Gaming - Page 323

Activision-Blizzard was ready to buy Time Warner and adapt its wealth of intellectual properties in a grand transmedia strategy, company CEO tells Variety.

At one time, Activision-Blizzard CEO and board of directors had a monumental vision that would have utterly transformed its business into an entertainment empire. That's not to say Activision isn't already an empire--eight separate billion-dollar franchises, including the $31 billion Call of Duty series, beg to differ.

The plans went beyond games, though. Activision wanted to do something more along the lines of the cross-adaptation strategies that Sony is employing between its PlayStation Studios and PlayStation Pictures units, complete with Marvel's Spider-Man licensing thrown in. Activision-Blizzard was ready to buy Time Warner if the $85 billion AT&T deal offer fell through, with the main goal of massive IP expansion.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick discusses controversy at the company and comments on harassment allegations and his stance of labor unions.

In 2021, the California Civil Rights Department (formerly DFEH) sued Activision-Blizzard on the grounds of female employees facing "constant sexual harassment," which kicked off a wave of controversy that ultimately tanked Activision stock.

As per a press release from the CRD's announcement that it will not dismiss its case against Activision-Blizzard:

Sony's video games business is no longer console-only, but executive management reiterates that PlayStation is still console-first.

Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the latest first-party PS5 exclusive to cross over to PC, and this time it's Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart, one of the premiere PS5 launch games that flexed the console's ultra-fast SSD. While Sony's expansion onto PC has been well-telegraphed by the company since Horizon Zero Dawn's released onto Steam in 2020, the continued exclusivity-breaking has divided some PlayStation faithful.

The reality is that PlayStation consoles are still tremendously important for Sony, and the PS5 is the beating heart of the whole operation. SIE executives have made it clear on numerous occasions, and taking a closer look at PlayStation's operations only underlines this fact.

Activision legal counsel alleges that UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had only spent 4 weeks out of its total 32-week investigation on the Microsoft-Activision merger focusing on potential SLC effects in cloud gaming.

Microsoft has filed an appeal with the intent to quash the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft-Activision merger. Today, lawyers for Activision, Microsoft, and the CMA met with Competition Appeals Tribunal's Justice Marcus Smith to discuss how to best proceed with the appeals process. While Microsoft's full 400-page appeal will not be made public, the Tribunal did publish an application summary that condenses the main points. At the hearing, Activision legal counsel delivered key reasons on why it seeks to intervene in the case--Activision has a stake in the outcome of the merger and can provide relevant information in regards to cloud gaming and the games market as a whole, so it is likely to be able to intervene and add evidence to support Microsoft's case.

During the hearing, Activision's lawyer made specific allegations against the CMA's determination of anti-competitive effects that could arise from the merger. The CMA blocked the merger on grounds that the combination would result in a significant lessening of competition (SLC) in the segment of cloud gaming due to Microsoft's potential ability to foreclose, or take away and prevent, access to Activision-Blizzard games to cloud competitors.

Nintendo has filed a cease-and-desist order that forces Valve to prevent the popular Dolphin emulator from releasing on Steam, and has now issued a statement explaining how the Dolphin emulator is harmful to the company and how emulation harms the games industry as a whole.

Nintendo is one of the most fiercely protective companies on the planet when it comes to IP. We've seen the Japanese company shut down multiple emulation sites through lawsuits, and also impose tight restrictions on YouTube content. Recently, Nintendo has thwarted the release of the popular Wii and GameCube emulator, Dolphin, from releasing on Steam.

"It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future," Dolphin's development team wrote on May 27.

The rumors were right: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the next first-party PlayStation 5 exclusive making the hop over to PC.

Following Jim Ryan's assertions that PC is a "significant profit contributor" to the PlayStation business, it's no wonder that Sony is continuing its PC gaming efforts. Now Sony has announced the latest first-party game to drop on PC, and it's a big one.

Today Sony and Insomniac Games announced Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is coming to PC on July 26, complete with support for 21:9, 32:9 and up to 48:9 resolutions for triple monitor setups, raytracing, DLSS 3.0, AMD FSR 2.0, and Intel XeSS support--alongside NVIDIA Reflex as well.

CD Projekt Group CEO Adam Kicinski has officially squashed recent rumors that Sony is seeking to acquire The Witcher publisher.

Video games industry consolidation has been ramping up in recent years following the big COVID-19 boom. We've seen EA, Take-Two, Sony, and more recently Microsoft, all make and attempt high-profile multi-billion dollar acquisitions. Although CD Projekt is about to venture into unexplored territory, the company has no desire to sell itself to a larger entertainment parent.

