Gaming - Page 320

Xbox executive Phil Spencer walks us through Microsoft's game plan as it relates to its pre- and post-merger video games operations.

The Xbox ecosystem has evolved beyond its console roots. Xbox is now a service that connects multiple platforms together with one principal goal: Gaming for everyone, everywhere. Now that its biggest games are monetized, Microsoft benefits tremendously from this approach--more players can lead to more payers.

Xbox's core gaming focus has been dissected as part of regulator's ongoing scrutiny on the Microsoft-Activision merger. We've talked about the Xbox business in length, but Microsoft's own gaming VP Phil Spencer has a quick breakdown to remind players, investors, and regulators what the goal of Xbox is.

Video games giant Take-Two Interactive makes a round of layoffs as it tightens its belt against economic uncertainty.

Following record earnings during the pandemic, the video games industry is now contracting to reflect the current economic backdrop affecting the market. Inflation and rising costs mean consumers have less discretionary income to spend on gaming, leading to lower-than-expected quarterly results at lots of video games companies. Take-Two Interactive has been impacted--Q3 net bookings missed guidance by $77 million--and now the company is responding by making layoffs to reduce overall expenses and costs.

Sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that Take-Two is starting to make layoffs and job cuts across its company. The layoffs have affected workers at Take-Two's Private Division video games publishing label, which is responsible for hit games like The Outer Worlds, Hades, and Kerbal Space Program 2.

Xbox's Phil Spencer reveals some very interesting numbers that confirm Minecraft is still one of the most-played video games of all time.

Most gamers inherently know how popular Minecraft is. The voxel block-builder is on practically every video games platform and never truly seems to fade out of the public eye, despite what big flashy AAA game has been released. Microsoft's purchase of Mojang for just $2.5 billion in 2014 was the best video games purchase that the company has ever made, with the past 8 years delivering tremendous revenues and Xbox platform engagement.

But how big is Minecraft really? New figures provided by Xbox's Phil Spencer helps illuminate the incredible popularity of this franchise.

Valve may reveal a new Counter-Strike game very soon, sources have told esports reporter Richard Lewis.

Valve's major first-party cash crop may get a big revamp sometime this year. Reports indicate that Valve is readying a new entry in the old-school shooter, with a beta test possibly coming this month. Sources have told that Counter-Strike 2 is very real and that Valve has been working on the project for quite some time, with teams focusing on bug fixes and optimizations in the Source 2 engine.

Official details are non-existent and the current CS:GO release is still doing extremely well thanks to its lucrative skin market where gamers can buy and sell in-game items. Valve also sells premium upgrades for $14.99 that matches players up with others who have paid the Prime States upgrade fee.

Bandai Namco and Toei Animation make a surprise announcement that has ignited Saiyan fans everywhere.

It's official: Budokai Tenkaichi is coming back after 16 years. Bandai Namco made the announcement at the most recent Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour esports tournament at the World Market Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The short teaser confirmed a new Budokai Tenkaichi game is currently in development, and also revealed that Dragon Ball Super will be a big part of the next game.

Budokai Tenkaichi 4's teaser reel showed a brief history of the series and then finished off with an explosive reveal of Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku in all of his teal-haired glory. Not a whole lot was revealed about the game and there's still much we don't know, but for now Bandai Namco has announced a new game and cautioned viewers that the "footage shown is under development."

Square Enix's Yoshi-P gives a candid explanation on why the publisher has signed exclusivity deals to bring certain Final Fantasy games to PlayStation first.

Gamers everywhere know that PlayStation is at the top of gaming's Big 3 in terms of both revenues and installed base. Publishers must respect Sony's position and offer their games on PlayStation in agreeable terms and contracts that benefit both parties. That's why we've seen Square Enix, a Japanese games publisher, focus more intently on PlayStation.

Final Fantasy XVI is yet another example of such a deal. Square Enix signed a six-month exclusivity deal for Final Fantasy XVI on PlayStation platforms for this reason and another that may get looked over. The deal with Sony gives Square Enix direct access to PlayStation 5 console engineers that can significantly help the developers optimize their game on PS5. The result is what looks to be a stunning spectacle of console power that may flex the PS5's overall performance and gameplay capabilities.

Square Enix's new management offers fresh opportunities to reach a wider global audience with the Xbox brand.

Japanese publisher Square Enix has lofty ambitions in expanding its games to a global audience, however it seems that its exclusivity deals are getting in the way of this plan. Now that Square Enix is about the get a new president, the company could make a turn around and start to work closely with platform-holders like Microsoft to bring more of its games to Xbox and better execute on this plan.

