Microsoft
(MSFT) is buying a 4% stake in the London Stock Exchange as part of a deal that will see the market operator spend at least $2.8 billion over 10 years on the software provider’s cloud services.
The companies announced the partnership in a joint statement on Monday, touting the benefits it will deliver to the stock exchange’s customers through improved data and analytics. Shares of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) gained 4% in early trade.
The partnership “creates attractive revenue growth opportunities for both companies,” LSEG CEO David Schwimmer said in the statement.
As part of the deal, the London Stock Exchange’s data platform and other technology infrastructure will migrate into Microsoft’s Azure cloud environment.
The companies also plan to work together to develop new products and services for data and analytics using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
As a start, the exchange will be able to share its data and analytics with Teams and Microsoft 365, which includes Excel and PowerPoint.
“The partnership will build on the good progress made by LSEG on the integration of Refinitiv and enhance its position as a world-leading financial markets infrastructure and data provider,” the statement said.
LSEG completed its $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv last year, making it the second largest financial data company after Bloomberg. Its data and analytics business makes up two-thirds of group revenue.
The deal with Microsoft includes a commitment by LSEG to spend at least $2.8 billion on the software provider’s cloud-related products and services over the 10-year term of the partnership. This is consistent with existing long-term spending plans, according to the statement.
Microsoft will buy its LSEG shares from Blackstone and Thomson Reuters
(TRI). The purchase is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023.
Academy Award winner Al Pacino may have opened the 2022 Game Awards, a night of industry recognition and expensive marketing for the biggest games around, but it was a new type of internet celebrity who closed it out. “I want to nominate this award to my reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton,” said a young kid with long hair who appeared onstage suddenly after Elden Ring was crowned Game of the Year. He was wearing an ill-fitting coat, sneaking up on stage behind the the Elden Ring development team.
Security followed, and chaos ensued online as everyone tried to figure out what the hell had just happened during host Geoff Keighley’s otherwise heavily orchestrated three-hour event. But this was far from the first time the young man, whose name Kotaku believes to be Matan Even, had sprung to brief internet fame through internet-pilled trolling, even if it might have been his weirdest.
After the ceremony finished, Keighley tweeted that the “individual who interrupted” the event had been arrested. Five hours later, however, Even was already tweeting. “Today there is a lot of talk, and speculation,” he wrote. “More information will be released on all fronts sooner than later.”
When asked about what transpired after the incident, the LAPD media relations office contradicted Keighley’s account, saying a report had been taken but no arrest was made. When asked to square that, a spokesperson for The Game Awards provided a more detailed account.
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They said Even was taken to a “secure area” inside the Microsoft Theater by TGA security staff where he was then questioned by venue security as well as “TGA-hired onsite LAPD officers.” They said he was then taken into custody and transported to a local police station for booking by the TGA-hired LAPD officers in their patrol vehicle. When asked about that version of events, a representative from the LAPD would only confirm that the individual had been transported to a station. Since no arrest was made, it’s unclear how long he was held for questioning.
While this may be the first time Even risked arrest, it was far from his first publicity stunt. Before stealthing his way on stage at one of the gaming industry’s biggest events of the year in front of an audience of over a million people, Even crashed a BlizzCon panel, went viral for pranking the L.A. Clippers fan cam, and appeared on right-wing conspiracy show Infowars at least twice.
The Clippers stunt came in October 2019. Amid the Hong Kong protests, Even momentarily appeared on the fan cam at the team’s home stadium, only to immediately hold up a black t-shirt that read, “Fight for Freedom Stand with Hong Kong.” China had blacklisted the Houston Rockets after their general manager tweeted out a picture of the same t-shirt just a couple of weeks earlier.
The next month, Even interrupted a BlizzCon 2019 panel with a similar message in support of the Hong Kong protests. Blizzard had suspended Overwatchpro Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai the prior month for doing the same, and along with the NBA and other companies, came under fire at the time for its failure to stand up for Hong Kong’s democratic protesters.
As Motherboard points out, this made Even a ripe target to be co-opted by right-wing political actors who saw the opportunity to attack seeming liberal hypocrisy on the issue. But Even was also apparently already a big fan of at least one of Infowars’ hosts, Owen Shroyer. He said as much in a 2019 appearance, calling Shroyer his “favorite person on Infowars,” while in a second appearance in 2020 Shroyer called Even “one of the young stars of the conservative movement.”
While Even’s own social media activity appears to be almost exclusively concerned with the Hong Kong protests and censorship by the Chinese government, his journey from protester to Infowars guest is also a perfect example of the ambiently reactionary online pipeline that can lead one from Googling political issues to ending up on right-wing content channels. (Even was seemingly 12 during his first Infowars appearance.) It’s also a reason why some were quick to interpret his nonsensical remarks about Bill Clinton and Orthodox Judaism as potentially antisimetic.
Prior to last night, Even’s last tweets were from March 2021 and were about concerns over the rise in hate crimes toward Asian Americans. Infowars, meanwhile, has seen founder Alex Jones successfully sued for hundreds of millions by the parents of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims. Most recently, however, the site tried to hold court with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who used the appearance to praise Hitler, a heel turn that comes amid a larger wave of antisemitism in conservative circles.
It was in front of that backdrop that some worried Even’s stunt was secretly some racist 4Chan deepcut. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who interviewed Even earlier today, said he appeared to understand Hebrew, and called him “almost certainly a Jewish prankster.”
He’s also disavowing his previous Infowars appearances, even while continuing his trolling in messages with other journalists.
“I never was an avid viewer [of Infowars] nor am I now,” he told Motherboard. He reportedly went on to call Clinton “a true inspiration, especially in the gaming space.”
Federal regulators are seeking to block Microsoft’s proposed purchase of video game powerhouse Activision Blizzard, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. The $69 billion deal — the largest ever for Microsoft and for the gaming industry as a whole — would undermine competition for the software giant’s Xbox gaming console, the agency said.
“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.
