We appreciate that making a company meeting interesting is a challenge, but we also have to curl an eyebrow upwards at the choice made by Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, whose most recent internal town hall meeting with employees reportedly starred James Corden as the host of the proceedings in what sounds like a softball talk show interview.
This in-house interview between Corden and Kotick discussed various matters, including a suggestion that Microsoft was buying the “magic” and “special” culture of ABK, discussion about Microsoft’s interest in AI tech research as it relates to gaming overall and ABK specifically, and name drops of a Guitar Hero revival and the use of Elon Musk’s Neuralink neural implant technology to interface with a controller.
On the meeting’s points, we feel it’s important to remind readers that ABK leadership has been accused by employees and state government bodies of years of mistreatment, abuse, harassment, union-busting, and sexual discrimination; that Blizzard has looked into AI art tech while shrugging off its impact on workers; and that Neuralink is under federal investigation for animal mistreatment – to say nothing of the decision to bring on a former talk show host who is generally despised by Hollywood and fans. But at least it wasn’t a full-blown cartoon villain-style meeting. Small mercies, we suppose.
In other Blizzard news, people are raising objections to this year’s BlizzCon goodie bundles: Fans are calling the prices for the items unreasonable to begin with, and Overwatch 2 fans point out that the Legendary Bundle ties together a unique skin and the premium Season 7 battle pass, while getting the Lilith Moira and Inarius Pharah skin also requires an ultimate battle pass purchase, effectively making players buy two battle passes to get all of the wanted character goodies.
