Editing Activision Blizzard (section)

=== Activision (2013-present) ===
'''NOTE: While they were tolerable in the 2000s, some flaws will still be mentioned.'''
# Ever since 2013 they have been starting to [[Franchise milking (gaming)|milk]] the ''Call of Duty'' franchise, this became even more noticeable since "Ghosts" release, leaving other franchises such as ''Guitar Hero'', ''Tony Hawk'' (except for a few games), ''True Crime'', etc being completely ignored.
# Many of their licensed games are tie-in games that range from mediocre to terrible. ''Battleship'', ''[[Ghostbusters (2016 video game)|Ghostbusters]] (2016)'', ''SCORE International Baja 1000'', and ''[[SpongeBob HeroPants]]'' are good examples of this, due to the lack of quality of the gameplay.
# After the release of ''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'', Jason West and Vince Zampella became tired of Activision's constant demands for Infinity Ward to work only on new ''Call of Duty'' games instead of making new intellectual properties or side-games. In response, Activision fired them, which led several Infinity Ward members to leave the studio out of pure disgust.
# They have also shut down many of their studios ([[Sierra Entertainment]], Neversoft, Budcat Creations, Luxoflux, and Bizarre Creations), and forced the few survivors to develop ''Call of Duty''.
# Many of their famous franchises such as ''Call of Duty'', ''Tony Hawk's'', and until recently, ''Guitar Hero'', suffered from diminishing returns after several stellar games due to franchise fatigue.
# They canceled ''True Crime: Hong Kong'' after being in development hell for too long. Thankfully, however, it was then picked up by Square Enix and rebranded as ''Sleeping Dogs''.
# They killed the Soldier of Fortune series with their worst game in the series being [[Soldier of Fortune: Payback]].
# They have no problem with [[Rushing game development|rushing a game]] to cash in on fans, such as ''[[Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5]]'' (although that game was slapped together in months because Activision was set to lose the rights to the Tony Hawk license).
# They don’t credit voice acting for non-English languages in their games.
# They have made/published badly optimized ports of their most beloved games to make a quick buck, such as ''Prototype: Biohazard Bundle'' and the disastrous 2016 PC version of ''Marvel: Ultimate Alliance'', which has later been fixed because of Marvel stepping in.
# It was recently discovered that Activision developed an algorithm specifically designed to exploit players who don't buy microtransactions by rigging online matches so those players constantly play against players that do buy microtransactions, giving them an unfair disadvantage. That way, those players will constantly lose and if they submit to microtransactions (likely loot boxes), they will be placed in matches for which the item they had purchased with the microtransactions is effective so they will want to make future purchases, essentially making multiplayer pay-to-win. They then '''''filed a patent for it.'''''<ref>https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160005270A1/en</ref>
# They locked content that was already in ''Destiny 2''<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/7hyv6y/destiny_2_forces_you_to_buy_the_dlc_or_they_will/</ref> and ''Advanced Warfare'' at launch, requiring players to buy DLC that was released after the two games released, so you needed to pay extra money to access the content you could already play. Thankfully, they got caught doing this and were forced to restore the original limit, restoring the ability to play some of the contents in each game that was locked beyond the DLC.
# Their licensing deals tend to be drawn up in such a way that they lose all rights to sell the licensed games they published if the deal ends (rather than, say, negotiating a royalty deal on later sales). This means that following the termination of the deals, all such games are pulled down from online storefronts immediately. This has happened to games featuring the ''James Bond'', ''Transformers'', and Marvel IPs already.
#* As a result, physical copies of these discontinued licensed games published by them can be very expensive nowadays, ''especially'' their Marvel and ''Transformers'' games.
#* This also prevented many games that were originally released by Vivendi Games/[[Sierra Entertainment]] from being rereleased, as those licenses have long expired (like ''[[Scarface: The World Is Yours]]'') or whose gaming rights are now from other companies (''[[The Simpsons: Hit & Run]]'').
#* Like [[THQ]], some of their tie-in games are completely different games on PC, meaning they're not straight ports of the console versions. The most infamous being [[Spider-Man 2: The Game (PC)|the PC version of ''Spider-Man 2'']]. This means that PC gamers have to rely on emulators like PCSX2 or Dolphin Emulator (which requires high system requirements) to play the console versions of the games.
