publicly available software that purports to be a cheat for Activision’s Call of Duty: Warzone, researchers with the game maker warned earlier this week. Cheats are programs that tamper with in-game events or player interactions so that users gain an unfair advantage over […]
Enlarge / Artist’s conception of Activision lawyers diving into action to issue copyright notices for leaked footage. Activision is using DMCA takedown requests to try to suppress leaked footage of a new Call of Duty: Warzone map that hit the Internet yesterday. Copies of the leaked footage, which comes as part of a celebrity-filled promotional […]
Enlarge / Fishing for answers. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images) Last July, Take-Two announced that NBA 2K21 would be the first game to ask $70 for the standard edition on “next-generation” systems (i.e., PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X). Last week, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doubled down on that decision, saying the market was […]
Enlarge (credit: Blizzard Entertainment) The corporate-behemoth organism that is Blizzard Entertainment, which exists in a symbiotic state next to megaton game publisher Activision, became blurrier on Friday with a surprise announcement: It has absorbed a game studio within the Activision family, effective immediately. Vicarious Visions, a longtime game studio that was acquired by Activision in […]
Video game writer Activision Blizzard sued Netflix, asserting the video-streaming service participated in a yearslong effort of unlawfully poaching executives{} by using its former chief financial officer. Activision asserts Netflix interfered with all the touch of this executive, Spencer Neumann, by giving to cover beforehand to pay his legal fees. “Netflix unapologetically recruits talent with […]