Gaming News - Page 136

Microsoft legal counsel suggests that the company could abandon the $68.7 billion merger with Activision if federal courts grants the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction.

The fate of the Microsoft-Activision merger may hang in the balance of a decision from Northern California's federal courts. In a recent court filing, Microsoft and Activision lawyers indicate that the acquisition could be terminated if Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley issues a preliminary injunction at the FTC's behest.

The U.S. antitrust Commission wants to stop the merger, and has challenged the deal in its own internal administrative courts instead of in federal court. This is by design: The FTC can effectively kill the merger through years-long process where the Commissioners, not the Administrative Law Judge who oversees the case, have the final say on merger approval. The FTC has been creative in its tactics. In the most recent motion, Microsoft lawyers say that the FTC opted for an 8-month schedule for the admin case rather than a shorter 5-month proceeding, which set the first hearing on August 2, well past the merger's July 18 expiration date.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is still hesitant to disrupt its virtuous cycle business model and follow Microsoft's lead.

Sony has a great thing going right now. The company sells millions of games and makes lots of profit from PlayStation 5 hardware and accessories. While Sony's newer multi-game PlayStation Plus subscription model takes direct inspiration from Xbox Game Pass, the company isn't ready to disrupt its own business and put services and engagement at the forefront of its gaming empire.

Services like PlayStation Plus are additive for Sony. The reverse is true for Xbox, and Game Pass is at the heart of Microsoft's gaming business. This is reflected through the dramatic decision to release first-party Xbox games day-one on Game Pass, a move that lowers the potential full game sales opportunities for these titles. Sony, on the other hand, isn't ready to forgo game sales just yet, and for good reason: Its AAA titles have sold tens of millions of copies.

Three of Twitch's top executives sit down to answer questions about the new Partner Plus program.

Today, Twitch introduced its Partner Plus program. The initiative allows streamers to keep 70% of net revenue generated from subscriptions, provided they meet certain criteria.

These qualifications include:

Gen 8 is finished, and Microsoft is now focusing on the Xbox Series X/S console duo.

Following expanded efforts to preserve backwards compatibility across four generations of consoles, the advent of Smart Delivery, and a 3-year cross-gen transition period, Microsoft is now moving on from the Xbox One generation. The billion-dollar tech giant is now solely focusing its new games for the Gen 9 Xbox Series X and Series S consoles introduced in 2020.

In a recent interview with Axio's Stephen Totilo (via Axios Gaming's newsletter, sign up here), Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty confirms that the company's 23 internal studios are no longer making new games for the Xbox One.

Microsoft has revealed new performance measurements that highlight the company's engagement-driven business model.

In some ways, Xbox is a lot different than PlayStation. Microsoft's games division has prioritized services, subscriptions, and digital engagement above all else, and this paradigm shift has helped the Xbox brand stay competitive. Along with cross-platform unification through OS and services, Game Pass is the purest example of this model. The subscription thrives from the breadth of content offered, but also the successful capturing and exploitation of player engagement through key online-driven and replayable experiences.

This model is paying off in terms of players engaged with specific titles, which remains a critical part of today's video games market. The most popular and lucrative games on the planet rely on digital engagement models that monetize players over time directly through in-game purchases, but Xbox Game Pass is another method of indirect monetization through recurring subscriptions. Rather than just relying on full game sales alone, Xbox is diversifying its games to leverage the strongest elements of engagement through steady digital content releases. These ultimately serve both monetization and retention of its Game Pass service.

If you're gaming on a PC, then no doubt most of that time is spent using Valve's Steam client, and today it just got a massive update that overhauls everything from the underlying framework and codebase to the UI elements, in-game overlay, and more.

In fact, if you fire up Steam, you'll notice that even things like font choices and how information and notifications are laid out look different.

This update has been in the works for quite some time, with the big goal being how the client shares code between its various modes - Steam Desktop Client, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck. This means new features and updates will be easier for Valve to implement going forward. Plus, hardware acceleration has been added to Steam's Mac and Linux versions.

Rather than focusing exclusively on mega-hit AAA blockbusters, Xbox Game Pass helps fuel the development of experimental passion projects like Obsidian's Grounded and Pentiment games, and Xbox management sees the service as a kind of cyclic wheel that helps foster creativity.

Game Pass is one of the most interesting and disruptive parts of the modern video games industry. The service not only packs tremendous value due to sheer volume of content offered, but the real driver is the diversity of the games included in the subscription. Microsoft's day-one first-party releases have created an environment where Xbox Game Studios devs can pitch, fund, and eventually release the games they've always wanted to make, including Minecraft offshoots like the Diablo-like Minecraft Dungeons and Rare's Sea of Thieves.

This has fostered a wide array of unique first-party games that appeal to the full spectrum of gaming, from AA indies to long-lasting service games and heavy-hitting AAA titles like, for instance, the Forza series.

The director of Cyberpunk 2077's new Phantom Liberty expansion will also lead the next game in the franchise.

According to a new Bloomberg feature, Phantom Liberty is more than just post-release content. It's essentially a Cyberpunk 2077 refresh that's been in development for over two years. CD Projekt is using the $30 expansion as a gateway to significantly overhaul the game, including new systems, graphical capabilities, and a forced migration over to SSDs on PC.

Gabe Amatangelo, the director of Phantom Liberty, was essentially given a blank check by CD Projekt RED to fix the game. Amatangelo started first with Patch 1.5, which natively optimized the game to leverage the power of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S systems. The director has had great success so far, and this gave CD Projekt the confidence to have Amatangelo also direct the big-budget sequel to Cyberpunk 2077.

As of March 2023, People Can Fly still haven't received royalty payments for its Outriders looter-shooter.

Today People Can Fly announced a big new partnership with Microsoft to develop a new Xbox game. The game is codenamed Project Maverick, and could be some sort of first-person or third-person looter shooter that aligns with the Polish game publisher's core action focus.

While scouting the publisher's investor relations page, I noticed something interesting: Outriders, the well-received third-person co-op game released in 2021, has yet to turn a profit. Outriders was financed by Square Enix and People Can Fly were to receive royalties if the game broke even. As of March of this year, Square Enix hasn't sent any royalties to People Can Fly.

People Can Fly, the developers behind Bulletstorm and Outriders, today announced a lucrative multi-year contract to develop a big new Xbox game for Microsoft.

Polish game developer People Can Fly are pretty busy. The team are currently working on a handful of projects, including new 3 self-published games in IPs wholly-owned by PCF, a new game in an IP owned by Square Enix called Project Gemini, and VR content as well as other concepts.

Following the cancellation of a big publishing deal with Take-Two Interactive, the studio has been seeking new opportunities with other companies. Now it's found a new deal with one of the best independent-friendly companies in gaming. People Can Fly has secured a contract to make a new Xbox game with a hefty $30 - 50 million budget.