Gaming News - Page 132

Valve's Team Fortress 2 is still going strong, with the free-to-play multiplayer shooter being a Steam staple since it first launched in 2007. The team-based shooter where players take on various roles is iconic and one of the main inspiration points for games like Overwatch from Blizzard.

And Team Fortress 2 just got one of its most significant updates in years, with the Summer 2023 update bringing 14 new community maps to the game, 25 new community-contributed cosmetic items, and a bunch of general fixes.

Valve noted that Team Fortress 2 was set to receive a major update in February, though a lot of the credit here definitely goes to the community that helped create all the new content. And if you're wondering just how popular a multiplayer game from 2007 can be, right now (as of writing), 192,249 people are playing Team Fortress 2 - with the all-time peak concurrent player count of 207,533 recorded in the past 24 hours, too, per SteamDB.

UPDATE: Shortly after publication, FTC lawyer James Weingarten has filed a notice to appeal Judge Corley's decision in the Microsoft-Activision merger case.

Original article below:

The race is on as the FTC weighs decision on whether or not to file an appeal that could thwart the Microsoft-Activision merger from closing, sources tell Bloomberg.

An FTC spokesperson gives a statement on a recent federal decision that effectively greenlit the Microsoft-Activision merger in the U.S.

Yesterday, a federal judge denied the FTC's preliminary injunction request on the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger. Citing anti-competitive effects in multiple markets, the FTC sought the injunction to prohibit the two gaming firms from combining until after its Phase III administrative proceedings had concluded. If the FTC got its way, both Microsoft legal counsel and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick indicated that the order would have effectively killed the merger--the FTC's administrative case could last multiple years, and it was likely that Microsoft and Activision would walk away from the deal.

Judge Corley denied the FTC's preliminary injunction request on the grounds that the Commission was unable to properly or substantially prove that the anti-competitive effects of the merger would outweigh its benefits to consumers. Absent the merger, Activision would not have immediately brought its games to Xbox Game Pass or the cloud; with the merger, games like Call of Duty will be brought to the service.

After analyzing Activision's business in the context of Xbox's post-merger growth, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and her team of financial experts found "five different mobile and PC gaming opportunities" with the proposed $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King.

The FTC v Microsoft case has revealed quite a bit about Xbox, PlayStation, and the games industry as a whole. The secretive curtain that shrouds the world's most lucrative entertainment medium has been pulled back, showing things like $200 million+ game budgets, the sheer size of mobile gaming, and how tough it is for a platform-holder to compete without a strong presence in relevant markets--console, mobile, and PC.

While Xbox is behind on many of these fronts, the buyout of Activision-Blizzard is a three-pronged approach to give the division more long-term growth potential, provide mid-term stability, and boost overall profits. The exact plans remain unclear, but we do know that Xbox leadership sees Game Pass as the core of the business, and intends to spin the subscription service upward and outward in all possible ways. Activision's 8x separate billion-dollar franchises will give Xbox a competitive edge, especially the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise.

With the FTC defeated in the U.S., trillion-dollar tech giant Microsoft is now focusing on winning over UK regulators at the CMA to get the $68.7 billion Activision merger approved.

Yesterday, a federal judge ruled against the Federal Trade Commission and effectively signalled a greenlight for the Microsoft-Activision merger to close in the U.S. While the FTC can still appeal the decision and request an extension of the temporary restraining order that goes past the merger's deadline of July 18, experts believe that it's "extremely unlikely" that the FTC would be able to obtain an emergency order.

With the merger approved in the European Union, and the FTC having been defeated in the preliminary injunction hearing, Microsoft is now turning to the final hurdle in their $68.7 billion buyout: the United Kingdom.

Square Enix President and Representative Director Takashi Kiryu had some interesting comments about the Japanese publisher's new game plan.

In 2019, Square Enix consolidated its 11 game development teams into 4 groups called "Creative Business Units". The hierarchy sees each individual team handling specific projects like:

On the heels of releasing Final Fantasy XVI, Square Enix currently has a number of new games in production including Kingdom Hearts IV, Dragon Quest XII, and more Final Fantasy XIV content. These games take a while to make, and are quite expensive to produce...but the company wants to double-down on team expansion in an effort to release games more quickly.

At a glance, you'd think that the state of classic and retro gaming was in a good place - from remakes to remasters to Atari bundles featuring games from the 1970s to being able to fire up classic 1990s Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games on the Nintendo Switch. In reality, though, it's a very different situation - and a cause for concern.

A new in-depth study from the Video Game History Foundation has found that 87 percent of classic games released in the United States are out of print or no longer commercially available. The study defines classic games as titles released before 2010, with games taken from the impressive MobyGames database serving as the basis for the study.

Is it surprising that you can't enter a retail outlet and pick up a copy of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the Nintendo 64? No, but the study highlights the need for proper videogame preservation outside companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft bringing their catalog of classic games into the digital era. The study shows that after Nintendo shut down its 3DS and Wii U eShops in March 2023, the number of Game Boy games you could legally obtain "declined sharply."

With high-profile releases like the Steam Deck from Valve and the ROG Ally from ASUS, portable PC gaming handhelds are more popular than ever. One of the reasons we are seeing powerful handhelds is due to advances in hardware, specifically when it comes to mobile Ryzen chips from AMD, like the new AMD Ryzen 7 7840U being able to deliver excellent game performance.

The new AYANEO AIR 1S is taking the idea of a portable and powerful PC gaming handheld one step further by making it thin, light, and comparable to something you might see from Nintendo regarding compact pocket-size gaming. Specs-wise, the AYANEO AIR 1S features the Ryzen 7 7840U APU, 16 GB or 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display.

Although a 5.5-inch display is smaller than what you'd find on the ROG Ally, the AYANEO AIR 1S weighs a lightweight 405 grams, with the thinnest part of the Ultra Thin and Light Limited Edition being only 18mm. This makes it substantially lighter than the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally, and even the Nintendo Switch.

As part of AMD's massive Starfield Game Bundle deal that covers all current Ryzen 7000 CPUs as well as Radeon GPU from both the RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 generation (check out the full info here), the company has included some requirements of what you'll need to play the game at the three main desktop gaming resolutions.

As this info comes from a marketing page, it's limited to the brand-new hardware you can pick up to grab a copy of the game, so there's no mention of comparative Intel Core or GeForce RTX products - which is understandable. However, it makes the list a little pointless, as limiting the requirements to CPU, GPU, and motherboard omits that Starfield will require an SSD to play the game.

For the 'Legendary Experience,' AMD describes as "for the no-compromise 4K gamers who want the absolute best Starfield experience," it recommends an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU, and an AMD X670 motherboard. On the opposite end, the 'Heroic Experience' "is for 1080p gamers to experience great visuals and framerates," and AMD recommends an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 7600 GPU, and the entry-level AMD A620 motherboard.

Starfield is one of the year's biggest game releases, and the ambitious sci-fi RPG from Bethesda Game Studios is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S in September. Ahead of its debut, we got word that the team at Bethesda has been working closely with AMD to optimize the release for multi-threaded CPUs and add support for technology like FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2) as part of an exclusive partnership.

And now, after rumors that it was coming, AMD has launched its big Ryzen and Radeon Starfield Game Bundle, covering almost all AMD hardware. The pitch is simple, buy a Ryzen CPU or a Radeon graphics card, and you'll get a copy of the game.

Buy a high-end component, and that copy will be the Starfield Premium Edition which includes Early Access to play the game before its official launch, the Shattered Space Story Expansion, Constellation Skin Pack, digital artbook, and original soundtrack.