The FTC cited Microsoft’s recent purchase of ZeniMax, parent company of software developer Bethesda Softworks, after which Microsoft decided to make several Bethesda titles, including Starfield and Redfall, exclusive to its consoles.
The FTC voted 3-1 to file a lawsuit to stop the deal, with the three Democratic commissioners voting in favor and the sole Republican voting against. A fifth seat on the panel is vacant after another Republican left earlier this year.
The FTC noted that Activision, maker of bestselling games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, was among “a very small number of top video game developers” that publish titles for multiple devices, including consoles, PCs and mobile. Globally, some 154 million people play the company’s games every month, the FTC said.
With Microsoft in control of Activision, the software maker “would have both the means and incentive” to raise prices, issue lower-quality games or keep content off other platforms altogether, the agency said.
Microsoft defended the transaction, saying in a statement that the deal “will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers.”
“While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court,” the statement said.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick express confidence the companies would prevail in court and complete the deal. “The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn’t align with the facts, and we believe we’ll win this challenge,” he said in a statement.
“Dodgy deals”
The Biden administration has emphasized the importance of competition in the economy. Current antitrust leaders “have staked out the view that for decades merger policy has been too weak and they’ve said, repeatedly, ‘We’re changing that,’” William Kovacic, a former chair of the FTC, told the Associated Press.
The goal is to “not allow dodgy deals and not accept weak settlements,” said Kovacic, who was a Republican commissioner appointed in 2006 by then-President George W. Bush. But he said Microsoft has a good chance of winning its legal challenge.
“It’s evident that the company has been making a number of concessions,” he said. “Microsoft would likely raise them in court and say the FTC is being incorrigibly stubborn about this.”
Microsoft announced the merger deal in January but faced months of resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs that it would lose access to popular Activision Blizzard game franchises such as Call of Duty.
The company’s latest concession, announced Wednesday, was to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo devices for 10 years should its acquisition go through. It has said it tried to offer the same commitment to Sony.
Union friendly?
In an appeal to Biden administration priorities, Microsoft has also sought to characterize its deal as worker-friendly after announcing a “labor neutrality agreement” in June with the Communications Workers of America that would allow workers to unionize after the acquisition closes.
Technology companies historically have shown little support for employees seeking to organize. Workers at two Activision Blizzard divisions also recently voted to unionize, but the company has fought those efforts.
In a statement, the CWA said allowing the deal to close “would have sent a game-changing message to corporate America that workers do indeed have a seat at the table and their concerns matter and must be addressed.”
“Workers across the country, including in the video game industry, understand that one of the most effective ways to fight consolidated corporate power is to consolidate their own power by joining together in unions,” the CWA said.
The deal is also under close scrutiny in the European Union and the United Kingdom, where investigations aren’t due to be completed until next year.
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, challenging one of the largest tech acquisitions in history.
The administrative complaint filed Thursday by the FTC alleges that the blockbuster deal, which would make Microsoft the third-largest video game publisher in the world, would give Microsoft “both the means and motive to harm competition” — claiming it could negatively affect prices of video games as well as game quality and player experiences on consoles and gaming services, according to an agency release.
“We continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said in a statement Thursday. “We have been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC. While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court.”
In an email sent to employees and provided to CNN, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the FTC suit may sound “alarming” but he remains confident the deal will close. “The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn’t align with the facts, and we believe we’ll win this challenge,” he said.
The US merger challenge reflects the biggest setback yet for Microsoft as it has aggressively courted regulators around the world in hopes of persuading them to bless the deal. It also marks the FTC’s most significant challenge to the tech industry since it sued to break up Facebook-owner Meta in 2020, underscoring US officials’ vocal promises of a tough antitrust enforcement agenda.
“Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, in a statement.
Microsoft’s proposed deal would give it control over key video game franchises, including “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and more.
Officials in the United Kingdom and the European Union have also scrutinized the deal as potentially anticompetitive. But the FTC complaint marks the first attempt by an antitrust regulator to block the deal outright.
Microsoft could use its ownership over Activision titles to raise prices, or to try to funnel players to gaming platforms it controls, such as Xbox or Windows, the FTC said. The deal could also affect the emerging market for cloud-based gaming services, the FTC said, which Microsoft is involved with through its subscription service, Xbox Game Pass.
In recent days, Microsoft has announced a slew of partnerships apparently intended to head off claims that it would withhold gaming content from rivals. This week, Microsoft said it had reached a 10-year deal with Nintendo ensuring that it will have access to Call of Duty for the foreseeable future.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday, Microsoft’s Smith said an FTC suit to block the Activision deal would be a “huge mistake” and added that the acquisition would allow Microsoft to innovate new features such as the ability for consumer to play the same game on multiple devices, just as they can with streaming TV shows or music.
Months earlier, in February, Microsoft made an 11-point pledge related to all of its app marketplaces and its gaming business. The list included a promise, which would cover the proposed Activision deal, not to give preferential treatment to its own published games on digital marketplaces it runs.
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it is suing to block Microsoft’s planned $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, saying it could suppress competitors to its Xbox game consoles and its growing games subscription business.
The FTC voted 3-1 to issue the complaint after a closed-door meeting, with the three Democratic commissioners voting in favor and the sole Republican voting against. A fifth seat on the panel is vacant after another Republican left earlier this year.
The FTC’s complaint points to Microsoft’s previous game acquisitions, especially of well-known developer Bethesda Softworks and its parent company ZeniMax, as an example of where Microsoft made some popular game titles exclusive despite assuring European regulators it had no intention to do so.
“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” said a prepared statement from Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, suggested in a statement Thursday that the company is likely to challenge the FTC’s decision.
“While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court,” Smith said.
The FTC’s challenge ― which is being filed in an administrative court ― could be a test case for President Joe Biden’s mandate to scrutinize big tech mergers.
Microsoft had been ramping up its public defense of the deal in recent days as it awaited a decision.
Microsoft announced the merger deal in January but has faced months of resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs around the world about losing access to popular Activision Blizzard game franchises such as Call of Duty.
