Activision-Blizzard’s transfer over to the growing empire of Microsoft has been a bit of a drama, to say the least—but it’s all over now, its curtains called with the departure of the company’s former CEO Bobby Kotick, exiting stage right.

Kotick has been a controversial figure in gaming, quickly building up a reputation as a ruthless capitalist—like when Activision-Blizzard sued Double Fine over Brutal Legend, prompting the studio’s founder Tim Schafer to call him a “total prick”. There was also a disastrous interview with Variety where he denied the allegations of sexual harassment problems at Blizzard as an “aggressive labour movement”—as well as a harrowing instance where he reportedly threatened an employee via voicemail in 2006. 

A spokesperson later told the WSJ that the voicemail was “obviously hyperbolic and inappropriate” and that he “deeply regrets the exaggeration and tone in his voice”. Still—he’s gone now. After 32 years, some f…

One of World of Warcraft Classic’s lead developers was fired by Blizzard after protesting an employee evaluation policy, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Brian Birmingham, who is the lead engineer on WoW Classic, refused to give an employee a low evaluation in order to meet a quota introduced by Blizzard in 2021. The process, called “stack ranking,” requires managers to give about 5% of their employees a low performance evaluation to fit on a bell curve of relative performance. According to Activision Blizzard sources who spoke to Bloomberg, a low rating reduces an employee’s profit-sharing bonus and “could hamper them from receiving raises or promotions in the near future.”

In an email to staff expressing his frustration with the policy, Birmingham wrote that Blizzard executive leadership justified the policy by claiming it will “squeeze the bottom-most performers as a way to make sure everyone continues to grow.” He also said that he was asked to keep the policy sec…

อีกไม่นาน Final Fantasy VII Rebirth เกม RPG ที่คาดว่าจะครองตำแหน่งเกมเด็ดแห่งปีนี้จะวางจำหน่ายบน PS5 ให้เราได้เล่นกันแล้ว ซึ่งระหว่างนี้ทางผู้พัฒนาเกมก็ไม่ปล่อยให้กระแสเงียบไปเฉย ๆ อย่างแน่นอน โดยล่าสุดคุณ Naoki Hamaguchi ผู้กำกับเกมนี้ก็ได้ออกมาอัปเดตข้อมูลให้เราได้ทราบกันอีกครั้ง

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สิงคโปร์ วันที่ 8 ธันวาคม 2023 – HoYoverse ผู้พัฒนาและให้บริการสื่อบันเทิงอินเตอร์แอ็กทีฟระดับโลก ได้พาสองเกม RPG อย่าง “Honkai: Star Rail” ที่เปิดให้บริการแล้ว และ “Zenless Zone Zero” ที่กำลังเป็นที่จับตามอง เข้าร่วมงานประกาศรางวัลประจำปีของอุตสาหกรรมเกมในวันนี้ นอกจากการร่วมเฉลิมฉลองกับความสำเร็จของผลงานเกมในปี 2023 แล้ว ยังได้นำพาผู้เล่นเกม RPG ไปพบกับ Penacony ซึ่งเป็นจุดหมายต่อ�…

Despite Naoki Yoshida’s assurance to me—and no doubt countless other journalist and content creators during the Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail media tour—that servers were jacked and ready to tackle the horde of players coming in at launch, I was admittedly still apprehensive. 

Flashbacks to Endwalker’s queues that would consume my entire evening, pleading with my housemates to waggle my mouse while I nipped to the shops so my character wouldn’t succumb to the 30-minute AFK timer and thus initiate the four-hour wait all over again. Getting oh-so-close to finally playing, only to get the dreaded Error 90002 and realise that maybe the universe doesn’t want you to run dungeons tonight. Anyone who lived through it—or some lesser yet equally painful issues like Stormblood’s affectionately dubbed Raubhan (Savage)—will remember how much of a massive pain in the arse it was.

So forgive me for being a little cynical, but thank goodness I was proven wrong…

I don’t have the kind of deep pockets to really get into trading card games—but I do like watching the meta fluctuate from afar. Disney’s CCG has been of particular interest, because weird strategies keep emerging around obscure characters like Hiram Flaversham. Or in this case, anti-strategies that you have no good reason to use.

As spotted by Dicebreaker, Lorcana’s rolled out a new batch of previews for its second expansion ‘Into the Inklands’. Included in this latest bundle a litter of puppies from 101 Dalmatians, and while there aren’t 101 bespoke cards (there are five variations for collectors) you can still have 101 of them if you’re some kind of freak who likes to lose.

The Dalmatian Puppy (Tail Wagger) isn’t really anything special—two cost, two strength, three willpower. It has a special trait, though: you can have up to 99 copies of it in your deck. Normally, you can only have four copies of any card in Lorcana. 

While t…

Axis Studios, the Scottish animation and VFX company who made the 2011 Dead Island rewinding teaser, is shutting down. Per GamesIndustry, the studio has ceased production on all its current projects, with 162 employees laid off as the company enters administration.

Back in 2011, Axis produced a cinematic E3 premiere teaser that singlehandedly catapulted Dead Island to the forefront of public consciousness. In a slow-motion, rewound sequence, the trailer revealed how a family’s White Lotus-ass vacation met an early, grisly end at the hands of an amassing zombie horde. Even without any gameplay footage, the response at the time was huge. (Zombies weren’t quite as played out in 2011.)

I didn’t end up enjoying Dead Island very much, but I sure as hell bought it and that teaser is to blame. Imitated and parodied countless times since, Axis’s Dead Island trailer left a profound fingerprint on the long-running trope of big budget game reveals pairing gruesome vi…

CD Projekt Red’s two biggest RPG hits, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, are both known for big main quests and engaging characters, but more than anything you’ll hear people consistently bring up the little adventures they have between other stories. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC this past week, Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer Pawel Sasko said that’s mostly because they’re thinking of lots of ideas and only using the best ones.

“A good designer has an acceptance ratio of their ideas of between five to 10%,” said Sasko, “If someone has 10%, this is probably one of the best people we have in the team.” “

Sasko emphasized that for CD Projekt the key to weeding out the bad ideas was in the process of having quest designers pitch all of their ideas to the team so that the best ones stood out.

“So what I do with our designers, I’m like, okay here’s the list of genres. Here’s a list of the themes that I want you to work with—list of topics. Write me pitch…