Activision Blizzard: Last News

Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard is causing concern for smaller game developersLast month it was announced that Microsoft was acquiring Activision Blizzard for around £50billion, followed by news at the end of January that Sony would buy Bungie for £2.6billion.Now multiple indie developers have spoken to the BBC about their concerns with the Microsoft acquisition, and what it could mean for them.Director at Kitfox Games Tanya Short – the developer of Boyfriend Dungeon – said: “This Activision acquisition strikes fear in us because it makes it so much more obvious – maybe they could dominate the rest of the year and then what do we do?”“Conceivably, indie games outside of these services might lose engagement as subscribers focus most of their attention on games they can access for free within the service,” adds Yura Zhdanovich, founder and director at Sad Cat Studios.The Federal Trade Commission is set to investigate the deal and whether or not it would harm the competition. FTC Chair Lina Khan is an advocate for a more assertive approach when handling deals.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that he doesn’t believe its acquisition of Activision Blizzard should be blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission.The deal, worth around £50billion, was announced on January 18 but earlier this week it was announced that the US Federal Trade Commission would be conducting an antitrust investigation after fears the acquisition would harm competition.Talking to the Financial Times, Nadella said that the deal would only place Microsoft as the third largest player in the video games industry behind Sony and Tencent. He also believes the fragmentation of the market would prevent it from ever gaining a monopoly.“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about, and what about the market structure?” said Nadella.“Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with a low teens (market) share, where even the highest player is also in the teens (for market) share.

Activision Blizzard that Infinity Ward is definitely working on Call Of Duty 2022.The rumours about the followup to Call Of Duty: Vanguard have been circulating since details about the project, codenamed Cortez, were datamined last September.It’s now been officially confirmed that the 2022 instalment of Call Of Duty will be developed by Infinity Ward, the studio behind Modern Warfare.​​“Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences is being led by Activision’s renowned Infinity Ward studio,” the company said in a press release. “The team is working on the most ambitious plan in franchise history, with industry-leading innovation and a broadly appealing franchise setting.”Infinity Ward confirmed the news by taking to Twitter.

Activision Blizzard has announced more Warcraft and World Of Warcraft is coming, some of which in the form of mobile content.As part of the company’s fourth quarter earnings results, a handful of Warcraft announcements were made. This included news that “Blizzard is planning substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022, including new experiences in World Of Warcraft and Hearthstone, and getting all-new mobile Warcraft content into players’ hands for the first time.”There has been no other mention of what this content will be as of yet, but according to Activision Blizzard the franchise was going strong in 2021 thanks to the inclusion of both the modern and classic game.The company does also note that it “continued to increase our developer headcount in the fourth quarter and added hundreds of talented professionals in 2021,” despite the fact that major layoffs to the Raven Software quality assurance department took place at the end of last year.This led to a strike lasting over a month and the formation of a new union, the Game Workers Alliance, which Activision Blizzard appears to be actively attempting to quash at every turn.

Microsoft is to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over their proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.News broke last month that Call of Duty and Overwatch developers Activision Blizzard were being acquired by Microsoft. But the deal isn’t actually set in stone yet, and now according to Bloomberg, the deal will see the FTC conduct an antitrust investigation over the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Blizzard studio head, Mike Ybarra, has told fans to “stay tuned” for more news on Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo.The news came via Twitter. When a Twitter user suggested that Blizzard should dedicate more of its time on existing products, Ybarra revealed more.In a tweet, Ybarra explained that “Blizzard is a big studio [with] talented and growing teams”. He continued by adding that “you’ll be hearing more on that from Warcraft and Overwatch“.

Call Of Duty: Warzone is in development, with the title apparently coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.According to a Bloomberg report about the future of Activision Blizzard following their acquisition by Microsoft, the next three Call Of Duty titles won’t be Xbox exclusives because of deals made before the purchase.Speaking to four people with “knowledge” of the deal, those titles include the next two instalments of Modern Warfare (with the first expected this year). “The deal also includes a planned new iteration of Call Of Duty Warzone.”The claim was backed up by “credible Call Of Duty leaker” Tom Henderson, who believes Warzone 2 will be released in 2023 alongside the second new iteration of Modern Warfare (currently being developed by Treyarch).Warzone 2 is literally that… Warzone 2.Current gen and PC only… No past weapon integrations etc.

Activision Blizzard have formed a union.Composed of Raven Software quality assurance (QA) staff who staged a walkout in December of last year after more than a third of the QA team were laid off, the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) is a new union that has been launched with the help of the ABK Workers Alliance, which helped organise the ongoing strike and set up a GoFundMe for the staff.The Game Workers Alliance has been formed in conjunction with the Communications Workers of America, which organises unions in industries from communications to technology. The GWA is requesting formal recognition from Activision Blizzard, for which a spokesperson told Bloomberg:“While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.”A mission statement on the GWA website adds that the union focuses “on improving the conditions of workers in the video game industry by making it a more sustainable, equitable place where transparency is paramount.

Sony has made some of its first comments regarding Microsoft‘s £50billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying it expects the games to remain on PlayStation.As spotted by Bloomberg, a Sony spokesperson speaking to the Wall Street Journal today (January 20) has said that it expects Activision to honour its contractual agreements despite being bought out by its competitor Microsoft.“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform.”Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming has said that Microsoft does not intend to pull communities away from PlayStation by taking games away from the platform. Analysts also suggest that due to the large number of players of Activision’s biggest franchise Call Of Duty, regulators would prevent Microsoft from making it an exclusive title over fears of monopolisation.However, Spencer made similar remarks during the acquisition of Zenimax.

