March2022
Rumour Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remaster Supposedly Coming To Switch
Activision to fill "empty space" between premium releases
Last month, Microsoft president Brad Smith mentioned how the tech giant wanted to bring the Call of Duty series to the Nintendo Switch not long after it announced its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. With this in mind, there's now a rumour that Activision "supposedly"...
News Activision Blizzard Hit With New Harassment And Discrimination Lawsuit
"700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch"
Activision Blizzard has been hit with a fresh lawsuit that claims the company's "frat boy" environment has allowed 700 reported incidents of sexual harassment and discrimination. The suit has been filed by Attorney Lisa Bloom in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a...
February2022
News Microsoft Wants Call Of Duty On Switch, Along With Other "Popular" Activision Blizzard Games
"Bring it to more people, bring it to more platforms"
Microsoft president Brad Smith has said that it wants to bring the Call of Duty series to Switch, assuming its purchase of Activision Blizzard goes ahead as planned. Smith made the comments in an interview with CNBC, in which he once again made clear that Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of...
Soapbox Don't Cheer For Corporate Takeovers - It's Not A Game
Monopoly isn't just for fun when it's real money
Back in September 2020 when Microsoft announced its acquisition of Bethesda for around $7.5 billion, it was a big move — one that some fans would have been excited by, and others less so. It was a huge deal at the time, with that purchase giving Microsoft Gaming / Xbox a number of new studios and...
January2022
Talking Point How Does Microsoft's Purchase Of Activision Blizzard Impact Nintendo?
The latest extraordinary power move by MS
Microsoft caused a stir last year when it confirmed that its intended purchase of Zenimax had gone through, known better as the Bethesda deal. For over $7 billion Microsoft picked up Bethesda and a range of talented studios, with lots of discussion at the time over the impact of franchises like Fallout,...
News Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard, Now Owns Call Of Duty And Crash Bandicoot
Deal cost a cool $68.7 billion
Microsoft has purchased embattled Call of Duty and Crash Bandicoot publisher Activision in a deal worth a whopping $68.7 billion. To give some perspective on the astonishing size of that figure, Disney paid $4.05 billion for Star Wars studio Lucasfilm in 2012, with half of the money paid in cash and the other half in...
News Overwatch 2 LEGO Set Gets Shelved Following Activision Blizzard Lawsuit
"We are currently reviewing our partnership," says LEGO
The LEGO Overwatch 2 "Titan" set pictured above was scheduled to come out next month, but The LEGO Group has decided to postpone the release following accusations of harassment, discrimination, and misconduct at the California-based offices of Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard, the...
November2021
"They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs"
Update: Nintendo has now officially confirmed this in a PR response to Fanbyte: “We can confirm the content of Doug Bowser’s internal email to Nintendo of America staff is accurate. We have nothing further to share on this topic.” Nintendo of America's president Doug Bowser...
News Activision Blizzard Employees Stage A Walkout Calling For CEO Bobby Kotick's Resignation
Update: Over 1300 employees sign a petition calling for Kotick to go
Update: More than 1300 Activision Blizzard employees have signed a petition demanding that CEO Bobby Kotick resign in the wake of this week's Wall Street Journal report alleging his failure to act on knowledge of misconduct at studios within the company. At the time of writing,...
October2021
News Vicarious Visions Staff Left "Blindsided" By Reported Merger With Embattled Blizzard
All is not well at the Diablo II: Resurrected studio
Vicarious Visions – the studio behind multiple Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero and Skylanders entries – is to be merged with Blizzard, it is being reported. According to Polygon, which has spoken to various staff at the studio, the decision to abandon the Vicarious Visions name and...
September2021
News There's More Crash Bandicoot Coming "Very Soon", According To Toys For Bob
25 years and counting
As you may have already heard, it's Crash Bandicoot's 25th anniversary this year. Yes, like all of the other classic mascots, Crash is also getting on. While many fans were hoping for a big reveal this week, unfortunately, all there's been so far is a special video message. In it, Toys for Bob co-studio heads, Paul Yan and...
August2021
News Blizzard Outlines Plans To Rename Popular Overwatch Character
A new story arc will introduce a new name for McCree
Blizzard has announced via the official Overwatch Twitter account that it plans to change the name of popular character McCree. In a statement (below), the makers of the popular multiplayer FPS outlined plans to rename the character originally named after former Blizzard designer Jesse McCree,...
