Important to MMO players primarily for its relationship to Blizzard aka Blizzard Entertainment.
activision
MMO Business Roundup: Lockboxes, SAG-AFTRA, child safety, and another ABK union rally
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! It's a bit of good news and bad news this time around, so...
SAG-AFTRA union agrees to resume negotiations with game companies, but strikes and picketing continue
Video game voice over artists who are members of the SAG-AFTRA union have been on strike against game companies since July as game studios...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 487: Give me Throne and Liberty
Justin and Bree discuss Throne & Liberty's launch, the new book on Blizzard, ArcheAge 2's morph into ArcheAge Chronicles, and New World Aeternum's impending release, with adventures in LOTRO, WoW, and Guild Wars 2, plus a mailbag topic on MMO history and games preservation.
Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred live action trailer features Camila Cabello covering The Who
Remember the excerpt from Jason Schreier's new book on Blizzard that mentions the Activision-installed executives who allegedly questioned the wisdom of keeping around "nondevelopment...
Microsoft’s latest game division layoffs affect nearly 400 Activision-Blizzard employees
The second week of September brought more bad news for game workers in Microsoft, as the company confirmed another 650 layoffs were coming that...
Jason Schreier’s new book blames Activision – and the Titan MMO’s cancelation – for Blizzard’s degradation
When Blizzard president Mike Morhaime announced he was stepping down from his 27-year-run at the company back in 2018, he didn't give much of...
Ubisoft broadens return-to-office mandate in spite of last year’s blowback over Ubisoft Montreal’s implementation
What do you do when you really want to lay off the people doing all the work at your company, but you also don't...
Microsoft is laying off yet another batch of games division workers – 650 this time
A Microsoft memo leaked to the press today heralds another round of layoffs at the company's games division: Microsoft Xbox boss Phil Spencer informed...
SAG-AFTRA union secures AI protections with multiple studios including ARK dev Studio Wildcard
The strike initiated by voice actors in the SAG-AFTRA union this past July is beginning to yield some positive results for voice actors who...
The MOP Up: Fractured Veil eases you into its tropical apocalypse
Survival sim Fractured Veil's devs made lore a priority with its August update, saying, "We’ve been hard at work on another round of bug...
Overwatch 2 dates Season 12 for August 20, Warcraft Rumble previews content coming in Season 8
The seasons continue to roll through Overwatch 2 and Warcraft Rumble, with both games readying their next respective seasons that bring new characters and...
Microsoft creates a small team to pump out AA titles of Blizzard franchises
Thought that Microsoft was going to drop $72 billion on Activision Blizzard and then allow the studio to continue operation with no interference whatsoever?...
Call of Duty shares results of an experiment that quietly changed player matchmaking
If you happened to be playing a few matches of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and found your matches to be a little...
SAG-AFTRA voice actors begin strike following failed games industry negotiations on AI protections
We are go for strike, people: SAG-AFTRA announced last night that its members are on strike starting today, meaning that all unionized voice actors...
Activision-Blizzard artists express anxiety and disgust as the studio foists AI tools on existing workers
Like it or not, AI tools are proliferating throughout gamedev, and the human cost is already being showcased. According to reporting from Wired, which...
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft team just formed a wall-to-wall multidisciplinary WoWGG union
Man, it's been a long, long time coming, but Blizzard Entertainment workers have finally formed a wall-to-wall union, specifically meaning that it includes everyone...
Microsoft calls FTC’s Game Pass filing ‘misleading’ owing to multiplayer functionality and Call of Duty availability
Over the weekend we reported on the FTC putting a fresh legal filing before the US Court of Appeals that argued Microsoft's price hike...
WoW Classic players petition Blizzard to revert the server to its original state without any changes
It would appear that a small segment of WoW Classic players have a bone to pick with Blizzard and the way the era servers...
Perfect Ten: 10 MMORPGs with weirdly defensive fanbases
I do not have nice things to say about RuneScape. I have never had nice things to say about RuneScape. I also do not...
‘I have to run a sustainable business’ – Microsoft’s Phil Spencer addresses layoffs and studio shutdowns
Some new statements out of Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer during this year's IGN Live gaming presentation can be absorbed as either admission of the...
