Tag: Video game consoles

Gift Guide 2025: Gifts for the person who has everything

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There’s something so tricky about finding a gift for that person who seems to have it all and want for nothing. We’ve got you covered. Here are some super cool gifts that are fun, interesting, unique, and indulgent… just because.

The next evolution of Nintendo Switch systems, the Nintendo Switch 2, is here! With powerful processing speeds and a bigger, brighter screen, players can enjoy enhanced visuals, either with some of the new Nintendo Switch 2 games or compatible games from their existing Nintendo Switch libraries. The reimagined Joy-Con 2 controllers snap on magnetically and can even function as a mouse in compatible games, adding a new level of precision and play. And with GameChat, you can stay connected like never before.

The Brother P-touch PT-N10 Personal Handheld Label Maker is designed to help anyone easily personalize their world and organize practically everything in it. With a full QWERTY keyboard, typing personalized messages is familiar, fast, and fun, and the easy-to-read 12-character display screen lets you preview label text before you print. Plus, this convenient handheld label maker is battery operated so you can transport it wherever your labelling needs take you.

Who doesn’t dream about taking to the skies and being a pilot? Now you can with AviaSim, a one-of-a-kind simulation experience. Sit in a real cockpit alongside a professional flight instructor, take off from one of the 24,000 departure and arrival airports, and take in the incredible 180-degree views from thousands of feet in the air.

The Epson Lifestudio Pop Plus Projector brings families together and is a great investment for the entire household. It comes with a built-in Google TV, sound by Bose technology, and a 4K PRO-UHD picture. The whole family can have a legendary watching experience as they cuddle up on the couch to watch holiday movies on over 10,000 streaming apps. From casual, cozy evenings to festive family gatherings, it transforms a simple wall into a big-screen cinematic moment (both indoors and outdoors).

The Philips Sonicare Compact Flosser 1000Oral Irrigator is all about effective flossing in just 60 seconds. It’s fast, effective, and ready to take anywhere, and removes up to 99.9% of plaque from between your teeth and along your gumline in just one minute.

The new Guinness World Records Gamers Edition is out and is the perfect gift for just about anyone. From the crew of Mass Effect to the Creepers of Minecraft, see where the biggest and best characters ranked. You’ll find timeless icons like Nintendo superstars Mario and Link, beloved Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft, and heroes whose stories transcend time and reality. Explore their incredible stories, groundbreaking achievements, and fan-favourite moments.

Another universally great title is Guinness World Records 2026. From yellow giant objects to spooky ghost towns, jaw-dropping nature and human heroes, the new edition of the Guinness World Records brings you the brightest, biggest, and loudest in record-breaking.

The Yankee Candle 3 Pack Holiday Mini Gift Set comes with three seasonal scents: Balsam & Cedar, Sparkling Cinnamon, and Christmas Cookie. It’s a charming gift that brings warmth and comfort to any space, whether you’re hosting or simply enjoying quiet moments at home.

For the person who has it all (or the family that loves to watch together), Fubo offers an unbeatable mix of live sports, entertainment, and news, all in one place. From exclusive coverage of the Premier League and Serie A, to live action from the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB, there’s always something to cheer for. And when it’s not game time, viewers can enjoy popular channels like CBC, HGTV, and Food Network. Subscribers can stream on any device, anywhere, with unlimited DVR, 4K resolution, and Multiview on Roku, making it a seamless experience for every fan.

The LEGO Creator 3 in 1 Retro Camera Toy transforms from a toy camera to a retro video camera to a retro TV set – that’s three retro toys in one box. Kids and kids at heart can build and rebuild three different pieces of vintage technology using the same set of bricks.

Ravensburger puzzles are great for anyone to enjoy, either by putting it together on their own or as a family. Their Christmas Slopeside Spirit puzzle by artist Greg Paprocki creates a beautiful and magical holiday scene everyone will love.

Stranger Things: Catalyst is an immersive VR experience that stars Matthew Modine as Dr. ‘Papa’ Brenner and allows fans to step inside the global phenomenon series in an all-new immersive chapter that puts you at the heart of Hawkins’ darkest secrets. Become Dr. Brenner’s test subjects and explore the sinister halls of Hawkins Lab, the eerie glow of the Rainbow Room, the shadow-haunted woods of Mirkwood, and the nightmarish Upside Down. Fight like Eleven using your incredible telekinetic powers to hurl objects, crush obstacles, and fight back against supernatural threats like Demobats, Demodogs and even the terrifying Demogorgon. You’ve binged the show, now brave the Upside Down.

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By: Jennifer Cox The Suburban

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December 12, 2025
Logitech’s stock hit by reports its $30 game controller was used to steer missing sub near Titanic

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U.S.-listed shares of Logitech International SA, a Swiss maker of computer peripherals and software, were down about 3.6% Monday, amid reports that one of the company’s gamepads was being used to steer the submersible that went missing while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.

Logitech’s $30 F710 gamepad was the controller of the OceanGate submarine vessel that is the subject of a massive sea-and-air search, according to a segment on the “CBS News Sunday Morning Show” by reporter David Pogue that aired last November.

In the segment, OceanGate Chief Executive Stockton Rush, one of the five people currently onboard the submersible, showed Pogue the game controller that he said “runs the whole thing,” causing the reporter to burst out laughing.

