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Tag: Activision Blizzard

  • PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan Is Retiring

    PlayStation Boss Jim Ryan Is Retiring

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    The head of PlayStation is stepping down, Sony announced in a press release today. Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO, is retiring after just four years on the job. The massive shakeup in leadership comes as the PlayStation 5 breaks sales records and as Sony has doubled-down on prestige blockbuster games like The Last of Us Part 1 and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

    Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger

    “After 30 years, I have made the decision to retire from SIE in March 2024,” Ryan said in a statement. “I’ve relished the opportunity to have a job I love in a very special company, working with great people and incredible partners. But I’ve found it increasingly difficult to reconcile living in Europe and working in North America.”

    Ryan will officially leave the position in April, 2024. Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation President, COO and CFO, will help with the transition and take on the role of interim CEO of PlayStation once Ryan leaves, and will help with the search for his successor. The news was first reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.

    A 30-year veteran of Sony, Ryan was promoted to the top PlayStation job in 2019 after a re-organization saw head of CEO of Worldwide Studios, Shawn Layden, step down, and President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, transition into a more background role working with indie game developers.

    As head of PlayStation, Ryan oversaw the launch of the PS5, which despite pandemic-era shortages, is now on pace to break sales records thanks to an ongoing lineup of first-party exclusive blockbusters like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök. His tenure also included the launch of PS VR2, as well as a major pivot by the subscription service PS Plus to more directly compete with Xbox Game Pass’ Netflix-like library of games.

    The unexpected departure comes just a couple months after Sony signed a 10-year agreement with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the tech giant’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Despite a vicious regulatory fight in the U.S. with the Federal Trade Commission and in the UK with the Competition and Markets Authority, both of which included testimony by Ryan, the historic deal is likely set to close beginning in October.

    Here’s the full press release:

    Sony Group Corporation and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) today announced that SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan has made the decision to retire in March 2024 after almost thirty years with the PlayStation business. To support Mr. Ryan in his transition, Sony Group Corporation President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki will assume the role of Chairman of SIE effective October 2023. Effective April 1, 2024, Mr. Totoki will be appointed Interim CEO of SIE while he continues his current role at Sony Group Corporation. Mr. Totoki will work closely with Sony Group Corporation Chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and the management team of SIE to help define the next chapter of PlayStation’s future, including the succession of the SIE CEO role.

    Jim Ryan joined Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Europe-based legal entity, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe (SIEE) — which was then Sony Computer Entertainment Europe — in 1994. Since then, he has held a number of senior positions at the company including President of SIEE, Head of Global Sales and Marketing at SIE and Deputy President of SIE since January 2018, before being appointed SIE President and CEO.

    Comment from Kenichiro Yoshida

    “Jim Ryan has been an inspirational leader throughout his entire period with us, but never more so than in overseeing the launch of PlayStation 5 in the midst of the global COVID pandemic. That extraordinary achievement made by the entire SIE team has been steadily built on and PlayStation 5 is on track to become SIE’s most successful console yet. I’m immensely grateful to Jim for all his achievements. Respecting Jim’s decision to finish his long career at Sony leaves me with an important decision regarding his succession given the significance of the Game & Network Services business. We have discussed intensively and have determined the new management structure. We aim to achieve Sony Group’s further evolution and growth through bringing even greater success to the Game & Network Services Business.”

    Comment from Jim Ryan

    “After 30 years, I have made the decision to retire from SIE in March 2024. I’ve relished the opportunity to have a job I love in a very special company, working with great people and incredible partners. But I’ve found it increasingly difficult to reconcile living in Europe and working in North America. I will leave having been privileged to work on products that have touched millions of lives across the world; PlayStation will always be part of my life, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of SIE. I want to thank Yoshida-san for placing so much trust in me and being an incredibly sensitive and supportive leader.”

    Comment from Hiroki Totoki

    “I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Jim Ryan for his outstanding achievements and contributions over his 30-year career at Sony, including the great success of launching the PlayStation 5. The PlayStation business managed by SIE is an essential part of Sony Group’s entire business portfolio. I will work with Jim and the senior management team closely to ensure our continued success and further growth. I am also looking forward to creating the exciting future of PlayStation and the game industry together with everyone at SIE and its business partners.”

    This story is developing.

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    Ethan Gach

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  • Leaked Xbox Boss Email Perfectly Explains Why Game Publishers Are Eating Themselves Alive

    Leaked Xbox Boss Email Perfectly Explains Why Game Publishers Are Eating Themselves Alive

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    You probably saw a ton of headlines about Xbox leaks this week: new hardware, upcoming games, Game Pass costs, acquisition strategies. A trove of unredacted documents accidentally uploaded to a federal court’s case server gave the world an unprecedented look into the secret machinations of the gaming wing of a $2 trillion tech giant. But if you check out just one leak from this historic week for Xbox it should be Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer’s analysis of what’s currently plaguing triple-A video game publishers.

    Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger

    His analysis was in an email exchange from March 2020, in the midst of the Xbox team planning ahead of a feedback meeting with Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two. “In terms of subscriptions and the impact on larger publishers I realized that I haven’t really done a good job sharing our view on the disruption AAA publishers potentially see and how their role in the industry will likely change with the growth in subscription platforms like Xbox Game Pass,” Spencer wrote (the memo was directed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, CFO Amy Hood, then-executive business VP Peggy Johnson, and head of marketing Chris Capossela).

    The head of Xbox, who first joined Microsoft as an intern back in 1988 and has been working on the gaming side of its business for over 20 years now, proceeded to diagnose the current state of big publishers as they face wave after wave of market disruption. It was a cogent, incisive commentary on the fears driving an ever-shrinking class of mega gaming companies that are clinging harder and harder to the few big-budget franchises they have that still pay out.

    Spencer lays out how publishers once existed to leverage scale in negotiations with retailers for shelf space. Then everything changed. “The creation of digital storefronts like Steam, Xbox Store and PlayStation Store eventually democratized access for creators breaking physical retail’s lock on game distribution,” he writes. “Publishers were slow to react to this disruption. The AAA publishers did not find a way to leverage the moat that physical retail created in the digital realm in a way that had them continue their dominance of the game marketplace.”

    Companies like Activision, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft eventually made their own middle-man clients to try and get around platform fees, and a few later followed up with their own subscription services. None of them were built early enough or offered a compelling enough alternative to get big. Players complained about bad UI and bad deals. Franchises like Call of Duty and Madden that had once abandoned Steam returned. Game Pass got big while EA Play and Ubisoft+ stayed small. The only competitive advantage publishers have left is being able to pour more money than anyone else into annualized blockbusters.

    Spencer writes,

    Over the past 5-7 years, the AAA publishers have tried to use production scale as their new moat. Very few companies can afford to spend the $200M an Activision or Take 2 spend to put a title like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption on the shelf. These AAA publishers have, mostly, used this production scale to keep their top franchises in the top selling games each year. The issue these publishers have run into is these same production scale/cost approach hurts their ability to create new IP. The hurdle rate on new IP at these high production levels have led to risk aversion by big publishers on new IP. You’ve seen a rise of AAA publishers using rented IP to try to offset the risk (Star Wars with EA, Spiderman with Sony, Avatar with Ubisoft etc). This same dynamic has obviously played out in Hollywood as well with Netflix creating more new IP than any of the movie studios.

    Specifically, the AAA game publishers, starting from a position of strength driven from physical retail have failed to create any real platform effect for themselves. They effectively continue to build their scale through aggregated per game P&Ls hoping to maximize each new release of their existing IP.

