Gaming - Page 331

British antitrust regulators have determined that the games market is likely to develop in important ways even if the Microsoft-Activision merger doesn't go through, and believes Activision would help foster and be a part of this development by adding its valuable games and franchises to cloud gaming platforms.

Activision-Blizzard currently does not offer its games on cloud streaming platforms or multi-game subscriptions, but that would all change if the $68.7 billion merger with Microsoft were to go through. Not only would Activision-Blizzard games release on Xbox Game Pass day-and-date, but they would also be offered via Xbox's cloud streaming platform, as well as other partners like Boosteriod and NVIDIA's GeForce Now service.

Interestingly enough, the CMA has determined that Activision is likely to offer its games on streaming platforms even if the merger fails. This determination actually weighs into the CMA's decision to block the merger on the grounds of anti-competitive effects arising in the cloud gaming and multi-game subscription segments.

The Federal Trade Commission says it has not colluded with any worldwide regulator to stop the Microsoft-Activision merger, including the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK.

British regulators at the CMA recently blocked the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger on the grounds of anti-competitive effects in the cloud gaming and multi-game subscription segments, leading both Microsoft and Activision executives to respond in specific ways. Activision, in particular, has delivered eye-opening comments on the decision, going so far as to say that the "UK is clearly closed for business."

Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick recently went on air with CNBC to talk about the merger decision, and made comments about a recent meeting with FTC Chair Lina Khan and CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell. Kotick inferred the possibility that both regulators somehow worked together to block the deal, and even said that the CMA is "being used as a tool" by the FTC.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco just dropped the first Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon gameplay footage...and it looks absolutely incredible.

It's been a long time since gamers have played a new Armored Core, but the sci-fi mech series is back with a bang. Today the devs at FromSoftware released new details, footage, and confirmed an August 25 release date for the game, outlining the central industrial-tech world of Rubicon that's been destroyed in a fiery cascade and showing off some decidedly next-gen combat.

The devs also reveal new details like Armored Core VI's new assault boost feature, which allows you to rapidly close the distance and strike enemies with close-ranged attacks. There's also a stagger element that will knock enemies off guard and stun them for a short period.

Activision Blizzard King just reported a record-setting Q1, but the milestone has been largely overshadowed by the CMA's decision to block its merger with Microsoft as ATVI share prices fall after the regulator's announcement.

Activision-Blizzard's Q1 results show that the company remains a powerhouse in the games industry. From January - March 2023, Activision delivered its best-ever Q1 in the last 14 years, setting new records for net revenues ($2.83 billion), operating income ($800 million), and net income ($740 million).

In fact, Activision's Q1 earnings were the second-highest net revenues across all quarters in the last 14 years, the third-highest operating income in the same timeframe, and the second-highest quarterly net income across the aforementioned time period.

Sony wasn't the only video games company opposed to Microsoft buying Activision and snapping up multiple billion-dollar franchises.

Sony has been the loudest opponent of Microsoft's proposed buyout of Activision-Blizzard, but new reports from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) show that Sony wasn't the only group to have concerns. We've documented the power of Activision's size in both earnings and reach and how big Xbox would grow overnight through the combination, and while our data is compelling, it's a small fraction of what competitors and regulators have seen. The CMA, for example, says they've analyzed over 3 million documents relating to both businesses.

According to the CMA's recent decision to block the Microsoft-Activision merger, multiple anonymous games companies believed that Xbox and Activision teaming up could "seriously harm competition." It's public knowledge that Sony is against the merger and it is believed that Google may have raised questions around Xbox's cloud gaming plans, but there's no concrete source information as to who the other naysayers were.

There's been a lot of excitement around the ASUS ROG Ally, and the anticipation around the Windows 11-powered gaming handheld just got cranked up massively thanks to a leak putting the price at $699.99 for the top spec model (with Z1 Extreme CPU).

The possible price - always remembering this is just the rumor mill talking, for now - was flagged up by The Verge, though it comes from two sources to give it a bit more weight: Twitter tipster SnoopyTech (see the above tweet), and Roland Quandt.

Another well-known leaker, Quandt, contacted The Verge directly and showed the tech site material that left "little room for confusion" that said price tag of $699.99 applies to the Z1 Extreme model with 512GB of storage.

The Last of Us Part I coming to PC felt like an easy win for Sony and developer Naughty Dog. As one of the most critically acclaimed and celebrated series of the past decade, having the first game - in remastered form - arrive on PC on the heels of the excellent HBO series felt like perfect timing.

And with previous PlayStation exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and Marvel's Spider-Man all receiving technically impressive ports - the expectation was that Joel and Ellie's adventure would get the same treatment.