Pogue later describes the “MacGyver jerry-riggedness” of the whole thing, which included off-the-shelf components such as lights from Camper World and construction pipes as ballast. Rush explained that other parts of the vessel were made in cooperation with Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington.

As The Verge pointed out, game controllers are used in other instances to control submarine periscopes, including by the U.S. Navy and Elon Musk’s The Boring Company.

On Monday, Pogue tweeted that during his report which was filmed last summer, the submersible got lost for a period — while he was on the surface.

In that instance, the vessel still had contact with the surface. This time, there are no communications, although a Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises early Wednesday, as the Associated Press reported.

A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost aboard the Titan. Estimates suggested as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.

Also on the vessel with Rush are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

Authorities reported the carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) off the coast of of St. John’s.

The submersible had a four-day oxygen supply when it was put to sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.

Questions remain about how teams could reach the lost submersible, which could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the historic ocean liner. Newly uncovered allegations also suggested there had been significant warnings made about the vessel’s safety prior to its disappearance.

Read: Missing Titanic submersible: Here’s what we know so far

Logitech’s stock
LOGI,
-2.69%
is down about 18% in the month to date.

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June 21, 2023
7 Essential Demos Featured In Steam’s Next Fest

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Next Fest is Steam’s triannual event where hundreds of developers upload demo builds of their games for you to try for free. And it’s one of the very few things in gaming that just feels unambiguously positive! Indie sits alongside—or often above—AAA, nothing is about gouging anyone, and it revives the lost art of the demo in a way that makes the whole industry pay attention. But the number of demos can be a little overwhelming, so let us help with getting started.

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s New Gameplay Trailer Is Living Rent-Free In Our Brains

Steam

Highlighted during the PC Gaming Show at Summer Game Fest, The Invincible promises a hardcore sci-fi story based on the work of Stanislaw Lem. Luke recently highlighted the amazing work of one of the artists involved, and everything about this narrative-led philosophical story looks so enticing. Now you can play a chunk to see if it lives up to this.

Starward Industries

This eye-ticklingly lovely-looking voxel railway sim makes building a train network look enticing, rather than daunting. Station To Station’s emphasis on minimalism and relaxation really piles on that appeal. There’s now a portion of the game to try for yourself, and it really delivers.

Prismatika

I’m so pleased Word Factori is as fun and daft as it looks. This is a game about building all the letters of the alphabet out of the letter I, using, you know, factories. As you’ll likely know, a C is just a curved I, so you need to run those through a curving factory. And a V is two Is joined together at the bottom, so you’ll need to use a merging factory for that one. I totally made a CAT out of Is! The presentation is lovely and simple, too, even if the puzzles are not, making this well worth a look.

Star Garden Games

Galvanic Games’ co-op survival game revealed at Summer Game Fest shone at the show, and now has a demo you can play. Wizard With A Gun is about exploring the unknown as a wizard, alone of with a chum, in a sandbox game with all manner of combat and action.

Devolver Digital

When I first read about A Tiny Sticker Tale, I had one desire: that it feel like those laminated background scenes you’d get as a kid, where you could place the rubbery, restickable stickers on top, to create your own stories. It is that! It’s exactly like that! Except here, when you place a sticker onto a scene, it magically becomes part of the drawing. It’s so splendid that I could happily play with it even if it weren’t a bunch of sweet little puzzles.

Ogre Pixel

Ooh, there’s a new full-length Rusty Lake game coming! And from this demo, it plays like their classic Cube Escape games, returning to the series roots, and with all the menacing air that comes with the peculiar puzzles.

Rusty Lake

I’d never heard of Thronefall before, but it’s straight on my Wishlist. It’s the most extraordinary combination of city builder, auto-battler, tower defense, and direct-control RTS, but all presented in a calm, clear and minimalist manner. The demo neatly piles on the instructions and introduces all these elements in a way that feels manageable and frequently surprising.

Grizzly Games

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John Walker

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June 19, 2023
8 Games To Play This Weekend

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Diablo IV – Nostrava Stronghold

Diablo IV – Nostrava Stronghold

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck OK)

My current goal: Conquer every Stronghold

You read that right, on Steam Deck baby! The step-by-step process to get the just-released Diablo IV working on the Deck took me a little over 30 minutes and was relatively painless. However I do highly recommend using a Steam Deck dock and USB mouse, as there’s a decent amount of copy-pasting and the Deck’s touch-screen controls can be finicky.

Since installing, I’ve played nothing else. Partly because I accidentally unmounted my Steam Deck library so it no longer recognizes what I’ve already installed on there through the store (oops) and partially because Diablo IV on the Deck is simply that rad.

It’s impressive how well the Deck’s default controller scheme jells with Diablo IV. Blizzard’s action-RPG is perfect to play while listening to a podcast or catching up on the borderline dispiriting amount of quality spring anime series I have to watch.

How’s performance you may ask? Pretty good, actually. After tweaking some essential settings, and turning off Cross-Network Play (yes that really did make a difference) I consistently get 40-60FPS let’s say…80 percent of the time. However, entering or leaving a major hub (Kyovashad for example) or a hectic world event has my poor base model Deck wheezing and running at single digits. Using an ultimate spell in a large crowd of enemies will also have your audio popping off, and not in a fun way either. And as you can imagine D4 is a battery Greater Evil. I recommend playing with your AC charger plugged in for sessions longer than 30 minutes.

