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Gaming Gets Its First Union At A Major U.S. Studio
23.5.2022
Despite months of negative talking points by Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, quality assurance staff at its Raven Software studio voted to unionize Monday, becoming the first union at a big studio in the U.S. The successful vote comes with talk of labor organizing picking up across...
New Marvel Card Game From Ex-Hearthstone Devs Plays Fast As Hell
19.5.2022
Announced today, Marvel Snap looks like a chaotic but fun digital trading card game (TCG) featuring popular Marvel heroes and villains. It’s also the next game from some of the key folks behind Blizzard’s popular digital card game Hearthstone, who left to form their own studio a few years back....
Lawsuit: Blizzard Lets Minors ‘Gamble’ On ‘Worthless’ Hearthstone Card Packs
19.5.2022
Blizzard is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit over card packs sold to minors in Hearthstone, its popular World of Warcraft-themed trading card game. A parent in Arizona claims his child purchased hundreds of dollars worth of the cards without realizing how rare it is to get good cards out...
Activision Blizzard’s Diversity Tool Has A Long, Even More Embarrassing History
17.5.2022
Activision Blizzard touted its Diversity Space Tool in a blog post on May 12, in which it claimed that both the Call of Duty: Vanguard and Overwatch 2 development teams beta tested the tool with much enthusiasm, then quickly walked this statement back on May 13 and said the tool “is not being used...
Activision Blizzard's New Diversity Game Tool Comes Across Terribly
14.5.2022
Today Activision Blizzard fulfilled its daily oopsie quota by blogging about how the publisher’s subsidiaries have apparently been using a special tool to help develop more “diverse” characters. It apparently thinks it can accomplish this without, I don’t know, actually talking to or hiring...
Overwatch 2 Beta Visuals Aren't Helping Perception That It's Barely An Update
9.5.2022
The Overwatch 2 technical beta started on April 26, and players have already started mining the build for content. One player even made a side-by-side lighting comparison video of the differences between the beta and the original game, which recently took off on Twitter. The two video captures...
Now New York City Is Suing Activision Blizzard
4.5.2022
Activision Blizzard is facing (what feels like) its 8,583,129th lawsuit, as first reported by Axios. This one’s from New York City, and alleges that longtime CEO Bobby Kotick raced to find a buyer for the mega-publisher he has been leading for 30 years to explicitly avoid consequences for turning...
Everything You Need To Know About That New Overwatch 2 Scoreboard
29.4.2022
Overwatch had a nontraditional approach to keeping score. Typically, competitive shooters like Apex Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds keep a running list of kills, points, and team ranking on a shared scoreboard. Overwatch, instead, used a less specific system that awarded an individual...
Activision Shareholders Approve Xbox Deal, But Wall Street Has Doubts
28.4.2022
Shareholders at Call of Duty and Overwatch 2 publisher Activision Blizzard voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to approve a $69 billion sale to tech giant Microsoft. The deal gives golden parachutes to top execs at Activision, including embattled CEO Bobby Kotick. But despite gaming’s biggest...
Diablo Immortal Is Hitting PC Because Players Would Just Emulate It Anyway
25.4.2022
Today, Blizzard announced that Diablo Immortal will be out on June 2 for iOS, Android, and PC. The PC version was a surprise as Blizzard had previously said that this new entry in the ARPG dungeon-crawlin’ franchise was built for mobile devices from the ground up. But according to the Warcraft...
New World Of Warcraft Expansion Lets You Fly Dragons
19.4.2022
Blizzard pulled back the curtain on the next chapter in World of Warcraft in a developer livestream Tuesday, and it’s all about dragons. The appropriately titled Dragonflight expansion will unleash players upon the Dragon Isles and let them roll as a new playable dragon race called the Dracthyr....
Former Xbox Boss Remembers Microsoft Trying To Buy Blizzard, Westwood Back In The Day
19.4.2022
It’s 2022 and Microsoft is in the process of tying up a deal to purchase Blizzard. This isn’t the first time the computing giant has tried to buy the company, though; according to Ed Fries, who led development of the first Xbox console, it’s actually the third.Read more
Blizzard Boss Tries To Shut Down Player Speculation After NFT Survey
18.4.2022
While some companies are doubling down on the lucrative scam behind NFTs, others are trying to head off any association right from the start. After an Activision Blizzard survey went out polling players on their interest in the blockchain technology, Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra was quick to shoot...
The Chinese Gaming Industry Is About To Start Moving Again After Devastating Nine-Month Freeze
11.4.2022
After a nine-month hiatus that put the Chinese games industry on edge, China’s culture regulators have finally started issuing new approvals for domestic games so they can be published within the country.Read more
Call Of Duty Maker Announces Raises For QA Workers Amid Unionization Fight
7.4.2022
Activision Blizzard announced a big win for its part-time developers today as it battles an ongoing union push at one of the big studios behind Call of Duty: Warzone. Contract QA staff across the company will be converted to full-time, and also see their minimum hourly rate raised to $20. That’s...
Activision Blizzard Settles Sexual Harassment Lawsuit For $18 Million
29.3.2022
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer approved a $18 million relief settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission today. This settlement comes months after Activision Blizzard originally agreed to settle with the EEOC on September 27, 2021. But those attempting to hold the game publisher...
New Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Harassment, Retaliation Endured By Woman For Years
24.3.2022
A new lawsuit against Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by a current employee raises fresh allegations of sexual harassment at the publisher, this time focused on leaders in Blizzard’s IT department. According to the lawsuit, the current employee was repeatedly subjected to unwanted...
Elden Ring's Minimal UI And HUD Elements Have Started Maximum Dev Debates
10.3.2022
If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the last week, you would’ve likely seen a number of intense debates happening over Elden Ring. The usual accessibility and difficulty discourse still permeates much of the conversation around the game, but the newest point of contention was actually Elden...
Overwatch 2 Beta Launches April, Will Lack PvE
10.3.2022
Today, Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2, the long-awaited sequel to its team-based hero shooter, isn’t dead and has a closed PvP beta out in late April. Read more
Activision Stock Shenanigans Being Investigated By Justice Department, SEC
9.3.2022
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that three men—Fox co-founder Barry Diller, Reggie Miller-hating socialite Alexander von Furstenberg and music magnate David Geffen—are currently under two separate federal investigations over suspicions insider trading was involved in their purchase of millions...