    In the new world where a AAA publisher don’t have real distribution leverage with consumers, they don’t have production efficiencies and their new IP hit rate is not disproportionately higher than the industry average we see that the top franchises today were mostly not created by AAA game publishers. Games like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Clash Royale, DOTA2 etc. were all created by independent studios with full access to distribution. Overall this, imo, is a good thing for the industry but does put AAA publishers, in a precarious spot moving forward. AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises, most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago.

    It’s a brutal assessment but a fair one. Sequels, remakes, and spin-offs dominate at the big publishers. Companies from Sony to Ubisoft are slashing more off-beat projects and development teams to focus almost exclusively on games that have a chance of selling over 10 million copies. Meanwhile, the development schedules are getting longer and budgets are ballooning, making it increasingly harder for even the biggest publishers to absorb even a disappointing release, let alone a disastrous one. If none of that sounds sustainable it’s because it’s not.

    Microsoft’s answer to this is Game Pass, not out of the goodness of its heart but because it sees a new platform it can scale to feed the financial growth demanded by investors. “Our goal is to find a way to both grow our subscription (which is our new platform) and help the AAA publishers build towards a successful future,” Spencer writes. “For publishers with 2-3 scale franchises that’s a difficult transition. Again, taking a clue from Hollywood, it’s not clear how a standalone subscale media publisher grows is this world without adapting to new paradigms or getting consolidated but we believe we can help a Take2 by increasing monetizable [total addressable market] across more endpoints inside of a global platform like Xbox Game Pass (inclusive of xCloud).”

    The suggestion here is that the type of game that can thrive on a subscription service is either a small one that benefits from better curation and visibility or a live-service one that can make up revenue on the backend by charging all the new players microtransactions (the new store shelves are inside the games themselves). That’s also a pretty grim assessment, and probably part of the reason Sony has repeatedly said that bringing its big first-party exclusive games like Spider-Man 2 and The Last of Us to its competing PS Plus service day-and-date would cripple the economics of blockbuster production.

    Read More: The Massive Xbox Leak: 11 Big Reveals

    Spencer’s email was written over three years ago at this point, and was aimed largely at trying to summarize the current state of the industry for his bosses. We can see how things have played out since, though. Take-Two, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts have decided to collaborate with Game Pass, and EA Play is now part of the service. Microsoft, meanwhile, gobbled up ZeniMax (including Bethesda Game Studios), and is now on the cusp of doing the same with subscription holdouts Activision Blizzard. All while smaller competitors like Embracer go into a tailspin.

    It’s not clear who the big publisher model was serving after physical games died, outside of the richly compensated CEOs and occasional shareholder buybacks. But it’s also not yet clear that whatever replaces them will serve anyone—developers, players, fans—any better.

    You can see the email exchange in its entirety below:

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    Ethan Gach

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  • Microsoft’s Revised Activision Deal Addresses Competition Concerns, Says UK Regulator

    Microsoft’s Revised Activision Deal Addresses Competition Concerns, Says UK Regulator

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    By Elena Vardon

    Microsoft’s proposals to modify its $75 billion Activision acquisition address the concerns with the U.K. antitrust authority, the regulator said in a provisional decision Friday.
    

    The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said that the new deal submitted by Microsoft should lessen any harm to competition in cloud gaming.
    

    

    The CMA said that the restructured transaction–through which Activision would sell its cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft–opens the door to the deal being cleared.
    

    The regulator is consulting on remedies put forward by Microsoft to address residual concerns it has before making a final decision, it said.
    

    The CMA opened a consultation on these remedies which will last until Oct. 6, it added.
    

    Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com
    

    

    

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    Starfield Isn’t The Future Of Video Games, And That’s Okay
    
			
    Starfield Isn’t The Future Of Video Games, And That’s Okay
    
			
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    In the months (nay, years) leading up to Starfield’s September 6 release, the hype for the Bethesda RPG grew and grew until it was a heretofore unseen beast, a giant Kaiju of expectation that threatened to take down Sony, upend 2023’s GOTY race, and suck up all of gamers’ precious free time.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Ahead of its launch, game director Todd Howard and Xbox head Phil Spencer were a dynamic duo, showing up at Summer Game Fest together to expound on the awesome power that Starfield would showcase, the 1,000 planets you could step foot on, the bugs you almost certainly wouldn’t encounter. That same weekend, Starfield got its own 45-minute-long “Direct” presentation during the Xbox Showcase, and a physical version of the expensive Constellation Edition sat behind a glass case at the event itself.
    

    Head of Xbox Creator Experience Sarah Bond joined in on the fun, calling Starfield “one of the most important RPGs ever made.” Bethesda head Pete Hines said it took him well over 100 hours to properly start Starfield. All of the hype whipped Xbox fans into a frenzy, and indirectly fueled the flickering flames of the console wars. Starfield’s scope, its potential, even made the then-unreleased game a talking point in the FTC trial regarding Microsoft’s purchase of Activision-Blizzard.
    

    Then, after a few days in what Bethesda dubbed “early access,” available to deep-pocketed players who shelled out big bucks for one of several premium editions, Starfield launched. It is surprisingly not buggy, and jam-packed with side-quests that offer a steady drip of serotonin. But it’s woefully inaccessible, its UI is daunting, and it is, ultimately, just a new Bethesda game. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a stark reminder that hype trains are just marketing tools in a different font. Starfield is a good game, but it is not a groundbreaking one.
    

    Buy Starfield: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
    

    

    

    

    

    Screenshot: Bethesda / Kotaku
    

    

    

    Starfield and serotonin
    

    Before I got a chance to dive into Starfield, I wondered aloud (and on social media) if the game would occupy a similar space in my life that Skyrim has held on more than one occasion. Skyrim never floored me and never lingered after I powered off my console, unlike Marvel’s Spider-Man’s version of Manhattan, or story beats in Mass Effect 2. But every time I dropped back into Skyrim, I fell into the same satisfying loop, emerging from a lengthy play session a little dazed, uncertain of the time, blinking to reaccustom my eyes to the real world outside of its pixels.
    

    Every time I jumped into Skyrim I’d go off searching for some tucked-away relic or NPC in need of help and end up climbing to the top of a peak I saw in the distance, or scurrying through caves like a little gamer Gollum, furiously lining my pockets with shiny objects. I’d “just one more side-quest” myself into the wee hours of the morning, surreptitiously pulling tokes from a pre-roll resting on the table in front of me. No matter what I did, whether it was becoming a vampire or participating in a drinking competition, I was never blown away or taken aback by what Skyrim unfurled before me—I was, however, hooked.
    

    I’m about 20 hours into Starfield and can safely say it is exactly like Skyrim in space. The steady serotonin drip of overhearing a conversation, marking the quest associated with that conversation on my map, completing it, then going back to the list and selecting the next thing is unparalleled. It is the kind of game that completionists salivate over, the kind that I find myself longing to return to and get lost in during my workday, on the train home, while finishing off a workout.
    

    After progressing the main campaign a bit, I violently veered into side-quest territory, spending nearly four hours straight on the Blade Runner-esque planet Neon. I joined a gang, I helped Starfield’s version of Björk recover her music, I tried to console a grief-stricken widow in the shadow of a fish corpse. I paid for VIP lounge access at a bar, helped squash a squabble over a robot that had been vandalized, and rented a room in a hotel just to say I did. Starfield has hooked me in a way that only Bethesda games can, because it is so thoroughly a Bethesda game with a shinier coat of paint.
    

    

    

    Starfield concept art shows an astronaut standing next to a parked space ship. 
    

