Latest news with #MikeYbarra
Scottish Sun
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Smash-hit Call of Duty game pulled offline for millions after shock X-rated pop-ups that cause your machine to crash
It comes amid big job cuts at publisher Activision CALL OF DIRTY Smash-hit Call of Duty game pulled offline for millions after shock X-rated pop-ups that cause your machine to crash Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) GAMERS were left red-faced after a popular Call Of Duty title was reportedly hit by a hack causing porn to bombard people's screens. Players of Call Of Duty: WWII claim a number of strange and embarrassing glitches have flashed up on the Xbox PC version. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Gamers have shared screenshots of the apparent hack Credit: 2 Call of Duty: WWII has is one of the more popular titles in the franchise Credit: Activision This includes gay pornography, insulting messages popping up in the notepad app and loading malware on their machine, according to PCGamer. "I JUST GOT HACKED PLAYING WW2! EVERYONE DO NOT PLAY WW2 ON GAMEPASS!" one user wrote on X. "Someone is trolling gamers with Notepad pop ups, PC shutdowns, and gay pornography," another claimed. Ethical hacker group VX-Underground also noticed that affected PCs have had their background bizarrely changed to "show a prominent lawyer who Activision hired to prosecute video game cheaters". Call of Duty publisher Activision has taken the game offline but not confirmed whether it's related to alleged hacks. The Sun approached Activision for comment and was referred a company post on X. "Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue," the firm tweeted. Fortunately, it appears that hackers are more interested in messing with people than trying to steal bank details. Most read in Gaming GAME OVER PlayStation game mysteriously VANISHES from consoles without warning "The concern in this particular case is that this means an attacker is capable of deploying information stealer malware, a RAT (remote administration tool), or ransomware," VX-Underground added. LG TVs now play Xbox games even without any console after upgrade "Thankfully, it appears this attacker is primarily interested in memeing and f**ing with people." Call Of Duty: WWII was released back in November 2017 and a commercial success, netting $500million / £368million in revenue within three days of launching. The issue comes just days after Activision Blizzard owner Microsoft announced huge job cuts. Some 1,900 people working for Activision and Xbox have been laid off, around 8 percent of the Microsoft's gaming division overall. Mike Ybarra, who has served as Blizzard's president since 2022, has also decided to leave over the move. Across all of Microsoft, more than 9,000 jobs have been cut globally.
The Irish Sun
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Smash-hit Call of Duty game pulled offline for millions after shock X-rated pop-ups that cause your machine to crash
GAMERS were left red-faced after a popular Call Of Duty title was reportedly hit by a hack causing porn to bombard people's screens. Players of Call Of Duty: WWII claim a number of strange and embarrassing glitches have flashed up on the Xbox PC version. Advertisement 2 Gamers have shared screenshots of the apparent hack Credit: 2 Call of Duty: WWII has is one of the more popular titles in the franchise Credit: Activision This includes gay pornography, insulting messages popping up in the notepad app and loading malware on their machine, according to "I JUST GOT HACKED PLAYING WW2! EVERYONE DO NOT PLAY WW2 ON GAMEPASS!" one user wrote on X. "Someone is trolling gamers with Notepad pop ups, PC shutdowns, and gay pornography," another claimed. Ethical hacker group VX-Underground also noticed that affected PCs have had their background bizarrely changed to "show a prominent lawyer who Activision hired to prosecute video game cheaters". Advertisement Read more about Xbox Call of Duty publisher Activision has taken the game offline but not confirmed whether it's related to alleged hacks. The Sun approached Activision for comment and was referred a company post on X. "Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue," the firm tweeted. Fortunately, it appears that hackers are more interested in messing with people than trying to steal bank details. Advertisement Most read in Gaming "The concern in this particular case is that this means an attacker is capable of deploying information stealer malware, a RAT (remote administration tool), or ransomware," VX-Underground added. LG TVs now play Xbox games even without any console after upgrade "Thankfully, it appears this attacker is primarily interested in memeing and f**ing with people." Call Of Duty: WWII was released back in November 2017 and a commercial success, netting $500million / £368million in revenue within three days of launching. The issue comes just days after Activision Blizzard owner Microsoft announced huge job cuts. Advertisement Some 1,900 people working for Activision and Xbox have been laid off, around 8 percent of the Microsoft's gaming division