Gaming - Page 296

A new report from analyst firm Newzoo concludes that console gamers are more likely to go from players to payers.

Console gaming has more payers than mobile and PC gaming, a new report from Newzoo indicates. Based on the report, which measured a size of 59,040 gamers in a global weighted average across 36 markets, roughly 57% of people who played video games in the last 6 months actually spent money on them. This implies that around 43% of gamers, or over 25,000 people, play free-to-play titles and don't actually spend money on games.

The data is part of Newzoo's robust Global Gamer Study analysis, which can be found here.

Microsoft's Xbox games division helped Bethesda unlock the full potential for Starfield.

Following the Microsoft-ZeniMax buyout deal for $7.5 billion, ZeniMax is now a limited-integration company within Xbox, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft's game dev teams and technology specialists haven't helped with Starfield's development. In fact, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty confirmed that Xbox has been involved with Starfield's development since early 2022, with Xbox's ATG (Advanced Technology Group) assisting Bethesda Game Studios with various console-level optimizations.

In a recent interview with KFG, Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard says that Xbox's help has allowed the studio to reach its ambitions with Starfield. Howard responds to the pressures of Starfield essentially being a big proving point for the Xbox first-party games division, and how Microsoft's assistance helped accelerate Starfield's development and allow new improvements like the upgraded Creation Engine 2 optimizations on Xbox platforms. These ambitious new features include things like volumetric fog, the new global illumination lighting systems, physics effects, and more.

ZeniMax head of publishing Pete Hines is not confident Starfield could still release in September 2023 if it was not exclusive to Xbox.

During the FTC v Microsoft federal court case, we heard a lot about about exclusivity. It's a hot topic in the gaming world, particularly in the case of paying studios to skip Xbox--a practice that has earned Sony the designation as a "hostile" competitor against Microsoft.

Conversely, we also heard first-hand about the merits and benefits of exclusivity. These include upfront payments and royalty deals, closer access to console engineers, and, in ZeniMax's case, the ability to launch games more quickly.

The South African Competition Tribunal has approved the Microsoft-Activision merger without conditions.

Earlier this year, South Africa's trade regulator (SAC) recommended full approval of the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision on the grounds that it did not pose any significant threat to harm in the region's competition of the video games market. Today, the country's regulation tribunal, the SACT, has formally issued a decision to greenlight and approve the merger.

The regulatory tribunal has yet to publish a formal report on why it unconditionally approved the combination, but it could be similar to those published by other countries, including South Korea.

Reports indicate that the original source code for the first Far Cry game has leaked onto the website Internet Archive.

The file was uploaded to Internet Archive and titled "Far Cry 1.34 Complete", but according to reports, it's unclear if the source code contains updates or patches. However, the fact that the title contains .34, suggests that the files contain patches, but according to gamers who have downloaded the source code, it's "not complete, but close".

"We cannot ship games for which the developer does not have all the necessary rights," writes Valve in response to a game developer whose game was rejected from the Steam platform due to issues with AI-generated art. This info comes from Reddit user 'potterharry97', who made their written rejection public on the popular discussion forum.

The validity of AI-generated art has been a controversial subject of late due to AI models being trained using existing art, some of which is copyrighted, making the whole idea of the originality of AI-generated art a question of plagiarism in some extreme cases. And it's this idea that sits at the center of Valve's stance on AI art.

In its response to the developer, Valve notes that unless "you own the rights to all of the IP used in the data set that trained the AI to create the assets in your game," it cannot sanction the use of AI-generated art. Or, at least, it's making it the developer's responsibility to ensure all artwork has been legally created - though one assumes small indie studios looking at AI-generated art wouldn't have access to data sets used to train AI models.

Bethesda's Starfield is a PC and Xbox exclusive and one of the most anticipated RPG releases in years, a brand-new sci-fi epic from the team behind Skyrim and Fallout. Recently, the studio announced its partnership with AMD for the PC release, where we learned that the game would support AMD's FSR 2.0 upscaling technology across PC and console alongside multi-threaded CPU optimizations.

This news arrived last week and was criticized due to recent reports indicating that AMD is actively blocking developers from adding NVIDIA DLSS support to its sponsored games. To the point where modders have confirmed that they'll add unofficial DLSS 3 and Frame Generation support to the game within weeks of its launch.

Although that controversy is limited to the Radeon and GPU side of the equation, it looks like the partnership is as much about CPU performance - which is great. And according to this placeholder page over at US retailer Newegg, Starfield is set to be bundled with all new Ryzen 7000 CPUs.

It's no surprise that Starfield will have mod support, but now we're hearing Todd Howard share his thoughts about Starfield mods.

Bethesda's new game Starfield is a perfect fit for mods. The space sim has a massive array of 1,000 planets, and most of these will be devoid of life. To faithful Bethesda RPG players, this sounds like a blank canvas for mods to unleash boundless creativity. Only 100 of Starfield's vanilla worlds will have life on them, but that will certainly change with mods.