But like cmon, being able to tackle a Stronghold while laying on my couch? That’s objectively awesome and I look forward to parking my ass on aforementioned couch after I send Claire this blurb. Bye! — Eric Schulkin

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Claire Jackson

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June 16, 2023
New Xbox Controller Lets You See The Triggers Vibrating

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We’ve covered the special Starfield-branded Xbox controllers before. They were one of the worst-kept secrets of 2023, alongside the Starfield-branded Xbox headset that is already joining them on store shelves. What I did not know until today was how damn cool the controller’s triggers are.

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

I mean, I like the controller design itself. I’m not exactly hyped for Starfield, I can take it or leave it, but the beauty of this pad in particular is that it doesn’t really look like a branded controller at all. It just looks like an Xbox controller with a really cool late-70s/early-80s sci-fi theme, like it was something out of The Last Starfighter, and so even if you had no idea what Starfield was, or did and did not care for it, you could still be into this controller.

Anyway! That aesthetic discourse off my chest, I want to talk about the triggers. From leaked product shots we already knew the triggers had a transparent housing, but it was one thing seeing them just sitting around. It’s another seeing them moving, because as long as we have had vibrating controllers—and it’s been decades now—I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the mechanics of them actually vibrating before while you’ve got the finished product in your hand:

That’s neat! Not surprising, we all knew roughly how they worked, but it’s still cool seeing it in action like that. Cool and worrying, because seeing how fast and hard those little guys have to work to keep rumbling I have no idea how controllers last as long as they do. Provided, uh, they actually last as long we want them to.

The Xbox Series X/S controller is $80 while the gaming headset is $125.

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Luke Plunkett

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June 13, 2023
Microsoft Explains Why You’re Waiting So Long For Those Xbox Exclusives

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Microsoft revealed some exciting new first-party games like InExile’s Clockwork Revolution and Compulsion Games South of Midnight at its June 11 Xbox Showcase. But others like Fable and Avowed were first teased years ago and still don’t have clear release dates. What’s taking so long?

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

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty recently said in interviews with Axios and IGN that the industry is still catching up to a new reality that major projects are simply more complex due to new hardware and rising audience expectations. 4K graphics, ray-tracing and other graphical improvements have made development harder and more expensive, while Microsoft itself had to manage a transition period beginning in 2018 when it snatched up tons of new studios, including those under the Zenimax acquisition like Bethesda, id Software, and Machine Games.

“I think that the industry and the fans were a little behind the curve on sort of a reset to understand that games aren’t two or three years anymore,” Booty told Axios. “There are higher expectations. The level of fidelity that we’re able to deliver just goes up.”

“One, gen 9 hardware is awesome—ray tracing, all the stuff we can do,” he told IGN. “But that trickles down through everything through how the assets are build. Like in Forza Motorsport, how the cars have to be built, how the lighting’s got to be done, how the track’s got to be set up, all the detail. The expectation is very high. Games are just getting more complex in terms of the interactions that are expected.”

There are plenty of examples that back up Booty’s point about games taking longer. Ghost of Tsushima took Sucker Punch six years, the longest the studio had ever spent on making a single game. Final Fantasy XVI is in a similar boat, arriving seven years after the last game in the storied fantasy-RPG franchise. Exceptions like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a dense 35 hour action adventure and game of the year contender made in just three years, only undermine how rare that turn around time has become.

At the same time, it’s clear Microsoft in particular has struggled to iron things out in its post-acquisition production processes. Halo Infinite’s anemic post-launch support and the poor state of Redfall at release have shown that even when a big game finally arrives, it’s not without problems. Microsoft founded The Initiative back in 2018 but we’ve yet to see anything vaguely tangible out of Perfect Dark. Instead, it’s now reportedly relying on a partnership with Crystal Dynamics to push development forward on the game.

While games like State of Decay 3, Gears 6, and Everwild were all missing from the Xbox Showcase, Microsoft is hinting that they could make an appearance at other events throughout the year like Gamescom or The Game Awards. Even so, it’s not clear their re-emergence will include substantial gameplay reveals or definitive release dates versus CGI trailers. In the meantime, fans finally have Starfield and Forza Motorsport to round out the year. And if Booty’s right, a parade of hits will begin to follow shortly after.

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Ethan Gach

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June 13, 2023
Todd Howard: Starfield Locked At 30FPS On Console For ‘Consistency’

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Since Starfield was revealed, fans have been wondering what framerate the sci-fi RPG would run at on console. In a new interview with IGN, creative director Todd Howard confirmed the Xbox Series X/S version would remain locked at 30fps to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the game.

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

“I think it’ll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard told IGN after the Starfield Direct today. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K in the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.”

Read More: Starfield Gets The Gameplay And Story Reveal You’ve Been Waiting For

The longtime Bethesda game designer added that the game is “running great” and even sometimes at 60fps. “But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it,” he said. It’s also apparently performing well on the less powerful Xbox Series S where Howard said he plays most of the time since his kids monopolize the Xbox Series X.

