Tag: 2018

In 2018, Activision Blizzard Got $228 Million From Taxpayers For Existing


If you live in the United States and thought you could get away with not giving Activision money simply by not buying their products, you’re in for a nasty surprise.

ITEP, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, posted a list of 60 companies avoiding all federal income taxes in 2018.

“For decades, profitable Fortune 500 companies have manipulated the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits. This ITEP report provides the first comprehensive look at how corporate tax changes under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affect the scale of corporate tax avoidance. The report finds that in 2018, 60 of America’s biggest corporations zeroed out their federal income taxes on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income. Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes at the 21 percent statutory corporate tax rate, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion.”

Activision Blizzard notably started out 2019 with the best results in company history, which they celebrated by firing nearly a thousand workers. While celebrating their major financial success and putting hundreds of people out of work, Activision also wound up claiming a -51% effective tax rate. Yes, Activision got $228 million from US taxpayers simply for existing.

We should all get a ride on Bobby Kotick’s private plane. We helped pay for it after all.

Source: ITEP

Lods of Emone: Jagex Posts Record Financial Success


RuneScape is doing just fine, thank you.

This week Jagex released their 2018 financials and boasted a 9.3% increase in revenue to £92.8 million. 2018 saw RuneScape reaching its highest membership total ever with Old School RuneScape launching on mobile and seeing over five million downloads.

CEO Phil Mansell noted:

“This lets us accelerate Jagex’s transformation; we have strengthened our leadership team and will continue to build on the company’s talent base, we are funding new game development, building out our third-party live game publishing, investing in massive publishing platform upgrades, whilst continuing to expand our live RuneScape games.”

The last year has seen Jagex increase its team by more than 100 people with investments in research and development boosted by 69%. 2018 also marked the launch of the Jagex Partners Initiative which aims to deliver operational services tailored toward third party studios.

Source: Jagex Press Release

Amazon Reveals 2018 Best Selling Games


It’s that time of the year, when retail stores start posting their best selling games from the prior year. Amazon has posted the top selling products in the video game category. The top 10 is mostly comprised of Playstation Plus cards and Playstation cash cards, with Nintendo Switch products making up the bulk of the rest. As for the games themselves, the Nintendo Switch sold like gangbusters and makes up a very large portion of the top 50 titles.

Here is the list of video games in the top 50.

  • #1: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
  • #14: Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4)
  • #15: Super Mario Party (Switch)
  • #19: Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4)
  • #23: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
  • #24: Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
  • #25: Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu (Switch)
  • #27: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (PS4)
  • #28: God of War (PS4)
  • #30: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
  • #37: Red Dead Redemption 2 (XBO)
  • #39: Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee (Switch)
  • #47: Mario Tennis Aces (Switch)
  • #48: Minecraft (Switch)
  • #49: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch)
  • #50: Spyro Reignited Trilogy (PS4)

You can check out the entire list for yourself here.

Funcom Q3 2018 Report: Highest Quarterly Earnings In Company History


Funcom yesterday posted its third quarter earnings for 2018, and the results are rather positive. Third quarter earnings amounted to $7.5 million, a 25% increase over last year, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization amounted to $4.6 million. The developer happily notes that not only has cash flow beaten the full year’s numbers for last year, which was the highest in Funcom histroy, but that the company is now free of interest-bearing debt for the first time since 2009 and holds a cash balance of $20.9 million.

On the road ahead, Funcom has six titles in its lineup including Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Petroglyph’s Conan game set for the second quarter 2019, Rock Pocket’s Funcom IP game set for Halloween 2019, a cooperative shooter from Funcom North Carolina, a single-player Conan game from Funcom Oslo, and an open-world multiplayer game also from Funcom Oslo. It appears that Petroglyph’s Conan game will release on PC while Rock Pocket’s title is set for PC, Xbox, and Playstation. Funcom NC’s title utilizes a premium business model while both of Funcom Oslo’s titles are in pre-production stages.

Conan Exiles continues to be a strong seller for Funcom.

(Source: Funcom)

Jagex Lays Out the Future Of RuneScape/Old School


RuneFest 2017 at Battersea Evolution – David Portass/iEventMedia

Runefest has come and gone, and Jagex has laid out the plans for the next year of content in both variations of their popular MMORPG.

Attendees were able to get their hands on RuneScape mobile to test the game out this weekend. While compatibility information will be rolling out within the next couple of months, Old School RuneScape is expected to hit mobile devices this winter with RuneScape 3 coming in 2018. On a more current front, RuneScape 3 will be seeing a PvE update in October called Dimension of the Damned. Adventurers will travel to another dimension where all of RuneScape has died, and battle a zombie hoard in return for unique cosmetics, achievements, and other rewards.

The entire list of RuneScape updates coming is massive, and since the game updates weekly this just covers some of the major stuff.

“Every year it gets more and more difficult to top the previous RuneFest, but I think with 2017’s convention we’ve managed to do it. We were thrilled to see so many of our hardcore players try out both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape on mobile devices for the very first time, as well as experience the tension of a Deadman Invitational live at RuneFest,” said Mark Ogilvie, Design Director, RuneScape. “Exciting new content, together with new ways to play, will delight and entice players to the world of Gielinor like never before, and in addition to our millions of active players we’ll be here ready to welcome our old friends back from being ‘AFK’.”

Over on the Old School side, players can expect to see a new 5-man raid called Theatre of Blood coming in June 2018. For questers, January 2018 will see the launch of Dragon Slayer II, a brand new Grandmaster quest. The fall Deadman tournament came to a close with one player (5PLUS50K12) walking away with the grand total of twenty thousand dollars. An additional ten grand was donated to Make a Wish by the winners of the team Deadman tournament, #TeamLUL.

The livestream of upcoming Old School updates can be found below.