It's clear that Square Enix isn't where it wants to be right now. The company isn't in dire straits and is still pulling in respectable revenues, however we've seen Square Enix take drastic measures to counter rising costs and diminishing returns. The first major shock came when the publisher sold its entire Western games division to Embracer Group for $300 million, including heavy-hitting IPs like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. The sale was a reaction to the commercial failure of two of its most expensive games, Marvel's Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, which lost an estimated $200 million.

The latest Steam Deck OS 3.4.6 Beta driver features a surprising addition, with Valve noting, "Ray-Tracing is now available in DOOM Eternal."

This is surprising for several reasons, with most of them being a variation of the fact that the Steam Deck is a handheld and designed to deliver optimized performance for modern games played at a lower resolution instead of running everything with Ultra settings enabled like it's a GeForce RTX 4080.

Support for DOOM Eternal's real-time ray-tracing for reflections is the first time Steam Deck users can enable the hardware-intensive but visually impressive effect on the handheld - thanks to id Software's implementation being via the Linux-friendly Vulkan API.

The original Diablo developers at Condor had a novel idea to make money after the game released: Physical microtransactions.

While gaming has certainly evolved since the 70s and 80s, parts of the market have remained the system. Coin-op arcades were the original microtransactions and games were designed to be as hard as possible to ensure players keep pumping in quarters for another chance. The video game crash changed things and it took a while before this kind of small accruing monetization arrived on consoles, but then Bethesda introduced horse armor and gave rise to gaming's current billion-dollar mTX economy.

Even back in the 90s, PC developers were trying to find ways to monetize their games over time. The original Diablo devs came up with the interesting idea to sell small "expansion discs" that would contain little extras like armor, weapons, and even new environmental effects. The idea was to sell off small pieces of the game for $5 a piece--kind of like a physical microtransaction.

Deep Silver's Dambuster studio introduces yet another big reason why we should be excited about Dead Island 2.

New Dead Island 2 gameplay footage revealed a closer look at one of the game's most interesting mechanics. While the sequel preserves a lot of the features and tropes from the first two games, Dead Island 2 has a new way to augment your zombie superpowers that offers lots of customization.

The game will use skill cards to boost abilities with new modifiers. Dambuster's new system lets gamers mix and match cards to create interesting scenarios of havoc and destruction. Think of these cards as yet another way to execute devastating combos in addition to the weapons, gadgets, and environmental hazards throughout L.A.

Following a string of unsuccessful game releases, Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda plans to retire.

Square Enix isn't in the best shape right now. The company isn't in the red, and is still making sustainable revenues and profits, however the publisher does need a few wins to offset a string of disappointments.

A combination of commercial failures like the ill-fated Babylon's Fall with numerous titles that "failed to meet expectations" (every new Tomb Raider release, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and the expensive Marvel games to name a few) has led to unfavorable company performance. It's estimated that Square Enix lost $200 million on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers.

Today the Nintendo Switch turned six years old. To celebrate, we'll be taking a closer look at the platform's megaton success on the games market and how the Switch lays out the future of the Mario-maker.

Six years ago on March 3, 2017, Nintendo changed the entire games industry by releasing its innovative new Switch system. Everything that Nintendo has done in the past has led up to the Switch; the system combines both of Nintendo's best-selling form factors into one handheld-console hybrid. The Switch skyrocketed to success from the get-go, propelling Nintendo's business to new modern day highs.

The Switch shows no signs of slowing down. The platform has generated incredible amounts of hardware and software sales while also invigorating Nintendo's business with its first-ever subscription service. Nintendo has used the Switch to push its business towards a digital market while keeping things steady, controlled, and measurable by the company.

UPDATE: The following article is based on a hypothetical scenario that MLex had reported on, however a separate 10-year deal was apparently never offered.

The following also includes my thoughts and opinions on what should happen if Microsoft made such an offer.

Original Article:

Microsoft has met with UK regulators to address antitrust concerns and explore possible remedies for the Microsoft-Activision merger approval process.

Following a persuasive meeting with European regulators, Microsoft is now meeting with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority in a bid to secure approval of its $68.7 billion merger with Activision. Bloomberg reports that Microsoft met with the CMA to tackle the agency's antitrust concerns while also discussing potential remedies (or negotiated adjustments to the deal itself and/or Microsoft's business conduct) that may be necessary for approval.

Reports indicate that Microsoft has already satisfied European regulators with 10-year contracts with competitors Nintendo and NVIDIA. In light of Microsoft's new multi-platform deals, the European Commission is now expected to approve the merger. The CMA, however, is seen as a major hurdle that may not be completely influenced by any approval decision from the EU.

