35 Facts About Activision Blizzard

1.

Activision Blizzard, Inc is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California.

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2.

Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, and Activision Blizzard Studios.

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3.

Company owns and operates additional subsidiary studios, as part of Activision Blizzard Publishing, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward, High Moon Studios, and Toys for Bob.

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4.

Original Activision Blizzard company was founded in 1979, as a third-party developer for games on the Atari Video Computer System.

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5.

None of Activision Blizzard's subsidiaries had an MMO or the capability to make one quickly.

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6.

Activision Blizzard was facing tougher competition from companies like Electronic Arts, as well as slowdowns in sales of their key game series.

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7.

Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard was announced as the new president and CEO, while Rene Penisson of Vivendi was appointed chairman.

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8.

On July 8, 2008, Activision Blizzard announced that stockholders had agreed to merge, and the deal closed the next day for an estimated transaction amount of US$18.

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9.

The 2011 release of Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 grossed $400 million in the US and UK alone in its first 24 hours, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

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10.

In 2011, Activision Blizzard debuted its Skylanders franchise, which led to the press crediting the company with inventing and popularizing a new toys-to-life category.

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11.

On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi for $5.

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12.

In 2014, Activision Blizzard was the fifth largest gaming company by revenue worldwide, with total assets of US$14.

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13.

Activision Blizzard released the next iteration of the Skylanders franchise in September 2015, which added vehicles to the "toys to life" category.

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14.

Activision Blizzard acquired social gaming company King, creator of casual game Candy Crush Saga, for $5.

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15.

In June 2017, Activision Blizzard joined the Fortune 500 becoming the third gaming company in history to make the list after Atari and Electronic Arts.

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16.

Kotick stated that he, Spencer, and Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella have had discussions in 2021 on their concern of the power of Tencent, NetEase, Apple, Inc and Google, and that Activision Blizzard lacked the computation expertise in machine learning and data analytics that would be necessary to compete with these companies.

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17.

Reports from both newspapers stated that Activision Blizzard had been considering a buyout from other companies, including Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, due to the weaker than expected financial performance of their latest game releases and production delays.

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18.

Several Activision Blizzard employees have expressed cautious optimism with respect to the deal, with the ABK Workers Alliance, a group of employees pushing for unionization in the wake of the DFEH lawsuit, saying the acquisition did "not change the goals" of the Alliance.

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19.

Activision Blizzard's shareholders approved of the acquisition near-unanimously in April 2022.

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20.

New York City Employees' Retirement System, which are shareholders of Activision Blizzard, sued the company in April 2022, arguing that the company had made the acquisition deal quickly with Microsoft as to try to cover up the misdoings of Kotick that had been uncovered as part of the ongoing DCEH lawsuit and escape any liability.

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21.

Activision Blizzard Studios oversees the production of film and television entertainment based on the company's properties.

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22.

Activision Blizzard Distribution provides logistical support for Activision Blizzard's distribution within Europe.

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23.

Activision Blizzard owns the Call of Duty and StarCraft franchises, both of which have been popular as esports.

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24.

On October 21, 2015, Activision Blizzard announced the upcoming establishment of a new e-sports division.

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25.

The New York Times reported that the acquisition was intended to bolster Activision Blizzard's push into e-sports, as well as its plan to develop an e-sports cable channel.

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26.

In November 2016, Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, announced the launch of Overwatch League, a professional video gaming league.

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27.

In 2018, Activision Blizzard signed a multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Company to stream Overwatch League games on both ESPN and Disney XD cable channels.

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28.

Activision Blizzard secured an exclusive multi-year deal with Google to stream all subsequent Activision Blizzard esports events, including Call of Duty and Overwatch events, through YouTube, and to use Google's cloud services for its game hosting infrastructure; this came after a prior two-year deal with Twitch for the Overwatch League had concluded.

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29.

Worlds, Inc launched its formal lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, including both Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Publishing, in March 2012, stating that Call of Duty and World of Warcraft infringed on their patents.

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30.

Activision Blizzard Publishing filed a separate patent infringement lawsuit in October 2013, asserting that Worlds, Inc was using two Activision Blizzard-owned patents in its Worlds Player software, but this suit was dismissed with prejudice by June 2014.

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31.

Activision Blizzard did not challenge the updated patents through an inter partes review, and subsequently after a statutory one-year waiting period, Worlds, Inc filed a subsequently lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, asserting Call of Duty: Ghosts violated their resolved patents.

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32.

In early 2010, Activision Blizzard fired Vince Zampella and Jason West, two of the founders of its studio Infinity Ward, on the basis of "breaches of contract and insubordination"; the move caused several other Infinity Ward staff to resign.

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33.

Zampella and West filed a lawsuit in April 2010 against Activision Blizzard, claiming unpaid royalties on the studio's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

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34.

Activision Blizzard filed a countersuit against the two, accusing the pair of being "self-serving schemers".

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35.

Activision Blizzard later sought to add Electronic Arts to their suit, discovering that Zampella and West had been in discussions with them while still working for Activision Blizzard, and further added claims against Zampella and West that the two had not returned all material related to Call of Duty while they were working at Respawn.

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