Successful casual game developer King, creator of the multi-million micro-transaction monster known as Candy Crush, has reportedly been acquired by Activision Blizzard for a massive $5.9 billion, spawning some quite visceral reactions due to the unpopularity of all involved.
Should the deal be completed, Activision will have yet another highly profitable franchise under their belt, along with other cash-cows such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, in addition to having more extensive access to the mobile game market to carry out more of their “innovative business ideas“.
The immense hatred held for Activision by many gamers (it perhaps being almost as unpopular as EA) comes from the publisher’s wide assortment of misdeeds, such as the use and abuse of game developers like the now defunct Troika Games and the flagrant money-grubbing tendencies of its CEO.
King has been a frequent target for criticism as well, as many proclaim that they focus solely on creating casual games that take advantage of player addiction through a slew of micro-transactions, managing to rake in insane profits while truly innovative and impressive titles are left in the dust.
Activision’s “takeover” of King may very likely see to the destruction of yet another developer, though many are clearly hoping that there will be some form of mutually assured destruction.
f♥♥k Kotick.
Sorry, “creator of candy crush”? Try “theft of candyswipe”.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/candy-crush-king-files-for-ipo-faces-claims-idea-stolen-from-candy-swipe/
http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/13/candy-crush-saga-makers-to-sue-game-they-copied-4303096/
The problem is that you can’t prove something just by accusing it. Unfortunately for them, the “endgame” page of candy crush also happened to be the final page of CandySwipe dedicating the game to Albert’s late mother :
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/candy-crush-developer-king-gets-angry-open-letter-from-rival-over-trademark-dispute/1100-6417704/
“I created my game CandySwipe in memory of my late mother who passed away at an early age of 62 of leukemia. I released CandySwipe in 2010 five months after she passed and I made it because she always liked these sorts of games. In fact, if you beat the full version of the android game, you will still get the message saying ‘…the game was made in memory of my mother, Layla…'”
If that’s not fucking corrupt, than what the hell is? Artefact, you may need to do a bit more research into the articles you post. But I guess that’s always a bit true for everything posted here isn’t it?
King was bad in the first place, but now with Activision… This does not bode well
ive said for years that blizzard is a company that makes nothing but casual games.
early 2000’s Blizzard was one of the better game devs at the time. Then activision happened.
Well s♥♥t, no wonder why I was unable to like wow anymore.
World of Warcraft isn’t exactly casual. Granted it has the same addictive quality as Candy Crush but it caters to a very different demographic.
Although, I can say I have never actually played Candy Crush and have not the slightest impulse to do so.
World of Warcraft? What?
activision and vivendi merged awhile ago
http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=279372