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Activision confesses that it has used generative AI to develop Call of Duty

Activision has admitted to using generative artificial intelligence tools to develop assets within its popular franchise Call of Duty. This revelation, which came from a mandatory disclosure by Valve on the game’s Steam page, states: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some game assets.” This news comes amid growing discontent among players, who have suspected for months that AI-generated art pieces had been incorporated into the title. User complaints have intensified around elements such as the package […]

Activision has admitted to using generative artificial intelligence tools to develop assets within its popular Call of Duty franchise. This revelation, which came from a mandatory disclosure by Valve on the game’s Steam page, states: “Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some game assets”. This news comes amid growing discontent among players, who have suspected for months that AI-generated art pieces had been incorporated into the title.

User complaints have intensified regarding elements such as the Yokai’s Wrath package, released last year, which was criticized for its visual quality. Players have identified certain bugs and strange features in some images, such as a promotional loader with six-fingered zombies, raising doubts about the authenticity of these assets. Activision has not specifically indicated whether AI is used to create art in loading screens or in promotional calling cards, leaving an air of uncertainty among the gaming community.

One more of Activision Blizzard’s controversial measures

As concerns about the quality of AI-generated assets increase, the context of a recent restructuring at Activision-Blizzard, where 1,900 employees were laid off in 2023 adds to this. This raises questions about the future and the quality of the products the company can offer if it continues to bet on the use of automated technology instead of human talent.

Players are asking Activision for greater respect for their investment, especially in products that require an additional payment, arguing that AI-generated art pieces are not acceptable in this context. PC Gamer has contacted Activision for more details about the authenticity of the mentioned assets and is awaiting a response from the company.

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If you like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, we have great news for you

Recently, Tyshawn Jones, who was a playable skater in the remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 released in 2020, revealed on the Breakfast Show podcast that a new Tony Hawk game is on the way. Although this information comes from a source close to the project, Activision has not yet made an official announcement, which qualifies the statement as a possible rumor. There is a new Tony Hawk’s in development, but we don’t know which one Jones casually mentioned: “A new Tony Hawk is coming out. They are remastering one and it will be available soon.” His statement has increased speculation about the […]

Recently, Tyshawn Jones, who was a playable skater in the remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 released in 2020, revealed on the Breakfast Show podcast that a new Tony Hawk game is on the way. Although this information comes from a source close to the project, Activision has not yet made an official announcement, which qualifies the statement as a possible rumor.

There is a new Tony Hawk’s in development, but we don’t know which one

Jones casually mentioned: “A new Tony Hawk is coming out. They are remastering one and it will be available soon.” His statement has increased speculation about the upcoming release, especially after Tony Hawk hinted in September that he is working on a new project with Activision that “fans will really appreciate.”

However, it is unclear whether the new game will be Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 or a different title, such as Tony Hawk’s Underground or American Wasteland. Both options have generated excitement among fans of the franchise, which has been a staple of the sports genre since its inception in the 1990s.

The gaming community remains eager with the possibility of a new installment, something that could revitalize interest in the series, especially after the success of previous remasters. The popularity of the series and the affection that fans have for the early games suggest that Activision has a large market for this new project.

Despite the lack of official confirmation, the growing number of rumors and statements from key figures like Jones and Hawk have led many to eagerly anticipate what could be one of the most awaited returns in the world of sports video games. Time will tell whether it is a remastering of the classics or a new chapter in the legendary Tony Hawk saga.

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Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, shares his opinion on who the worst CEO in the industry is

In 2013, John Riccitiello resigned as CEO of Electronic Arts after a six-year period marked by challenges and controversies. During his tenure, the popularity of Activision’s Call of Duty franchise surpassed that of Battlefield, which contributed to the pressure on his leadership. Riccitiello made comments that were considered insensitive, such as suggesting that Battlefield players should pay to reload, which only worsened his image among fans. Bobby Kotick, the CEO that no one wants, says there are worse ones Recently, Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, […]

In 2013, John Riccitiello resigned as CEO of Electronic Arts after a six-year period marked by challenges and controversies. During his tenure, the popularity of Activision’s Call of Duty franchise surpassed that of Battlefield, which contributed to the pressure on his leadership. Riccitiello went on to make comments that were considered insensitive, such as suggesting that Battlefield players should pay to reload, which only worsened his image among fans.

Bobby Kotick, the CEO that no one wants, says there are worse

Recently, Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, shared his critical opinion about Riccitiello, calling him the worst CEO in the video game industry. In a joint appearance on the “Grit” podcast with Bing Gordon, former creative director of EA, Kotick revealed that there was concern within Activision about the possibility of Gordon taking control of EA. “We feared that Bing was going to run [EA]. And we would have paid for Riccitiello to stay as CEO forever,” he commented.