Higher framerates, something players on PC with higher-end gear have long had access to, were one of the big selling points for the “next-gen” consoles. Recently, however, some big blockbusters have struggled to hit that mark. Gotham Knights was locked at 30fps on console, and Arkane Austin’s Redfall, an Xbox first-party console exclusive promoted with 60fps gameplay footage, won’t get a 60fps mode until sometime in the future.

But given Bethesda’s past track record with sprawling open-world RPGs at launch, a stable 30fps will probably be a pleasant surprise for most fans.

Kotaku is covering everything Summer Game Fest, from the main show on Thursday to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you’re into larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can keep up with all things SGF here.

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Ethan Gach

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June 11, 2023
Microsoft Fined $20 Million For ‘Illegally’ Collecting Children’s Information On Xbox

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The Federal Trade Commission just announced that Microsoft has been fined $20 million “over charges it illegally collected personal information from children who signed up for its Xbox gaming system without their parents’ consent”.

Dead By Daylight Devs’ New Game Is Fortnite Meets Doom

The ruling follows a larger one from December 2022, when Epic Games, developers of Fortnite, were hit with a $550 million fine for using “privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children”.

In this instance, the FTC says the issue centred around the creation of children’s accounts on an Xbox console, a process that until late 2021 would allow a child to enter a certain amount of personal information before requiring a parent’s assistance and permission. Microsoft had been keeping that data (sometimes for “years”), even if the account wasn’t created, which is a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).

Microsoft have already responded to the ruling with a post on the official Xbox blog, with Dave McCarthy, CVP Xbox Player Services, saying the violation was a result of a “glitch”, and that Microsoft will “continue improving” going forwards:

We recently entered into a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to update our account creation process and resolve a data retention glitch found in our system. Regrettably, we did not meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the order to continue improving upon our safety measures. We believe that we can and should do more, and we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, privacy, and security for our community.

McCarthy goes on to explain the details of this “glitch”, and how it led to retention of children’s data despite this being “inconsistent with our policy to save that information for only 14 days”:

During the investigation, we identified a technical glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed. This was inconsistent with our policy to save that information for only 14 days to make it easier for gamers to pick up where they left off to complete the process. Our engineering team took immediate action: we fixed the glitch, deleted the data, and implemented practices to prevent the error from recurring. The data was never used, shared, or monetized.

The FTC’s statement, meanwhile, says:

Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents’ consent, and by illegally retaining children’s personal information.

“Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children’s privacy on Xbox, and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids’ avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA.”

As part of a proposed order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Microsoft will be required to take several steps to bolster privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system. For example, the order will extend COPPA protections to third-party gaming publishers with whom Microsoft shares children’s data. In addition, the order makes clear that avatars generated from a child’s image, and biometric and health information, are covered by the COPPA Rule when collected with other personal data. The order must be approved by a federal court before it can go into effect.

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Luke Plunkett

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June 5, 2023
PlayStation Fans Refuse To Throw Away Box Even After Sony Tells Them To

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The official PlayStation UK Twitter account has decreed it’s “OK to throw away the cardboard box your PlayStation came in now,” but squirrelly fans aren’t convinced. What if they might actually one day need the dusty, frayed cardboard their PS4 arrived in 10 years ago?

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s New Gameplay Trailer Is Living Rent-Free In Our Brains

What if stockpiled boxes could solve the housing crisis? What if fans encounter a locked door that requires three PlayStation boxes to open it, and behind that door is a never-before-seen copy of an NC-17 Ratchet & Clank spinoff series, Ratchet & Klonopin? They want to know.

But first, they require clarification—are we talking about the PS5 box, here, or the PS4 and PS3 boxes, too?

“Yeah those too,” PlayStation said. “Unless you’re planning to build a PlayStation themed cardboard fort.”

Huh. Good idea. People started posting defiant photos of their lonely boxes, perhaps to get a sense of available raw building material.

“Why is it next to a mop this is upsetting,” PlayStation replied to one of those photos.

“What if I need [my box] to stop Metal Gear, PlayStation UK?” one fan wondered.

“Fair,” replied PlayStation.

I don’t really get it. It seems like everyone has been holding onto their empty boxes except for me. Had I known, I would have tried to get an ant farm going in my Xbox 360 box, or something. The ants would have probably grown to a bionic size by now from all the traces of heavy metal.

But while I don’t keep empty boxes and never managed to cultivate a family of ants, I have been holding onto my actual PS5, which PlayStation just announced a few new subscription gaming titles for. PlayStation Plus subscribers will gain access to NBA 2K23, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and indie darling Trek to Yomi beginning June 6.

The NBA 2K23 Devin Booker doesn’t look like he’d keep a PlayStation carcass lying around, though. Do you? Have you heard of “recycling”? Make your case for keeping old boxes in the comments.

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Ashley Bardhan

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May 31, 2023
Nintendo Asks Valve To Kick GameCube And Wii Emulator Off Steam, Says It’s Protecting Its Creativity And Work

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Valve removed the Steam listing for Dolphin, a popular emulator for the GameCube and Wii, after it received a cease and desist from Nintendo, developers behind the project claim. The company behind Mario and Zelda accuses the emulator of illegally circumventing its protections, and says it’s merely protecting the “hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers.”

What You Should Know About Mario Strikers’ Big Free Update

A listing for Dolphin on Valve’s digital storefront first appeared back in March. “We are pleased to announce our great experiment—Dolphin is coming to Steam!” the creators wrote at the time. While the open-source project has been available online for years, interest in retro emulators has increased since the release of the Steam Deck, and an official store page would make the tool even easier to access.