    

    Image: Bethesda
    

    

    

    Expectation versus reality
    

    There is nothing wrong with Starfield feeling familiar—Bethesda’s formula works, and has for over two decades, so I’m not crucifying Todd Howard for refusing to reinvent the wheel. I am, however, noting that there’s a clear disconnect between calling a game “one of the most important RPGs ever made” and that game then reusing long-existing RPG gameplay mechanics and storytelling techniques throughout.
    

    As Kotaku’s Zack Zweizen points out, Starfield is “still a Bethesda RPG. You can almost feel the ancient bones of Morrowind and Fallout 3 poking through bits of the scenery and menus as you play.” Companions still linger behind NPCs chatting you up, players are still almost always overencumbered, enemies still fall over like action figures when you send a gust of gravity their way that feels almost exactly like Skyrim’s Dragon Shouts.
    

    There’s nothing groundbreaking about Starfield, save for maybe its scope, which is possible largely because of the technological advances that have taken place within the last several years, and are now readily available in consumer-facing products like the Xbox Series X/S and modern PCs.
    

    But as for Starfield bringing new ideas to the genre, or adding anything new to its well-worn formula…it doesn’t. Bethesda has been quietly moving its own role-playing goalposts closer to the more shallow end ever since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, narrowing the scope of what the player can actually influence, placing you in a world that feels perfectly carved out for you to slot into, its problems cleanly laid out for you to solve. Cian Maher’s quote from an Oblivion piece for TheGamer comes to mind: “I also don’t reckon Skyrim ever managed to carve out a portion of its world and imbue [it] with the necessary narrative significance for a conclusion to not seem like deus ex machina.”
    

    Aside from extensive ship-building mechanics, there aren’t any shiny new gameplay additions in Starfield. Building an outpost is just Fallout base-building, leveling your lockpicking or melee abilities follows similar logic to Skyrim, and there are many eerie similarities to Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds. The most noted difference comes not in an updated role-playing system or deeper NPC interactions, but in gunplay—Starfield improves upon Bethesda’s infamous combat clunkiness, and it’s welcome.
    

    But Starfield feels the same way Fallout 4 did, which felt the same way Skyrim did, and that does not make it “one of the most important RPGs” ever made. It just makes it a good Bethesda game, a game made by a studio that Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire. We’d do well to remember that, both as consumers and critics, going forward.
    

    Buy Starfield: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
    

    Update 9/9/20-23 at 10:22 a.m. EST: Removed incorrect reference to No Man’s Sky shipbuilding, added relevant link.
    

    

    

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     Alyssa Mercante
    

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    Microsoft completes blockbuster Activision Blizzard takeover after UK removes final hurdle | CNN Business
    
			
    Microsoft completes blockbuster Activision Blizzard takeover after UK removes final hurdle | CNN Business
    
			
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      CNN
    
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      Microsoft has completed its takeover of Activision Blizzard, the maker of “Call of Duty” and other hit video games, closing one of the biggest tech deals of all time.
  
    

    
      The company said in a filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that Activision (ATVI) had now become a wholly-owned subsidiary.
  
    

    
      Earlier on Friday, UK antitrust officials approved the planned acquisition, removing the final regulatory hurdle to the deal closing.
  
    

    
      The Competition and Markets Authority said the merger had been cleared after the companies agreed to give up certain cloud gaming rights. The concession is “a game-changer” that will allow “competitive prices and better services,” the CMA said in a statement.
  
    

    
      Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled the deal in early 2022, but it was blocked in April by the UK competition regulator.
  
    

    
      The CMA was the only regulator worldwide standing in the way of the landmark acquisition, which was valued at $69 billion when it was first announced.
  
    

    
      The UK regulator had concerns about competition in the cloud gaming market, saying Microsoft could seek to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own platforms, and then increase the cost of user subscriptions, leaving gamers with less choice.
  
    

    
      In August, Microsoft and Activision addressed those concerns by revising the deal.
  
    

    
      They proposed a restructured merger, which would allow Activision’s cloud streaming rights outside the European Union and three other European countries to be sold to a rival, Ubisoft Entertainment.
  
    

    
      That appeased the CMA, which signaled last month that it would most likely approve the reworked takeover.
  
    

    
      “The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming,” the agency said Friday.
  
    

    
      “It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.”
  
    

    
      Activision Blizzard is one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Alongside “Call of Duty,” it also produces “World of Warcraft” and “Overwatch.”
  
    

    
      Microsoft, which sells the Xbox gaming console, offers a popular video game subscription service called Xbox Game Pass, as well as a cloud-based video game streaming service.
  
    

    
      The acquisition is expected to help Microsoft boost its standing in the gaming industry and better compete with market leaders Tencent and Sony.
  
    

    
      In a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Microsoft President Brad Smith said “we’re grateful for the CMA’s thorough review and decision.”
  
    

    
      — Olesya Dmitracova contributed to this article. 
  
    

    

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    Britain says may clear restructured Microsoft-Activision deal | CNN Business
    
			
    Britain says may clear restructured Microsoft-Activision deal | CNN Business
    
			
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      Microsoft’s restructuring of its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard “opens the door” to the biggest ever gaming deal being cleared, Britain’s antitrust regulator said Friday.
  
    

    
      Microsoft (MSFT) announced the deal in early 2022, but it was blocked in April by the UK competition regulator, which was concerned the US tech giant would gain too much control of the nascent cloud gaming market.
  
    

    
      Activision Blizzard (ATVI), which makes “Call of Duty,” agreed in August to sell its streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment in a new attempt to win over the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
  
    

    
      The Ubisoft divestment “substantially addresses previous concerns,” the Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement.
  
    

    
      “While the CMA has identified limited residual concerns with the new deal, Microsoft has put forward remedies which the CMA has provisionally concluded should address these issues,” the regulator said.
  
    

    
      Consummating the deal would turn Microsoft into the third largest video game publisher in the world, after Tencent and Sony.
  
    

    
      Microsoft said it was “encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process.”
  
    

    
      “We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said.
  
    

    
      Activision, which also makes “World of Warcraft,” “Overwatch” and “Candy Crush,” said the preliminary approval was great news for its future with Microsoft.
  
    

    
      The European Union waved the deal through in May after accepting Microsoft’s commitments to license Activision’s games to other platforms, the same remedies that Britain had rejected.
  
    

    
      The US Federal Trade Commission also opposes the deal, but it has failed to stop it. A federal judge ruled in July that the deal can close, a decision the FTC is appealing. 
  
    

    
      The CMA’s decision to reopen the case was a radical departure from its play book, but it said on Friday it had been consistent and Microsoft had “substantially restructured the deal” to address its concerns.
  
    

    
      “It would have been far better, though, if Microsoft had put forward this restructure during our original investigation,” CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said.
  
    

    
      “This case illustrates the costs, uncertainty and delay that parties can incur if a credible and effective remedy option exists but is not put on the table at the right time.”
  
    

    
      Equity analyst Sophie Lund-Yates at Hargreaves Lansdown said the loss of the cloud gaming rights was not an ideal concession for Microsoft to have to make, but it was necessary collateral if the deal were to be waved through.
  
    

    
      “This looks to be the final bump in the road,” she said.
  
    

    
      The CMA said there were “residual concerns” around the Ubisoft deal, but Microsoft has offered remedies to ensure the terms of the sale were enforceable by the regulator.
  
    

    
      It is now consulting on the remedies before making a final decision.
  