Antitrust regulators under Biden “have staked out the view that for decades merger policy has been too weak and they’ve said, repeatedly, ‘We’re changing that,’” said William Kovacic, a former chair of the FTC.
The goal is to “not allow dodgy deals and not accept weak settlements,” said Kovacic, who was a Republican commissioner appointed in 2006 by then-President George W. Bush. But he said trying to block this acquisition could trigger a legal challenge from Microsoft that the company has a good chance of winning,
“It’s evident that the company has been making a number of concessions,” he said. “If the FTC turns down Microsoft’s commitments, Microsoft would likely raise them in court and say the FTC is being incorrigibly stubborn about this.”
Microsoft announced its latest promise Wednesday, saying it would make Call of Duty available on Nintendo devices for 10 years should its acquisition go through. It has said it tried to offer the same commitment to Sony.
The deal is also under close scrutiny in the European Union and the United Kingdom, where investigations aren’t due to be completed until next year.
Some 300 quality assurance workers at Microsoft-owned gaming studio ZeniMax are in the process of voting to form what would be the first union at the tech giant, organizers confirmed to CNN Business.
The workers are organizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union and have until the end of December to vote on it. Microsoft has agreed to recognize the union if a majority of the workers vote in favor of it, according to the CWA.
“We applaud Microsoft for remaining neutral through this process and letting workers decide for themselves whether they want a union,” CWA President Christopher Shelton said in a statement to CNN Business. “Other video game and tech giants have made a conscious choice to attack, undermine, and demoralize their own employees when they join together to form a union. Microsoft has made a different choice, which other corporations would be wise to emulate for the good of their corporate culture, their workers, and their customers.”
The organizing efforts at the gaming studio come amid a broader labor awakening that has erupted across major companies in the tech industry and beyond, including retail and warehouse workers at Amazon, Apple and Starbucks. Some companies like Amazon have so far refused to recognize workers who have voted to form a union.
The union bid at the Microsoft subsidiary, however, stands out from some of the others because Microsoft has previously vowed to recognize the rights of workers to organize. Earlier this year, Microsoft entered into a neutrality agreement with the CWA, which is also supporting organizing efforts from workers at Activision Blizzard, the gaming giant Microsoft agreed to acquire for $68.7 billion. (The deal is pending regulatory approval.)
Over the past year, the gaming sector has seen a larger worker-led push for improved workplace conditions after a number of controversies related to grueling work-life balance, pay inequities, poor job stability and other complaints over workplace culture at some of the country’s biggest gaming studios.
A Microsoft spokesperson told CNN Business on Monday evening that its neutral stance toward the organizing efforts of ZeniMax employees is “an example of our labor principles in action.” The spokesperson said Microsoft remains committed “to providing employees with an opportunity to freely and fairly make choices about their workplace representation.”
Joe Slack, an associate quality assurance tester who is part of the organizing committee for the ZeniMax union, saidworkers are “not starting a union to be against the company.” Instead, the effort is largely about giving workers a seat at the table as management makes decisions that will impact them.
“We just really wanted to have a voice,” Slack told CNN Business, “and try and help with communication with management, and figuring out how we can deal with all these different things that challenge the group as a whole.” Slack said workers came together after seeing “just so much room for improvement” in their workplace.
Slack said Microsoft has been “very accommodating” throughout the process, ever since organizers first approached the company about the union. “They understand that it’s a right and they wanted to leave it up to the workers,” Slack said.
“There’s this perception of an adversarial relationship between the union and management, and it doesn’t have to be that way,” Slack added. “I’m happy to be part of a group that’s trying to prove that and improve everybody’s life and well-being in the process.”
Fans of the popular first-person shooter game “Call of Duty” may soon have more options for where they can play it.
Microsoft said late Tuesday it has reached a 10-year deal to bring the 19-year-old game franchise to Nintendo after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which makes the game, is completed. The deal is pending regulatory approval.
The news came one day after Microsoft president Brad Smith wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that the Redmond, Washington-based company offered a 10-year contract for “Call of Duty” to work with Sony’s PlayStation console. (Microsoft reportedly made another offer earlier this year). Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Nintendo deal is the latest attempt by Microsoft to ease concerns that its blockbuster acquisition of the gaming giant could harm competition in the industry.
Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in January in a deal valued at nearly $70 billion, which would be one of the biggest ever in the tech industry. The move could boost Microsoft’s standing in the gaming industry, as its Xbox console trails behind Sony’s PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch.
Microsoft head of gaming Phil Spencer announced the commitment with Nintendo in a tweetand said it will continue to offer “Call of Duty” on gaming platform Steam if the deal is completed. “Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play,” he said.
The company’s decision to bring “Call of Duty” to Nintendo comes as Microsoft’s Activision deal faces regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic. TheUS Federal Trade Commission reportedly plans to sue Microsoft to block the Activision acquisition.
But Smith this week defended the strategy, saying a block of the deal would be “a huge mistake.”
“It would hurt competition, consumers and thousands of game developers,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
He argued that Microsoft faces “huge challenges” in the gaming industry, and the potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard could allowMicrosoft to compete against these companies “through innovation that would benefit consumers.”
Microsoft also wants to offer the optionfor customers to subscribe to a cloud gaming service that lets them stream a variety of games on multiple devices for a “reasonable” fee, Smith said. The company is open to providing the same commitment to other platforms, which would be legally enforceable by regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
According to Eric Abbruzzese, an analyst at ABI Research, the effort to open up access to its games shows Microsoft is “scrambling” to overcome regulatory hurdles.
“If the offer helps the deal finalize, then that is a huge win that flies under the radar with ‘Call of Duty’ in the headlines,” he said. “But offering a single entity for a limited time would not be enough to circumvent regulation, as it is temporary and narrow in scope.”
“Call of Duty” is arguably the most popular game title today, so the impact to consumers is notable.As of 2020, the game had topped 250 million downloads worldwide, according to data from SensorTower, an analytics firm that tracks app downloads.