There's few things more enjoyable than playing a Bethesda RPG on PC at launch. You get to see the game evolve in real-time thanks to the skills and imagination of the gaming community and we could see some very interesting things roll out with Starfield mods. Let's just hope the Creation Club is at least optimized enough not to break script extenders with new game updates this time (Bethesda has had a history of "breaking" Fallout and Skyrim mods with game updates, forcing modders to re-adjust their "script extenders" to ensure specific game-changing mods are supported in the new update).

You've heard about Games-as-a-Service...well get ready for Games-as-a-Platform.

Ubisoft has an interesting plan to sell an Assassin's Creed product that will serve as a hub for new games in the series. It's called Assassin's Creed Infinity, and it could end up being a new entry in the video games industry's new nascent Games-as-a-Platform (GaaP) concept. Halo Infinite was the first example of this--343 Industries said that future Halo games would no longer be numbered--but so far the plan has somewhat fizzled. Then EA CEO Andrew Wilson mentioned the Games-as-a-Platform concept in the company's Fiscal Year 2023 earnings call.

But it could be Ubisoft who executes on this idea first, and the company is currently working on what appears Infinity's content pipeline. Ubisoft has referred to the game as the "Infinity Hub," and we could conceptualize it as a full-game client or storefront that's contained in a specific piece of software. Imagine going to the store and buying a disc, but instead of just one game, you're also buying an access point to other games as well as DLC and in-game purchases.

New infographs from an Xbox presentation at Brazil's BIG Festival reveal Xbox console sales figures for both Gen 8 and Gen 9 cycles.

At the Big Festival 2023 event, Leonardo Barros Barreto. Director of Partner Production Management at Xbox delivered a presentation entitled Xbox - Opportunities for Developers ranging from ID@Xbox to Game Pass. In this presentation, Barreto showed a slide deck with interesting figures on Xbox hardware sales across last-gen and the current Xbox Series generation. This presentation was not livestreamed as part of the BIG Festival videos.

According to the figures, the Xbox Series X/S have sold a combined 21 million units. No specificity regarding timing was given--we don't know if that's current numbers, or if it's as of a certain date, and we don't know whether or not this is shipments, installed base, or sell-through figures. Despite the ambiguity around the number, it does still give us an idea of how well the new-gen Xbox duo are performing.

Data revealed in the FTC v Microsoft federal case gives a closer look at Nintendo's dominant lead in the console publishing segment.

Most gamers already know just how big Nintendo is. Microsoft really drove this point home in key witness testimony in the federal case with the intent to undermine the FTC's high-performance relevant market, which omitted Nintendo from the picture. Not only does the Switch have substitution effects with PlayStation and Xbox, but the device is the best-selling console across both Gen 8 and Gen 9 systems.

Testimony from economist Dr. Liz Bailey outlines just how big Nintendo is compared to PlayStation, Xbox, and other third-party publishers in the console gaming market. According to data provided by her in the courtroom, and relayed by mLex reporter Michael Achton, Nintendo has a $3.8 billion lead over Sony's publishing revenues, and a significant $3.8 billion lead over Xbox.

According to economist Dr. Bailey, Nintendo is indeed a competitor in the console market, and her findings poke holes in the FTC's narrowed high-performance market definition.

Economist Dr. Bailey represented defendants Microsoft and Activision in the ongoing FTC v Microsoft federal case. She was examined as a witness, and her testimony poked holes in the Commission's narrow high-performance console market definition, which excluded Nintendo from the Big 3.

In an effort to simplify the console market, the FTC enlisted economist Professor Lee to help identify potential foreclosure risks in a relevant market. This marked was known as the high-performance relevant console market, which removed Nintendo and PCs as competitors against PlayStation and Xbox consoles. This allowed the FTC to isolate their focus on PlayStation vs Xbox with the rationale that these platforms compete more closely with one another than they do with Nintendo, and while that's true on the surface, Dr. Bailey's testimony quickly undermined this assessment.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick regrets not releasing more games onto the Nintendo Switch, says that his decision not to support the Switch was a mistake.

The Nintendo Switch is currently the best-selling console on the market with over 125 million shipments worldwide. Suffice it to say, the Switch is one of the best places you can release a game apart from the revenue-leading PlayStation. That's a big reason why Activision CEO Bobby Kotick thinks it was a bad judgement call to discount Nintendo's transformative handheld-console hybrid.

In the recent FTC v Microsoft federal case, Kotick gave testimony where he confirmed Activision looked at bringing Call of Duty onto the Switch before Nintendo launched its console in 2017. Kotick says that not releasing Call of Duty on the Switch was "bad judgement." This indicates that Activision did, at first, intend to bring Call of Duty on the Switch at launch, but Kotick decided against it once he saw the prototype. Kotick didn't think the Switch was going to be successful.