    

    

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    10 Things You Should Never Say To An Xbox Gamer
    
			
    10 Things You Should Never Say To An Xbox Gamer
    
			
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    Image: 343 Industries / Microsoft
    

    

    

    

    Whether in seriousness or jest, best to just leave all vaguely unorthodox Halo opinions at the door. Halo: Combat Evolved’s campaign is an all-time classic. We shall never gaze upon the likes of Halo 3’s multiplayer community again. Do not say you loved being able to sprint in Halo 5, let alone that you thought the first Halo without Bungie was the GOAT. Master Chief himself, space hockey pads and all, would not survive the psychic damage.
    

    

    

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     Ethan Gach
    

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    Activision Sues Popular YouTube Music Critic After He Tried Charging For TikTok Clip
    
			
    Activision Sues Popular YouTube Music Critic After He Tried Charging For TikTok Clip
    
			
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    On July 24, Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard filed a lawsuit in California alleging that YouTuber Anthony Fantano, a music critic who runs the immensely popular channel The Needle Drop, is misusing intellectual property law and “leveraging the popularity” of a widespread TikTok voice clip he created for financial gain. The company said that Fantano, widely known as “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” has embarked on a “scheme” to sue certain users of the clip unless they pay him “extortionate amounts of money,” with Activision Blizzard apparently being Fantano’s largest target.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    The Team Behind Tetris On The New Movie And Gaming History 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    At the center of the dispute is a widely used voice clip of Fantano saying “it’s enough slices!” The clip originates in a 2021 TikTok that features Fantano reacting to a pizza being cut into increasingly smaller slices. Fantano looks on appreciatively for a while but the slicing just doesn’t stop, prompting him to eventually scream the now-famous line.
    

    

    The video garnered millions of views and spawned thousands of copycats, leading Activision Blizzard to create their own rendition of the meme in a now-deleted June 2023 TikTok promoting some Crash Bandicoot shoes. Apparently, Fantano wasn’t about it, alleging it created a “false endorsement” of the product without him actually being associated with it. He sent the company a cease-and-desist letter on June 27 demanding that Activision Blizzard stopped using the audio and made a six-figure settlement payment to him. If the company didn’t pay up, he would “initiate litigation.” Interestingly, though, Activision’s lawsuit alleges that Fantano himself opted to put the clip in TikTok’s “Commercial Sounds” library, specifically designating it as usable in advertisements.
    

    “In reliance on TikTok’s explicit representation that the ‘Slices Audio’ was part of its ‘Commercial Sounds’ library— described as ‘sounds that are licensed for commercial use’—Activision paired that video with the ‘Slices Audio,’” the company wrote in the 33-page lawsuit. ‘Notwithstanding that thousands of TikTok videos containing the Slices Audio have been available on TikTok for years without complaint, Fantano suddenly decided that Activision’s video infringed his publicity rights and constituted a false endorsement.”
    

    Activision is effectively arguing that Fantano is trying to game the law for his own gain, with the company’s lawyers writing, “Fantano has embarked on a scheme whereby he selectively threatens to sue certain users of the Slices Audio unless they pay him extortionate amounts of money for their alleged use.”
    

    “This dispute is a textbook example of how intellectual property law can be misused by individuals to leverage unfair cash payments,” Activision’s lawyers wrote. “Fantano was very happy to receive the benefit of the public use of the Slices Video. It was only after he identified a financial opportunity—namely, receiving unjustified settlement payments—that he suddenly decided that his consent was limited. The law does not permit, and the court should not countenance, such overt gamesmanship.”
    

    The company is seeking reimbursement of its legal expenses and a ruling declaring that Fantano cannot sue TikTok users for using the voice clip.
    

    Richard Hoeg, a lawyer who specializes in digital and video game law, told Kotaku in an email that while he hasn’t seen all of the materials in the lawsuit, based on what he knows this far, the company has a decent case here.
    

    “As described by Activision (and remembering theirs is only one side of the story), it would seem they have a good case,” Hoeg said. “The TikTok audio library appears to allow for general commercial use on TikTok, so anyone placing content in the library should be limited in their rights to challenge. That said, there still could be facts we don’t know like whether an unauthorized third party actually effected the sound’s inclusion or even whether it might have been automated.”
    

    Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard and Fantano for comment.
    

     
    

    

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     Levi Winslow
    

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    Hit MMO Final Fantasy XIV Is Finally Coming To Xbox
    
			
    Hit MMO Final Fantasy XIV Is Finally Coming To Xbox
    
			
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    At long last, Xbox owners will soon get to enjoy the MMORPG PlayStation players have enjoyed for nearly a decade. Final Fantasy XIV is headed to Xbox Series X/S in spring 2024 after being a PlayStation console exclusive since 2014. 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Producer and director Naoki Yoshida made the announcement on stage at the game’s 2023 fanfest in Las Vegas, NV alongside Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. The Xbox Series X/S version will offer 4K graphics and faster load times, like its PlayStation 5 counterpart. While the full release is still almost a year away, an open beta will be available for players to try much sooner when patch 6.5x arrives in the months ahead. 
    

    For those who have been living under an adamantoise shell, Final Fantasy XIV has you complete fetch quests, dungeons, and raids across the dazzling world of Hydaelyn, full of political intrigue and mythical wonder. The game was one of the first live-service disasters when it first launched in 2013, and was even entirely shutdown for a time before re-releasing as A Realm Reborn. 
    

    

    

    

    

    Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
    

    

    

    It’s recieved increasingly excellent expansions ever since, each introducing new characters, classes, and conflicts. And while it’s an MMO, a  Duty Support system lets you play solo with AI-controlled NPCs. By the time Final Fantasy XIV comes to Xbox Series X/S, Square Enix says the feature will enable players to complete everything from the start of the game up through its most recent Endwalker expansion without ever needing to interact with another human being.
    

    Why did it take so long to get FFXIV on Xbox?
    

    The story of how we got here, however, is a long one. Yoshida was asked as early as 2013 why the game wasn’t on Xbox One. His answer at the time was that Microsoft’s stance on crossplay was too restrictive. “The main reason from our side is that I don’t want the community to be divided; to be split into two or more. For example, one player might be on the PC version, another might be on the PS4 version, and I’m playing the Xbox version – but we’re not able to join the same game servers,” he told RPGSite at the time. “That is just… I just don’t like the idea. I disagree with it.”
    

    That was back when Microsoft was the company seemingly standing in the way of crossplay between the two consoles. Years later, roles were reversed, with Sony pushing back against crossplay for games like Fortnite. Yoshida repeated his requirement for crossplay in a 2017 interview with Kotaku, and things seemed to be progressing in that direction not long after. 
    

    Spencer publicly promised to bring the game to Xbox at the X019 fanfest event in London. “We have a great relationship with Yoshida-san and we’re working through what it means to bring a cross-platform MMO, that they’ve run for years,” he told VGC at the time. “It will be one of the games that’s coming and it’s something that I know our Xbox fans will be incredibly excited to see.”
    

    No deal immeidately materialized, however. Yoshida was asked again what the problem was during a 2021 interview around the time Final Fantasy XIV came to PS5. “So I feel bad for saying the same thing every time,” he told Easy Allies. “But we are still in discussions with Microsoft and I feel like our conversations are going in a positive tone.” 
    

    The positive tone of those conversations seemingly wasn’t enough to finally get Sony to agree to crossplay though, until now. The two companies also recently reached a 10-year agreement for Call of Duty to keep coming to PlayStation after Microsoft’s acqusition of Activision Blizzard is finalized. Purely a coincidence, I’m sure. Sony, Microsoft, and Square Enix did not immediately respond to requets for comment. 
    

