Activision

Saying Goodbye to The Realm Online

June 25, 2023 News

Today while I work on the YuriCorp Community Minecraft server, I am reminded of the origins of online multiplayer games: MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). MUDs were text-based online games, often accessed using Telnet, that allowed multiple users to play together. MUDs were the genesis of the MMOs we play today and early attempts at adding a graphics layer were the very first series of MMOs. That includes The Realm Online. The major downside of early MUDs was that they were entirely text-based. In the 1990s, with slow dial-up internet connections, text was really the only viable option. However, the evolution to graphical MUDs happened quickly. One of the first major graphical MUDs was The Realm Online, released in 1996 by Sierra On-Line The Realm Online was quickly relegated to forgotten memories as Ultima Online (1997) released and was a completely superior experience while EverQuest launched in (1999) making The Realm Online…

Building Blizzard Back Better: New Owners Would Solve World of Warcraft’s Problems

March 25, 2023 Editorials

Veteran Internet users know of the turbulent time when Activision bought Blizzard and the gaming community exploded with anger. Of course, this wasn’t the first sell of Blizzard… the gaming company had previously been acquired by Vivendi, Sierra-Online (via CUC) and Davidson & Associates just to sort of measure out a few. Blizzard had a long history with Vivendi and that spree of 1998 to 2008 was pretty much considered their golden years. So, with that said, with all the problems the 2020s have brought Blizzard, what is the solution to their woes? Go back to their glory years where WoW released, Diablo released, StarCraft and StarCraft 2 released, etc. Forget Diablo, It’s Not a “Blizzard” Game Let’s set something straight, Diablo is actually a Condor Games game. Blizzard bought another studio, renamed them Blizzard North and they worked independently from Blizzard. The last thing they produced was in 2001…

Every Cheat Code in Spyro Reignited Trilogy and How to Use Them

September 7, 2019 Guides

Image credit to Activision The Spyro Reignited Trilogy is chock full of content. After playing for some time, you may begin to yearn for a less vanilla approach to the series. Luckily, there is an answer. There are a series of exciting cheat codes that can be used throughout the entire Spyro trilogy if you so choose. Using them is not too difficult, as long as you know the right codes. Check out all of the fun cheat codes this trilogy has to offer down below. How to Enter Cheat Codes in Spyro Reignited Trilogy Using cheating codes within the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy is rather easy. Unless otherwise specified, all cheats will function across Spyro, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. If you enter a cheat code within one of the titles, that cheat code will continue to work within the second title. Even better,…

400 Blizzard Employees Don’t Know if They are Being Laid Off

February 15, 2019 News

While video game media titan Activision Blizzard, Inc. is planning on laying off 8% of their massive workforce, a total 400 employees at one of the company’s offices are still unsure if they are being cut. Back in 2007, Activision revealed that it would merge with Vivendi Games. As Vivendi Games is a holding company to Blizzard Entertainment, the company of Activision Blizzard, Inc. was quickly forged. Well, during the recent fiscal fourth quarter results conference call, CEO Bobby Kotick revealed that the company would be laying off numerous employees following a demand to “reduce complexity and duplication.” “We’re staffing up production on our incubation efforts faster, and increasing our investment in live services, in our tools, in our Battle.net platform, and in new areas like our fast growing esports and advertising efforts, but all with an intense focus on excellence, so we never disappoint our players.” Kotick said. “Our…

Activision Blizzard Lays off Hundreds of Workers, Despite Record high Revenues

February 13, 2019 News

Video game titans Blizzard and Activision joined forces way back in 2007. That being said, it would appear that the merged gaming company is now making some changes Despite record high revenue for the year of 2018, the company will now be laying off over 700 employees. Back in 2007, Activision announced that the company would merge its assets with that of Vivendi Games. Among other things, Vivendi Games is a holding company to Blizzard Entertainment. Consequently, Activision Blizzard, Inc. was born. During the recent Activision Blizzard fourth quarter results conference call, CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed that the company would be performing lay offs following a desire to “reduce complexity and duplication.” Kotick’s full statement concerning the matter may be viewed below. “We’re staffing up production on our incubation efforts faster, and increasing our investment in live services, in our tools, in our Battle.net platform, and in new areas like…

EA Stock Plunges, now Reaching 10 Year Low

February 6, 2019 News

Electronic Arts Inc., the multi-billion dollar company behind many of the world’s top selling games, recently took a big hit in the stock market. Now it would appear that the company may soon reach a ten year low concerning the matter. As reported by Market Watch, EA’s shares (-13.43%) plunged by an estimated 10 percent on Tuesday following missed sales expectations. EA’s stock has reportedly fallen a total 24 percent within the past year. If EA’s stock continues to decline through today, the company will experience its largest single-day percentage decline since Dec. 17, 1999. EA Chief Executive Andrew Wilson has gone on to claim that the company faced “significant challenges” within the fiscal third quarter of the year that would continue through the fourth quarter. Battlefield V has drawn much of the blame. The title reportedly sold a grand 1 million fewer copies than EA executives had anticipated. The…

What Happened to ‘Guitar Hero’?

January 30, 2019 Editorials

Okay, I admit it. I am not musically talented in the least bit. I would give anything to be able to sing like Hugh Jackman (he’s more than just Wolverine you know) or shred the guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but I physically cannot. I wasn’t fortunate enough to be born with that talent. But with Guitar Hero, anyone can be a rockstar. It was the only place on this earth where I could play the guitar and play it well. And now it is a distant memory. I know people who learned guitar after playing Guitar Hero. Some of them are even pretty good. It’s strange how a video game can do that, and it’s cool to think that a simple game has the potential to inspire people into learning the actual craft and potentially even become artists themselves. I am not one of those people. I don’t have the patience…

Activision Blizzard is Being Weird

January 5, 2019 News

Activision Blizzard is just outright being weird. It started many years ago when Activision bought Blizzard. At that point everyone declared Blizzard dead and that profits will rule the kingdom. That wasn’t… true you could say? Blizzard, under Mike Morhaime one of the co-founders of Blizzard, continued to prosper and be the one game launcher (Blizzard App, previously Battle.net) that no one complained about, Then 2018 hit and like many things, Activision Blizzard got weird. Mike Morhaime left the company, the CFO was poached twice and they basically began mothballing their very popular game Heroes of the Storm. All the while they spent most of the year being besieged by positive press about their profits. Then, there was BlizzCon where they announced the Diablo: Immortal game to basically people pausing and going what. Why did this happen? There is a lot to it, with many moving parts. If I had…