In the closing arguments of the FTC v Microsoft federal preliminary injunction case, Federal Trade Commission lawyer James Weingarten summarizes the ways in which the Microsoft-Activision merger could harm consumers.

The FTC believes the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger would harm competition in the video games market across multiple dimensions, including the high-performance console market and the subscription & cloud gaming market.

Throughout the case, we've heard testimony from key witnesses that reveal the various methods, strategies, and scenarios employed by the Xbox games business to gain a competitive edge across all dimensions of the gaming market, and how Xbox plans to use Activision to further its plans to eventually deliver over $32 billion in revenues and become the market leader by 2030.

Starfield made quite the splash in the Xbox 2023 showcase with its graphics and overall presentation, and Todd Howard says a lot of that was because of the new-and-improved Creation Engine 2.

Bethesda Game Studios has been working on the major Creation Engine 2 overhaul for quite some time. Starfield has been in development for 8 years, and during that time, the studio has been iterating on its existing Creation Engine to upgrade it for the new Xbox Series X/S console generation. While most of Starfield's development has been in-house, Microsoft's ATG (Advanced Technology Group) has been assisting Bethesda Game Studios since early 2022, helping with things like console optimization to ensure Starfield looks and runs great on both the Series S and Series X consoles.

In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Gamescast, Todd Howard shared his thoughts on the enhanced games engine and discussed things like volumetric fog and the new global illumination system.

Activision's CEO is a big believer in native mobile gaming, and thinks that phones will eventually be able to play high-end PlayStation 5 quality games.

Over the past two years, Activision's revenues have become mobile-centric. In 2021 and 2022, Activision Blizzard King made most of its revenues from the mobile segment thanks to big successes like Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty Mobile, and of course King's Candy Crush. This push towards mobile will continue with this year's release of Warzone Mobile in the fall.

It shouldn't be much surprise then that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is praising mobile tech. In Day 4 of the recent FTC v Microsoft federal court hearing, Kotick was asked specifically about the merits of native mobile gaming versus streaming, especially in the relation of bringing Activision games like Call of Duty to streaming services.

Activision's executive management stands to receive hefty payouts of millions of dollars if the Microsoft-Activision merger goes through, but Activision CEO Bobby Kotick's company stock portfolio could be worth in excess of $400 million.

In order to secure Activision Blizzard King to fund its mobile gaming and Game Pass ambitions, Microsoft has made an offer to buy 100% of Activision stock at a $95 per share premium. This adds up to a $68.7 billion deal, the largest-ever for Microsoft and the biggest acquisition in video games history (over five times the value of Take-Two's $12.7 billion Zynga buyout).

If Microsoft acquires ABK at $95 per share, there are a number of high-profile Activision executives that will receive big payouts. The company's largest executive shareholder is CEO Bobby Kotick, who currently owns 4,296,550 shares as per 2023's notice of annual meeting of shareholders.

Fallout creator and lead programmer Tim Cain raises his concerns about what Fallout 5's character creation system could be like.

Modern Fallout and Elder Scrolls games have strayed away from the integral RPG-based DNA that once defined the franchises. We've seen Bethesda remove key features like traits and skills from modern Fallout games, and Skyrim, released in 2012, got rid of attributes altogether. This has raised some questions on what RPG elements will be pared back in Fallout 5.

Tim Cain, who helped create the original Fallout game in the late 1990s at Interplay, had some interesting thoughts about what could happen in Fallout 5.

Thanks to the FTC v Microsoft federal court case, gamers now have a better idea of when The Elder Scrolls VI could release.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI in 2018, way before it was purchased by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. Bethesda's Todd Howard has only let little bits and pieces about Elder Scrolls 6 slip between the cracks, confirming the game is in pre-production and that Starfield is the studio's main focus.

Now Microsoft and Bethesda have inadvertently updated gamers through the recent FTC v Microsoft federal evidentiary hearing. According to transcripts from the hearing, it looks like The Elder Scrolls VI could launch sometime between 2026 and 2028.

Final Fantasy 16 is a big success for Square Enix, but the game hasn't sold as many copies as Final Fantasy 15. There's some very good reasons why this is the case.

Square Enix has recently announced that Final Fantasy 16 has sold 3 million copies worldwide, a figure that represents combined shipments and digital sales. How do we best gauge this data? We're seeing lots of comparisons of this data to the last mainline game in the series, Final Fantasy 15. This isn't the best comparison, though.

The reality is that the launch conditions between these two games are very different. Final Fantasy 16 released on one platform, the PlayStation 5, whereas Final Fantasy 15 simultaneously launched on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Not only that, but the games released at distinctly different timeframes, with Final Fantasy 16 launching the summer, and Final Fantasy 15 launching during the holidays in 2016, which is the biggest time of the year for video game sales.