    

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     Ethan Gach
    

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    Microsoft And Sony Finally Reach Deal For The Future Of Call Of Duty On PlayStation
    
			
    Microsoft And Sony Finally Reach Deal For The Future Of Call Of Duty On PlayStation
    
			
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    Photo: Barone Firenze / Activision / Kotaku (Shutterstock)
    

    

    

    

    Microsoft and Sony have finally reached a deal for keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation once the Activision Blizzard merger goes through. The surprise agreement comes after months of fighting between the two companies and is a sign the acquisition is all but inevitable. 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tweeted on July 16. “We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games.”
    

    

    It’s not immediately clear what the terms of that agreement are, and whether they are similar to proposals Microsoft recently signed with Nintendo and other cloud gaming providers. In the past, Sony has paid Activision for special benefits relating to Call of Duty, including timed-exclusive content and special marketing rights. It was also revealed during the recent court battle over the deal that Activision had leveraged its partnership with Sony to negotiate better commission rates for the franchise on Xbox.
    

    Read More: Sony Won’t Share PS6 Info With Call Of Duty Devs If Owned By Microsoft
    

    Sony had been vigorously contesting Microsoft’s planned acquisition of the publisher in regulatory proceedings across Europe, the UK, and the U.S. After the recent legal defeat of the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block the deal, however, the PlayStation 5 maker seems to have decided it’s time to settle. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan had reportedly said in the past that his only interest was in blocking the deal. 
    

    Sony’s current agreement with Activision wasn’t set to expire until 2025, and the new agreement seems likely to carry through for at least the rest of the PS5’s life. Microosft has claimed all along that it’s not in its financial interest to make the series exclusive as the games generate billions in revenue on the competing platform. 
    

    Microsoft declined to comment. Sony did not immediately respond. 
    

    

    

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     Ethan Gach
    

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    Appeals court rejects FTC’s request to pause Microsoft-Activision deal
    
			
    Appeals court rejects FTC’s request to pause Microsoft-Activision deal
    
			
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    A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by federal regulators to block Microsoft from closing its $68.7 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard, paving the way for the completion of the biggest acquisition in tech history after a legal battle over whether it will undermine competition.
    

    In a brief ruling, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded there were no grounds for issuing an order that would have prevented Microsoft from completing its nearly 18-month-old deal to take over the maker of popular video games such as “Call of Duty.”
    

    The Redmond, Washington, software maker is facing a $3 billion termination fee if the deal isn’t completed by Tuesday.
    


    “This brings us another step closer to the finish line in this marathon of global regulatory reviews,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.
    

    The appeal filed by the Federal Trade Commission was a last-ditch effort from antitrust enforcers to halt the merger after another federal judge earlier this week ruled against the agency’s attempt to block it. The FTC was seeking an injunction to prevent Microsoft from moving to close the deal as early as this weekend.
    

    The FTC declined to comment on the ruling.
    

    The two companies first announced the deal back in January 2022. The FTC said in December it was suing to block the sale, saying at the time that such a deal would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.”  
    

    U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley’s ruling, published Tuesday, said the FTC hadn’t shown that the deal would cause substantial harm. She focused, in part, on Microsoft’s promises and economic incentive to keep “Call of Duty” available on rivals to its own Xbox gaming system, such as Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch.
    

    Corley wrote that “the FTC has not raised serious questions regarding whether the proposed merger is likely to substantially lessen competition in the console, library subscription services, or cloud gaming markets.”
    

    In its appeal, the FTC argued Corley made “fundamental errors.”
    

    “This case is about more than a single video game and the console hardware to play it,” the FTC said. “It is about the future of the gaming industry. At stake is how future gamers will play and whether the emerging subscription and cloud markets will calcify into concentrated, walled gardens or evolve into open, competitive landscapes.” 
    

    Corley on Thursday also denied a request from the FTC to put Microsoft’s purchase on hold while it awaited the Ninth Circuit’s decision.  
    

    The case has been a difficult test for the FTC’s stepped-up scrutiny of the tech industry’s business practices under its chairperson, Lina Khan, appointed in 2021 by President Biden. Standing legal doctrine has favored mergers between companies that don’t directly compete with one another.
    

    The FTC said Corley, herself a Biden nominee, applied the wrong legal standard by effectively requiring its attorneys to prove their full case now rather than in a trial due to start in August before the FTC’s in-house judge.
    

    It was the FTC, however, that had asked Corley for an urgent hearing on its request to block Microsoft and Activision Blizzard from rushing to close the deal. The agency’s argument was that if the deal closed now, it would be harder to reverse the merger if it was later found to violate antitrust laws.
    

    In its response to the appeal, Microsoft countered that it could easily divest Activision Blizzard later if it had to. It has long defended the deal as good for gaming.
    

    The deal still faces an obstacle in the United Kingdom, though one it now appears closer to surmounting.
    

    British antitrust regulators on Friday extended their deadline to issue a final order on the proposed merger, allowing them to consider Microsoft’s “detailed and complex submission” pleading its case.
    

    The Competition and Markets Authority had rejected the deal over fears it would stifle competition for popular game titles in the fast-growing cloud gaming market. But the U.K. watchdog appears to have softened its position after Corley thwarted U.S. regulators’ efforts to block the deal.
    

    The authority says it has pushed its original deadline back six weeks to Aug. 29 so it could go through Microsoft’s response, which details “material changes in circumstance and special reasons” why regulators shouldn’t issue an order to reject the deal.
    

        
    


    

    

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    Activision Set To Become Part Of Microsoft After FTC’s Last-Ditch Effort Fails
    
			
    Activision Set To Become Part Of Microsoft After FTC’s Last-Ditch Effort Fails
    
			
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    Photo: Anadolu Agency (Getty Images)
    

    

    

    

    The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Federal Trade Commission’s final request to pause Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard, likely paving the way for the biggest-ever merger in gaming to finally move forward after a more than year-long regulatory saga. 
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    The Open World Racing Game That’s Been Gone For A Decade Is Coming Back
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    The FTC had sought to have the acquisition kept on hold ahead of a July 18 deadline while appealing a ruling from the Northern District of California that sided with Microsoft. It was the antitrust agency’s last chance to stop the historic $69 billion merger that would see major gaming franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush all become an extension of Xbox. 
    

    Regulators argued that the federal court had ignored evidence that Microsoft would have reasonable incentive to potentially make those franchises exclusives to its console and cloud gaming platforms in order to corner the market. Microsoft in turn blamed the FTC for using delay tactics and underselling a massive $3 billion breakup fee Microsoft would have to pay to Activision if the deal ended up not going through for some reason. 
    

    The Ninth Circuit will still handle that appeal, but denied the FTC’s motion to block the merger until that ruling was made, giving Microsoft the greenlight to close its deal on July 17. 
    

    

    It’s been a long journey up to this point, full of twists and turns, including abroad in the UK, the only country to block the deal so far. That country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had denied the merger on the grounds that it would give Microsoft too much of an advantage in the nascent market of cloud gaming. 
    

    Following the FTC’s initial court defeat earlier this week, however, the CMA announced it was back negotiating with Microsoft over new ways to resolve the antitrust conflicts. It’s now extended its final deadline for approval of the deal into August, suggesting it’s prepared to accept the tech giant’s latest concessions. 
    

    

    While nothing’s final until it’s final, it now looks like Microsoft’s shocking acquisition of one of the biggest game publishers in the world is about to become a reality, and will soon have the potential to completely reshape the video gaming landscape in the process. Or maybe Xbox owners will just get a bunch more free games on Game Pass. Time will tell. 
    

    

    

    

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     Ethan Gach
    

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    Federal Trade Commission’s request to pause Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover of Activision during appeal denied by judge
    
			
    Federal Trade Commission’s request to pause Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover of Activision during appeal denied by judge
    
			
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    A federal judge in Northern California has denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission to pause Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard while the FTC appeals the acquisition. 
    

