Editing Activision Blizzard (section)

=== Blizzard (2018-present) ===
# They've become greedy after the merger with Activision, and now mostly create quick cash-grab remakes and milk the money via nostalgia pandering instead of creating an entirely new game. These problems became prevalent when their former CEO, Mike Morhaime, left the company in 2018.
#* This is also why some games like ''Heroes of the Storm'' and ''StarCraft II'' receive little to no updates as of December 2020.
# Since the partnership deal with NetEase in 2009, Blizzard has leaned towards games as a service model, as they followed NetEase's monetization method in the Chinese server of ''World of Warcraft'' and applied these updates on the live server, which caused massive outrage in the ''WoW'' community.
# They've rushed their games like ''[[Warcraft III: Reforged]]'' and ''Diablo III,'' resulting in a half-finished or even incomplete state of the game.
# They are suspected of bribing gaming journalists in an attempt to cover up their bad game's quality, a prime example is the infamous ''".....it has a little something for everyone"'' review of ''[[Warcraft III: Reforged]]'' by IGN.
# They ban various players and people due to their political and social views. For example;
#* [[Blizzard bans Blitzchung over Hong Kong protests|They banned Blitzchung, a ''Hearthstone'' pro player for his support of Hong Kong]] during their protests against China for human rights since they feared keeping him would hurt sales in mainland communist China.
#* They banned the "okay" hand gesture due to the media getting baited by 4chan's troll thread which claimed that it was a "white supremacy" symbol.
#* They teamed up with Twitch to ban and censor several gaming channels in cooperation with regressive left-minded moderators.
#* They banned Savjz, another ''Hearthstone'' pro player after his wife criticized the company for laying off 770 employees despite the company's profitable record in 2018.
# Most of their employees often post anti-white comments on Twitter. Some examples include:
#* Madeleine Roux, who constantly bashes white people like there's no tomorrow, and also treats customers like trash.<ref>https://static.miraheze.org/crappygameswiki/a/a1/6ad1h7vsx2q51.png</ref>
#* Kami Garcia, who supports discrimination against whites, and falsely accused them of having more serial killers and pedophiles than any other race.
#* LL McKinney, who falsely claims that whites only exist to be racist.<ref name=":0">https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/10/06/multiple-world-of-warcraft-authors-including-l-l-mckinney-and-catherynne-m-valente-express-racist-anti-white-beliefs/</ref>
#* Molly Knox Ostertag, claims that older white men are the "plague" of the industry.<ref name=":0" />
# Recently, they have been against modding and fan-made content in their games.
#* The most infamous example is when they made custom content in ''Warcraft III: Reforged'' owned by Blizzard without the creator's consent.<ref>https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-owns-warcraft-3-reforged-custom-games-wit/1100-6473206/</ref>
#* They shut down ''Nostalrius'', a fan-made, private WoW server that runs on an older, legacy version of ''World of WarCraft''.<ref>[https://www.shacknews.com/article/94018/blizzard-shuts-down-fan-hosted-server-nostalrius-running-vanilla-world-of-warcraft]</ref> Thankfully, Blizzard apologized<ref>[https://www.eurogamer.net/blizzard-responds-to-wow-nostalrius-pirate-private-server-closer]</ref> and released ''World of Warcraft Classic'' due to backlash.<ref>https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/world-of-warcraft-classic-is-official-will-bring-vanilla-wow-back/</ref>
#* Recent patches in their older games have their source codes changed, breaking many mods.
# They fired voice actor Quinton Flynn from his role in ''World of Warcraft'' after the sexual harassment allegations against him<ref>[https://nichegamer.com/quinton-flynn-replaced-as-kaelthas-voice-actor-in-wow-despite-judge-ruling-sexual-misconduct-allegations-came-from-obsessive-stalker]</ref> and refused to hire him back after he proved his innocence<ref>https://twitter.com/quintonflynn/status/1384197994120028171</ref>. This could also be seen as hypocritical as seen in the next reason below.