On May 27, however, Dolphin’s developers announced the Steam port would be “indefinitely postponed” after Valve removed the listing following discussions with Nintendo. “It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed,” the emulator team wrote in an update on the project’s blog. “We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.”

According to a copy of the legal notice reviewed by PC Gamer, Nintendo accuses Dolphin of using “cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization and decrypting the ROMs at or immediately before runtime.” While emulation is itself legal, providing users with ways to bypass protections on individual game ROMs could potentially violate Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. It’s an issue that would have to be hashed out in court, though the power imbalance between large corporations and homebrew projects like Dolphin means that rarely actually occurs.

“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” a spokesperson for Nintendo told Kotaku in an email. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to do the same.”

While the company has rarely looked the other way when it comes to piracy of its games and the tools that could facilitate it (like mod chips sold online), Nintendo has been particularly aggressive lately in clamping down on leaks and what it believes to be illegal misuses of its games and technology. In February it subpoenaed Discord for the personal information of someone suspected of leaking the official The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom art book. In April it issued multiple copyright strikes against dozens of popular Breath of the Wild gameplay videos on YouTube that relied on modded versions of the game. And in May it seemingly had a Switch emulation tool, Lotpick, removed from Github after illicit copies of Tears of the Kingdom began spreading like wildfire online prior to the game’s official release.

It’s not yet clear how Dolphin’s current developers will respond, or how willing Valve will be to bring the store page back unless the matter is resolved in court, which could take years. Last year, Valve accidentally included the Switch emulator Yuzu in its YouTube trailer for the Steam Deck. The video was later edited and re-uploaded to remove the reference. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Ethan Gach

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May 28, 2023
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.

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.

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.

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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Ethan Gach

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May 25, 2023
Tears Of The Kingdom Is Smaller Than A Call Of Duty Patch, And That’s Great

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Like many others, I just bought the digital version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on my Switch. I paid for the game, exited the eShop, and then it just…started downloading. No prompt to delete something else to make room. No minor crisis over deciding which of the half-dozen unfinished games on my console would get the boot. The download finished quickly, and then I started playing. Simple, right? And yet I can’t remember the last time installing one of the biggest games of the year went so smoothly.

Disney’s New Post-Apocalyptic Anime Proves The Mouse Has Good Taste

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

Monday 3:53PM

Most modern blockbusters have filesizes of at least 50GB. The biggest are over 100GB, even well over it. With standard PS5 and Xbox Series X storage drives being only 500GB, with even less space available purely for storing games, it doesn’t’ take long before downloading the next hit, or even a small indie game, leads to headaches. Do I really have time to be replaying The Witcher 3 right now? Should I put God of War Ragnarök on hold while I finish Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC? What if I just play one more hour of the latest random 2D Soulslike I downloaded before deleting it?

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor threw this whole gauntlet into overdrive. The game was huge. The patches were huge. The patches kept coming. I love what I’ve played so far but man, that whole part sucks. God help you if you also have an online multiplayer game you jump into regularly like Destiny 2, Apex Legends, or Fortnite. And if it’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, well, all I can say is I’m sorry.

Image: Nintendo

Hence the surge of relief when I installed Tears of the Kingdom and didn’t have to deal with any of that. I have a 128GB microSD in my Switch and have never pressed up against the invisible barrier of its storage limits. Nintendo is renowned for optimizing its Switch games, with filesizes routinely half of what ports like Doom 2016 require. Tears of the Kingdom is only one gigabyte bigger than Breath of the Wild, despite an entire new crafting system, a much bigger map, and a ton more voice acting. It’s a small marvel, and one I appreciate now more than ever. And the version 1.1 day-one patch? Barely 300MB.

I get it. With 4K textures, mountains of cutscenes, and full voice acting, cutting-edge blockbusters on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC are never going to be that small. External storage add-ons are also getting cheaper, alleviating concerns for those who can afford them. And maybe one day all our games will be streamed from the cloud anyway, making local storage obsolete. In the meantime, I’m not taking conveniently small game footprints for granted.

Something feels a little old-school about Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s not just that it’s the newest adventure for some of Nintendo’s oldest characters. The midnight launch. The lines wrapped around the block. The fact a gaming culture that’s increasingly fractured, fragmented, and heated is momentarily concentrated on Link gluing rockets to a raft. It’s nice. Also, the game just works. Incredible.

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Ethan Gach

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May 12, 2023
Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s Performance On Switch Sounds Like A Minor Miracle

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There have been a lot of buggy blockbuster launches recently, but it doesn’t sound like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be one of them. Nintento’s latest big exclusive for the Switch has impressed many reviewers so far with how it runs on the six-year-old hardware, with even Digital Foundry’s experts marveling at how it performs.

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The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

Monday 3:53PM

Back when previews dropped for the game, it seemed like there might be some big concerns around framerate drops and handheld mode performance, with anecdotal reports of slow down when crafting complex vehicles or flying between floating islands. Digital Foundry reports, however, that a pre-release patch massively improved things, alleviating those concerns.