In a recent earnings call with investors, CD Projekt Group President and CEO Adam Kicinski laid rest to the rumors of Sony buying out the Polish games-maker. "Nothing has changed on our end. I can repeat what we've been saying throughout the years: CD Projekt is not for sale," Kicinski said in response to the very first question asked at the Q&A session.

The Witcher 3 has now sold over 50 million copies worldwide and is among the top best-selling games of all time.

Today, CD Projekt announced its Q1 2023 earnings results and also updated total franchise sales of The Witcher series. According to the report, The Witcher franchise has now sold over 75 million copies, and the company's widely-acclaimed third chapter in the saga has broken a new milestone.

The Witcher 3 has now sold-through over 50 million copies from its original launch in 2015 to the present day. In eight years, Geralt's generation-defining adventure has become one of the top 10 best-sellers of all time.

With AI prevalent in the high-performance computing space, and NVIDIA's cutting-edge hardware pushing the company's worth to new heights, CEO Jensen Huang began his Computex 2023 keynote with a slice of RTX meets AI with a glimpse at the potential future of gaming. It's called NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), an AI model that "transforms games by bringing intelligence to non-playable characters (NPCs) through AI-powered natural language interactions."

Imagine a Cyberpunk 2077 Night City open-world brought to life in Unreal Engine 5, with stunning ray tracing effects, where a futuristic ramen bar is a home to global illumination and lighting that looks as breathtaking as anything seen in CD Project Red's new Path Traced RT Overdrive mode.

The difference? The person behind the bar is bright to life with generative AI language models and can respond to your voice in a way reminiscent of real-world role-playing. And funnily enough the earliest days of gaming with tabletop Dungeons and Dragons.

Sony executive management is confident the PlayStation 5 will exceed at least 108 million units in its lifetime.

In a recent games business briefing, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said that he strongly believes that the PS5 family of hardware will break 108 million sales worldwide across its life cycle. This would put the PS5 just below the PS4's 117.2 million shipments, but above the PS1's 102.4 million lifetime shipments.

"Yes, I would anticipate that over the life of the PlayStation 5, that we should be able to exceed a figure of 70 million on top of the 38 million [we have achieved]," Ryan said in the Q&A section of the meeting's webcast.

Sony's PC gaming initiative is growing exponentially, but also missed internal targets by $50 million and has yet to become a significant contributor to overall revenues.

A new business briefing from Sony Interactive Entertainment gives a better perspective of its PC gaming presence. The company has released new figures of its PC games business that illustrates growth in the sector, but also shows just how relatively small PC gaming currently is for Sony.

According to the data, Sony made $250 million from PC gaming in FY22, which is $50 million below expectations. This figure allows us to weigh PC gaming revenues against Other segment earnings to see a proportional share of this new platform.

Sony's acquisition of Bungie seems to be paying off big time, and has dramatically increased PlayStation's presence in PC gaming.

Sony's strategic $3.7 billion buyout of Bungie looks to be one of the company's most beneficial games acquisitions since the purchase of Insomniac Games in 2019. Not only has Sony conscribed Bungie to help vet its first-party live service titles with a "rigorous review process," which has unfortunately led to the delay and possible cancellation of some titles, but the Bungie buyout allows Sony to instantly recognize Destiny 2's hefty revenues on PC.

As a result, Sony Interactive Entertainment is now recognized as one of the top video games publishers "on a popular PC game store." In a recent business briefing, PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst had some interesting things to say about the company's new PC expansion.

Hype for Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 is off the charts and could end up being Sony's best-selling first-party game of 2023.

Sony's latest PlayStation Showcase event had mixed reception, with a portion of gamers being confused by the new first-party PlayStation live service games and others having a muted response to the overall tone of the show itself. But there's one thing that everyone seems to agree on: The new Spider-Man 2 game is an instant fan-favorite.

Sony saved the official gameplay reveal of Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 for the end of the show for good reason, and it really felt like the ace up their sleeve. Gamers had high and lofty expectations for the PlayStation showcase that were mostly too good to be true, as is usually the case for these summer-timed events, but the new Spider-Man 2 footage was met with near-unanimous praise.

Ubisoft has lowered the price of its next Assassin's Creed game below the current $70 MSRP for new titles.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will cost $50 on all platforms, well below the current $70 price tag for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S games. Ubisoft is also continuing its cross-gen free upgrades with Mirage, and the $50 version is cross-gen. That means it will include both a last-gen copy of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One alongside entitlements to download a current-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

This is welcome news for consumers who feel pressure from the new $70 baseline price for new games. Based on our findings, a portion of gamers feel that $70 too much money for AAA titles, and Sony sales data suggests that consumers are indeed buying less games, possibly due to higher costs.