    U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled Tuesday that Microsoft’s pending takeover of the video game giant can move forward, against the FTC’s wishes.
    

    In court filings Wednesday, the FTC said it was appealing Corley’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. However, in an order issued Thursday, Corley denied the FTC’s motion to put Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, maker of the popular “Call of Duty” game series, on hold while that appeal moves forward. 
    


    Microsoft and Activision had previously indicated that a deadline of July 18 had been set to complete the acquisition. 
    

    The two companies first announced the deal back in January 2022. The FTC, which is responsible for enforcing antitrust laws, said in December it was suing to block the sale, saying at the time that such a deal would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.”
    

    In her ruling Tuesday, Corley wrote that “the FTC has not raised serious questions regarding whether the proposed merger is likely to substantially lessen competition in the console, library subscription services, or cloud gaming markets.” 
    

    The trial in the FTC’s lawsuit, which is slated to take place in the FTC’s own in-house court, is scheduled to start in August, according to The Associated Press. The FTC’s request to Corley for an injunction was an effort to block the merger before that trial starts. 
    

    If the deal goes through, it would be the largest acquisition of a video game company in U.S. history. 
    

    — Irina Ivanova contributed to this report. 
    

        
    


    

    

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    9 Things We Just Learned About Sony’s Big Playstation Plans
    
			
    9 Things We Just Learned About Sony’s Big Playstation Plans
    
			
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    With the wind at their back, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst recently presented the state of the PlayStation 5 ecosystem to investors and hinted at what’s coming in the near future. Among other things, the company promised new IPs, more live-service games, and a big push behind cloud gaming.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Type S: Chiaki’s Journey II Volume 4
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    While Sony’s big gaming showcase will offer specific details on new game announcements, release dates, and potential hardware refreshes, the investor presentation was a broader look at the current state of the PlayStation business and where it’s headed next. We got a pretty granular breakdown of some interesting sales data as well as cryptic teases of upcoming initiatives, like Sony’s rumored cloud gaming handheld, Q Lite [Update 5/25/2023 11:07 a.m. ET: the devices was revealed in the showcase and it’s wild looking]. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the company’s latest business meeting.
    

    PS VR2 is already outselling the first virtual reality headset
    

    Sony’s new virtual reality headset is a comfortable but pricey bundle that requires users to already own a PS5, but initial sales numbers show it’s actually tracking ahead of the first PS VR headset. PS VR2 sold 600,000 units in its first six weeks, while the PS VR1 sold closer to 550,000. Whether that momentum will build the platform into something more than an expensive accessory for enthusiasts remains to be seen.
    

    

    

    

    

    Image: Sony / Kotaku
    

    

    

    Analysts previously called for a price cut to fuel sales, and it’s unclear if big new games will arrive without a larger install base, especially as companies like Meta lay off VR developers amid cutbacks.
    

    Sony plans to invest a ton in new franchises
    

    Since the PS5 launched, fans have been waiting to see what new IPs would grow out of the latest console generation. So far it’s been mostly sequels to series that already existed or got their start on the PS4 like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Spider-Man. But Sony revealed that new franchises are planned. PlayStation Studios’ investment in new IP will hit 50 percent in 2025, compared to only 20 percent in 2019. However the lag in production means we might not end up seeing the results of that spending until late in the PS5’s life cycle.
    

    Live-service games will be over half of that spending
    

    Sony’s first-party single-player games have been setting the bar for story-driven blockbusters for years now, from The Last of Us to Ghost of Tsushima. It’s clear the company now wants to do the same for live-service multiplayer games as well, and will be leveraging its recent acquisition of Destiny 2 maker Bungie to achieve that.
    

    

    

    A PowerPoint slide shows how much players spend on microtransactions. 
    

    

    Image: Sony / Kotaku
    

    

    

    The breakdown of total spending on content this year will be 55 percent on live-service business models vs 45 percent on “traditional” ones. The difference will be even more stark by 2025, when live-service spending will reach 60 percent of seemingly all production costs. It’s possible some of those games will still have a traditional single-player emphasis and just include cosmetic shops, like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Others are sure to be multiplayer-focused affairs more like Destiny 2.
    

    PS5 owners spend a ton on microtransactions
    

    Prestigious exclusives might help sell consoles, but it’s not what makes the most money once players are locked in. Sony revealed that PS5 players are spending over $100 more than PS4 players were at a similar point in the console cycle. That extra money isn’t coming from more games sold, however. It’s coming from spending on add-on content, meaning paid DLC and microtransactions.
    

    Full game sales actually dropped by 10 percent on the PS5, while add-on content grew by 210 percent. Although Sony collects a 30 percent commission on all in-game purchases in Fortnite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and Apex Legends on the platform, it would stand to make a ton more if those purchases were made inside its own first-party exclusives.
    

    Spider-Man sold great on PC while The Last of Us Part I is off to a slower start
    

    2018’s Spider-Man didn’t arrive on PC until last year. In the eight months since it hit PC, the game sold an additional 1.5 million copies on the platform. The Last of Us Part I, meanwhile, has sold 368,000 copies since it arrived on Steam in March. That’s not bad considering it’s a remaster of a decade-old game many people have already played on PS3, PS4, and PS5. But it’s not exactly God of War numbers, which sold nearly a million copies in its first two and a half months on PC.
    

    

    

    A PowerPoint slide shows game sales on PC. 
    

    

    Image: Sony / Kotaku
    

    

    

    It’s not clear how much The Last of Us Part I’s rough performance and poor optimization at launch hurt its initial momentum, compared to the overall increase in sales of the game across all platforms following the success of the hit HBO adaptation. It seems like the port was in part a learning exercise for Naughty Dog, potentially as Sony eyes bringing the rest of its games to PC.
    

    Half of all game releases won’t just be on PS5 by 2025
    

    In the past Sony seemed afraid to cannibalize console sales by releasing its games on PC. Now it’s clear the company is ready to do just the opposite, porting its exclusives and investing in potential mobile spin-offs. The company plans for 50 percent of its releases in 2025 to be either PC or mobile games.
    

    A lot of players are paying for the more expensive PlayStation Plus subscriptions
    

    When Sony unveiled its overhauled PS Plus program, creating three separate tiers and folding its PlayStation Now streaming service into the priciest one, it seemed needlessly complicated. The highest tier, Premium, also didn’t seem worth the extra price in exchange for a slim selection of PlayStation Classics and cloud gaming features that are still a work-in-progress.
    

    

    

    A PowerPoint slide shows how many users subscribe to PS Plus Premium and Extra. 
    

    

    Image: Sony / Kotaku
    

    

    

    It turns out a lot of people were willing to upgrade, however. Sony says 14.1 million subscribers joined the higher tiers in the first 10 months, which now represent 30 percent of all PS Plus users. And Premium actually accounts for the majority of those with 17 percent of total subscribers, while the middle-tier, Extra, only has 13 percent.
    

    The first PlayStation mobile game will arrive as early as 2023
    

    Sony said it’s currently “partnered with established teams on games,” and “bringing some of our most celebrated IP to mobile,” with the first set to release in fiscal year 2023. The company acquired mobile maker Savage Game Studios last August and Bungie has also long been rumored to be working on a mobile version of Destiny 2. According to Sony’s charts, the mobile gaming market is already bigger than console and PC gaming combined, and it only projects that gap to widen in the coming years.
    