# Along with Activision, they've also been exposed for having a toxic work culture and discrimination in July 2021.
#* The situation is considered ironic, as the report also revealed several cases of sexual harassment and misogynistic treatment against women, despite Blizzard employing several vocal left-wing employees in their company (and left-wing pandering in Activision, to an extent).
# In November 2018, when they announced [[Announcement of Diablo Immortal|a mobile F2P "spin-off" of ''Diablo'' called ''Diablo Immortal'']], fans were so furious that it led to a disastrous damage control campaign.
#* When ''[[Diablo Immortal]]'' was finally released in June 2022, the game proved to be a pay-to-win disaster, as it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars just to fully upgrade a character.
# In June 2022, they announced that ''Overwatch 2'' [https://hypebeast.com/2022/6/blizzard-overwatch-2-original-game-replacement-announcement would completely replace the original ''Overwatch''], making that game unplayable.
# They never care about the external developers as they prefer merging the teams (regardless if it's a standalone company or an owned subsidiary):
#* They folded Vicarious Visions into Blizzard, as they chose the studio to develop ''Diablo II: Resurrected'' instead of Blizzard's Team 1.<ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-22/blizzard-absorbs-activision-studio-after-dismantling-classic-games-team Blizzard Absorbs Activision Studio After Dismantling Classic Games Team]</ref><ref>[https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/22/blizzard-leaders-j-allen-brack-and-allen-adham-on-leaks-reforged-lessons-mobile-and-more/ Blizzard leaders J. Allen Brack and Allen Adham on leaks, ''Reforged'' lessons, mobile, and more]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220621121938/https://careers.blizzard.com/global/en/albany '''Jobs in Albany:'''] Shows the Targeted Jobs with ''Diablo IV'' positions.</ref>
#* On June 29, 2022, they acquired Proletariat (the self-published developer of ''Spellbreak'') to support ''World of Warcraft'' expansion ''Dragonflight''. Because of this, Proletariat plans to end the support of ''Spellbreak'' in early 2023.<ref>[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/blizzard-acquires-spellbreak-studio-proletariat-to-work-on-world-of-warcraft/ Blizzard acquires ''Spellbreak'' studio Proletariat to work on ''World of Warcraft'']</ref>
# Their launcher, Battle.net, forces all their games to be online at all times, except for ''Starcraft: Remastered'', ''StarCraft II'', ''Warcraft III: Reforged'', and ''Diablo II: Resurrected''. [https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/000010313 Instead, there is a 30-day DRM check when the Play button is greyed out means you cannot play them again until you go online to recheck them.]
#* [https://mp1st.com/news/diablo-2-resurrected-cannot-be-played-offline-if-you-fail-to-login-online-once-in-30-days ''Diablo II: Resurrected'' console ports also used this practice.] You will get an authentication error if you don't go online after 30 days.
# In 1998, Cendant (Blizzard's parent company at the time) was involved in an accounting fraud scandal. The company had been overstating its income by $550 million for the past three years. When this report was released to the public, Cendant's market cap dropped by $14 billion. In 2001, Cendant agreed to a $3.2 billion class action settlement and an additional $32.5 million settlement in 2005.
#* As a result, Cendant Software was sold to Havas (a division of Vivendi) for $770 million.
#* In 2005, Vice Chairman Kirk Shelton was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud. In 2007, CEO Walter Forbes was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Each of them was ordered to pay Cendant US$3.275 billion in restitution. Shelton's initial payment was $15 million before his conviction, followed by a rate of $2,000 per month upon his release. At that rate, it would take '''135,000 years''' for Shelton to fully pay Cendant (which is now known as Avis).
#* Cendant was mostly known as a travel (Avis, Howard Johnson, Ramada, Super 8) and real estate (Century 21, Coldwell Banker) company. When Blizzard was sold to Cendant, Microsoft general manager Ed Fries remarked, "I just got outbid by a time-share camping business?" Then when Vivendi acquired the studio, Fries told IGN, "This time I get outbid by a French water utility."<ref>https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-blizzard-acquisition</ref>