“Nintendo is not a high priority for ‘Call of Duty,’ all things considered – it has done perfectly fine without being on Nintendo recently,” Abbruzzese added. “Keeping it on Steam for the PC market is significant though, and obviously if this offer convinces Sony to accept as well, that’s gigantic.”
The Biden administration announced Friday the U.S. would investigate recent hacks linked to a teenage cybercriminal group that focused on extortion.
The U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board, a 15-member panel of experts from across government and private sector, will probe a series of high-profile hacks by the group, known as Lapsus$.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said its goal is to “evaluate how this group has allegedly impacted some of the biggest companies in the world, in some cases, with relatively unsophisticated techniques, and determine how people can build resilience against innovative social engineering tactics and address international partnership in combatting criminal cyber actors.”
The board did not list which hacks it would probe, but high-profile victims of Lapsus$ include Uber, Microsoft, Okta and Samsung, according to previous releases by the companies.
The group has routinely relied on stolen login credentials to pilfer company data – demanding high extortion checks from victims to stop any leak of stolen information.
But the intrusions have also gone after proprietary information. According to Microsoft, the hacking group has left a few breadcrumbs. “Unlike most activity groups that stay under the radar, DEV-0537 doesn’t seem to cover its tracks,” the company wrote in a March blog post. “They go as far as announcing their attacks on social media or advertising their intent to buy credentials from employees of target organizations.”
In a briefing Friday, Mayorkas called the cyber threat facing the U.S.”as diverse and severe as its ever been” and went on to say that “nation-states like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, as well as non-state criminal cyber gangs continue to conduct espionage, steal intellectual property and mine scores of Americans’ personal data.”
DHS’ relatively new cyber board, which draws its authority from an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last year, lacks regulatory authority and indicated its work will not be punitive — it won’t fine any companies involved.
Friday’s announcement marks a pivot for the board, which will shift investigatory efforts from a specific vulnerability to a prolific hacking group.
Led by Chair Rob Silvers, the undersecretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, and Vice Chair Heather Adkins, senior director of security engineering at Google, the new group promised it would “move quickly” on its next investigation and work with government partners including the Department of Justice, but did not offer a timeline.
Adkins said the group aimed to “go deeper” to “provide the kind of advice that creates new foundations for cybersecurity in the ecosystem.”
The Xbox Series S is one of my favorite purchases. It’s the little machine that could, a less powerful version of a next-gen console, that somehow is able to run everything anyway. Today you can get one for under $200, the cheapest it’s ever been—even cheaper than last week’s cheapest ever. You know, if you don’t mind being part of the evils of corporate America.
I know this reads like one of those posts where Kotaku gets a giant wad of cash for every purchase, but honestly, I’m writing this up because it’s so damned cheap. The catch is you need to buy it through Amazon, and Amazon is awful.
So, you know, having $40 on your Amazon account is the same as having $40 in your bank account that you’d have spent on Amazon anyway. In fact, the next $40-worth of stuff you buy from Amazon will feel like it’s free! It doesn’t matter that you put the money there yourself, it’ll still feel like a free thing when you order, and the checkout says it’s covered. We’re so stupid.
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However, you do end up getting a really awesome console, while giving Microsoft, that already sells it at a loss, far less money. Sure, you’ll end up spending a fortune more on expanded storage for it, because the S comes with a ludicrous 364GB free on its puny SSD. And yeah, you’re going to pay a monthly tithe to Game Pass for there to be any point in owning it. And then you’ll need that second controller…
Capitalism is evil! But we still want games consoles, and this is the cheapest way you’re going to get a brand new one. Now, who wants to give me a job in advertorial?
closing its $69 billion acquisition of the company. With
Activision
shares trading at a significant discount to the deal price, the stock looked closest to a sure thing in an increasingly uncertain market.
Four months later, the risks of the deal falling apart over antitrust concerns haven’t changed. What has changed is the outlook for Activision’s business. The firm behind Call of Duty and Candy Crush is suddenly doing quite well on its own.
Welcome to 16th-century Europe. You are Andreas Maler, an artist living among the people of the fictional town of Tassing, where things are about to change in the wake of a murder. How will they change? That’s what you’ll decide in Pentiment, a narrative adventure game that brings together evocative art, roleplaying elements, and a low barrier to entry thanks to its point-and-clicky gameplay. The individual elements that make up Pentiment all tie together so seamlessly and effortlessly that they combine into a rich tapestry of game design and storytelling. To be sure, there’s more story and reading here than there is anything else, but it’s hard to put this mystery and its engaging cast of characters down.
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, Pentiment (available on Windows and Xbox, standalone or via GamePass) is a wonderful blend of historical fiction, point-and-click adventure, and roleplaying-esque decisions that have branching narrative consequences. With a 2D art style inspired by medieval manuscripts, you’ll guide Andreas about Tassing as he unravels the details behind a shocking and suspicious murder. Who you talk to, what you do with what you learn, and how you choose to roleplay as Andreas all assemble in unique and unexpected ways. I haven’t yet arrived at the ultimate conclusion of this game, but the characters and story have me so hooked, I’m certain I’ll give this another play once I’m done.
Don’t worry, I’ll spare you the details of any spoilers here so you can dive into this delightful work of historical fiction yourself–trust me, you’ll want to go into this blind. If you want to know a bit of what you’re getting into, know that Pentiment can be a little dark–there’s discussion of murder, sexual assault, and mental illness to name a few. But one of the most important things this setting and these characters bring to mind is how relatable and real they feel.
And I’m saying that as a trans woman living in New York City in the 21st century about the portrayal of fictional characters in the 16th century living in rural medieval Europe. After spending a number of hours living in the shoes of Andreas, Pentiment is shaping up to be one of my favorite games this year–if not my favorite, full stop.
You and me both, Amalie.Screenshot: Obsidian / Kotaku
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While I’ll leave those with far more education than I to weigh in on just how true to history Pentiment is, as someone who took a pretty intensive medieval studies course in college and was raised Protestant, it certainly feels accurate. It also never feels like it’s just running down a checklist of historical terms. This is a story set in history; not a story larping with old words. It’s also not taking historical signifiers to tell a completely fictional story with the illusion of realism—more on that point later.
