In 2020, as the world grappled with a paradigmatic societal shift in the form of a globe-spanning pandemic, chief executives of the biggest gaming companies collectively brought home close to $1 billion. That’s according to a new report from market int…
Riot Games Offers Resignation Bonuses As Company Announces New Direction
Hot on the heels of announcing plans to head in a somewhat new direction over the next five years, Riot Games has expanded its Queue Dodge buyout program–normally available to new hires during the first six months of their employment–to all employees. …
Xbox Boss Not Interested In ‘Virtue Shaming’ Activision
Back in November, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, told staff he was “evaluating all aspects” of the Microsoft gaming division’s relationship with Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard following a bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal of work…
14,000 Chinese Game Companies Have Gone Out Of Business Due To Regulation Freeze
China’s freeze on video game licenses continues. South China Morning Post notes that the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) has not released a list of newly approved titles since July 2021. Because of this, state-run newspaper Securit…
The Year In Video Game Companies Buying Other Video Game Companies
The video game industry went on a shopping spree in 2021. Throughout the year, a handful of larger companies consistently bought up a boatload of smaller ones, at a rate where it seemed a new acquisition was announced every few weeks.Read more…
Longtime Blizzard Employee Spouted Hateful Garbage On Discord Server
Geoff Fraizer, a former early Blizzard employee who was responsible for much of the company’s web content over the past 23 years, has been posting bigoted and hateful messages in a Discord server going back to May 2021. ABetterABK founder and organizer…
Tencent Buys Up Back 4 Blood Devs Turtle Rock, Its Sixth Studio Purchase In 2021
Today, one of the largest companies in the world, Tencent, announced it acquired Turtle Rock Studios, the developers behind the recently released zombie shooter Back 4 Blood. The deal is just the latest in a long list of acquisitions over the last few …
Activision Exec To Organizing Workers: Pwease Don’t Unionize 😞🥺
With Activision Blizzard employees more organized than ever in the wake of the company’s multiple sexual harassment lawsuits and layoffs in quality assurance, a top executive apparently felt the time was right to send out a fear-mongering email warning…
Activision Blizzard Devs Announce Strike Fund To Support Work Stoppage
The ABK Worker Alliance, made up of employees at publishing giant Activision Blizzard, have called on supporters today to donate to a strike fund to support an ongoing work stoppage over recently announced layoffs. It’s the latest move in an ongoing pr…
Sexually Harassed Activision Blizzard Employee Holds Press Conference To Demand Apologies, Money
Today, a woman named Christine who works at major game publisher Activision Blizzard held a press conference with her lawyer Lisa Bloom to describe the sexual harassment she experienced at the company. This is the latest in the ongoing battle between A…