Microsoft's recent offer to bring Call of Duty to competing platforms may be enough to satisfy European Commission regulators and signal merger approval.

Days ago, Microsoft counsel met with regulators to discuss key points of the Activision merger. During the hearing, Microsoft presented its recent 10-year deals with Nintendo and NVIDIA to show that it's willing to work with competitors. Microsoft's licensing deals may have persuaded European regulators and sealed the deal for approval.

Sources tell Reuters that the European Commission (EC) is now likely to approve the Microsoft-Activision merger. The EC had identified a few antitrust concerns with the merger, namely with Call of Duty's exclusivity and possible affects on multiple markets like the nascent game streaming infrastructure. Microsoft's compelling arguments made during the Brussels hearing have apparently swayed regulators and satisfied their concerns with the case.

Earlier this year at CES, Sony confirmed that its latest console, the PlayStation 5, had sold over 30 million units since its debut in late 2020. Although figures for Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S console, which similarly features AMD hardware in terms of CPU and an RDNA GPU, haven't been made official - it's agreed that Sony's PS5 is outselling its competition by a factor of 2:1.

According to analyst Sravan Kundojjala, if Xilinx results are excluded, Sony accounts for 20% of AMD's revenue - making it its largest customer. The other day, we reported that gaming revenue for NVIDIA and AMD is surprisingly close, considering NVIDIA's dominance in the desktop and laptop GPU space. Still, it's not hard to see why when you factor in the success of the PlayStation 5.

In terms of money, AMD sold over USD 3.7 billion in chips for PS5 consoles in 2022, as noted in the company's latest SEC filing. As demand for AMD's discrete GPUs for desktops (the Radeon line-up basically) has declined alongside the rest of the PC hardware market, it looks like console hardware is now making up the most significant share of AMD's gaming revenue.

FTC administrative law judge D. Michael Chappell orders Sony to mostly comply with Microsoft's subpoena for important documents and data relating to Microsoft-Activision merger defense.

Microsoft legal counsel is currently building a case that defends the proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard. Such a case requires lots of information on the video games industry, and both the FTC and the parties (Microsoft and Activision) have subpoenaed relevant players to attain the info, including non-parties like Valve, Nintendo, Google, and Take-Two Interactive.

As a complainant in the case, Sony is also involved in the process and has been subpoenaed by Microsoft; essentially Microsoft wants to use Sony's records to help systematically break apart Sony's allegations and debunk the FTC's antitrust complaints while also defending itself against any points that the FTC's Complaint Counsel may also make in the administrative court hearing in August.

Hitman developer IO Interactive is now making their dream game...and it has nothing to do with assassins or secret agents.

IO Interactive has officially confirmed the existence of Project Dragon, a fantasy game that the studio was rumored to be working on for Microsoft. While the game hasn't been formally announced, the Hitman dev did reveal that Project Fantasy (working title) is in active development and recruitment phases. IO was surprisingly candid about their vision for the game.

Project Fantasy is set in a new all-original IP and is described as a kind of dream come true for the studio. The game will hearken back to the old days of tabletop RPGs and focus on the traditional motifs of the genre: Monsters, magic, and adventurers of derring-do and bravery.

The European Commission has extended its deadline to make an decision on the Microsoft-Activision merger.

European regulators have given an update on merger procedure timelines for the Microsoft-Activision case. The EC today announced that it has slightly delayed the deadline for its final decision on the games acquisition by 10 days, and regulators now have set a provisional decision deadline of April 25, 2023.

The EC's Activision-Blizzard merger register was recently updated with a notification that reads "deadline extended by 10 working days under article 10(3)2 on 01.03.2023."

A major blockbuster game release in 2023 that will run on GPU hardware from a decade ago is something you don't see every day. Blizzard's Diablo 4 is on track for a June 6, 2023, release, with an Open Beta scheduled in March 2023. And with the latter, we got PC hardware requirements for Diablo 4, with the minimum GPU spec for the game (running in 720p at 30fps) being either a GeForce RTX 660 or an AMD Radeon R9 280.

The GeForce RTX 660 was released in 2012, a GPU built on now archaic 28nm process technology and only featured 2GB of VRAM. A game that looks as good as Diablo 4 running on this GPU (the Radeon R9 280 is similarly specced) is an impressive feat from the development team at Blizzard. It sounds like the team is taking the optimizations it's making for aging hardware like the Xbox One to the world of PC hardware.

This is awesome because anyone with a gaming PC from the last decade can experience the highly anticipated game. Of course, minimum specs are never ideal for a great gaming experience, with the jump to 1080p requiring more beefy GPU hardware in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 370.