As a narrative alone, Pentiment a lovely work of historical fiction. If you are at all into medieval history, there’s a lot to appreciate here, be it artistic depictions of the Danse Macabre, the history and cultural significance of saints’ relics, the history of Christianity and paganism in Europe, the class dynamics between clergy, peasants, and nobles, and more. It’s filled with wonderful details and references that sit naturally within the narrative and together weave a setting that the characters fit nicely into.
Screenshot: Obsidian / Kotaku
Unlike other games and works of media that proclaim to base their fiction on historical realities, particularly those that allege they’re borrowing from the very period Pentiment is set in, humanity feels far more real and far more true to history here than in other games that claim to base their fiction on this point in history and in these kinds of geographical spaces.
Pentiment isn’t trying to portray a might-makes-right pseudo-historical fantasy where everyone’s accepting of a dark, miserable cynicism about the brutality of the world, filled with perfectly white, straight, and Christian folks and no one else. The diversity of human appearance, sexuality, thought, and belief, are a part of this narrative. They serve as a contrast to the rigid class structure and hierarchy that the world wishes humans would neatly slot into.
That said, the game does take place in Europe in the 16th century. The story is set in a mostly white town where people are largely pursuing heterosexual lives in accordance with Christian values and there are clear divisions of labor and life among men and women. But it has both a direct and indirect awareness of the broader world and the broader reality of how diverse humans are in appearance and behavior, especially under systems with strict delineations of power and control. And that has the effect of making these characters feel real—not just projections of the writers’ idea of a certain kind of ideal.
Screenshot: Obsidian / Kotaku
Since you spend so much of the game reading, it helps that the writing is both concise and descriptive. Characters speak memorable lines of dialogue that you will often find yourself quoting or stopping to think about. On more than a handful of occasions, I paused for a lengthy period of time at certain statements, lines of dialogue, and various exchanges. Some lines of dialogue are worth sitting with for a little while, be that because it relates to the plot in an interesting way, or because a character says something that I’m relating my personal life to.
However, perhaps my only real criticism concerns the style of the dialogue boxes themselves. While I appreciate that Obsidian spent time to add the details of dialogue text animating and filling in with ink, even at the fastest setting I found it to still be a bit too slow for my reading speed and started to grow tired of the scratchy “writing sound” that accompanies it. The accessibility settings do allow you some malleability and comfort, including voice assist to read off any words on screen, including dialogue, menu, and action prompts (characters don’t have voice actors). The only setting I would’ve liked is to be able to turn off the writing sound. There it is: The only point of criticism I have about this game.
Your dialogue choices in Pentiment allow for a decent amount of freedom when it comes to filling in Andreas’ backstory. Who Andreas is, which peasant class he lives with, and his areas of expertise are all up to you as well. You have the choice of how to respond to delicate situations, who you wish to break your fast and have supper with, and (when it comes to the murder mystery you have to unravel), which angles of investigation you’ll persue.
Pentiment is played with simple direction and action commands. On mouse and keyboard, it feels like a point-and-click game—and you can play it with either just a mouse, just a keyboard, or a gamepad. While most of my playthrough has been on a desktop PC, Pentinment works very well in portable format. I can’t speak currently to its verified status on Steam Deck, but the review copy provided by Microsoft worked on my Deck with little issue. I also enjoyed playing it on a reversible, tablet style laptop (I had to flip back to the keyboard to get out of a specific menu instance once, so it’s not completely tablet-safe). Given the art style, if you can get this game into your hands and off a fixed screen, I highly recommend it.
And the art style is no gimmick. All of the game menu elements feel like a genuine manuscript; pages turn when you step into a new area, you can jump back to the margins to recall a quick fact of history that’s underlined in the dialogue, and there’s a beautiful balance of animation and stillness that gives life to the environment and characters without ever feeling exaggerated or out of place. The characters in particular convey a wonderful sense of personality through elegant, simple animations and excellent dialogue.
I’d recommend Pentiment not only to history buffs, but also to anyone who enjoys medieval fantasy or other works that aim to capture the spirit of medieval times. It’s striking how a game set in a time and place many other works claim to take inspiration from lacks many of the strange, stubborn commitments to painting inaccurate depictions of humanity that other works attempt over and over again while claiming to be historically or reality-based. Pentiment in some ways sets the record straight about a time and place that many works of media claim to get, but clearly fail to.
If you’re looking for a clever murder mystery with interactive narrative decisions, beautiful 2D art, and a wonderful historical fiction treatment, you owe it to yourself to check out Pentiment.
The custom made Xbox set evokes the iconic Wakandan salute from the films.
Microsoft
The highly anticipated Marvel Studios release Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sees Letitia Wright’s tech genius Shuri take center stage. And as young women and other STEM hopefuls look up to this new role model, Microsoft and Marvel Studios have joined forces to push the power of her example even further.
On November 3rd, the two companies invited journalists, creators, and community leaders to the Microsoft Experience Center in New York to reflect over Shuri’s example and celebrate the real world efforts of women in tech.
The evening began with a special video from Letitia Wright herself emphasizing the power of the Black Panther story to inspire. After this, Editor-at-Large at PEOPLE PEOPLE Janine Rubenstein took the stage and introduced the panelists: Microsoft’s Q Muhaimin, Product Manager for Xbox Experiences and educator Erica Buddington, founder of Langston League and champion for culturally relevant and identity-affirming educational programs.
Rubenstein guided the panelists through reflections on each of their journeys into the tech world, and the identify-based struggles that involved. The women brought up their successes, their challenges, and the role models that lifted them up throughout, much like Shuri would be able to do, now, for so many.
Janine Rubenstein (L) talks women in tech with panelists Q Muhaimin (M) and Erica Buddington (R).
