Daily Briefing: Wednesday 21st April

Jeff Kaplan exits Blizzard

The Overwatch game director yesterday announced his departure from Blizzard after 19 years with the company. Blizzard's accompanying statement confirmed that Aaron Keller, Overwatch's assistant game director, will replace Kaplan as head of the project.

• Kaplan has been the public face of Overwatch for pretty much the game's entire lifespan - appearing in development updates, BlizzCon shows, and Overwatch League events - so news of his sudden departure is rather jarring. How many long-term veterans are left at Blizzard these days, anyway?

Call of Duty Warzone tops 100m players

Activision Blizzard made the claim via the official Call of Duty Twitter account, and the lofty figure continues what has been a strong year and a bit for the battle royale. It released last March and attracted 6m players in 24 hours, 50m players in its first month, and now 100m in a little over a year.

• The announcement also comes just one week after Respawn claimed that Apex Legends had cracked the 100m player mark, just over two years after its February 2019 launch. Activision Blizzard's claim is an effective one-up, and also puts Warzone in a position of significant strength.

Focus Home Interactive acquire Streum On Studio

The French studio are responsible for branded Warhammer 40,000 titles like Space Hulk: Deathwing and Necromunda: Hired Gun. A price hasn't been disclosed just yet, but the deal does involve a long-term executive incentive plan.

• Focus Home Interactive president Christophe Nobileau said in a statement that this acquisition of new talent will go toward the company's overall goal of creating a "strong, integrated group." Focus Home are currently in "active discussions" with a number of other studios, too.

Discord reportedly scrap Microsoft acquisition talks

It very much looks like the long-rumoured $10bn acquisition deal is dead in the water, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal that suggests Discord have now halted all buyout talks on the grounds that they're performing just fine and want to "stay independent at this time."

• Microsoft were just one of a number of Discord's potential buyers and, while neither party publicly discussed the prospect, the prevailing belief was that everything was all set to be wrapped up this month. Discord are apparently happy to tick along for now, but it'll be interesting to see whether talks reopen in the future.