Former World of Warcraft developer claims he was fired after adding dialogue about corporate greed

A former Blizzard Entertainment designer and writer claims he was fired after writing dialogue satirizing corporate greed in World of Warcraft (WoW), which management apparently didn't find amusing.

The details:

• Back in March, a new NPC called the Loot Specialist was added in a WoW patch that dropped loot if you could defeat them before they ran away. The goblins are a part of the in-game Venture Company faction, a trade cartel that has been used to poke fun at corporate issues since the beginning of the game’s life. Former designer Eric Covington has revealed that he was responsible for some of the goblins' dialogue, which includes phrases like "Another record quarter for revenue!" and "No profit sharing!”
• According to Covington, Blizzard's management was not fond of the lines, which he claims led to his dismissal after nine years with the company. He claimed that "someone looked at an innocuous joke and saw a reflection," which isn't surprising given that the phrases "Time to go back to the office!" and "Let's call this a cost-of-living adjustment!" sound like they could refer to the company's heavily criticized "return to office plan" from February.
• Interestingly, the game's marketing team appears to have found humor in the character, posting videos highlighting some of the best quotes from it even after Covington was fired from the studio. These posts were later removed after he "pointed out the hypocrisy." Covington stated that he would have "willingly and understandably helped" replace the lines in a hotfix at the time and "appealed them to reconsider their actions" in an email following his termination, citing the social media posts as an example of his firing being seemingly unjustified.

More Activision Blizzard news:

• Activision Blizzard was fined just €5,000 for failing to notify the European ratings board PEGI about the addition of loot boxes in Diablo Immortal. It was also ordered that the publisher update its promotional material and store pages to mention the inclusion of the controversial system.
• The State Administration for Market Regulation in China has approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The decision comes just a few weeks after the European Commission approved the deal and a month after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked it.