The backlash against Activision has steadily been growing after Amazon in France posted what appeared to be a sale for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The resulting PR actions by Activision have caused many to ask if the publisher actively blacklists media outlets, as it has been accused of doing. The publisher has made it clear that the situation is simply a misunderstanding, and that there is no practice of ‘blacklisting’ within the publishing giant.
"Activision doesn't blacklist journalists," said a PR firm that works on behalf of Activision to GamesBeat. "We believe this was a misunderstanding and are working towards a resolution."
Activision is currently settling a dispute between itself and a European blog, GameBlog. The journalists at the site now claim that they were blacklisted by Activision, and were told that their advertising and journalist invites to events were being cancelled. Site owner Grégory Szriftgiser claims that Activision representatives made it clear that “the relationship was to be severed, all advertisement plans cancelled, games not sent and invitations to later events cancelled as well.”
Szriftgiser spoke with Kotaku, saying that such actions would not prevent him from telling readers about what was going on. "I explained that if this was their decision indeed, we had to inform our readers of it, and would do so later in the day."
GameBlog maintains that communications between the two groups has been cordial, and that talks are currently ongoing.
While the PR firm maintains that this dispute is simply a misunderstanding at this point, many believe that the practice of blacklisting is evident within publisher/PR/media business relationships.