“It’s a game changer: nearly every instance of major performance loss has been corrected resulting in a game that now holds very closely to the 30 fps target,” senior staff writer, John Linneman, said in Digital Foundry’s YouTube analysis. “Nearly the entirety of my video capture managed to maintain a solid 30 fps, at least in most instances, which for the Switch, running a game this fast and mergent is downright impressive.”

There are still some dips, mostly around using Link’s new Ultrahand ability to combine objects into useful machines—when first initiated, the game briefly drops to 20 fps—and in busy areas like Kakariko Village. Linneman points out, however, that these moments are few-and-far-between so as not to make it a big issue.

Graphically, Tears of the Kingdom looks very similar to Breath of the Wild, despite the six years separating them. Still, there appear to be slight improvements in draw distance, shadows, and cloud and mist effects. The game also apparently loads around 30 percent faster on average when fast-traveling, according to Digital Foundry’s metrics.

Gif: Nintendo / Digital Foundry / Kotaku

Handheld mode also appears to fair pretty decently, too. While the maximum resolution is capped at 720p, and thus occasionally drops below the HD threshold, it apparently looks great on the OLED Switch screen, as one might expect. The framerate does drop more often, but doesn’t sound like a deal breaker.

Several other reviews have backed up this assessment, pointing out that Tears of the Kingdom’s performance on Switch is a far cry from the bug-ridden launches of other recent Nintendo published games like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. “Nintendo got this extraordinary game running on a 10-year-old chipset, on hardware thinner than a small stack of beer coasters, in a device I can fit in my back pocket, and it only takes up 16GB of hard drive space?” said YouTuber SkillUp in his video. “Tears of the Kingdom is a technological miracle, and that is the story that deserves to be told far more than the occasional frame drop.”

The only disappointment seems to come from the fact that a Switch 2 or Pro model didn’t arrive in time for the game. Digital Foundry points to some of the major visual improvements teased back in Tears of the Kingdom’s first trailer back at E3 2019. The scene of Link and Zelda exploring a dark cave is how the finished game opens, but it doesn’t look nearly as good as in that first glimpse.

Nintendo says new hardware won’t arrive until 2024 at the earliest. Maybe when it does, we’ll get an enhanced version of Tears of the Kingdom. In the meantime, it sounds like it plays just fine on the older console.

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Ethan Gach

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May 11, 2023
PlayStation Shuts Down Concrete Genie Dev Amidst Continued Pivot To Prestige

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Image: PixelOpus

Sony has quietly closed down PixelOpus, one of its first-party PlayStation Studios. Based in San Mateo, California, the studio was responsible for 2014’s Entwined and 2019’s Concrete Genie.

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News of this first broke through a Twitter post from the studio, which expressed the team’s gratitude to the players who have enjoyed their games.

“Dear friends, our PixelOpus adventure has come to an end. As we look to new futures, we wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to the millions of passionate players who have supported us, and our mission to make beautiful, imaginative games with heart. We are so grateful!”

Sony didn’t immediately comment on the closure publicly but has since confirmed in a statement to IGN that PixelOpus is, in fact, shuttering on June 2.

“PlayStation Studios regularly evaluates its portfolio and the status of studio projects to ensure they meet the organization’s short and long-term strategic objectives,” the company told IGN. “As part of a recent review process, it has been decided that PixelOpus will close on June 2.”

PixelOpus was a small team within the hulking giant that is PlayStation Studios, having less than 20 employees as of 2019. The studio’s breakout game was 2019’s Concrete Genie on PS4, which was gorgeous to look at and had cool painting mechanics, but its pacing felt a bit plodding, even with a brisk run time of five or so hours. Before the closure, Pixelopus was working on a project with Sony Pictures Animation, but we don’t know yet if that game is still in the works with another team or has been canceled entirely.

It’s a sad end for a talented studio, but feels pretty in line with Sony’s hard pivot to prestige blockbusters at all costs. On top of closing PixelOpus, the company shuttered Japan Studio in 2021, which was putting out some of the more experimental work within the PlayStation first-party ecosystem. It’s a shame, and while there are still some studios doing cool things at places like Media Molecule, there’s certainly a gap within Sony’s catalog without it.

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Kenneth Shepard

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May 5, 2023
Rainbow Six Kickstarter Asks For More Money From People Who Already Backed

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In 2021 Mythic Games, with the backing of Ubisoft, announced a Kickstarter campaign for an officially-licensed board game adaptation of Rainbow Six: Siege. Two years later, Mythic are asking people who already paid for the game to pay a bit—and in some cases a lot—more.

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The game, simply called 6: Siege, is pretty much what you’d expect: two teams of operatives do battle on a tactical map, one side attacking, the other defending. And as you would also expect from an officially-licensed board game appearing on Kickstarter, it is supposed to be huge, promising all kinds of plastic miniatures, expansions, 3D buildings and terrain.

In 2021 you could get the game in three tiers: a basic $69 copy, a deluxe $199 version and an even more premium $269 edition. That last one came with a lot of stuff: five “years” of expansions, multiple map packs, extra units, a neoprene dice tray, 3D buildings and even a little laser pointer so you could quickly and accurately determine line-of-sight stuff.

Now, in 2023, with the pandemic having wreaked havoc on the board game industry, Mythic (via Wargamer) have posted an update on their campaign website stating that, as things currently stand, the money that people paid during the initial campaign isn’t going to actually cover their manufacturing costs.