Microsoft‘s acquisition of Activision Blizzard apparently came about due to the misconduct allegations against the latter.A new report from Bloomberg has detailed some of the behind the scenes actions that are said to have taken place regarding the Activision Blizzard acquisition. According to the report, when the news broke of misconduct allegations at Activision Blizzard from The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft Corp.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has talked about how Microsoft wants to make sure all of Activision Blizzard’s studios feel safe following the announcement of the acquisition.Spencer made the comment during an investor call today (January 18) after it was announced that Microsoft would be acquiring Activision Blizzard for £50billion ($68billion USD).“We’re looking forward to working with the thousands of Activision Blizzard employees with the same approach of proactive inclusion and partnership that we extend to every member of the Microsoft family,” he stated.“We believe firmly that the great teams at Activision Blizzard have their best work in front of them, and we’re looking forward to making sure they feel safe, supported and engaged in every aspect of their work going forward.”“That includes respecting the creative vision and identity of individual game studios. We have fundamental values that we refuse to compromise on,” Spencer added.According to the call, this deal will make Microsoft third to only Tencent and Sony in terms of revenue, with it expected to go through some time in 2023.Spencer also added that the acquisition “is not about short term results.

Call Of Duty developer Treyarch has released a statement about moving forward, a month after the studio head left following sexual harassment allegations.The statement was shared to Twitter yesterday (December 21) and read: “Our goal as a studio is to make awesome games for the world to enjoy. Having the privilege to pursue that endeavour is made possible because of Treyarch’s people: we are a studio comprised of smart.

Blizzard Entertainment has shared an update on the development of Diablo 4.In a new Blizzard blog post, the developers confirmed that the team is still working on new content and systems for the game, and have also “made big strides” with every build containing a host of “expanded content, new art, balance changes, and other iterations.”Lead Systems Designer Joe Piepiora went on to address itemisation, confirming the return of +Skills on items, a new way to interact with legendary powers, and early work on targeted drops.

Call Of Duty: Warzone melee attack isn’t working properly as Season 1 on new map Caldera gets underway.As reported by Dexerto, melee attacks just aren’t doing any damage. A video from user chrisssf (which can be seen below) on the CODWarzone subreddit shows melee hits not doing any damage despite landing on the opponent.Whilst this could be an isolated incident, comments on chrisssf’s video and footage on another post-show the broken melee attack costing a player the win, and appear to indicate otherwise.

Activision Blizzard penned an open letter to the company’s employees that warned them of the “consequences” of joining a union.Brian Bulatao, the chief administrative officer of the embattled publisher and former Under Secretary of State for Management in the Trump administration, wrote to employees last Friday (December 10) over plans to unionise. Several staff members have already joined the Communication Workers of America union.“We ask only that you take time to consider the consequences of your signature on the binding legal document presented to you by CWA”, Bulatao wrote.

Warzone season one patch notes have been released, revealing heaps of new content arriving with the Caldera map.Raven Software has released patch notes for the latest update to Warzone. The biggest addition in the season one patch is the new map called Caldera, which takes players to duke it out on a tropical Pacific island.Warzone has also rolled out a kernel-level anti-cheat driver for PC, which will “activate first in the Asia-Pacific region before expanding worldwide”.Notably, the season one patch also adds plenty of new content brought in from Vanguard.

Raven Software employees will stage a walkout in protest of recent QA layoffs at the studio.Last week (December 4), Raven Software – a studio working under Activision Blizzard – laid off more than a third of its QA testers. The studio announced a restructuring of the quality assurance department, where contracted testers would either be promoted to full-time or laid off.The company began contacting workers affected from December 3 and will continue until December 8.

Raven Software who developed Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call Of Duty: Warzone will fire more than a third of its QA testers.As reported by The Washington Post, the studio announced a restructuring of the quality assurance department, where contracted testers would either be promoted to full-time or laid off. The company began contacting those affected from December 3 and will continue until December 8.

Warzone’s new map, Caldera, have been revealed ahead of its release date.The new map, which is set to launch on December 8 for owners of Call of Duty: Vanguard and the following day on December 9 for Warzone players, will take combatants to the Pacific island of Caldera, a sprawling map set to replace the eastern European Verdansk, which has served as Warzone‘s main location since 2020. The list of new locations has also come with a description of each of them provided by the Warzone Team.Naval Arsenal Composed of a sprawling shipyard and an advance base, Caldera’s northwest area provides a mix of interior and exterior combat opportunities, as well as unusual tactical positions such as the deep drydock basins.

Activision Blizzard board of directors has formed the “Workplace Responsibility Committee”, which aims to “eliminate harassment and discrimination in the workplace.”A press release was published by the board last night (November 22), but doesn’t mention  how the company and the board will interact with its thousands of employees, just that the board is “committed to ensuring a healthy workplace in which all employees feel valued, safe, and respected.”“The Committee is empowered to retain outside consultants or advisers, including independent legal counsel, to assist in its work,” it is added.Essentially, the workplace responsibility committee will “oversee the company’s progress in successfully implementing its new policies, procedures, and

Nintendo of America email has surfaced addressing the ongoing situation at Activision Blizzard and the reports surrounding its CEO Bobby Kotick. As reported by Fanbyte, an email penned by Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser went out to all levels of the company, including internal developers like Retro Studios.“Along with all of you,” starts Bowser, “I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company. I find these accounts distressing and disturbing.