Bobby Kotick is being sued by NYC and Nintendo has allegedly been mistreating contractors.
It was a bit of a subdued Star Wars day this year, with barely any Star Wars video game announcements. Fortunately, we did get a new trailer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, but that's where the fun ends.
Today's news roundup is very industry-heavy, including several stories about New York City's lawsuit against Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, a new report about alleged mistreatment of contractors at Nintendo of America, and Bungie's commitment to support reproductive choice. Read on for more details.
Activision Blizzard has yet another lawsuit to throw on top of the pile, this time aimed squarely at company CEO Bobby Kotick. The complaint filed by New York City Employees’ Retirement System accuses Kotick of rushing through the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft in order to escape legal liability over the many, many allegations of sexual misconduct at the publisher last year. New York is asking for several documents regarding the sale, including the list of five potential suitors that were in the running to acquire Activision besides Microsoft.
Nintendo of America has found itself in hot water over the past couple of weeks after several reports detailed alleged mistreatment of workers, specifically contractors. A new report published today claims that Nintendo contractors are often made to work on "outdated equipment" and are afraid to go to the bathroom or go idle on Microsoft Teams for fear of managment noticing. One employee even claims that she was told she had "attendance issues" after leaving work one day "due to the death of her sister."
After the news that leaked documents revealed plans to overturn Roe vs Wade – allowing individual states to make decisions on abortion rights – Destiny 2 developer Bungie took to Twitter to announce its support of reproductive choice and explained that the choice "wasn't difficult." It has also explained that the developer's "company values exist beyond our games," as Bungie is currently the only major developer/publisher to have spoken out against the actions of the Supreme Court. Hopefully, more follow soon.
Away from the serious stuff now, and it's only right we include a Star Wars story in today's roundup. To celebrate this momentous of occassions, Disney treated Star Wars fans to a new trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi which is set to debut on Disney Plus later this month. One of the more notable things in the trailer is the lack of lightsaber, as Kenobi seems to have ditched his glowing blue stick in favor of a blaster. There were also a few little clips of Darth Vader being assembled sprinkled in to keep you well and truly hyped until the show airs on May 27.
Finally, we have a small update regarding some of the games that Square Enix no longer owns after its sale of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos to Embracer Group. The company aims to become the publisher of both Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, although Disney is yet to give the switch the green light. It's not clear what the future holds for both these titles, but Embracer Group definitely wants to get them, meaning it could have plans for potential sequels.
Joshua Robertson is a News Writer for TheGamer, based in Barnsley, England. When not playing or writing about Pokemon, Yakuza, or Fallout, he can usually be found spending too much time on Twitter @JoshRobertson97.