Following years of controversy, Konami is back in the public eye for all the right reasons. The publisher has made a big comeback with revivals of its classic franchises, and now Metal Gear Solid is making a triumphant return.

The rumors were right: Konami is officially remaking Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The new game is actually called Metal Gear Solid Delta, and here's how Konami explains the name change: "The Delta symbol (Δ) was chosen because its meaning fits the concept of the remake project. Delta means "change" or "difference" without changing structure."

The remake is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam, and promises to revivify the 2004 classic with immensely upgraded visuals and features while preserving the key story beats, mechanics, and voice talent. That means David Hayter should be coming back to reprise Snake.

Microsoft has filed an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal that argues why the CMA's merger block decision should be overturned, but some of these points aren't very strong or compelling.

Note: This is an opinion piece that builds an argument based on market trends and video games industry data.

In a new appeal filing, Microsoft legal counsel has listed five key reasons why the CMA was wrong to prohibit its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King. The UK's Competition Appeals Tribunal, who oversees appeals in competition cases, has published an application summary that outlines Microsoft's appeals arguments. While a portion of these could be sound, including assertions that the CMA made "fundamental errors" in determining Microsoft's cloud gaming market share, some of the arguments just don't have much weight behind them.

Microsoft has filed an appeal asking UK appeal courts to overturn the Competition and Markets Authority's decision to block the Microsoft-Activision merger.

As promised, Microsoft has recently filed an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal in an attempt to thwart the CMA's merger block. Microsoft's legal counsel has listed five reasons why the block was unjustified, but one that may carry the most weight is that the CMA "made fundamental errors in its assessment" of Xbox's current place in the cloud gaming segment. The CMA had found that Xbox's xCloud game streaming had 60% of cloud gaming MAUs in 2022, a number that has been contested.

Microsoft lists other grounds to challenge the decision, including the fact that the CMA "failed to take proper account" of its 10-year licensing deals with cloud game service competitors like NVIDIA's GeForce Now and Boosteroid, both of which will receive free access to Activision-Blizzard games if the merger goes through. It's also worth mentioning that these deals pose no real threat to Microsoft due to the business models associated with GeForce Now and Boosteroid, and the deals are probably something that the company had always planned to do.

The Pokemon Company has updated sales figures for the famous Pocket Monsters franchise, and the numbers are eye-opening to say the least.

Newly updated figures show the Pokemon series is fast approaching 500 million shipments and sales. From the first game in 1996 to the present day, Pokemon has now shipped over 480 million games worldwide across all platforms in the last 27 years. The update shows that the Pokemon series is up 40 million copies over last year, with March 2022's cumulative total at 440 million franchise shipments.

Data indicates that Pokemon is the third best-selling video game series of all time behind Tetris (495 million) and Mario (over 776 million). The rise in sales was driven by the incredible over-performance of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on Nintendo Switch, which has sold 22.1 million copies from November 2022 - March 2023, alongside catalog sales of previous games.

Sony's new PlayStation handheld will reportedly have about 3-4 hours of battery life on a full charge.

PlayStation is getting a new handheld, but it won't be a Vita successor or a Switch competitor. It doesn't even stream games via the cloud similar to the Logitech G Cloud. The new PlayStation device, codenamed Project Q, exclusively supports Remote Play functionality over Wi-Fi and is basically two halves of a DualSense controller split between an 8-inch HD screen.

Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan confirmed Project Q would play games in HD quality and it appears the device is capable of playing PlayStation 5 games at 1080p 60FPS handheld gaming via Remote Play over Wi-Fi. There's just two things we don't know for sure: Battery life and price. Sources have told Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson that Project Q's battery life is around 3-4 hours, which is in line with the Nintendo Switch.

Naughty Dog has officially delayed its Last of Us live service multiplayer game following reports of downsizing at the project's development team.

Sony revealed three first-party live service games at its recent PlayStation showcase, but Naughty Dog's anticipated Last of Us multiplayer game was noticeably missing. Now we know why: The game simply isn't ready. Today Naughty Dog has announced that the TLOU live service title has been delayed, and also re-confirmed that a new singleplayer game is in development in parallel with the multiplayer project.

The delay comes after downsizing occurred at the team handling the Last of Us live game. Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that the live team has been scaled back following an evaluation of the game. Schreier notes that the project has currently been in development for at least four years now.