Daily Briefing: Thursday 20th January

Take-Two are now happy with the GTA Trilogy

That’s straight from the mouth of Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick who, speaking in a new interview with CNBC, claimed that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition (what an unwieldy name) has performed “great” since it released back in November. This, of course, vastly underplays the sheer amount of mechanical issues the Trilogy experienced at launch, and this is something Zelnick sticks to throughout the interview, writing off the bulk of these issues as “a glitch in the beginning” that has since been resolved.

• Gaming executives downplaying issues for the sake of positive press is nothing new but this is  a particularly brazen example. The GTA Trilogy was a highly anticipated game that launched with such an extensive suite of technical issues and other hidden problems (like unlicensed music and lingering developer notes) that the PC version was temporarily pulled from sale. Zelnick touches on each of these issues in his interview without giving many details or assuming much responsibility, he just says there were “some defects” in the game but they’re sorted now.

Activision Blizzard play dumb regarding strike action

Activision Blizzard are obviously all over the news this week that’s to their history-making acquisition by Microsoft, but with all the speculation surrounding that it’s easy to forget that there’s still quite a bit going on at the studio in terms of lawsuits and collective action, but their plan is apparently to close their eyes and pretend everything is fine Activision Blizzard recently told the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a new filing that the company was not aware of any labour strikes or significant legal proceedings against the company.

• If you’re thinking “isn’t there a massive strike and a couple of lawsuits still going on?” you’re absolutely correct. There is still an active labour walkout at and in support of Raven Software and the recent layoffs at their QA department. There is of course also the pair of gender discrimination and harassment lawsuits currently ongoing at government agencies. Activision Blizzard’s filing reads "to the knowledge of the company, there are no pending activities or proceedings of any labor union, trade union, works council or any similar labor organization to organize any employees of the company or any of its Subsidiaries with regard to their employment with the company or any of its subsidiaries." Yikes.

Sony weigh in on Microsoft’s latest cash splash

Sticking with Activision Blizzard for the moment, one of the biggest lingering questions from Microsoft’s record-breaking $69m of Activision Blizzard is the same as one of the biggest questions hanging around after their then-record-breaking acquisition of ZeniMax: what about exclusives? Exclusive is pretty much a dirty word in the modern games industry and Microsoft’s apparent willingness to throw their money around has raised some concerns over what these acquisitions could mean for the future of some pretty huge franchises.

• It was one thing when we were talking about properties like Doom, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls but now there are franchises like Call of Duty and Diablo potentially on the exclusives table. Sony aren’t worried just yet, with a spokesperson telling The Wall Street Journal “we expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multi-platform.” So, things are safe for now thanks to contractual obligations, but what about when these contracts run their course?