Activision: We don't blacklist journalists

Activision has denied reports of blacklisting a European blog, and argued the situation was simply a misunderstanding.

"Activision doesn't blacklist journalists" a PR agency told GamesBeat on behalf of the company.

"We believe this was a misunderstanding and are working towards a resolution."

The Call Of Duty publisher faced the accusations of blacklisting last week, after French site Gameblog.fr reported on sightings of a Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 listing on Amazon.

The game, while hardly a surprise to anyone with even a basic knowledge of triple-A franchises, has not yet been formally announced, and the news story sent the Activision PR machine into a frenzy. A representative for the company contacted Gameblog editor Grégory Szriftgiser a number of times, asking him to pull the story. He refused, at which point the company uninvited the site from a press event they had been supposed to attend.

"They also made clear that the relationship was to be severed, all advertisement plans cancelled, games not sent, and invitations to later events cancelled as well," Szriftgiser told Kotaku.

"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."

The practice of public relations blacklisting by game publishers is one that is often suspected by media outlets, but rarely admitted to by the PR representatives themselves.