The main events of the weekend (March 15-16)

The former head of Activision Blizzard has filed a lawsuit against Kotaku and Gizmodo, Steam’s peak online users have exceeded 41 million, and People Can Fly will no longer publish VR games. Here's a roundup of the key events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Counter-Strike 2

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick filed a lawsuit against two gaming publications: Kotaku and Gizmodo. He accused the media of defamation. The dispute arose from articles written in the spring of 2024 concerning rumors about Kotick's interest in buying TikTok. In addition to the main topic, journalists mentioned a long-standing scandal involving discrimination and harassment at Activision Blizzard, listing several employee complaints. The lawsuit claims that Kotaku and Gizmodo "went to great lengths to insert false accusations into their articles that were refuted by numerous investigations, [...] doing so solely with malicious intent to harm Kotick." Kotick's representatives repeatedly requested that the publications edit the articles, and some changes were indeed made, but the businessman was still not satisfied. Kotick is now seeking compensation, with the amount to be determined by the court.
People Can Fly announced it is phasing out its VR game publishing operations. The company explained that VR platform owners have been investing less in new VR games, making it unprofitable for them to continue in this sector. The last VR game published by People Can Fly will be Project Bison, scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2025. Previously, People Can Fly released VR titles such as Bulletstorm VR and Green Hell VR.
In a separate announcement, People Can Fly reported a deal with Sony to develop a prototype of a new game code-named Project Delta. Details of the agreement have not been disclosed, and the only known information is that the game will be based on a Sony-owned franchise.
Steam continues to increase its online presence. According to SteamDB, on Sunday, March 16, the number of concurrent users on the platform reached a record high of 41,239,880, with 13.19 million actively playing games. This new record coincided with Steam’s spring sale. The previous record was 40,270,997, set just two weeks ago.
Counter-Strike 2 also set a new peak online record, attracting 1,824,989 players simultaneously on Steam. Notably, this is the highest number in the history of both Counter-Strike 2 and its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Prior to this weekend, the record was 1,818,773 players.