Microsoft
Additionally, as Rubenstein called out, Microsoft and Marvel Studios’ efforts around maximizing the impact of the new film would not end here. The layered collaboration also includes community theater buyouts with local content creators in order to bring the film to under-resourced communities, a dazzling drone performance in the night sky, the first ever “Wakandan HBCU Lecture” delivered by Professor Jacoby DuBose at Howard University, and a new, easy to follow coding curriculum teaching youth powerful tech skills via making their very own Black Panther video game.
But of course, the star of the event sat on its pedestal to the left of Rubenstein: a custom designed Xbox Series X stylized with patterns, controllers, and charging stations all crafted to evoke the iconic Black Panther Wakandan salute. The set itself is both part and exemplary of this entire initiative and the power sitting behind the Black Panther symbol. And so that is why Microsoft and Marvel Studios plan to hand it over to a few lucky winners via a special Twitter giveaway.
The first Black Panther film met not only critical and commercial success, but set off a cultural wave that reverberates throughout the world still today. And now, the sequel is poised to expand that impact even further, this time shining an even brighter light on women of color who wish to become tech leaders and warriors in their own ways.
This collaboration then, hopes to just nudge all that along.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters. The film stars Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta, and Angela Bassett and is directed by Ryan Coogler.
Microsoft’s giveaway contest for the custom Black Panther Xbox Series X is now active and ends on December 1st. See here for details on how to submit via Twitter for a chance to win.
The European Union is taking a closer look at Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion purchase of video game giant Activision Blizzard, citing concerns the deal could hurt competition in the video game industry.
A preliminary review of the deal found that Microsoft
(MSFT) could try to withhold the games it’s acquiring from other distributors, according to an EU press release. The proposed acquisition would see Microsoft
(MSFT) become the world’s third-largest video game publisher, controlling popular franchises such as “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft.”
“Such foreclosure strategies could reduce competition in the markets for the distribution of console and PC video games, leading to higher prices, lower quality and less innovation for console game distributors, which may in turn be passed on to consumers,” the EU said.
The deeper-level probe, which could run through March of next year, is also driven by fears the acquisition could consolidate power in Microsoft’s Windows operating system at the expense of competition, if Microsoft attempts to make its PC games exclusive to Windows.
And, according to an EU press release, authorities are concerned the deal may allow Microsoft to concentrate power in its own cloud gaming service and prevent rival cloud services from gaining access to Activision
(ATVI) games.
In September, the United Kingdom announced it had opened a second-stage investigation into the proposed deal.
“We’re continuing to work with the European Commission on next steps and to address any valid marketplace concerns,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “Sony, as the industry leader, says it is worried about Call of Duty, but we’ve said we are committed to making the same game available on the same day on both Xbox and PlayStation. We want people to have more access to games, not less.”
Paintings and sculptures from the collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen were auctioned off for a historic $1.5 billion Wednesday, Christie’s auction house said, with records set for works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Klimt.
Calling it “the biggest sale in auction history,” Christie’s said the collection featured diverse artwork spanning five centuries. The auction house said 60 artworks pulled in a total of $1,506,386,000, “establishing the Allen collection as the most valuable private collection in history.”
This undated photo provided by Christie’s, shows “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cezanne, an oil on canvas from the Paul G. Allen Collection.
/ AP
Five paintings entered the exclusive club of works of art sold for more than $100 million at auction, the New York auction house said, in a sign that the art market continues to grow despite economic uncertainties related to the war in Ukraine and inflation.
“Never before have more than two paintings exceeded $100 million in a single sale, but tonight, we saw five,” said Max Carter, Christie’s vice chairman of 20th and 21st century art. ‘Four were masterpieces from the fathers of modernism — Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh and Gauguin.’ “
The most expensive piece of the evening, Georges Seurat’s 1888 work “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (small version),” a renowned work of pointillism, fetched $149.24 million, including fees, Christie’s said.
The auction house had announced that all the proceeds would be donated to charity, as Allen had requested.
Wednesday’s auction sold 60 of 150 lots, with the rest to be sold on Thursday.
The value of the collection has already surpassed the record for the Macklowe collection, named after a wealthy New York couple, which fetched $922 million at competitor Sotheby’s earlier this spring.
Allen made his fortune with the establishment of the PC operating system with his better-known Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1975.
He had a net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.
Allen left Microsoft in 1983, due to health problems and a deteriorating relationship with Gates, who remained in charge of the company until 2000.
He founded a pop culture museum in his hometown of Seattle and owned several sports franchises, including the Seattle Seahawks.
Despite their strained friendship, Allen signed Gates’s “Giving Pledge” campaign and all proceeds from the auction are to be donated to charitable causes.
The sale on Wednesday totaled about $1.5 billion, according to an AFP calculation, and included French painter Paul Cezanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” — which fetched $137.8 million, almost double the artist’s auction record.
A work by Vincent Van Gogh, “Orchard with Cypresses,” broke the Dutch artist’s previous record, bringing in $117.2 million.
A painting from Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian period, “Maternity II,” brought $105.7 million.
Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s “Birch Forest” brought in $104.6 million.
The billion mark was surpassed on lot number 32, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture, “Woman of Venice III,” which sold for $25 million.
The auction was a testament to the quality of Allen’s collection, which included a diverse range of works from the German-American painter-sculptor Max Ernst, whose sculpture “The King Playing with the Queen” sold for $24.3 million, to the American Jasper Johns, one of the few living artists featured in the collection, whose lithograph “Small False Start” sold for $55.35 million.
This undated photo provided by Christie’s, shows “Small False Start,” 1960, by Jasper Johns, encaustic, acrylic and paper collage on fiberboard, from the Paul G. Allen Collection.
Image: Microsoft / Twitch / Kotaku / NurPhoto (Getty Images)
Here’s something you might want to know: For the next week, Twitch is partnering up with Microsoft and offering three-month PC Game Pass trials to Twitch users who purchase two subscriptions.
From November 3 until November 11, Twitch viewers who purchase two subscriptions or gift subs from their preferred streamers (usually $4.99 a pop, so about $10) will receive a three-month trial for Microsoft’s wildly popular games-on-demand service. Note, though, that the three-month trial is only good for the PC version of Game Pass.
