BitSnark

Bit of a strange one this in someways. Many news outlets are picking up on the story that Activision-Blizzard (c’mon folks can’t you think of a better merged company name than that?) are withdrawing their membership from the ESA body and also their attendance at the annual E3 event, where everyone gets to show off all their new, shiny games and stuff.

Whilst I can sort of understand it from the Blizzard point of view – they already have their own trade shows (Blizzcon etc..), with Activision it strikes me as just plain odd, as they really need to get their wares out on the big stage and show them off to everyone – especially in the case of their wavering Tony Hawk’s franchise, which had it’s tail soundly kicked last year both commercially and critically, by EA’s upstart skate sim Skate.

Still, there’s more time for Activision-Blizzard to announce a seperate show for the Activision side of things, but it does beg the question – will other publishers follow?