Industry

They said what? They’re using that business model? They hired whom? [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

MMO and gaming companies enjoy some fun ribbing Twitter’s needless X rebranding stunt

79
If you woke up today and saw your little blue bird logo on Twitter replaced with what is reportedly a letter X from the...

Ubisoft warns inactive accounts of games library deletion as first quarter sales see a slight dip

20
You know what's a super great and smart method to get customers to keep coming back to your launcher and storefront? Warning them that...

Blizzard promises a fix for Diablo IV’s season battle pass ‘dark pattern’ after widespread player complaints

18
Among the many complaints that players are leveraging against Diablo IV, one of them is arguably far more serious than class nerfs: a bit...

Indie developer takes Activision-Blizzard ‘Warzone’ trademark dispute up the chain to Microsoft

2
A David-vs-Goliath struggle over a game name trademark jumped on board this month's biggest legal rollercoaster. As we reported a few years ago, the...

Here’s how the UK gaming industry says it’ll self-regulate lockboxes

14
Remember a few years ago before NFT scams took over, when politicians realized they could score some press coverage and campaign donations for talking...
Eugh.

World of Warcraft’s technical director departs Blizzard after almost 23 years

16
Blizzard has seen another pillar of the World of Warcraft team depart the studio: Technical Director Monte Krol announced his departure in a tweet this...
well then

The FTC suspends its administrative challenge of the Microsoft Activision-Blizzard merger

9
It would seem as if the US Federal Trade Commission has read the suggested writing on the wall: The government body has officially withdrawn...

The Game Archaeologist: Gameline, the Atari 2600 digital storefront

8
Modern MMO gamers are blessed with plenty of conveniences that we take for granted. One such convenience is the ability to simply download any...

Roblox apologizes for data breach that leaked nearly 4000 employees’ personal details

4
Roblox Corp has apparently suffered a major data breach that leaked the personal details of nearly 4000 past and present workers - including names,...

Reddit isn’t backing down over API changes, but it’s trying to woo mods back anyway

9
It's been over a month now since Reddit became worldwide news following the a mass community revolt against the company over its decision to...
The stars are over Dun Morogh.

WoW Factor: Overwatch 2’s failure offers a lesson for World of Warcraft

26
The weird thing about my current position is that for the first time in at least a little while, there isn't a new disaster...

Consumers hoping to block Microsoft’s buyout of Activision-Blizzard lose in court yet again

7
The insanity and activity surrounding Microsoft's imminent acquisition of Activision Blizzard has only ramped up as the deal prepares to be finalized. This month...
Super.

Diablo IV’s first seasonal content, Season of the Malignant, is available today

19
The dictionary definition of "malignant" can mean evil or malevolent, but it can also means highly infectious or destructive and is frequently used in...

Roblox aims to be ‘one of the biggest virtual economies on Earth’ through additional creator monetization tools

5
Roblox has some immense aspirations for its so-called economy. A blog post from the studio's VP of Economy Enrico D'Angelo offers a broad strokes...
Yo.

Vague Patch Notes: Whaling is a death spiral, especially in MMOs

11
Here we are again with another one of my "let's put down some important industry notes" columns, and this time we're talking about whaling....
Among all the many, many ways you are terrible.

Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard file a legal request for the FTC to drop its August hearing

4
Now that the US Federal Trade Commission has been handed two big losses in its challenge of the $69B merger between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard,...

Blizzard attempts to mollify Diablo IV players threatening boycott over season patch

41
Diablo IV players are none too pleased about the game's patch this week, which rolled out ahead of the release of season one today....
Yay, a thing we didn't want.

Activision Blizzard is laying off workers in its esports division amidst future uncertainty regarding Overwatch League

32
Amidst all the other signs of robust health that you can see written across the state of Overwatch 2, you can add the Overwatch...
Oh, yeah, things are going super, we lied.

Overwatch 2 arrives on Steam on August 10

17
So things are all going just super for Overwatch 2, as alluded to within the most recent Activision-Blizzard earnings report. So how do you...

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2023: Diablo IV doubled Blizzard’s revenues as MAUs continue decline

35
Activision-Blizzard has once again released its Q2 financials early as of this morning, but given the fact that this week was meant to be...