overall. Mike Ybarra, who has served as Blizzard's president since 2022, has also decided to leave over the move. Across all of Microsoft, more than 9,000 jobs have been cut globally. Call of Duty cheating – what will get you banned? Here's what you need to know... There are plenty of ways to cheat on Call of Duty Perhaps the most common hack is an aimbot – a piece of software that aims and targets enemies automatically for you Activision also explicitly forbids the use of wallhacks, which modifies the properties of walls For instance, wallhacking software could allow you to see enemies through walls Typically using glitches to escape outside the normal bounds of the map is also considered to be cheating Generally it's a case of using common sense: don't do anything that gives you an advantage that wouldn't have been intended by developers Also, cheating on a sophisticated game like Call of Duty can be difficult – so if you're cheating, it's unlikely to have been an accident
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
"Rockstar is controlled by no one, including their publisher": Ex-Blizzard boss says Borderlands 4 "doesn't matter" in response to fans trying to narrow the GTA 6 release window down
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. People have been speculating about when Grand Theft Auto 6 will arrive this year, and Borderlands 4's September launch date has led some to believe we've narrowed the window down, as it likely won't clash with another game from the same publisher. Mike Ybarra, ex-Blizzard president, says this doesn't matter. It's been reported that publishers are waiting for Rockstar to announce when GTA 6 will launch before committing to their own games' release dates. This is because no one wants to compete with it. We only have so much money, we can't buy every game. If GTA 6 really is $100, people might not be able to buy another game for a while. So, that's the worry everyone else has, but Rockstar likely isn't phased by other games. "GTA 6 is the king," Ybarra tweets. "They don't care who announces what. Everyone will move their release out of the way whenever they announce the ship date for GTA 6. It is really the only game that has the power to do this today." One commenter replies that "it's advantageous for the publisher of both Borderlands 4 and GTA to space it out," Ybarra's response is definitive. "Borderlands 4 doesn't matter. Rockstar is controlled by no one, including their publisher." Take-Two publishes both GTA and Borderlands, so it wouldn't make any sense for the company to have two of its big games competing for attention in the same month, or even the same quarter, really. But, as Ybarra says, Rockstar is controlled by no one. GTA Online is an absolute money printing machine, so I wouldn't be surprised if it could do whatever it wanted without consequence. All this is to say, don't take news of Borderland 4's launch date as a confirmation GTA 6 won't launch around the same time. We won't know when GTA 6 is coming until Rockstar tells us, and even then, it could change its mind if it decides the game needs more time in the oven, or if it wants to bring the release forward. While we wait, check out our ranking of the best GTA games you can play right now.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former Blizzard boss says "GTA 6 is king" and "everyone will move their release" when it gets a launch date: "It is really the only game that has the power to do this today"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra reckons Rockstar has the singular privilege of being able to release GTA 6 whenever it wants because every other publisher will move their releases around to avoid its shadow. Publishers regularly shift around release dates to avoid clashing with other big releases, but Ybarra says GTA 6 is such a behemoth that Rockstar isn't one bit concerned about other games stealing the spotlight. In response to an IGN article speculating about GTA 6's potential release date in the context of Borderlands 4's recently announced September 23 launch, Ybarra said: "GTA6 is the king. They don't care who announces what. Everyone will move their release out of the way whenever they announce the ship date for GTA6. It is really the only game that has the power to do this today." Ybarra doubled down in response to a tweet arguing it would be advantageous for both Rockstar and Gearbox to avoid releasing games too close to each other. "[Borderlands 4] doesn't matter," he said. "[Rockstar] is controlled by no one, including their publisher." Adding to that, Ybarra said "in some ways [Borderlands] needs to be 6+ months away from it or it's dead." Jeez, Borderlands 4 is catching some serious strays. GTA 6 has yet to set a firm release date, but Rockstar parent company Take-Two recently assured fans it's still on track to launch this Fall despite the ever-present risk of "slippage." Ybarra agreed with a commenter that an October release date is likely and predicted a PC port around June to "give it space." Rockstar Games seeks perfection in everything they do": Take-Two boss is confident in GTA 6, but "our competitors are not asleep."
