Talk:Activision

Activision Publishing, Inc.

@Masem: I think this edit not factually correct. Already prior the Activision–Vivendi Games merger, Activision Publishing had formally been in charge of publishing activities as a subsidiary of Activision, Inc., which was in turn publicly listed. Their California registration history (per SOS CA) paints the following picture:

The 'original' Activision, Inc. (registered in California on 1979-10-01; Cal entity number C0962542; legal name "Mediagenic" held from 1988-08-17 to 1992-08-03) was merged with an entity of the same name, though incorporated in Delaware (C1867531), on 1993-08-04; this Delaware corporation was renamed "Activision Publishing, Inc." on 2000-06-19. On the same day as the renaming, a company under the name "Activision Holdings, Inc." (incorporated 2000-05-25; C2235977) changed its name to "Activision, Inc." This third Activision, Inc. is also the one that merged with Vivendi Games as is now renamed as "Activision Blizzard, Inc."

The body already mentions the creation of the holding company in June 2000, but I'll have to see whether there is a source on the renaming part somewhere. However, the mentioned sentence, as it stands, is most likely incorrect. Lordtobi (✉) 17:44, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, there's fuzziness here. I'll still trying to work through sources. --Masem (t) 18:16, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: I haven't started digging but it sounds like at the point of merge, all the subisidaries of "Activision Holdings" fell into "Activision Publishing"? Is that your take? --Masem (t) 19:07, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Masem, which subsidiaries do you mean? There are no corporate mergers on file for either Activision Holdings or Activision Publishing. What I can see that several mergers were filed for the original Activision/Mediagenic, though: Infocom on 1988-09-03, ten corporations for regional operations on 1989-01-13, two further on 1989-04-27, and Disc Company, Inc. on 1992-03-31. If there were asset mergers we'd need to check with their corporate entries. Lordtobi (✉) 19:40, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

I guess the question is, taking Infinity Ward as an example: was it acquired as a Holdings or Publishing company? If it was a Holdings company, then at the point of the Vivendi merger, it technically would be handing off the merged orgs, but it seems that it now falls under Publishing. It's fully possible to do that of course, but just trying to make sure that we should be covering the studios in this article, rather than A-B. --Masem (t) 19:52, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Asset deals usually go thrpugh the top company (cf. the Warhorse Studios situation from tomorrow morning), so the acquisition itself went through Atvi Holdings. For Infinity Ward specifically, in the press release, Atvi Publishing's CEO gets to have a word, suggesting that, by management, Infinity Ward became part of Atvi Publishing. If you find a source saying "X will now report to Y", you can take that as statement of managerial organization. Lordtobi (✉) 20:02, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Also, trying to confirm the initial headquarters when the four founded it. I'm getting Mountain View from sites that aren't best for confirming, but can't find anything else earlier. --Masem (t) 19:39, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Their 1980 box arts list Sunnyvale (same loc as Atari at the time), Mountain View started appearing in 1981. This mag (p19) from Sep 1980 backs up the Sunnyvale location. I cannot tell whether this was the very first, but it might well be the first known (less than a year after founding). Lordtobi (✉) 20:02, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Lay-off of 800 employees

Hi. Looking through the article I'm surprised to find that there's been zero mention of Activision, despite having record profits, laying off 800 employees this month. The event has been one of the most notable in the company's history and one that has been widely criticized across the board. I presume this information can be included in the article? I'm just wondering why no one has done so already. -- Wikibenboy94 (talk) 13:17, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Masem Has been working on a large rewrite of these articles. But however note that it's Activision Blizzard, the parent, who made the layoffs, and that article DOES mention the layoffs already. This article is for Activision, the subsidiary publisher (sister to Blizzard, not parent of). -- ferret (talk) 14:03, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Ah sorry, my mistake. I should have looked there instead. -- Wikibenboy94 (talk) 16:56, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, and at this point, I haven't seen anything that says any Activision Publishing companies are affected (in contrast to the 2010 layoffs which did force A. Publishing to close studios). --Masem (t) 14:20, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

We know of some redundancies to Activision Publishing, High Moon and Vicarious Visions for jobs related to the Destiny series,[1] but there are no precise numbers we could use. Lordtobi (✉) 15:46, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Barring outright closure or a massive rescaling, I wouldn't think that necessary here. I know I added the layoffs on the A-B page. --Masem (t) 15:50, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Profit shifting and tax

Hello fellow Wikipedians. Full disclosure, I work for TaxWatch UK.

In August 2019, we published a report explaining how activision shifted €5bn to companies in Bermuda and Barbados between 2013-2017. This shifting of profits using royalty payments to tax haven companies is the same scheme used by Google, which has been heavily criticised by MPs.

This report was picked up by multiple outlets, including GamesIndustry and The Sunday Times,

I would like for a small section to be included on the Activision Wikipedia page. However, given the conflict of interest, I believe that someone else should make that edit.

Happy to answer any questions on the report.

Thanks,

Alex Alex0190 (talk) 12:09, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

• This probably belongs on Activision Blizzard, this company's parent. Representative GamesIndustry.biz source: [2]. Lordtobi (✉) 12:16, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

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The dot eaters allegedly not reliable

My edit was reverted for not using a reliable source. The Dot Eaters has been cited in several published books. cc User:IceWelder

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C36&q=%22the+dot+eaters%22&btnG=

Anonymous-232 (talk) 21:01, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

First, I found a clear reliable source to establish the same info (as well as work out a few more things) from Game Informer.

But as for those other sources that use the Dot Eaters, those mostly look like student thesises, which we cannot use as evidence of reliability. If they were peer-reviewed published papers, that may be different. --Masem (t) 21:53, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

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Microsoft is buying Activision.

Cheers. https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/18/22889258/microsoft-activision-blizzard-xbox-acquisition-call-of-duty-overwatch — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.192.148.117 (talk) 13:42, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

To be more specific, they are buying the parent company Activision Blizzard. -- ferret (talk) 14:12, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

For those coming to change this page to reflect this, When the deal does go through, yes technically Microsoft will own Activision, however, they won't directly own Activision, and instead will own it through the parent company Activision Blizzard which, at this point in time will continue to be the parent company of Activision unless something changes. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 14:43, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 January 2022

Add informatiom about Microsoft acquisition of Activision, announced yesterday. 179.181.83.108 (talk) 18:58, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 19:04, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: College Composition II

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2024 and 11 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nickc4734 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Lindseybean28 (talk) 21:24, 9 May 2024 (UTC)