If you do the thing, you’ll get a code sent to your Twitch notification inbox to redeem for the three-month Game Pass trial on Xbox’s website. Fair warning, the offer is only valid for new Game Pass members, and won’t be available for Twitch viewers in every county. To see if your spawn point makes you eligible for this free trial, as well as other nitty-gritty details, be sure to check out Twitch’s official blog post about the promotion.
“This is just one of the ways we’re experimenting with giving you more for watching and streaming on Twitch,” Twitch wrote in the blog. “This is an added benefit to everything you already receive from subbing to your favorite streamers, including custom emotes, badges, Channel Points multipliers, as well as ad-free viewing and sub-only chat—when enabled.”
For those still feeling the Halloween spirit, Twitch’s giveaway comes at an opportune time considering this month’s Game Pass offerings will include the likes of Ebb Software’s Cronenberg-esque first-person horror adventure Scorn, the rat-infested puzzle game, A Plague Tale: Requiem, and the first two seasons of Telltale Games and Skybound Games’ The Walking Dead. It also probably doesn’t hurt to show your favorite streamers some love by throwing them a couple of bucks ahead of Twitch’s parent company, Amazon, taking a bigger cut out of streamers’ ad revenue. (Twitch president Dan Clancy attributes the coming pay nerf to increased server costs.)
Twitch’s Game Pass three-month trial codes will expire at midnight on November 18, so if you get one, don’t waste any time before redeeming.
Microsoft posted a double-digit profit decline in the three-month period ending in September as the company confronted a slowdown in the personal computing industry and a broader economic downturn.
The tech giant on Tuesday reported net income of $17.6 billion for the quarter, a decrease of 14% from the year prior. Microsoft
(MSFT)’s revenue, meanwhile, grew a modest 11% to $50.1 billion. Both results were better than analysts had expected.
Microsoft’s Azure cloud services unit saw revenue increase by 35% from the prior year, but the growth was slower than some analysts had hoped for a division that has been one of the company’s biggest bright spots in recent years.
Other parts of Microsoft’s business declined. Microsoft said revenue from its Windows OEM operations fell 15% from the year prior, which comes as demand for personal computers has fallen sharply on the heels of a pandemic-fueled boom. Consulting firm Gartner reported earlier this month that worldwide PC shipments declined 19.5% in the third quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year. This marks the steepest market decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s.
Microsoft also said revenue from Xbox content and services declined by 3%. The company reportedly recently laid off employees in its Xbox division, among other parts of the company, as it — like many other tech companies right now — looks to cut costs.
Shares of Microsoft fell 2% in after-hours trading Tuesday following the earnings report.
Microsoft’s stock has fallen more than 25% since the beginning of the year, amid a broader market downturn as rising inflation, geopolitical uncertainty from the war in Ukraine and more macroeconomic headwinds continue to wreak havoc on the tech industry.
“In this environment, we’re focused on helping our customers do more with less, while investing in secular growth areas and managing our cost structure in a disciplined way,” Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said in a statement Tuesday announcing the quarterly earnings.
Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com, called Microsoft’s earnings report a “mixed bag” in a commentary after the results were released on Tuesday.
“It shows that Microsoft is weathering the economic storm better than other technology players and its diversified business model is playing a big role in doing so,” Anwar said. But he added that the slowing cloud computing growth was cause for concern.
“If this growth deceleration continues, it could harm an investment case in the company’s stock which is considered a safe-haven amid the market turmoil, with these concerns reflected in the company’s shares being down in extended trading,” Anwar said.
Hunting down your enemies on the bustling streets of Amsterdam, along the U.S.-Mexico border or in a Middle Eastern fishing village is just part of the intense action in the latest Call of Duty video game.
The Friday release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” continues a nearly two-decade run for California-based Activision Blizzard’s wildly popular military shooting game franchise. New installments of the game can rival Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters in how much they earn on their opening weekend.
But the battle this time is also happening off-screen. Call of Duty is at the center of a corporate tug-of-war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation over Microsoft’s pending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard.
Rights to the mega-hit franchise, currently owned by Activision, will be handed over to Microsoft once the deal — the largest in the gaming industry’s history — is finalized in 2023. Once in full control, whether Microsoft will allow Call of Duty games to remain on the Sony Xbox platform or choose to make it exclusive to GamePass is at question.
“Microsoft would have full ownership of one of the most valuable franchises in console gaming,” said Joost van Dreunen, a lecturer on the business of games at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “And naturally, Sony does not want that or like that because it will cost them business.”
The scheduled October 28 release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” continues a nearly two-decade run for Activision Blizzard’s wildly popular military shooting game franchise.
Callofduty.com
“Must-have” game title
Microsoft has been working to get approval from antitrust regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere to complete its January agreement to acquire the video game giant. But it’s been trailed around the world by objections from Sony, which is afraid of losing access to what it describes as a “must-have” game title.
Among those listening to Sony’s concerns are antitrust regulators in the United Kingdom who last month escalated their investigation into whether Microsoft could make Call of Duty and other titles exclusive to its Xbox platform or “otherwise degrade its rivals’ access” by delaying releases or imposing licensing price increases.
“We are concerned that Microsoft could use its control over popular games like ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ post-merger to harm rivals, including recent and future rivals in multi-game subscription services and cloud gaming,” the Competition and Markets Authority said in September, Reuters reported
Blast from the past
Meanwhile, work on Modern Warfare 2 started before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Infinity Ward’s headquarters outside of Los Angeles, forcing developers to be more creative in how they drew the game’s characters, weaponry, motions and scenery and recorded its voices. It was the same studio that in 2003 launched the original Call of Duty, a first-person shooter set during World War II.
Infinity Ward executives declined to talk about their pending takeover by Microsoft. But Microsoft is increasingly speaking out about what would be the largest-ever tech acquisition, trying to assure regulators that it will keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation console “for at least several more years” beyond its current contract with Sony.