Of course, that's not how things panned out, with The Last of Us Part I's PC debut being one of the worst-performing and executed ports in 2023. Not only in terms of frame rate and poor optimization for different PC hardware, but it was also a release plagued with bugs, glitches, and other issues not present in the PlayStation 5 version of the game.

Activision-Blizzard shares have dived by nearly 12% as the UK moves to block the proposed merger with Microsoft.

Today Activision-Blizzard reported its best-ever Q1 earnings in the past 14 years, but the company's outstanding performance has been overshadowed by some bad news for investors. UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority have ruled against the Microsoft-Activision merger and created an uphill battle for the billion-dollar games publisher.

The news has caused Activision's stock to crash from $86.74 down to $76.50 in just a matter of hours. This marks the single largest rapid drop in value throughout the year, and the merger's block has taken the thunder out of what would have otherwise been a significant milestone for the company's overall earnings.

UK regulators have decided to block the Microsoft-Activision merger. Now the companies involved are responding, and Activision in particular has strong words for the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

Today the CMA has published its final decision to block and prevent the Microsoft-Activision merger, citing anti-competitive concerns in cloud gaming and subscriptions. Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are predictably unhappy with the outcome and executives have largely kept their composure to deliver measured and even-keeled responses.

Activision, however, has told the BBC that it will rethink its growth plans in the UK market, going so far as to make antagonizing remarks that the UK is "clearly closed for business."

UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority have blocked the Microsoft-Activision merger, and Microsoft plans to appeal the decision in an attempt to get the deal passed.

Today the CMA has announced that it will prevent the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger from taking place, citing potential anti-competitive harm in key gaming segments like the cloud gaming and multi-game subscription market. The CMA argues that Microsoft would not only have the incentive to raise Xbox Game Pass subscription prices to reflect the significant added value of Activision-Blizzard games, including the Call of Duty franchise, but also that Microsoft's 10-year licensing deals were not sufficient behavioral remedies due to the fact that the games in question would be restricted to defined services that required a purchase of the game from specific storefronts.

Microsoft plans to appeal the decision and fight for the merger. Microsoft President Brad Smith issued the following statement on the matter:

It's official: UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have chosen to block the Microsoft-Activision merger.

Today the CMA published its final report on the Microsoft-Activision merger with a decision to prevent the merger from taking place. The UK regulators have prevented the deal on the grounds of anticompetitive effects arising in the cloud gaming segment, and argue that Microsoft failed to sufficiently prove that its proposed 10-year deals with competitors like Nintendo and NVIDIA were proper behavioral remedies to address the substantial lessening of competition.

The CMA found that the benefits of adding Activision-Blizzard games to Game Pass would not be substantial enough of a benefit to outweigh the harms caused by the merger in the cloud gaming front, especially considering Microsoft would have the incentive to increase the cost of Game Pass subscriptions on a post-merger basis.

Former PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal made its PC debut in February this year with an excellent port that featured day-one support for DLSS 2 and real-time ray-tracing. The third-person sci-fi roguelike shooter from Sony and first-party studio Housemarque was a break from the norm regarding AAA cinematic blockbusters from PlayStation Studios, with the game finding both critical and commercial success.

Today comes word that Returnal is adding support for DLSS 3, NVIDIA's new rendering tech exclusive to the GeForce RTX 40 Series of graphics cards that can boost performance via the new AI-based Frame Generation.

In Returnal, NVIDIA notes that with a GeForce RTX 4090, the performance increase compared to native 4K rendering is 2.2X, boosting the overall frame rate to over 180 fps. Even the recently released GeForce RTX 4070 sees a performance boost to under 100 fps in 4K with DLSS 3 enabled, and this is with all visual settings maxed out and ray-tracing enabled.

ASUS has announced that it is holding a special ROG Ally launch event on May 11, 2023. It will reveal the full specifications and pricing for its upcoming PC gaming console handheld that is being pitched as an alternative and direct competitor to Valve's Steam Deck.

The launch event is being reported by many as the actual launch date for the ROG Ally, though the press release doesn't specifically state this is the case. The presentation will start at 10.00 a.m. Eastern Time (14.00 GMT). It will feature a panel discussion with Shawn Yen, Product Management Director of the Gaming Business Unit from ASUS, Roanne Sones, CVP, Head of Xbox Hardware, and Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Gaming Marketing from AMD.

Although full specifications aren't available, we know quite a bit about the ROG Ally, specifically that it's powered by the new Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor with RDNA 3 graphics that was formally announced earlier today. The powerful chip can run AAA titles at 1080p with frame rates higher than 60fps. Impressive stuff and something that will pair well with the ROG Ally's bright 120 Hz FHD (1080p) panel with AMD FreeSync Premium support.

