It’s been quite the week for the video game industry! Some accusations were thrown around, some money changed hands, and some important figures changed positions! Read a lightning-fast recap of all the major events in this week’s Industry Intel! Let’s dive right in.
Activision Sues Netflix Over Forum CFO
The mega-company that owns Blizzard and the Call of Duty franchise is pressing charges against the video streaming service over former Activision CFO Spencer Neumann.
Neumann was hired by Activision to serve as a CFO until at least August 2020 but departed in December 2018 to join Netflix a month later. Activision accuses Netflix of poaching the exec. The legal document reads:
To shape its workforce to its desires, Netflix not only ruthlessly fires its own employees that it deems ‘adequate,’ but is engaged in a years-long campaign of unlawfully poaching executives from Netflix’s competitors regardless of their contractual obligations.
That’s some serious 3D chess these corporations are playing and its results might affect the way high-level executives switch positions in the future. Speaking of which...
Neil Druckmann Promoted To Naughty Dog Co-President
The lead writer and game director for The Last Of Us Part II climbed the ladder all the way up to a co-president. His success with the big game and the recent success it brought to the company at large was cited as the main reason for the big career jump. During the same meeting, a few other key Naughty Dog figures were promoted. Most notably, Alison Mori (former director of operations) and Christian Gyrling (co-director of programming) are now both vice presidents. Congrats!
- READ MORE: The Game Awards: Top New Game Announcements!
Consumers Unite Against Switch Controllers
No less than nine European-based consumer rights groups have united to protect Nintendo Switch users. They will investigate what they consider shady Nintendo practice: continuing to sell Joy-Cons with known defects ever since the console’s launch in 2017 without addressing the issue. According to them, this is a shady push to sell more hardware. The organizations seek evidence from affected users and plan to launch a coordinated series of formal complaints. Their hope is that the Japanese game maker will fix the issue and start selling properly functioning controllers for the beloved Switch devices.
For more industry news and video game information, keep reading EarlyGame!