# They canceled some ''Crash Bandicoot'' games for unknown reasons, such as a reboot for the series ''Crash Landed'' which would be launched alongside a brand new ''[[Crash Team Racing]]'' title, the last one was eventually reworked as ''[[DreamWorks Super Star Kartz]]''. It is presumed that by then Activision Blizzard and Vivendi were in the negotiation process for their release, so the IPs had to be on standby until 2016.
# They also care little about innovation and simply want to cash in on the current trend. ''Call of Duty: Black Ops 4'' is a good example: it contains a battle royale mode like that of ''PUBG'', a team battle mode like ''[[Overwatch]]'', a '''''watered down''''' zombie mode, and '''''no single-player campaign''''' (apparently, Treyarch was developing an extensive campaign mode, but due to the steep deadlines, Activision decided that Treyarch couldn't finish that campaign in time and lead them to shut it down in favor of the battle royale mode).
# Just like [[Nintendo (2015-2017, 2021-present)|Nintendo]] and [[Konami (2015-present)|Konami]], they take down a good amount of fangames out of their IPs for very questionable reasons.
#* In September 2018, they sent a cease and desist order to a fan game titled "Spyro: Myths Awaken," forcing the creator to rebrand the game as “Zera: Myths Awaken.”<ref>[https://www.eurogamer.net/spyro-myths-awaken-fan-game-sent-cease-and-desist]</ref>
#* Also in 2023, they terminated the development of numerous ''Call of Duty'' fan projects just to prevent competition with the recent Modern Warfare 3 remaster, as an act of sabotaging a passion project from fans of the franchise.
#** The reason why the projects were being made was to allow players to play the older titles without any hacked servers or some kind of malware corrupting the online system, thus canceling said projects was very sad and undeserved.
# Some modern ''Call of Duty'' titles haven’t gotten official price drops. ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops II|Black Ops 2]]'', a game released in 2012, still costs full price.<ref>https://store.steampowered.com/app/202970/Call_of_Duty_Black_Ops_II/</ref>
# Activision still hasn't budged on the microtransactions and loot boxes in ''Destiny 2'' (which is now self-published by Bungie) or ''Call of Duty'' when other companies have dialed back on the issue, going as far as trying to sell a red dot sight (which is a free unlockable reward since ''Call of Duty 4'') in ''Black Ops 4'' and K/D Tracker in ''Modern Warfare'' (2019) respectively, which only further proves that Activision has not learned from the incident with ''[[Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) loot box controversy|Star Wars Battlefront II]]''.
#* For example, Warner Bros. removed the loot boxes from ''Middle Earth: Shadow of War'' and [[Ubisoft (Mid 2017-present)|Ubisoft]] chose to forget the time-saver packs for ''Far Cry 5''. Even ''<u>'''[[Electronic Arts (2012-present)|EA]]'''</u>'' shut down microtransactions in ''[[Star Wars Battlefront II (2017, pre-2019)|Star Wars Battlefront II]]'' as well as choosing not to include them in ''[[Battlefield V]]''.
#* They have also started releasing games with no microtransactions/loot boxes at launch, only to add them in retroactively, the most notable examples are ''Call of Duty: Black Ops 4'' and ''Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled,'' '''a remake of a game from 1999'''.
#* It was discovered that there was a loot box system inside ''Modern Warfare (2019)''. It was fortunately canceled. However, the microtransactions are still there.
# For some reason, Activision decided to put all the ''Black Ops 4'' DLC content onto [https://www.google.com/amp/s/kotaku.com/call-of-duty-fans-in-uproar-over-black-ops-4s-season-pa-1826788961/amp a season pass] instead of just letting it be DLC. As a result, you don't have the option of buying what you want or need anymore and have to pay for all. Otherwise, you get nothing (even in ''Black Ops 3'', they launched zombie mode maps individually).
# Even back then, they published more garbage titles from various developers just for quick cash-ins, such as ''The Simpsons Wrestling'' and ''Super Pitfall''.
# On PC, for a while, they moved their ''Call of Duty franchise'' from Steam to Blizzard's Battle.net launching its titles from ''BO4'' and ''Modern Warfare 2019'', so the games can't get any feedback, with ''[[Call of Duty: WWII|WWII]]'' being the last ''COD'' game to release on [[Steam]] until MWII (2022) was announced to release on Steam for the first time since ''WWII''.
# They screwed up the physical release of ''[[Spyro Reignited Trilogy]]'' by having both ''Spyro 2'' and ''3'' as digital downloads. However, the game was pushed back from [https://howlongagogo.com/days-between/2018-09-21/2018-11-13 September 21 to November 13], as Toys for Bob wanted to give the game more love and care.
