A Los Angeles man whose online gaming wars led him to call in a “Swatting” phone call on a Wichita, Kansas man and caused his death has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Swatting is an online gamer practice of calling police and claiming a crime is in progress at a location, causing authorities to show up…

Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard said it is laying off several hundred workers — about 8% of its total workforce of 9,600 — in a restructuring that will also boost the number of game developers by 20% during 2019. Shares in the Santa Monica-based maker of Call of Duty gained 4% in after-hours trading following…

Twelve weeks into the actors' strike against selected video game companies, the WGA announced its nominees for outstanding achievement in videogame writing during 2016. None of the nominations are for on struck games. Brian Bloom was nominated for Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and while SAG-AFTRA is on…

Video game maker Activision Blizzard has set producer Stacey Sher to team with former Disney exec Nick van Dyk to run Activision Blizzard Studios. They will be co-presidents and lead an effort to create film and TV titles from Activision properties. The company’s videogame product includes Activision's Call of Duty…

Now that Activision Blizzard has announced its plan to launch a movie and TV studio, Hollywood might want to pay more attention to its hits — including today’s news regarding Call Of Duty: Black Ops III. In its first three days, the tentpole title generated $550 million in worldwide sales, the company says. That makes…

Hollywood already generates a lot of movies and TV shows based on video games. Now one of the biggest companies in the field will become more directly involved: Activision Blizzard just unveiled its own operation — Activision Blizzard Studios — that will develop films and TV shows based on its hit games including Call…

EXCLUSIVE: Every film needs a sales hook. UFO conspiracy thriller The Phoenix Incident has been flying under the radar even as viral seeds have been germinating across the web like sleeper cells of marketing data. The feature debut of veteran gaming director Keith Arem (Call of Duty, Titanfall) was shot quietly last…

Normally, when you successfully release the latest iteration of a blockbuster franchise, it’s a good time to brag. Activision Blizzard says Call of Duty Advanced Warfare has had the year’s biggest launch of any entertainment property. That’s big. But what’s more interesting is what ATVI didn’t say, and how Wall Street…

It was a very good day for videogame giant Activision Blizzard, which reported record (non-GAAP) revenues and earnings per share thanks to new franchise Destiny and the long-running World Of Warcraft. The big numbers came just as Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare, the next iteration of its blockbuster franchise, hits…

The trailer for The Hobbit’s final sequel, The Battle Of The Five Armies, was YouTube’s most-watched entertainment-related video of the third quarter, the online giant said, pulling in nearly 17.3 million views, well ahead of trailers for the next Hunger Games installment and the first Fifty Shades Of Grey.  The Hunger…

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has hired Jeff Chan to develop to direct an untitled project framed in the vein of End Of Watch, with firefighter protagonists. Sascha Penn has been set to write the script. While there has been talk of a few fact-based firefighter films that fell apart over rights issues, we’ve not seen a big…

One day after the latest installment in the Call Of Duty franchise was released, Activision Blizzard announced today that the first-person shooter video game has surpassed $1 billion in global sell-in sales. Impressive as that may sound, it's not a record yet, and it hasn't taken out Grand Theft Auto V either. Unlike…