Activision abandons key Call of Duty trademark after Major League Baseball objects
Plus: An updated sales figure for… Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Call of Duty publisher Activision has blinked in a trademark dispute with Major League Baseball, after the sports league objected to the game-maker using “World Series” in conjunction with a CoD esports tournament that’s been running since 2021.
On Monday, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (aka the leadership team that runs MLB) officially filed a notice with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to oppose Activision’s long-running attempt to trademark the term “World Series of Warzone.”
That same day, Activision gave up, filing an express notice to the USPTO that it would abandon the trademark.
The actions by both organizations have not been previously reported.
The “World Series of Warzone” is the name of Activision’s premiere esports tournament for its free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone. The company has run World Series of Warzone events since 2021. The most recent iteration offered a prize pool of $1 million and had its global finals last October.
Trademark applications can be disputed publicly within a specific timeframe. For “World Series of Warzone,” that window opened in the summer of 2025. Last September, the MLB commissioner’s office signaled to the USPTO that they might oppose Activision’s trademark. They formally did so on Monday.
The baseball organization said in its filing this week that World Series of Warzone is “likely to be confused” with their own trademarks to terms such as World Series, College World Series, and World Series 2000.
The commissioner’s office noted the longevity of its own “World Series” trademarks as well as the famous status of “World Series,” which has been in “use for well over a century to identify the iconic and most highly anticipated baseball events in the world.”
The commissioner’s office didn’t just object to the World Series part of World Series of Warzone. Their filing also complains about the “zone” part:
The word “zone” in Applicant’s Mark is frequently used to refer to and identify designated areas, sections or spaces associated with Opposer’s sporting events, and a strike “zone” is the area over home plate where a pitch must pass to be called a strike.
This week’s abandonment filing from Activision suggests the Microsoft-owned company may not attempt to use the “World Series” labeling for future Warzone tournaments.
Call of Duty’s next esports tournament is labeled the Resurgence Series and kicked off earlier this month. It involves competition in Resurgence, a mode within CoD: Warzone.
Reps for the MLB office did not reply to a request for comment, nor did Activision comment despite multiple requests from Game File.
Item 2: Surprise GTA sales update
A trademark complaint (yes, another one!) filed earlier this month by Grand Theft Auto publisher Take Two Interactive offers a new sales figure for an old GTA.
This one emerges from, of all things, Take Two’s efforts to block a company called DT Global Investment Holdings from trademarking the term “Vice City Subs” for a sandwich and/or restaurant business.
In a filing attesting to its own claims to the term “Vice City,” Take Two lawyers explain the history and relevance of the term in Rockstar’s successful GTA series.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the gaming giant’s lawyers write, “has sold over seven million copies worldwide” since its 2006 release.
Take Two had previously pegged Vice City Stories’ sales at 4.5 million copies, back in 2008.
This might be the only “Vice City”-related gaming news of 2026 that’s not about this year’s hotly anticipated GTA VI, which is also set in and around developer Rockstar Games’ fictional version of Miami.
It nonetheless appears to be news. And, no, the lawyers did not mention GTA VI at all.
Back in 2008, Take Two also had announced that 2002’s Grand Theft Auto Vice City had sold 17.5 million copies. Take Two’s lawyers used that same 17.5 million figure in this month’s Vice City Subs trademark complaint.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was a spin-off open-world crime game originally released for Sony’s PlayStation Portable.
Weird fact: GTA:VCS was the first game in the series to feature someone playing themselves. Specifically, musician Phil Collins plays a supporting role, and there’s even a mission set during a concert performance of “In The Air Tonight.” (In 2006, I interviewed Collins about this for MTV News, but, sadly, I can’t find a copy online.)
Item 3: In brief…
🍎 New York State is suing Valve, alleging that lootboxes in the Steam operator’s most popular first-party games (such as Counter-Strike 2) constitute illegal gambling.
The state faces an “uphill battle,” according to legal experts interviewed by Ars Technica. One of the potentially tricky arguments: establishing whether the outcome of opening a lootbox matches the range of experiences when gambling—in that there are outcomes that provide financial benefit and those that do not.
Another issue: Whether Valve can be liable if it’s not directly letting people turn the digital contents obtained from the lootboxes into money.
🚫 Metacritic is banning AI-written game reviews after one for Resident Evil: Requiem appeared to slip through, Kotaku reports.
Read the review in question for yourself.
Noted Kotaku: “The byline appears to have no prior online history and the profile image url is titled ‘ChatGPT-Image-Oct-20-2025-11_57_34-AM-300×300.png.’”
👀 Amazon continues to pull back from its video game efforts, dropping plans to publish a racing game from Maverick, a start-up helmed by the former creative director of Forza Horizon. The Game Business had the scoop. (Maverick said it is in “active dialogue with partners” for new backing.)
Amazon has also announced the cancellation of battle royale King of Meat, less than six months since its release, after it failed to attract many players.
This follows major layoffs in Amazon’s gaming division last year, the end of new content development for its once-thriving New World massively multiplayer online game, the departure of the executive in charge of Amazon Game Studios and the sale of the free-to-play strategy game March of Giants to Ubisoft.
Amazon is still the publisher of record for two upcoming Tomb Raider games. (Amazon is also producing an upcoming live-action Tomb Raider TV show.)
🟥 Netflix has dropped its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and streaming divisions, which would have included its gaming studios (Rocksteady, TT Games, Netherrealm, Avalanche).
Instead, Paramount/Skydance is the likely new owner, should its latest bid clear regulatory hurdles.
🇻🇳 Vietnam plans to train 5,000 developers to make video games about the country’s history, VN Express International reports.
⚡️ The Pokémon Company celebrated the franchise’s 30th anniversary today with the tease of a major new pair of Pokémon games, Pokémon Wind and Pokémon Waves that appear to constitute the 10th major generation of the mainline games in the franchise.
The games are slated for release on Switch 2 in 2027 and will likely be some of the biggest games of next year. (Info about Pokémon games called Wind and Waves leaked in 2024. Polygon provides the context.)
Also announced: an April release window for the Switch version of the fighting game Pokémon Champions, with a mobile release to follow; and a $70 mini Game Boy replica that’s actually a music player—it ships with 45 cartridges that each play a classic Pokémon song.
This week’s most unusual headline: “Valve’s former economist, now a member of parliament in Greece, is being put on trial for promoting drug use because he admitted to taking ecstasy 36 years ago” [PC Gamer]
Item 4: The week ahead
Monday, March 2
World Of Warcraft: Midnight (PC) is released.
Tuesday, March 3
Open-world horse messenger game The Legend of Khiimori (PC) is released into early access.
Esoteric Ebb (PC) is released.
Thursday, March 5
Pokémon Pokopia (Switch 2), Marathon (PC, consoles), and Planet of Lana II (PC, consoles) are released.
Slay the Spire 2 (PC) is released into early access.
Drop that disappointment on the pile with the others -- Netflix fielding DC comics characters on film and in games would have been the best outcome, I thought. Now the worst people in the world will own it.
Our earnest friends at Game Informer, yesterday, credited Game File by name with the truth of who financed Highguard's development. They're doing good things over there, in print and online. Some great writers.
Great reporting, Stephen!