Kotick also recalled that there were multiple attempts at a merger between EA and Activision. According to him, EA tried to buy Activision several times and held discussions about mergers. However, EA ultimately rejected significant opportunities to acquire popular franchises like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Blizzard, which ended up in the hands of Activision.

Additionally, Kotick criticized the Warcraft movie, describing it as one of the worst he has seen and pointing out that it was a mistake for Blizzard to dedicate so much time and resources to this project. This perspective reflects a broader criticism of the strategic direction of some of the most influential companies in the industry at that time.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 receives a free trial amid bitter controversies

The resounding success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been overshadowed by a series of challenges currently facing Treyarch’s title, resulting in a notable loss of users. Activision has decided to act on this situation and has announced a free trial that will allow players to access the multiplayer and Zombies mode from February 6 to 10. This offer is aimed at PlayStation, Xbox, and PC users, and it is expected to help revitalize the game’s player base. During this trial period, participants will be able to enjoy […]

The resounding success of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been overshadowed by a series of challenges currently facing Treyarch’s title, resulting in a notable loss of users. Activision has decided to act on this situation and has announced a free trial that will allow players to access the multiplayer and Zombies mode from February 6 to 10. This offer is aimed at PlayStation, Xbox, and PC users, and is expected to help revitalize the game’s player base.

During this trial period, participants will be able to enjoy a selection of content from Season 2, including access to 10 multiplayer maps. Among them are the new maps Bounty and Dealership, as well as popular modes like Nuketown 24/7 and Stakeout 24/7. Additionally, the Zombies mode will include maps like The Tomb and Liberty Falls, giving players the opportunity to experience the latest game updates at no cost.

Many Very Serious Problems in a Game That Promised to Be Activision’s Swan Song

Despite these initiatives, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is not without its problems. Recently, more than 136,000 players have been banned due to the proliferation of hackers, which has caused frustration in the community. Additionally, criticisms of the skill-based matchmaking system (SBMM) have increased, and many users have complained that certain maps are unconvincing and that there are bugs in the menus. There have also been concerns regarding respawn issues and the lack of appeal in the game’s streaks.

With these concerns on the horizon, Activision’s free trial could be a key opportunity to revitalize interest in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and address the issues that have affected its performance in the competitive video game market.

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Call of Duty players are jumping ship. Activision offers a free trial of Black Ops 6

Despite its commercial success, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 faces several challenges that could affect the retention of its growing user base. Activision, aware of the player dropout in recent weeks, has announced a free trial of the game that will take place from February 6 to 10. This initiative will allow PlayStation, Xbox, and PC players to access the multiplayer mode and Zombies mode, as well as enjoy a selection of content from Season 2. / Multiplayer and Zombies modes to attract new players During this trial period, […]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 DOWNLOAD

Multiplayer and Zombie Modes to Attract New Players

During this trial period, players will be able to explore 10 multiplayer maps, including Bounty and Dealership, recently released with Season 2. Additionally, the event will include various game modes such as Nuketown 24/7, Stakeout 24/7, Team Deathmatch, Hardpoint, Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Execution Order. The Zombies Mode will also play a significant role, with specific maps like The Tomb and Liberty Falls available for participants.

However, the gaming community has expressed its frustration with a series of recurring issues within the game. One of the most sensitive topics is the proliferation of hackers, which has led Activision to ban more than 136,000 players from Black Ops 6 and Warzone. Although the company has expressed its commitment to maintaining a fair gaming environment, other issues such as menu bugs and problems with the respawn mechanics have contributed to user dissatisfaction.

The future of the title depends on Activision’s ability to address these issues and revitalize the gaming experience, which could be crucial to avoid further loss of players in the competitive world of multiplayer shooters.

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We still don't know what the next Call of Duty will be, but we do know its release date

Activision has not yet officially announced the next game in the renowned Call of Duty series, but it is expected to be released in October or November 2025. The expectation is that this new title will be a sequel to Black Ops II, set in the 2030s, and will continue the narrative of its predecessor, whose story took place in 2025. This year will mark the 20th consecutive anniversary of releases in the franchise, which has maintained a surprising regularity since 2005. It is likely to have a multiplatform beta. Rumors indicate that Call of Duty 2025 will feature a […]

Activision has not yet officially announced the next game in the renowned Call of Duty series, but it is expected to be released in October or November 2025. The expectation is that this new title will be a sequel to Black Ops II, set in the 2030s, and will continue the narrative of its predecessor, whose story was set in 2025. This year will mark the 20th consecutive anniversary of releases in the franchise, which has maintained a remarkable regularity since 2005.