    Sony’s doubling-down on cloud gaming
    

    In the most cryptic part of the presentation, CEO Jim Ryan said the company has “some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in the space of the cloud.” He didn’t elaborate on what those are, but made the comment in the context of mobile gaming and portability. It certainly raises eyebrows since Sony has also now revealed a cloud gaming handheld codenamed Project Q that would be a remote play accessory for the PS5.
    

    PS Plus also doesn’t currently support cloud gaming on smartphones either, requiring you to use a PS4, PS5, or PC. We do know that Sony has been developing a number of patents to decrease latency while streaming games, and The Verge previously reported that the company is hiring for a number of roles to build out its cloud gaming infrastructure. Cloud gaming has been at the center of the regulatory fight over Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, and it seems like whatever the outcome of that proposed merger, Sony wants to take back some of the video game streaming market share it previously ceded to Game Pass and xCloud. 
    

                  
    

    

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    British antitrust regulators block Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard
    
			
    British antitrust regulators block Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard
    
			
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    British antitrust regulators block Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard – CBS News
    



    
    
    

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                    British antitrust regulators have blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard. In a statement Wednesday, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said, “we’ve prevented Microsoft from purchasing Activision over concerns the deal would damage competition in the cloud gaming market, leading to less innovation and choice for UK gamers.” The all-cash deal was set to be the biggest in the history of the tech industry. Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities, has more.
                      
    

    

    
    

        
    

    

    
  
    

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    UK Blocks Microsoft Activision Deal Over Game Pass
    
			
    UK Blocks Microsoft Activision Deal Over Game Pass
    
			
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    The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its decision to block Micorosft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Wednesday citing concerns it would hurt competition in the growing cloud gaming market where Microsoft dominates thanks to Game Pass. It’s a shocking turn of events for what seemed like a mega merger that was otherwise cruising toward regulatory approval.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Blade’s Book Club Is The Best Thing About Marvel’s Midnight Suns
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    “We have concluded that the merger would result in the most powerful operator in the fast-developing market for cloud gaming, with a current market share of 60-70%, acquiring a portfolio of world-leading games with the incentive to withhold those games from competitors and substantially weaken competition in this important growing market,” the CMA wrote in its final report. Both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard said they will appeal the decision.
    

    One seemingly likely result of Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard would be that the latter’s hit games like Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II would all get added to Game Pass. The CMA argues this would give Microsoft, already the market leader in cloud gaming, even more anti-competitive control. It also suggests that the company would then have an incentive to raise prices on cloud gaming subscription services like Game Pass, while potentially withholding certain releases from some rival platforms like Sony’s PlayStation Plus.
    

    Read More: Everything That’s Happened In The Microsoft-Activision Merger Saga
    

    Microsoft tried to assuage these concerns in recent months by signing tons of deals with smaller cloud computing providers in the UK, promising to make Activision Blizzard’s games available through them alongside its own xCloud service. The CMA seemed unswayed by these overtures, however, calling Microsoft’s proposed remedies too limited in scope, implying they would leave out competing services like Sony’s and that enforcing the agreements would require too much ongoing regulatory oversight.
    

    “We have already signed contracts to make Activision Blizzard’s popular games available on 150 million more devices, and we remain committed to reinforcing these agreements through regulatory remedies,” Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President at Microsoft, said in a statement. “We’re especially disappointed that after lengthy deliberations, this decision appears to reflect a flawed understanding of this market and the way the relevant cloud technology actually works.”
    

    Activision’s response to the news was more harsh. “The CMA’s report contradicts the ambitions of the UK to become an attractive country to build technology businesses,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “We will work aggressively with Microsoft to reverse this on appeal. The report’s conclusions are a disservice to UK citizens, who face increasingly dire economic prospects. We will reassess our growth plans for the UK. Global innovators large and small will take note that— despite all its rhetoric—the UK is clearly closed for business.”
    

    That language echoed Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s previous claims that the UK would become “death valley” if it torpedoed the deal, which promises huge financial windfalls for him and other executives at the company. The merger is still being investigated by authorities in the European Union, who are expected to announce a decision in May, and the Federal Trade Commission is currently threatening the acquisition with an antitrust lawsuit. It’s unclear how the CMA’s initial surprise ruling could affect approval in the U.S. and EU as a result, since failure in any one of the regions could likely doom it. 
    

             
    

    

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    Bobby Kotick Calls Out PlayStation In Email To Whole World
    
			
    Bobby Kotick Calls Out PlayStation In Email To Whole World
    
			
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    Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)
    

    

    

    

    As we grow closer to the finish line in the months-long struggle for Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, things are getting tense. Governments are getting involved, weird promises are being made and the people at the centre of it all—like Activision CEO Bobby Kotick—sound like they’re starting to feel the strain.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    This Mini Sega Arcade Cabinet Packed With Retro Games Would Make A Great Gift
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Which might explain why earlier today Kotick sent out an email to his entire company—and then posted it on the internet for the whole world to see—which does little but bang his head against the wall repeating the same arguments Microsoft, Activision (and now select US politicians) have been making for months: that the deal is fine, that everything is cool, that Microsoft has made “thoughtful, generous remedies to address regulators’ concerns”.
    

    One thing stands out in this email, though, and it’s a section where Kotick has to juggle maintaining a business relationship with Sony while also wanting to throw them under the bus. Let’s see how he fared (emphasis mine):
    

    

     The good news is, regulators who initially had concerns about console competition are starting to better understand our industry. The data and evidence Microsoft has been presenting are tilting the scale. You may have seen statements from Sony, including an argument that if this deal goes through, Microsoft could release deliberately “buggy” versions of our games on PlayStation. We all know our passionate players would be the first to hold Microsoft accountable for keeping its promises of content and quality parity. And, all of us who work so hard to deliver the best games in our industry care too deeply about our players to ever launch sub-par versions of our games. Sony has even admitted that they aren’t actually concerned about a Call of Duty agreement—they would just like to prevent our merger from happening. This is obviously disappointing behavior from a partner for almost thirty years, but we will not allow Sony’s behavior to affect our long term relationship. PlayStation players know we will continue to deliver the best games possible on Sony platforms as we have since the launch of PlayStation.
    

    

    

    

    G/O Media may get a commission
    

    

    

    In other words, “it’s not me, it’s you”. I don’t see any other way he could have put this, to be honest, but then this kind of tiptoeing is exactly why this proposed deal has been so important to the future of the console business: so many grenades have been lobbed by both sides that there’s going to be bad blood here for years regardless of the decision. 
    

    

    

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     Luke Plunkett
    

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    Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson Asks Fans To Calm Down After Getting Slammed
    
			
    Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson Asks Fans To Calm Down After Getting Slammed
    
			
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    Brandon Sanderson is a fantasy author who nets tens of millions of dollars in book sales every year, which puts him in the same book-selling league as George R.R. Martin. However, his financial success has not really translated into a similar mainstream visibility outside of his specific fanbase—until this week. The tech magazine Wired published a cynical profile about Sanderson yesterday, and the author’s fans are pissed. Things got so heated that Sanderson had to take to Reddit to tell his community to back off.
    

    Sanderson is best known as the writer of The Stormlight Archive, The Reckoners, and Mistborn series—all of which take place in his original fictional universe, called the Cosmere. His books have extensive magic systems in them, and he’s known as the inventor of the concepts of “hard” and “soft” magic. He has also written the final books of the fantasy epic series The Wheel of Time, picking up after Robert Jordan passed away in 2007. 
    

    The Wired profile 
    

    Despite extensive successes and credentials, Wired editor Jason Kehe did not seem impressed by Sanderson as an author or as an individual. His profile makes some attempts to explain Sanderson’s worldbuilding prowess using his Mormon background, but struggles to connect with Sanderson’s personal life experiences, even though Kehe went to Utah to learn more about the author and the people he surrounded himself with. 
    