As a result, they’re giving backers three choices: they can pay more money, they can wait for prices to come down and receive their games at some point in the future, maybe, or they can ask for a refund. Backers of the $69 edition are being asked to pay an additional $39, $199 backers will need to pay $99 more and the $269 backers are being asked to pay an extra $129.

That is…hoo boy, that is a lot of extra money. Mythic have explained the decision on their campaign page, attributing the increases to international conditions, along with some internal overrun:

…the combined crises of COVID and the war in Ukraine, which we had not anticipated, have changed the international situation. Prices have literally exploded in all areas, and the estimates on which we based ourselves before and during the Kickstarter campaign are absolutely no longer relevant.

To give you some examples, the cost of paper and cardboard has increased by 50 to 100% on average (the paper we use for example has gone from $600 per ton to $1200 per ton), the cost of labor in China where our games are produced, assembled and shipped has also doubled from $4 to $8 per hour. The cost of energy, plastic and raw materials has increased by almost 50%. Finally, while container fees have recently dropped from their ridiculous highs (but not back to pre-crisis prices), the cost of the Last Mile has skyrocketed and has never been higher. On our side, it must be said, we spent much more than expected in the development of the game, with more people than we expected working on it and longer than we originally estimated (which caused extra costs, but also has the advantage of having an optimal, well-tested, varied and balanced game in the end).

Wildly, this isn’t the first time Mythic has had to do this; their Darkest Dungeon adaptation had to ask for extra money as well, something that 20% of backers refused to do. In this case Mythic’s update says that “If we do not reach the commitment rate, we commit to reimburse all contributors for these additional costs by the amount of their contribution”, and that “At the end of the fundraising period, if we have reached the minimum commitment to go into production, we will start printing.”

While I have a lot of sympathy for board game publishers and manufacturers right now, these conditions aren’t new; I wrote “Board Games Are Having A Bad Time” in April 2020, and this game was Kickstarted a year later. For Mythic to have not gone overboard with allowances for pricing variations during such tumultuous times reflects poorly on their campaign planning, and fans are right to be upset at being not only asked to pay more, but to pay so much more.

It’s also yet another example of the dangers inherent in the arms race so many board game publishers are trapped in on Kickstarter, offering increasingly obscene amounts of plastic miniatures and other luxuries with their games in an effort to appeal to backers, all the while making their projects far more expensive—and thus risky—to actually make.

I’ve contacted Mythic to clarify what exactly happens to the whole campaign if the “commitment rate” isn’t met, and will update if I hear back.

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Luke Plunkett

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May 3, 2023
19 Exciting, Cozy Games Coming Out In 2023

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Pikselnesia / GameTrailers

Vibes: Slice-of-life journeys through heartache, music, and moving on
Availability: 2023 Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5

Set in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, Afterlove EP explores the life of Rama, whose romantic partner passes away. It’s definitely a heavy subject, but with the manga-inspired artstyle, and use of music in rhythm mini-games, Rama’s story looks like a slow, delicate tale of what it means to move on after losing someone.

Afterlove EP describes itself as a mashup of a narrative adventure, dating sim, and rhythm game, along with branching narratives and different endings.

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Claire Jackson

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April 27, 2023
Nintendo Escalates War On Popular Zelda YouTuber Behind Multiplayer Breath Of The Wild Mod

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In the wake of a massive hype wave following the latest The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom trailer, Nintendo has seemingly ratched up the number of rogue copyright claims it puts out against content creators on Youtube, and at least one of them is hitting back. In his latest video, Eric “PointCrow” Morino pleaded with Nintendo to leave his channel alone after it recently issued dozens of additional claims against his videos.

Skyward Sword HD Revisits The Stumble That Led To Breath Of The Wild

“Please remove these strikes and claims or at least start a dialogue with us so we can all move forward with the excitement I’m sure you would love to see about your future games,” Morino said in a video to Nintendo posted on YouTube on April 14 that he said was vetted by his lawyer. The request comes after the Switch manufacturer apparently doubled down on issuing copyright claims and strikes against Morino’s channel, increasing the total number to 28, including ones against older videos that had nothing to do with Breath of the Wild, like one about Wii Sports.

Nintendo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nintendo first began targeting the Zelda speedrunner’s YouTube channel on April 6 after he uploaded footage of a Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod he commissioned and released to the public. Despite making videos featuring challenge runs and other modded content for years, it appeared to be the first time Nintendo signaled it took any sort of issue with the content. Morino posted about it on Twitter at the time, criticizing the move and calling on the publisher to reverse its decision.

He now says Nintendo has done the opposite, proceeding to copyright claim over 20 additional videos spanning his entire content making career. While most of them included the word “mod” in the title, at least one contained just vanilla gameplay with commentary. “These takedowns may have started with modded content, but they’ve spiraled into something else entirely,” Morino said in his latest video.

On April 23, another Zelda Youtuber, Croton, said 10 of their streams and two of their videos were “nuked” from the platform. “No answers, no context, just a copyright removal,” they tweeted. “And one of these videos has literally nothing to do with mods and was simply a Zelda challenge run.”

In his own video, Morino accuses Nintendo of flouting its content creator guidelines to target him, and defends his modded Breath of the Wild runs, which have collectively garnered tens of millions of views and helped maintain excitement around a game that’s now six years old. “To be clear I have never encouraged piracy of Nintendo’s games,” he said. “The mods I’ve commissioned are not being sold, and all of the code is custom, meaning they are free of Nintendo’s assets.”

