Blizzard under SEC Investigation Now

[Sensa1]

Seems Blizzard's troubles are attracting more regulatory attention according to the nytimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/b...stigation.html

[Lorgar Aurelian]

To get around the paid article.

Activision Blizzard, the video game maker behind Call of Duty and other major franchises, said on Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating the company over “disclosures regarding employment matters and related issues.”

A press officer for Activision said the S.E.C. had issued subpoenas to the company and several current and former employees, but did not offer more details on the focus of the investigation. The company is cooperating with the inquiry, the official said in an emailed statement.

A representative for the S.E.C. declined to comment on the investigation, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Activision spent the summer grappling with accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination. In July, it was sued by a California employment agency, which accused it of fostering a “frat boy workplace culture” in which men joked about rape and women were harassed and underpaid compared with their male colleagues. Later that month, over 1,500 workers staged a walkout and signed a letter protesting Activision’s initially dismissive response to the accusations of misconduct.

Activision’s chief executive, Bobby Kotick, apologized for the company’s initial response to the lawsuit on the eve of the walkout. Since then, the head of Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary, where many of the allegations in the lawsuit were centered, has stepped down. Activision announced last week that it was hiring two new executives, including a new head of human resources.

This month, the Communications Workers of America, a labor union, also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Activision of violating labor law by intimidating workers.

[RoKPaNda]

We may actually end up with a cleaned up Blizzard.

[Soon-TM]

Seems Blizzard's troubles are attracting more regulatory attention according to the nytimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/b...stigation.html

Well, it seems that the lawsuit is getting patches faster than even #$&%ing Legion. And then you have all those haters insisting on Blizzard being unable to deliver fun content on a timely manner

[TheLucky1]

get fucked bobby

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I'm going to say it.


I'm GOING TO SAY IT.


.....I just want D4 released!

[Djuntas]

I'm going to say it.


I'm GOING TO SAY IT.


.....I just want D4 released!

This really. I just fear Diablo 4 will flop even more than Diablo 3 did.

Also, stop making expansions in wow when its clearly not ready. Who wanna reset progress for a turd anyway...Id love if wow never got expansions again, but just good updates.

[Edge-]

This really. I just fear Diablo 4 will flop even more than Diablo 3 did.

D3 "flopped" with hardcore fans, not financially. It was hugely successful financially, especially with its multi-platform release. And that's a flop any publisher will take, since the most important bit - the bottom line - is solid. 12M sales on PC in its launch year alone, 30M sales in 3 years (whether or not that includes RoS honestly doesn't even matter, those are MASSIVE numbers).

I honestly doubt most folks buying Diablo will even be very aware of the legal troubles. It's the "mainstream" crowd that doesn't really follow gaming news too closely that drive those numbers.

[Biomega]

This really. I just fear Diablo 4 will flop even more than Diablo 3 did.

Any game dev in the world would LOVE their game to "flop" to D3 numbers.

In any case, this is probably related to the shareholder lawsuit filed against AB some time ago; long story short, they allege that AB knew the investigation was happening but didn't say anything so as not to tank their stock and keep investor money flowing. Whether or not they did so ILLEGALLY is the question - companies withhold information all the time, and it's not always illegal to do so.

At the end of the day, though, the SEC tends to be a little toothless in many cases. Slap a fine on them that's the equivalent of tipping your waiter, compared to the profits they made. Civil suits like from the investors are a different story, but the vast majority of those tends to be settled out of court and so it's also not a huge deal to most companies. That's WHY they keep doing stuff like this, the cost/benefit generally shows it's worth it.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

The SEC has been the dominant conference in college football for a while, but they have no jurisdiction here.
Wait until football season is over and they will go back to living in the shadow of the ACC and Big10.

[Djuntas]

Yes yes, I get it sold well people above me But we all know that Diablo 3 was more hype than good. I did enjoy playing the game for the first month when it come out (Clearing inferno with hilarious bugs before any nerfs - Btw Kripps worlds first HC kill, his partner a wizard also used the same bugs all of us wizards did), and then later on in patch 1.9 or so, just before ROS, when the game got fleshed out a bit more.


Sadly ROS has just been power-creep cyceles and no real content...Like once you did a greater rift 40 you kinda was done...Ever since then its just been bigger numbers...Like start of ROS having 1.5 million sheet damage was the aim or whatever.

Only thing Diablo 3 really did well was the gameplay and some of its systems. They just got lazy and did not give a fuck after the game had gotten out and was slammed in the reviews. Also them removing trading completely from the game was super idiotic.

[Toybox]

Only thing Diablo 3 really did well was the gameplay and some of its systems. They just got lazy and did not give a fuck after the game had gotten out and was slammed in the reviews. Also them removing trading completely from the game was super idiotic.

That's the Blizzard way - Push something to one extreme (in-game cash AH), people complain, so out of spite they push it to the other extreme ("ok no trading then lol").

[Djuntas]

That's the Blizzard way - Push something to one extreme (in-game cash AH), people complain, so out of spite they push it to the other extreme ("ok no trading then lol").

Yep pretty much. There is no balance with Blizzard. The AH we had was to good maybe (I enjoyed flipping items on it anyway), but look at PoE...The litteral dev, GGG, they made their own trade site to support the game, and its hella good too. But nope for some reason trading in Diablo games is controversial