    As a result, the article is not very flattering. “At the sentence level, [Sanderson] is no great gift to English prose,” Kehe writes. “He writes, by one metric, at a sixth-grade reading level.” It’s definitely not a description that fans are used to seeing from a multi-million dollar selling author who penned decades worth of books. 
    

    Neither is Kehe impressed by the personal life that the bestselling author lives, or the manner in which he holds himself. “To my mind, I still haven’t gotten anything real from Sanderson, anything true. I’m not the first person he has toured around his lair to politely gawk at his treasures and trophies and his hallway of custom stained-glass renditions of his favorite books,” he writes. “Sanderson has lived so much of his life and fame openly, self-promotionally. It’s a major reason for his success.” 
    

    

    

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    “I find Sanderson depressingly, story-killingly lame,” Kehe wrote, days before he met the author’s family or his fans. “He sits across from me in an empty restaurant, kind of lordly and sure of his insights, in a graphic T-shirt and ill-fitting blazer, which he says he wears because it makes him look professorial. It doesn’t. He isn’t. Unless the word means only: believing everything you say is worth saying. Sanderson talks a lot, but almost none of it is usable, quotable.”
    

    At the end of the piece, Kehe describes Sanderson as a god. Not because of his literary prowess, but because the author had created worlds that had enthralled so many readers over the course of decades. “If Sanderson is a writer, that is all he is doing. He is living his fantasy of godhead on Earth,” he writes. Kehe seemed to struggle to see any humility in a man who had a literary empire within his grasp. Kehe was a visitor from a distant land (San Francisco), and he took the velvet gloves off when he had to leave a review of his travels. 
    

    Read More: Subnautica Devs And Fantasy Author Brandon Sanderson Team Up In Cool-Looking Miniatures Battle Game
    

    Fantasy fans reacted on Twitter
    

    The internet responded loudly. “[The article writer] is nasty, jealous, catty, and uncharitable to someone who delivers value to millions of fans, and never has a bad word to say about anyone,” tweeted one author named Travis Corcoran. “I imagine he’s pissed that Sanderson isn’t nearly as good at ’constructing sentences’ as he is … and yet makes $20M/yr while the Wired editor makes, I dunno, $60k?” Several other people cited Sanderson’s kind personality and financial success as reasons why the profile should never have been published.
    

    Even Activision Blizzard’s poster-in-chief weighed in. “The sneering tone. The gratuitous meanness of insulting a man in front of his family after he has invited you into his home. The bullying cheap shots at people you consider nerds,” tweeted Lulu Cheng Meservey. “Fantasy writing is valuable, being prolific isn’t a bad thing, people can like different things from you, and nerds are the best.” 
    

    “My basic feeling has always been: We write stories, and then they belong to readers,” wrote Kehe in an email to Kotaku. “Readers get the last word.”
    

    Brandon Sanderson’s response
    

    Look, nobody is coming for the human rights of fantasy nerds. And a writer who makes several million dollars a year off his own IP isn’t going to be toppled by some mean article. Even Sanderson himself thinks so. He wrote a Reddit thread today pleading for his fans to keep calm. He agreed that his life wasn’t very exciting for a profile, and that his ordinary and trauma-free life “is kind of boring, from an outsider’s perspective.” While he appreciated that his fans were willing to defend him, he wanted them to let Kehe be. He felt that the profile was not an attack on the community, and that the Wired editor had been honest about his opinions. Kotaku reached out for a comment, but did not receive one by the time of publication.
    

    “[Kehe] should not be attacked for sharing his feelings,” Sanderson wrote. “If we attack people for doing so, we make the world a worse place, because fewer people will be willing to be their authentic selves.”
    

    

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     Sisi Jiang
    

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    Microsoft Just Overcame A Major Hurdle Blocking The Activision Deal
    
			
    Microsoft Just Overcame A Major Hurdle Blocking The Activision Deal
    
			
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      Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard inched closer in a big way on Friday. UK regulators announced a provisional finding that the acquisition wouldn’t harm competition, despite previously suggesting the Xbox maker might need to spin-off the Call of Duty business to get the sale approved. 
    

    The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority was initially skeptical of Microsoft’s promises to keep the military shooter available on PlayStation consoles for many years to come, arguing it could have a financial incentive to pull the blockbuster series from the platform in the future. The CMA now says that after receiving more detailed information about Call of Duty player spending, it’s clear that making the series exclusive to Xbox would lose Microsoft a ton of money.
    

    “The CMA inquiry group has updated its provisional findings and reached the provisional conclusion that, overall, the transaction will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK,” it wrote in a press release. The CMA continued:
    

    

    While the CMA’s original analysis indicated that this strategy would be profitable under most scenarios, new data (which provides better insight into the actual purchasing behaviour of CoD gamers) indicates that this strategy would be significantly loss-making under any plausible scenario. On this basis, the updated analysis now shows that it would not be commercially beneficial to Microsoft to make CoD exclusive to Xbox following the deal, but that Microsoft will instead still have the incentive to continue to make the game available on PlayStation.
    

    

    The CMA is still reviewing Game Pass
    

    The regulatory agency is still investigating the cloud gaming side of the deal, with its final verdict/decision still not due out until 26 April. Call of Duty seemed to be the biggest sticking point in the CMA’s skepticism of the deal, however, and Microsoft seems to have now tentatively assuaged those fears. It’s also been busy shoring up its defense on the cloud gaming front by striking deals with several smaller competitors to guarantee its first-party games will be available on other services if the deal goes through.
    

    One big question that remains is what a final deal between Microsoft and Sony will look like. An Activision spokesperson had previously claimed that Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan was unwilling to negotiate, stating his only objective was to permanently kill the acquisition. As that outcome becomes increasingly unlikely, the PS5 manufacturer will seemingly have no alternative but to hammer out the details of Microsoft’s 10-year Call of Duty proposal.
    

    

    

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      Read More: Xbox Cans PS5 Version Of Big Game Despite All The Talk About Player Choice
    

    Determining the availability of Activision Blizzard games like Diablo IV and an upcoming Black Ops sequel on Game Pass competitor PS Plus will be a key part of that. In its latest argument to the CMA pushing back on Sony’s concerns, Microsoft went so far as to suggest that 10 years would be plenty of time for it to go make its own Call of Duty competitor if it was so concerned about losing it.
    

    In the meantime, Microsoft still needs to get approval from European regulators and deal with an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission. But investors seem more hyped for the deal than they’ve ever been. Activision Blizzard’s stock price shot up to $85 a share following the CMA’s latest announcement, more than at any point since the acquisition was announced. 
    

    It’s the most the company has been worth since it was sued for alleged widespread sexual harassment and discrimaiton.
    

          
    

    

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     Ethan Gach
    

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    Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.
    
			
    Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks.
    
			
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    Silicon Valley could use a reboot. The biggest players aren’t growing, and more than a few are seeing sharp revenue declines. Regulators seem opposed to every proposed merger, while legislators push for new rules to crack down on the internet giants. The Justice Department just can’t stop filing antitrust suits against Google. The initial public offering market is closed. Venture-capital investments are plunging, along with valuations of prepublic companies. Maybe they should try turning the whole thing on and off.
    

    The only strategy that seems to be working is to lay people off. Tech CEOs suddenly are channeling Marie Kondo, tidying up and keeping only the people and projects that “spark joy,” or at least support decent operating margins. Layoffs.fyi reports that tech companies have laid off more than 122,000 people already this year.
    

    

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