It is likely to have a cross-platform beta

Rumors indicate that Call of Duty 2025 will feature a multiplayer beta prior to its release, likely scheduled for August 2025. This approach follows the trend set by previous titles in the series, and now that Microsoft owns Activision, the beta is expected to be conducted simultaneously on all platforms, including Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, with the possibility of an announcement related to Nintendo Switch 2.

As usual, pre-orders for Call of Duty 2025 cannot be made yet, but it is anticipated that they will open once the game is officially announced. Activision has kept both the plot details and development under wraps, although it is rumored that the game will continue the tradition of complex plots and political twists that characterize the Black Ops series.

Additionally, Call of Duty 2025 is expected to be available on Game Pass from its launch, just like its predecessor Black Ops 6. The series continues to use a proprietary game engine that has been adopted for all recent main installments, suggesting continuity in quality and gaming experience.

Although many details remain in the realm of speculation, the gaming community eagerly awaits official news confirming the direction this anticipated new chapter in the Call of Duty story will take.

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If you like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Overwatch has good news for you

Overwatch 2 is a real roller coaster. Despite Blizzard making many good decisions regarding the game, the number of bad decisions it carries makes it very difficult for it to take off. But that doesn’t take away from it being a game worth returning to and seeing what it’s doing. Especially when it offers us such interesting crossovers as the latest one in 2024. Activision and Blizzard have announced that Overwatch 2 will have a crossover with Avatar: The Last Airbender. With five heroes available, the most notable is Zenyatta as […]

Activision and Blizzard have announced that Overwatch 2 will have a crossover with Avatar: The Last Airbender. With five heroes available, the most notable are Zenyatta as Aang and Mei as Katara, whose skins will also be free. To top it off, Genji will have a Zuko skin, Kiriko a Suki skin, and Orisa an Appa skin.

An Avatar Christmas

All this will take place around an event from which we can expect some more news, of which they have not given us more details. But all this can be unlocked between December 17 and 30. And if you are a main Zenyatta, and we know you are, how are you going to resist an Ang skin, which we know is your favorite Avatar?

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Overwatch 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the beloved online multiplayer first-person action and shooting video game, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Set just after the most important historical event in Overwatch lore, Overwatch 2 brings new heroes, maps, and PvP modes, which it will share with the first version so that players of both games can benefit from them and even face each other even if on different servers.

Activision gets serious: it has banned more than 19,000 players from Call of Duty competitive play

Call of Duty has always had a problem with cheaters. All online games have them. But due to the game’s popularity, in Call of Duty it has always been particularly visible and prominent. Something that Activision has taken very seriously. Demonstrating it now with some very specific figures: they have banned 19,000 players in one week. Why? Because that is the number of players who were cheating in the newly opened ranked queues. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 opened its ranked queue, or competitive play, on November 20th. For […]

Call of Duty has always had a problem with cheaters. All online games do. But due to the game’s popularity, it has always been particularly visible and prominent in Call of Duty. This is something Activision has taken very seriously. They are now demonstrating it with very specific figures: they have banned 19,000 players in one week. Why? Because that is the number of players who were cheating in the newly opened ranked queues.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 opened its ranked queue, or competitive play, on November 20th. To access it, you must have previously won 50 online matches. This serves as a filter: you need to have a commitment to the game and a certain level of skill to play with those who want to compete. But none of that has been enough to prevent thousands of people from trying to cheat in the game during the first week. Nor has Activision managed to stop them from continuing to do so.

As mentioned on their Twitter account, around 19,000 players have been banned since they opened the ranked queue. This has been thanks to the sweeps they conduct every hour, looking for potential cheaters, using AI to identify those players who are cheating.

A lot of technique to avoid cheaters

How is this possible? Thanks to the 50 online matches required to access ranked. This gives them a match history that, along with tools to monitor past matches, makes it easy for them to identify cheaters. That, combined with tools that allow them to identify players using VPNs to jump between servers and players who intentionally do not play the game to gain more experience, is allowing them to efficiently sweep cheaters from the game. Or at least it seems so.

These massive bans in the past have been at the expense of some innocent players. Especially those who have special needs, such as the disabled. That’s why it will be necessary to see if it doesn’t end up causing the same problems. But at least for now, Activision is doing a good job of keeping Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 free of any cheaters.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 DOWNLOAD

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a highly anticipated action game that immerses players in a world of espionage and high-stakes heists. Set in the tumultuous 90s, the narrative echoes other iterations of the iconic Call of Duty: Black Ops series, but with deeper spy elements and political intrigue.