Microsoft will reportedly defy the FTC and close its merger with Activision in June, sources have told the New York Post.

The FTC has sued to block the Microsoft-Activision merger. Instead of bringing the merger to federal court, where the general consensus is that the FTC would lose the case, the Commission has brought the antitrust lawsuit to its in-house administrative court in an adjudicative proceeding on the basis on multiple theories of harm. These include potential anti-competitive effects in the High-Performance Console Relevant Market, where Microsoft is said to have the incentive and ability to foreclose competitors to key Activision-Blizzard titles, and in the nascent cloud gaming segment.

Microsoft has been fighting the case at every turn, filing multiple responses to the FTC's claims in an attempt to elaborate on Microsoft's intentions and frame the merger as pro-competitive as it relates to merger law. Now there are new reports that Microsoft and Activision may have the confidence to move to close the deal if the merger is approved by other regulators in foreign jurisdictions like the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the United Kingdom, and the European Commission (EC) in the European Union.

Microsoft is seeing strong growth in subscription revenues, company CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed.

In a recent earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced that subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass generated nearly $1 billion in revenues during Microsoft's Q3 period (January - March 2023). Our data indicates that Xbox Game Pass could make up nearly 1/3rd, or around 32%, of total Xbox content and services revenues.

Xbox's content and services segment generated $3.105 billion during the Q3 period, helping offset a significant 30% drop in hardware sales. These metrics reinforce the Xbox brand's focus on subscriptions and content rather than raw hardware and console sales.

Our Dead Island 2 build should help you get through some of the tougher parts of the game, and provide some disgusting zombie-bashing action along the way.

Dead Island 2 isn't necessarily a hard game, but it does have its moments. There's parts of L.A. that are just crawling with the undead. Sometimes there's dozens of enemies on the screen at any given time. This simple build will help you survive the colorful nightmare world of Hell-A.

First things first: This build is a melee build focused on up-close-and-personal attacks. In fact, this build actually prioritizes your fists.

Xbox console sales are down 30% year-over-year, hitting the lowest revenue mark since the Xbox Series X/S consoles released in November 2020.

Microsoft just announced its Q3 Fiscal Year 2023 earnings report and the results aren't so good for Xbox hardware.

According to the data provided by Microsoft, total Xbox console sales revenues are down a staggering 30% from last year. Our records indicate that Xbox consoles generated around $508 million throughout the Q3 period (January - March 2023). This is the lowest point since the launch of the Xbox Series line of consoles during Microsoft's Q2 FY21 period.

Dead Island 2 has managed to sell 1 million copies in 3 days' time, making it one of the Embracer Group's most successful new games.

Gamers have been waiting 10 years for Dead Island 2, and it looks like people are showing up en masse for the horrifyingly violent zombie slasher. Deep Silver recently announced that Dead Island 2 has sold over 1 million copies since release, but we have to wonder...how many of those were old pre-orders?

Even still, Dead Island 2 remains one of (if not the) best zombie games of all time. We'll have a review up on TweakTown shortly as I've been taking my time with the game, but I can honestly say that it's rip-roaringly fun and shockingly grotesque. In short, it's a horror movie fan's dream.

ZeniMax Workers United, the second-ever video games labor union in the United States, has started collective bargaining discussions with Microsoft.

Back in January 2023, over 300 Quality Assurance (QA) workers at ZeniMax Media voted to form a union. Allied with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) labor group, Microsoft formally recognized the union shortly after the vote. Now the union has opened up talks with Microsoft regarding key issues that QA workers face in the industry, including low pay and long hours.

"Today, we are excited to announce that ZeniMax Workers United of CWA have started our first day of bargaining for our first ever contract with ZeniMax and Microsoft! IN SOLIDARITY!" the union wrote on its Twitter page.

SEGA of America employees are collecting with the intent to unionize and become the video games industry's third major worker's union, following other unions like those at Activision-Blizzard and ZeniMax.

Workers at SEGA of America's Irvine, California branch have grouped together to form a union known as AEGIS, or the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA. The collective includes some 144 workers from SEGA's North American branch across all job types, from QA to development.

Employees voted to unionize due to "wages that are below the industry average, weak benefits, and lack of paths to promotion" at SEGA of America. What's most interesting about this particular union is that SEGA is a Japanese company and the American branch is just a subsidiary, so there may be significant cultural gaps. SEGA has yet to comment on the matter, and according to integrated reports, the entirety of SEGA Sammy employs over 7,000 workers.