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan meanwhile has called Microsoft’s assurances misleading, telling the Financial Times in September that Microsoft had only offered to keep the hit franchise on PlayStation for “three years after the current agreement.” An offer Ryan dismissed as “inadequate on many levels, and failed to take account of the impact on our gamers.”
While Brazil and Saudi Arabia have already approved the deal, it still awaits important decisions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and authorities in the U.K. and the European Union. Microsoft told investors Tuesday that is still expects the deal to close by the first half of next year.
But it’s possible regulators could impose conditions that force Microsoft to keep access open to Call of Duty for a longer time and ensure that its rivals aren’t getting a lesser version.
“Is it really that important for Sony on a financial basis? Probably not. But it’s mostly the draw of having all these people come to their platform,” van Dreunen said.
And while important to console-makers and the digital subscription services they are building, Call of Duty and its fanbase is just a portion of what Microsoft would get from taking over Activision Blizzard, which owns dozens of titles including popular mobile games like Candy Crush. Van Dreunen said while the attention is on the Call of Duty dispute, that mobile expansion might be the real “gravity point” for Microsoft’s massive merger.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped Wednesday after Microsoft and Alphabet released less-than-stellar earnings reports on Tuesday. CBS News anchor Lana Zak spoke with Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares, about the larger impact on the markets.
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Microsoft’s most expensive Surface device is about to get even pricier.
At a press event on Wednesday, Microsoft is set to unveil several Surface Pro tablets, Surface Laptop models and a Surface Studio 2+ desktop computer, the last of which has not been updated in several years.
The new 28-inch Surface Studio 2+, an all-in-one desktop, now has an Intel Core H-35 processor, 50% faster CPU performance and an updated NVIDIA chip for faster graphics. The device also includes an updated display, cameras, microphones and supports a digital pen for on-screen drawing. It also has several ports, including USB with Thunderbolt 4, and the display can split into four different apps at once for greater multitasking.
The Surface Studio 2+ starts at $4,299, and $4,499 with the digital pen. The previous Surface Studio 2, released in 2018, received some criticism for its $3,499 startingprice. Microsoft told CNN Business this year’s price jump is attributed to several significant improvements,including the new processor, a 1 TB SSD hard drive for faster file transfers and an enhanced 1080p camera, among other features.
The announcements about the refreshed Surface product lineup will kick off Microsoft’s days-longIgnite developer conference on Wednesday. The event comes as Microsoftmarks the tenth anniversary of the Surface line, which originally launched with a tablet to take on the iPad.
Like other tech companies that have unveiled new products this fall, Microsoft is also confronting a more difficult economic environment, including high inflation and fears of a looming recession, that could make it harder to convince customers to spend three or even four figures upgrading devices.
While the new Surface products aren’t much different in terms of design or screen size than previous iterations, the latest devices feature some upgrades, including new chipsets for better performance.
Microsoft showed off its flagship Surface Pro 9 tablet, once again aimed at replacing the laptop. The two-in-one device features an aluminum casing in new colors as well asa built-in kickstand and a PixelSense display. Underneath the display is an HD camera, updated speakers and microphones, and a custom G6 chip. Microsoft said the chip helps power apps with digital ink, such as Ink Focus in Microsoft OneNote and the GoodNotes app for Windows 11, which is designed to make it feel like the user is writing with a pen and paper.
The Surface Pro 9 also offers a choice between processors. The first option is a 12th Gen Intel Core processor built on the Intel Evo platform 4 with Thunderbolt 4 – a combination which promises 50% more performance, better multitasking and desktop productivity, faster data transfer, and the ability to dock to multiple 4K displays. The second option is a Microsoft SQ3 processor powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon with 5G connectivity, with up to 19 hours of battery and new AI features.
The Surface Pro 9 is available in four colors, including platinum, graphite, sapphire and forest.It starts at $999.
Microsoft also introduced an update to its ultra-portable laptop, Surface Laptop 5, which looks very similar to its predecessor but with a processor update that may attempt to bring it closer in competition with Apple’s ARM-based chipsets for macOS laptops.
Surface Laptop 5 runs on Intel Evo platform and comes in two display sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches. It comes with updated Dolby Atmos 3D spatial speakers, a front-facing HD camera that automatically adjusts camera exposure in any lighting, and several new aluminum colors, such as cool metal, sage and alcantara. The company also said it promises one day of battery life on a single charge and is 50% more powerful than its predecessor.
The Surface Laptop starts at $999 for the 13.5-inch version and $1299 for the 15 inch. Pre-orders begin for Surface products on Wednesday in select markets and start hitting shelves later this month.
Microsoft hardware devices amount to between 3% to 5% of the tablet market, according to David McQueen, an analyst at ABI Research. Instead, the bulk of its revenue comes from Microsoft OS across different device types and associated applications and cloud services.
“Microsoft is able to stay in the hardware sector because of revenue generated from these services,” McQueen said. It’s an approach similar to Google whose Pixel smartphone remains a niche product but serves as a way for the company to highlight its apps and OS.
On Wednesday, the company also announced a new Microsoft Designer app and Image Creator in Bing and the Edge browser to bring advanced graphic design to mainstream audiences. The platform relies heavily on a partnership with startup OpenAI and its AI-powered DALL-2 tool, which generates custom images using text prompts. DALL-2 is also coming to Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service.
Brands are increasingly using DALL-2 for both ads and product inspiration, according to Microsoft. In a blog post, the company detailed how toy company Mattel sought out Dall-E 2 to conceptualize how future cars may look, such as by changing colors and typing “make it a convertible,” among other commands.
Experts in the AI field have raised concerns that the open-ended nature of these systems — which makes them adept at generating all kinds of images from words — and their ability to automate image-making means they could automate bias on a massive scale. In previous test of OpenAI’s system, for example, typing in “CEO” showed images that all appeared to be men and nearly all of them were white.
Microsoft said it is taking the concerns seriously. Inappropriate text requests will be denied by Microsoft’s servers, according to the company, and users will ultimately be banned for repeat offenses.
