Activision countersues Regus claiming tenant deception

Activision Blizzard has hit back at Regus, claiming it is “actively attempting to deceive its tenants,” after the co-working firm sued the game developer’s publishing division alleging $2.1 million in owed fees for office space in Santa Monica.

The game company filed a countersuit on Tuesday, alleging IWG subsidiary Regus is tricking tenants into accepting automatic renewals of prior coworking agreements at “new, grossly overpriced terms,” according to the cross-complaint. 

In October 2021, Activision Publishing signed an agreement to use 78 office suites at Regus’ location at 2450 Colorado Avenue — the Santa Monica Water Garden, according to court documents. Activison paid a $233,000 monthly fee under the one-year agreement, which lasted through November 2022. 

Activision renewed the deal for three additional months, but kept negotiating a longer renewal, according to the complaint. Regus did not respond to a request for comment.

Activision said it then received an email from Regus on Dec. 10 offering a renewal — either for six months at $384,900 a month, or a year for $406,300 a month. 

Both options were “inconsistent” with previous renewal agreements, Activision said, which capped rent renewal increases at 9 percent. The email just offered three buttons: two accepting the respective renewal offers and one rejecting both, Activision said.

In its own suit, Regus claimed an Activision employee accepted the six-month offer. 

Activision denied this, saying that despite the lack of any agreement to extend the deal past February, Regus continued to demand payments and has not refunded a $721,900 deposit and advance payment from Activision.

“Regus’ counsel has informed Activision’s counsel that these emails were ‘automatically generated’ and Regus was working ‘to update the software to discontinue the automatically generated emails,’” Activision said in its suit. 

“We don’t appreciate partners that act in bad faith — we will not be renewing our other office space lease agreement with Regus anytime soon,” said a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard. 

The firm is working to find additional office space in Santa Monica, to accommodate employees who previously worked at the Regus site, according to a copy of an internal message from Activision’s chief communications officer Lulu Meservey to all employees seen by TRD.