A couple of industry stories dropped today including Activision Blizzard's latest union-busting efforts and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot telling shareholders that he would review any acqusition offers. Other stories feature Destiny 2, Tekken, and Jackbox Games. Let's dive into it.
Activision Blizzard Places QA Testers In Marketing Department To Prevent Unionization Efforts
Activision Blizzard has made it pretty clear that it would rather not have Raven Software employees form a union, and is doing everything in its power to make it as hard as possible. The publisher's latest union-busting tactic is to have disgruntled QA testers moved to the marketing department, making it much more difficult for a union to form. It's a very complex story that's impossible to sum up in a single paragraph, but if you want to catch up on everything, you can read the full story here.
Ubisoft Open To Being Acquired But States It Can Remain Independent
Our second industry story of the day comes from Ubisoft, with CEO Yves Guillemot revealing that the publisher would review any acquisition offers, but is confident it can remain independent despite the rapid consolidation of the games industry. This isn't a confirmation from Guillemot that Ubisoft is looking for potential buyers, but it's also an admittance that the publisher could be bought if the price was right. Only time will tell if anyone makes a serious offer.
Pro Tekken Player Fired For Saying Men Under 170cm "Don't Have Human Rights"
Next up we have a rather unusual story out of Japan which involves pro Tekken player Tanukana seemingly saying that men under 170cm don't deserve human rights. However, the word for in-game items is "jinken" which also happens to be the same term for "human rights", meaning this could be interpreted very differently. Whatever the case, Tanukana has now been dropped from her team and has issued a formal apology on Twitter.
The Witch Queen Is Roasting Players In Destiny 2 Twitter Takeover
If you're an avid user of Twitter and also happen to be a Destiny fan, you may have noticed The Witch Queen having a pop at Destiny 2 players over the past couple of days. For those who haven't seen, Destiny 2's new main antagonist Savathun took over the official Destiny 2 Twitter account and started roasting fans who dared to interact with her, regularly ratioing high-profile Destiny players. It'll only make taking her down all the sweeter when The Witch Queen expansion drops next week.
Jackbox Games CEO Has "No Interest" In NFTs
Finally we have the rather pleasant story that Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder has confirmed that he has "no interest" in NFTs during an interview with TheGamer. Multiple developers have been backing away from the practice, after controversies surrounding the Stalker 2 developer and Team17 saw both receive a public mauling. Hopefully this is the start of the decline of NFTs in the gaming industry, but with how eager Ubisoft are to use them, it's highly unlikely.