Activision – Gloomberg News

12Dec

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Microsoft Gaming CEO Says Sony Just Wants To Hurt Xbox

Image: Diego Thomazini / Kotaku (Shutterstock)Public squabbling between two of the biggest console gaming companies has intensified. On a recent podcast appearance, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer blasted Sony for wanting to grow by “making Xbox smaller.” The accusation comes after the Federal Trade Commission decided to sue to block Microsoft’s takeover of Activision because of a pattern of making recently acquired games like Starfield exclusive.“Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty,” Spencer said during an interview with the Second Request antitrust podcast last week (via VGC). “The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that...

8Nov

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Bobby Kotick Donates To Republican Who Protested 2020 Election

Rep. Mike Garcia on the campaign trailPhoto: Myung J. Chun (Getty Images)While it’s normal for prominent business people to donate to both sides of the political aisle—so that whoever wins an election they can call in some favours—as the Republican Party lurches further to the right, some of the candidates being supported are deserving of a bit more scrutiny than usual.As Axios reports, the race for a US House seat in California’s 27th District—part of the city of Los Angeles—is expected to go down to the wire on Tuesday, after the 2020 election saw Rep. Mike Garcia win by just 333 votes. His rival this week (as it was in 2020) is Democrat Christy Smith, and to help the incumbent over the line, three wealthy donors have handed Garcia $50,000.One of those three donors is Activision CEO Bobb...

3Nov

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

MW2 Soundtrack ‘Not My Artistic Intent’

Image: Modern Warfare IISarah Schachner, one of the most prolific and well-known composers working in video games, has issued a statement today saying that she will no longer be creating any music for Modern Warfare II or Warzone.Schachner, whose credits as a composer and musician include the Assassin’s Creed series (Unity, Black Flag, Origins & Valhalla), Far Cry, Need for Speed, Bioware’s Anthem and Call of Duty games (Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare & Modern Warfare II), posted the statement on Twitter, saying that she “can no longer continue to compose music” for Activision’s latest shooter.“Over the past couple of months the working dynamic with the audio director has become increasingly challenging and I don’t see any path forward”, the statement says. “As of now, I am unsur...

1Oct

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Controversial Executive Steps Down From Call Of Duty Publisher

Screenshot: CBS Viacom / KotakuIn a past life, Frances Townsend defended the legal basis for the torture method called waterboarding during George W. Bush’s war on terror. In a more recent one, she helped lead Activision Blizzard’s initially tone-deaf response to a major sexual harassment lawsuit by the state of California. Now she’s stepping down as the Call of Duty publisher’s chief compliance officer after less than two years in the position.CEO Bobby Kotick announced the move to staff in an email on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reports. Despite stepping down from the position, Townsend will still remain an official advisor to Kotick and to Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors, over which Kotick presides. This shift in the company’s governing structure comes as Microsoft tries ...

2Sep

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Call Of Duty Remains On PlayStation A Few More Years

Sony gets “several more years” of joint custody over Call of Duty with Microsoft.Photo: Activision / Kotaku / Barone Firenze (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)Good news PlayStation Call of Duty players: Microsoft says you get to have “several more years” of playing the shoot-bang game on your Sony console. According to The Verge, earlier this year Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer made that commitment to PlayStation boss Jim Ryan in a written letter saying that Call of Duty wasn’t going to disappear off the PlayStation storefront anytime soon if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is approved by regulators.“In January, we provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current S...

3Aug

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Diablo Devs Say Activision Back To Its Old Union-Busting Tricks

Image: BlizzardNearly two months after Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced the company would finally begin bargaining its first union contract with the Game Workers Alliance at Raven Software, staff at Blizzard Albany, currently working on Diablo IV, say the publisher is back to trying to union-bust. They accuse Activision Blizzard of rehiring the law firm Reed Smith to undermine their own organizing effort rather than voluntarily recognize the company’s second union.“Instead of following Microsoft’s lead and committing to a labor neutrality agreement, Activision has made the clear and conscious decision to deny us our basic labor rights while once again spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a union-busting firm,” Albany Game Workers Alliance, which is organizing for thi...

31Jul

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Call Of Duty’s Cute Samoyed Dog Is ‘Plagiarized,’ Artist Claims

If found, please tell him he’s a very good boyScreenshot: Activision / CODSploitz / KotakuIf you’ve been following along with Call Of Duty lately, you’re no stranger to seeing skins that remind of something you’ve seen before, be it John McClain from Die Hard or Ghostface from Scream. A recent, very adorable, very fluffy skin, however, is looking all too familiar to one artist, and they’re now accusing the publisher of plagiarism. The doggy skin was first shown off this week in a patch note update for Season Four of Call Of Duty: Warzone. The post details some celebrity appearances, such as the Terminators from Terminator 1 and 2 as well the adorable samoyed dog skin that bears a dramatically striking resemblance to a design originally uploaded to ArtStation two years ago from concept arti...

21Jun

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

Tony Hawk Says A Pro Skater 3+4 Remake Was Killed By Activision

Image: Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4From 1991 until 2021, Vicarious Visions was the name of a studio that made a ton of pretty cool licensed games, but which had also contributed to the beloved Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Then Activision stepped in and made some changes.In January 2021, having just released a remake of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, Activision announced that the developers were being merged into Blizzard, and would also be receiving a name change, effectively killing off the studio as we knew it.I said at the time, “This sucks!”, but it sucks even more now because of the claims—from someone who would know—that the developers had been planning on repeating the remake treatment with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4.On a recent stream by Neversoft, and Vicarious veteran andyTHPS, Tony Hawk hims...