Acti-Blizz’s Kotick Frames Sale as a West/East Battle, UK “Death Valley” if they Block it

Acti-Blizz, the joint venture of Activision and Blizzard, recently made headlines in the gaming community with their announcement of a potential sale of their upcoming shooter title Kotick. In the announcement, they framed the sale as a kind of battle between the West and the East – with the US potentially gaining the upper hand if the sale went through and the UK getting the worst of it.

Acti-Blizz’s assertions that the UK could turn into a “death valley” if the sale were blocked were met with some outrage from the UK gaming community. Acti-Blizz claimed that without the sale, the UK would miss out on the significant investment from the proposed acquisition and the potential game-changing advancements and innovation from the Kotick developers. They argued that if the sale were blocked, there would be drastic job losses and the region would end up in a “death valley”, with no hope of recovering.

Despite the claims, the UK gaming community was unconvinced and remained adamant about the potential danger to their industry of the sale going through. They raised concerns about the effects a US-based owner could have on the independence of the local developers. They worried that the US owner may take control of the local studios and limit their freedom to create games tailored to the local market.

Moreover, the UK gaming community feared that a US-based owner could lead to a “brain drain” of top-tier UK talent, and the costs associated with working with a US-based partner may be too great for smaller UK-based developers.

In the end, Acti-Blizz’s efforts to frame the sale as a West/East battle ultimately failed. Despite the warnings, the UK gaming community pushed back against the sale and it failed to go through. Ultimately, the sale failed to gain support from the UK gaming community, who remain vehemently opposed to any potential sale of their local studios.