It owns some of the biggest franchises in the gaming world, yet over the years Activision has received its fair share of flak over the years, stemming from studios closures and executive decisions - yet according to the company, those perceptions are unfounded.
"It's interesting, before our merger with Blizzard, becoming the number one publisher from a revenue perspective, we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two," reasoned Activision's head of developer relations Dan Winters in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz.
"As soon as we become the number one and we develop broader perspectives, perceptions started to change a little bit."
He dismisses the predatory persona that the company has been perceived to have assumed.
"We've worked very hard, and continue to do so, to let people know that, you know, we're the same guys, we really are. We haven't changed! I'm the same guy that I was before the merger, as are most of us. We're the same organisation. We haven't gone out and hired 3000 people. Our ability to scale and move quickly is the same as it was before. We're not this big, monolithic empire that's making decisions in a dark room, we're still very collaborative. We still have the same healthy respect and appreciation for talent that we ever did."