At the exact time when many content creators are gearing up for a massive influx of interest from fans and viewers ahead of the release of Tears of the Kingdom next month, Morino’s now weary of making content for the game at all, lest the arbitrary copyright claims continue. “This is a little scary because the precedent that they set with this case may apply heavily for their upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” he said. “As per their decisions to take down challenge and gameplay videos alongside the modded content it will be difficult for any content creator to post creative concepts without having the fear of Nintendo exercising their copyright over video that is in line with their own policies.”

Morino initially planned to appeal the copyright claims, defending his videos on fair use grounds, but he now says those legal efforts could cost millions and could jeopardize the future of his over 1.6 million subscriber YouTube channel. He recently tweeted, “it’s hard to become excited for Tears of the Kingdom when the Zelda community is being nuked off YouTube.”

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Ethan Gach

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April 14, 2023
The Last Of Us Part 1’s PC Port Isn’t In Great Shape

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The Last Of Us—a zombie apocalypse game, you might have heard of it—was finally released on PC this week. That’s good news for anyone who hasn’t managed to play it over its past three releases on various PlayStation consoles, but the bad news is that, at launch at least, the game isn’t at its best.

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

At time of posting the game only has a 33% positive rating on Steam, a figure and timeframe that has little to do with the quality of the game itself, and everything to do with the condition it has released in. Player’s complaints are many, but they boil down to a few widespread issues like:

Freezes: The game is locking up at all kinds of random places, sometimes on its own, sometimes taking Steam (or the whole PC) with it.

CTD: The game is constantly crashing to the desktop for many users.

Performance: Players are complaining that the game places far too much strain on the CPU rather than the GPU, and that as a result performance is nowhere near as smooth as it should be relative to their systems.

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Mouse stutter: Now this one is funny. Apparently using the keyboard + mouse results in stutters. Using a gamepad removes this. So there’s a control-based performance hit? Wild (this was also reportedly an issue with the Uncharted ports as well).

Some of my favourite Steam reviews include:

Wow this runs like crap

The single worst PC port I have ever seen. Waited 10 years for the game, avoiding any and all walkthrough videos, reviews, spoilers and etc. and this disgusting excuse of a port ruined every single ounce of excitement I had for the game. Building shaders for almost 2 hours now, crashes in main menu while building shaders every 5 or so minutes.

Terrible optimization. Game takes more than 8 gigs of VRAM on medium settings, 100% CPU utilization in menu. And the temps are really high too. Probably going to refund soon.

Pre-purchased & pre-loaded. Launched it as soon as it was ready. Went to the setings. Turns out this game is eating up nearly 10GB of VRAM at 1440p max settings (game defaulted the settings to maximum). I’m running a RTX 3080 Ti with 12GB VRAM, mind you. Never could get past the menu screen which always crashes when the game displays a notification at the bottom right corner that reads ‘BUILDING SHADERS’.

While you’d expect this stuff will be fixed (or at least improved) in the months to come, it’s starting to become a disappointing pattern that many of Sony’s big PlayStation ports are hitting with performance problems on PC. Horizon was a mess, Uncharted suffered from many of these same problems and now this. Sure, there’s encouragement to be found there too—Horizon overcame its early struggles to be a damn fine experience on the PC—but these bad first impressions aren’t helping anyone.

For what it’s worth, Naughty Dog has responded to the issues, saying:

The Last of Us Part I PC players: we’ve heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you’ve reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.

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Luke Plunkett

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March 28, 2023
Microsoft Ends $1 Xbox Game Pass Offer

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Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s long-running introductory offer for its Xbox Game Pass subscription platform, which let users try the service out for $1 for the first month before moving onto more expensive payments, has finally come to a close.

As The Verge report, the deal—which applied to both Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and the PC Game Pass—has recently been pulled, with a Microsoft spokesperson saying “We have stopped our previous introductory offer for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass and are evaluating different marketing promotions for new members in the future”.

What those “different marketing promotions” could be is anyone’s guess, though given the whole point of the $1 deal was get new users on the hook, a natural successor could easily be the Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family scheme, which while still unavailable in the US has been tested in a number of international markets since late 2022.

Anyone signed up for Game Pass will see months from existing subscriptions converted into partial months on the sharing plan. If you’re currently signed up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, every remaining month will turn into 18 days of Game Pass Friends and Family. Those signed up for the piecemeal tiers will see their subscriptions convert into 12 days of Game Pass Friends and Family.

There are some limitations, however. If you’re the account holder, you can only have four additional people on an account at any given time, and can only share with eight unique accounts over the course of a calendar year. And it’s region-locked: The primary account holder can only add members who live in the same country or region.

While that’s not a 1:1 replacement for the $1 offer, which was just a good deal for anyone, it does mean folks recommending Xbox Game Pass to friends or family would have a pretty easy way to get them onboard via their own account.

It sucks to see the $1 deal go away, since I’m sure many/most of you took advantage of it, but if you weren’t ready for the time Xbox decided to start doing stuff like this, you have not been paying enough attention to TV and sports over the last five years.

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Luke Plunkett

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March 26, 2023
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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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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March 24, 2023