Activision-Blizzard has big layoffs, CEO gets bonus

Visit http://expressvpn.com/roundup to protect your online activity and get an extra 3 months free! Activision-Blizzard is at it again laying off somewhere between 50 and 190 people. Reportedly the company shuttered portions of its esports division in a shift to move away from in-person events to focus more on exclusive online events. Overwatch League and the Call of Duty League were likely affected as well as other games esports departments, like Hearthstone. Don’t worry though. Since Activision-Blizzard’s stock is way up, CEO Bobby Kotick, is about to get a huge payout to the tune of $200 million bucks. In other news, Game Pass just added 20 Bethesda games to its roster and Xbox just announced yet another wave of Game Pass games including a day one release for Outriders. Not to be completely outdone, Sony is also releasing a wave of free games through their Play at Home program. Titles include Abzu, Enter the Gungeon, Ratchet & Clank, and Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition. GTA Online has notoriously had rough load times and finally, one player had enough and set out to fix the issue themself. After extensive research, Tost actually managed to reduce load times by 70%. The fix was so effective that Rockstar incorporated it into the official version of the game and rewarded Tost with $10,000 dollars. Jade Raymond a legendary developer who was spearheading Google’s internal games studios left the company after the conglomerate shutdown all their plans for game making. She was previously known for her work developing franchises like Assasins Creed and Watchdogs while at Ubisoft and then moving onto EA to build Motive. It was certainly a loss for Google, but now Raymond is teaming up with Sony to build a new game studio called Haven Entertainment. After the news, stick around for a 5-Second Review of Loop Hero and a Coming Soon section that doesn’t quit. Let’s go Monster Hunter: Rise! Thanks for watching and have a great weekend. Watch more roundup! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4L4joG3Ycs&list=PLdBe6gw9Ydok7DM7HaEyPBnRSM5K0hWA5 Buy our shirt! https://is.gd/u3xCtA OR follow us on Twitter! https://twitter.com/briangaar https://twitter.com/DarthBurrit0 http://twitter.com/InsideGaming SOURCES [Bloomberg] - Blizzard layoffs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-16/blizzard-fires-50-people-amid-shift-away-from-liv… [Sports Business Journal] - Activision moves away from in-person events https://sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Breaking-News/2021/03/Activision-layoffs.aspx [Gamespot] - Investor Group mad over Kotick payout https://www.gamespot.com/articles/investor-group-pissed-activision-blizzard-ceo-is-getting-a-200-mil… [Twitter] - Daniel Ahmad tweets about Nintendo CEO https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1372283264489099264 [Xbox] - Xbox adds 20 Bethesda games to Game Pass https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/03/11/20-bethesda-games-now-on-xbox-game-pass/ [VG247] - New wave of Game Pass games include Octopath Traveler and Yakuza 6 https://www.vg247.com/2021/03/16/octopath-traveler-yakuza-6-song-life-empire-sin-coming-xbox-game-pa… [Xbox] - Outriders is coming to Game Pass https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/03/15/outriders-coming-to-xbox-game-pass/ [PlayStation] - New Play at Home games https://blog.playstation.com/2021/03/17/play-at-home-2021-update-10-free-games-to-download-this-spri… [PC Gamer] - GTA Online player improves load times by 70% https://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-thanks-gta-online-player-who-fixed-poor-load-times-official-update-… [VG247] - Jade Raymond forms new studio Haven Entertainment https://www.vg247.com/2021/03/16/jade-raymond-forms-new-montreal-based-studio-working-original-plays…