Big business deals and union busting.
We heard a lot about big business today. Seeing as how Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, we’ve been hearing a lot about big business all month, but the news this time around was definitely still worthy of note. The developer behind Destiny 2, Bungie, was just acquired by Sony for $3.6 billion. I’ll point out in passing that Wordle was also purchased by The New York Times for a price in the “low seven figures.” But there were some other stories that you should know about as well. The news for example broke this afternoon that Activision Blizzard has gotten back to its union busting. Some things never change.
Final Fantasy has been around for a long time. The franchise goes right back to the earliest days of gaming. Today in fact marks 25 years of Final Fantasy 7 and the developers have been sharing their feelings with the fans. “I had always thought of Final Fantasy 7 as a recent game, but it has actually now become one of the games from the early series,” Yoshinori Kitase said. Final Fantasy 7 launched ten years after the first game, but that was still a full 15 years ago at this point. “There will be even more new Final Fantasy 7 projects that started up after the remake coming in the future, too. The team sees this twenty-fifth anniversary as a waypoint on our journey with Final Fantasy 7,” Tetsuya Nomura added.
The voice actor Troy Baker took a lot of heat when he announced a new line of “voice NFTs.” The idea was to partner with a company called VoiceVerseNFT, but fans of his work were disappointed that he would stoop to such a level. Baker has now backtracked on the project. "Thank you all for your feedback and patience,” he said. “After careful consideration, I’ve decided to not continue the partnership with VoiceVerseNFT. Intentions aside, I’ve heard you and apologize for accusing anyone of 'hating' just by simply disagreeing with me." No more NFTs, please.
Sony announced this morning that it would be buying Bungie for a staggering $3.6 billion. This of course pales in comparison to the $68.7 billion which Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard earlier this month, but it’s definitely no chump change, either. Bungie is apparently going to become an “independent subsidiary.” Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons remarked that "we have found a partner who unconditionally supports us in all we are and who wants to accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment, all while preserving the creative independence that beats in Bungie’s heart.” He said that “today, Bungie begins our journey to become a global multimedia entertainment company."
The former employee and union organizer at Activision Blizzard Jessica Gonzalez leaked a message from Vice President of Quality Assurance Christian Arends to the public today. This message bordered on union busting at best. The announcement was made to workers at the company on Slack. “A union doesn’t do anything to help us produce world-class games,” Arends claimed. The executive said that “all of this could hurt our ability to continue creating great games” before noting that “even though you may have signed a union authorization card, you are not obligated to vote for the union during an election should one occur.” But the workers weren’t having any of this. They even left a bunch of thumbs down at the bottom in protest.
Wordle started as a blip on the radar back in October, 2021 before blowing up a couple of months later. Started as a passion project, the game somehow managed to capture millions of imaginations. The latest development is that its designer, Josh Wardle, agreed to sell the game to The New York Times for a price in the “low seven figures.” The game is apparently going to remain free for players to enjoy long into the future. Wardle said that “it has been incredible to watch a game bring so much joy to so many and I feel so grateful for the personal stories some of you have shared with me — from Wordle uniting distant family members to provoking friendly rivalries to supporting medical recoveries.” Wardle went on to say that “I am extremely pleased to announce that I’ve reached an agreement with The New York Times for them to take over running Wordle going forward.”
Well, I think we all saw that coming.
Justin is an archaeologist specializing in architecture, urbanism and spatial theory. He also happens to be a pilot. But you probably know him as a columnist at Unwinnable and an editor at TheGamer where he writes articles and publishes news about games. You can find some of his work in EGM, Vice, Heterotopias and more.