Soapbox Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Was The Basis For My Taste In Music
Sick jams, dude
The year was 2005. iPods were the hot thing, YouTube had just been launched, Twitter didn't exist yet, and the words "podcast" and "social media" had only just been added to the dictionary. It was, in short, a great time to be a kid, as well as the nexus point of many of our modern everyday experiences, like being able to listen to...
News Blizzard President J. Allen Brack Is Leaving The Company
Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra to replace him
Content warning: Please be aware that the following article and the sources linked within touch on topics including discrimination, sexual harassment and assault, and suicide. On July 21st, Bloomberg Law reported that Activision Blizzard — the multi-billion dollar company behind Diablo, Ov
July2021
News Activision Blizzard Sued Over Culture Of Harassment And Discrimination
Allegations of "sexual harassment with no repercussion"
Content warning: Please be aware that the following article and the sources linked within touch on topics including discrimination, sexual harassment and assault, and suicide. A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard, Inc., owners of Diablo, Overwatch, and MMORPG World of Warcraft...
News Crash Bandicoot Celebrates 25 Years With A Special Anniversary Bundle
Get five games for the price of one
Like many other video game icons this year, Crash Bandicoot is also celebrating a major anniversary. Believe it or not, but the former PlayStation mascot has now been around for 25 years. If you've been interested in some of his newer releases recently, but haven't been willing to fork out the higher prices for...
May2021
Rumour It Sounds Like A New Tony Hawk Game Might Be Happening
Is the Birdman returning?
Before Activision's announcement of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, a number of musicians spilled the beans ahead of schedule. Now it seems history could be repeating itself. On an episode of The Behind Closed Doors Podcast last month, the drummer of the ba
News Crash Bandicoot 4 Voice Actors Tease "Fun New Project"
Could it be another Crash game?
At the start of this month, Crash Bandicoot's resurgence was thought to be over, and then an Activision spokesperson denied a report about "layoffs" at Toys for Bob - stating how the studio would continue to support Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Now, just a week later, the voice actors of Crash and Dr. Neo...
Feature Toys For Bob On Crash 4 For Switch And The 'Dream' Of Smash Bros.
"If I had any influence, I sure would love to see that"
Nintendo Switch has lots of major exclusives and its share of awesome download titles, but the little hybrid system can still hold its own and join in with major multi-platform titles. A recent example is Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which arrived earlier in the Spring; in our review we...
News Toys For Bob Is Now A Support Developer For Call Of Duty: Warzone
Update: Activision says studio will continue to support Crash 4
Update: [Wed 5th May, 2021 00:45 BST]: In a response to VGC, an Activision spokesperson has denied reports about "layoffs" at Toys for Bob and says the studio will "continue supporting" Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time while providing additional support to Call of Duty Warzone...
March2021
News Activision Confirms Original Dev Is Handling Tony Hawk Switch Port
"Vicarious Visions is on the case"
When it comes to third-party games on the Nintendo Switch, a lot of companies call on support studios or specialists such as Panic Button to do the heavy lifting. We recently saw this with Respawn Entertainment's title, Apex Legends. With the upcoming release Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 , Activision has confirmed...
Including "50 employees" in live events
It has been tough times for a lot of industries over the past year, and perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the pandemic for the video game industry has been the cancellation of live shows including expos and e-sports events. As these in-person events are no longer happening, Activision Blizzard has...
Video Here's Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Crash Bandicoot 4 On Switch
What's the verdict?
One of the big releases for the Nintendo Switch this week is Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Although we've already got a good idea of how it runs on the hybrid device, John Linneman of Digital Foundry has now shared his own technical analysis of the game alongside the new PlayStation 5 version. Both are running on Unreal...
Video Check Out This Side-By-Side Comparison Of Crash Bandicoot 4 On Switch And PS4 Pro
Can you tell the difference?
Next week sees the arrival of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time on the Switch. In the lead-up to this exciting third-party release, YouTuber Cycu1 has put together an "early graphics comparison" video in 1080p, comparing the cut scenes in the Nintendo version to the PlayStation 4 Pro release. At a glance, it's honestly...
February2021
News Crash Bandicoot 4 Switch eShop File Size Revealed
Go digital and score some "Totally Tubular Skins"
After multiple reports and rumours, earlier this week, Activision finally made it official - announcing Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time for the Nintendo Switch. It's priced at $39.99 / £44.99 and will be arriving digitally and physically on 12th March. For those of you planning on getting a...