Not only has Black Ops 6 not lost sales because of Game Pass: It has performed better than ever

Call of Duty has finally arrived on Game Pass. And that has raised many questions. The most pressing one for many has been, will it continue to sell as well? After all, Game Pass goes against game sales. Why buy a game when you already pay for Game Pass? But Microsoft always says that people buy more games thanks to their service. Something many studios disagree with. So, what happened with the latest installment of the franchise, Black Ops 6? Well, apparently, it has. It has worked great. It has worked great… for Activision […]

Call of Duty has finally arrived on Game Pass, and that has raised many questions. The most pressing for many has been, will it continue to sell as well? After all, Game Pass goes against game sales. Why buy a game when you already pay for Game Pass? But Microsoft always says that people buy more games thanks to their service, which many studios have disagreed with. So, what happened with the latest installment of the franchise, Black Ops 6? Well, apparently, it has worked great.

It has worked great… for Activision Blizzard, at least

According to comments from Activision, Black Ops 6 is the biggest Call of Duty in history. But there’s a catch. It is the Call of Duty that has had the most players during its launch month. In addition, it has had the most hours played, and the most matches played during that same month.

Matt Piscatella, executive director of the video game research firm Circana, states that the only way to define the engagement numbers of Black Ops 6 is as “bonkers.” Strangely, youthful choices for a mature man in a professional setting seems to have been a great launch, at least for Activision. Because when we move from player numbers, the effects of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are much more nuanced.

As Piscatella himself commented last week, the effect of Black Ops 6 in other areas has been much less spectacular. Subscriptions have indeed increased, but not dramatically. Game sales on PlayStation have decreased, but it has not resulted in massive cannibalization. Furthermore, it does not seem to have significantly affected console sales. From this, it can be inferred that those who have a PC or both consoles have reasons to acquire Game Pass, but those who have PlayStation do not see reasons in Call of Duty to switch to Xbox.

Otherwise, the game’s sales have been modest. To put it kindly. Being 5% higher than last year’s launch, Modern Warfare 3, they are still 28% lower than the 2022 launch, Modern Warfare 2. Something that might be offset by moves in Game Pass. But it shows that, although undoubtedly a success in terms of player numbers, the move still has to prove to be a success in economic terms.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 DOWNLOAD

The Cold War pitted the United States against the former USSR in the second half of the 20th century in conflicts that took place in various countries, featuring factions funded and/or manipulated by one or the other superpower. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, you will experience these and many other wars in first person.

The start date for the first season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been leaked

Few games are going to make more of an impact for the rest of the year than Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. If there is even one that will. Even with just days left until its release, fans are climbing the walls for every new piece of information. We know. We see you. We feel the same way. And that’s why it’s paradoxical that, even with so little time left, some relevant details are still leaking in the most ridiculous ways possible. The pizza chain Little Caesar has an offer for its customers in the US, Canada, and Mexico for the […]

Few games are going to make more of an impact for the rest of the year than Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. If there is even one that will do so. Even with just days left until its release, fans are already climbing the walls for every new snippet of information. We know. We see you. We feel the same. And that’s why it’s paradoxical that, even with so little time left, some relevant details continue to leak in the most ridiculous ways possible.

The pizza chain Little Caesar has an offer for its customers in the US, Canada, and Mexico through which they can win prizes for Black Ops 6. So far, there’s nothing unusual. What perhaps should have been better thought out by Little Caesar was sending an email now that literally stated that “the Battle Pass will be sent to your Activision account at the start of season 1 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on November 14”. Thus revealing the release date of the game’s online first season.

In this way, it is confirmed that we will still have to wait three weeks for the first season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone. This should give us more than enough time to complete the campaign, which, as Activision has emphasized, will be much longer than usual this time.

Perhaps that’s why, from Activision, they haven’t wanted to reveal too much about the campaign for now. We know it will take place during the Gulf War and will be centered on the CIA, so we can expect to be involved in covert missions that occurred during that time. This will likely touch on the use of chemical weapons and the controversial “Gulf Syndrome,” a disease now semi-forgotten, but which was said to affect veterans who fought in the Gulf War and was never proven to exist.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be released next Friday, October 25th. It will be available at launch for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. Additionally, it will be the first Call of Duty to be available at launch for Game Pass.

Call of Duty: Black Ops DOWNLOAD

The Cold War pitted the United States against the former USSR in the second half of the 20th century in conflicts that occurred in various countries, featuring factions funded and/or manipulated by one or the other superpower. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, you will experience these and many other wars in first person.