# Four months after ''Black Ops 4''<nowiki/>'s release, they suddenly plugged in loot boxes in it when the heist update was made and they are absolute crap as they can potentially form a freaking curb-stomp battle.
# They (along with [[Electronic Arts (2012-present)|EA]] and [[Bethesda Softworks (1985-2018, 2023-present)|Bethesda]]) are against the recent U.S bill to ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in the U.S.<ref>https://youtu.be/npRcdl3f6iU</ref>
# They have been caught stealing artwork from other companies, such as using a picture taken by Bravo Company USA to use in one of their promotional artworks of ''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019''.
#* They also copied the design of Booker T's character "G.I. Bro" for one of the characters in ''Modern Warfare'', which resulted in a lawsuit.
# They accept exclusivity deals when offered the chance. For example, ''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019'' by making the "Survival" mode on the Coop mode, exclusive to the [[PlayStation 4|PS4]] for one year. This was unsurprisingly met with a lot of backlash, especially since once the mode is released on other platforms, a new ''Call of Duty'' game would have already been released or be close to being released. They also launched ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2'' in the [[Epic Games Store|Epic Store]] for PC.
# They teamed up with Autism Speaks, a horrible organization that promotes negative misconceptions and stigmas against autistic people, to produce blue Skylanders figures.
# Starting with ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2'', they are now locking '''demos''' behind digital pre-orders, which have either been sold with gaming magazines or available as free downloads. They've done the same thing with ''[[Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time]].'' A possible reason for this is that they want to encourage gamers to buy their games digitally since those generate more revenue than physical copies.
# They think it's a good idea to throw their Software License Agreement into practically any game they publish, regardless of if it has any online play, or if it's intended for a younger audience.
# Since the early 2010s, while Activision's working conditions kept getting much worse every time, mostly since they refused to cooperate with the state of California to improve, it ended up hitting rock bottom for real this time when [[Activision Blizzard gets exposed for horrendous working conditions by staff|they were given a lawsuit from the state of California over horrifying and toxic conditions to employees]], such as harassment, discrimination, misogyny, and even '''''a worker's suicide!'''' <ref>https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture</ref>
#* Following a long investigation, Activision found itself innocent.
# The company cannot handle criticism at all. During the lawsuit, they once tried (and thankfully failed) to '''[https://www.gamerbraves.com/bobby-kotick-reportedly-tried-to-buy-games-media-to-change-public-narrative buy gaming media journalists to avoid bad reviews]'''. Activision Blizzard also threatened employees for speaking out about the lawsuits.<ref>https://www.thegamer.com/activision-blizzard-illegally-threatened-workers-union-raven-qa/</ref><ref>https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/29/23048768/activision-blizzard-communications-workers-america-nlrb-charge-wages-working-conditions</ref>
#* They blamed ''[[Call of Duty: Vanguard]]'''s disappointing sales on World War II.<ref>https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/05/05/activision-blames-world-war-ii-setting-for-poor-vanguard-sales/</ref><ref>https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/05/05/activision-blames-world-war-ii-setting-for-poor-vanguard-sales/</ref><ref>https://80.lv/articles/activision-blames-unsatisfactory-call-of-duty-sales-on-world-war-ii/?comment=6020</ref>
# In May 2022, the company released a diversity space tool, which measures characters based on their gender, ethnicity, age, body type, and ability, [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/activision-blizzard-s-new-diversity-space-tool-gets-frosty-reception-from-devs but the tool was poorly received due to being nothing more than checking boxes for diversity to please certain people and bringing tokenization to characters].
# Despite the success of ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2'', they absorbed Vicarious Visions into Blizzard Entertainment<ref>[https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-22-vicarious-visions-merged-into-blizzard: Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard]</ref> resulted the cancellation of ''Pro Skater 3 + 4''.<ref>[https://www.gematsu.com/2022/06/tony-hawks-pro-skater-3-4-plans-shelved-after-blizzard-entertainment-absorbed-vicarious-visions-says-tony-hawk ''Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4'' plans shelved after Blizzard Entertainment absorbed Vicarious Visions, says Tony Hawk]</ref>
#*According to Tony Hawk, after Vicarious Visions was merged into Blizzard, Activision reached out to its other studios for future ideas for the ''Tony Hawk's'' franchise, but Activision didn't like any of their ideas.