The road following the surprising split between Activision and Bungie is already encountering its first speed bumps. Company investors are investigating the split, citing possible fraudulent activity.
Pomerantz LLP are investigating the split (via Kitguru) of the longtime partnership. Activision at first didn’t seem fazed by the move, saying that the split wouldn’t affect its business numbers. However, stock has fallen around 10 percent since the announcement last week, causing concern for investors.
The gaming world was shocked when Bungie announced last Thursday that they would be acquiring publishing rights for Destiny 2 back from Activision, effectively splitting up the ten-year partnership agreement the two had dating back to 2010.
“We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny,” Bungie wrote in a statement. “Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects.”
The news comes as Activision has been more aggressive with its developers in terms of bottom-line figures, telling them to slash costs at every opportunity. This may be because of the overwhelming success of Overwatch, which has caused Activision to give its other development teams the cold shoulder. Some people within Blizzard see Activision’s increasing involvement a worrying sign of overreach.
The split doesn’t seem to be a problem within the Activision business hierarchy, specifically Activision Blizzard’s new CFO Dennis Durkin, who is getting a huge bonus of around $15 million to take the job despite Activision’s need to cut costs. This hire follows after previous CFO Spencer Neumann was fired after it was found out that he was negotiating with Netflix.
Activision’s stock has bounced back up a bit since the original announcement, but it is still not close to what it was before the split.
