Activision, Microsoft Set To Merge After FTC Fails To Stop Deal

Image for article titled Activision Set To Become Part Of Microsoft After FTC's Last-Ditch Effort Fails

Photo: Anadolu Agency (Getty Images)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft And Sony Reach Deal For Future Of Call Of Duty On PS5

Art for a Call of Duty operator sits in front of dueling Xbox and PlayStation signs.

Photo: Barone Firenze / Activision / Kotaku (Shutterstock)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft declined to comment. Sony did not immediately respond.

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft Sells Activision Blizzard Streaming Rights To Ubisoft

Somehow, over a year later, Microsoft’s attempted $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard just took its weirdest turn yet. The tech giant announced today that it will sell off the streaming rights for Call of Duty, Overwatch, and more to rival publisher Ubisoft as part of one last attempt to get holdout regulators in the UK to approve the deal.

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

“To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in an August 22 blog post. “This includes executing an agreement effective at the closing of our merger that transfers the cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment SA, a leading global game publisher. The rights will be in perpetuity.”

Ubisoft confirmed in its own blog post that this means Activision Blizzard games like Modern Warfare II will soon be added to its own Ubisoft+ Multi Access subscription service, as well as its Ubisoft+ Classics add-on for PlayStation users. While the games can still be licensed for Microsoft’s own Game Pass subscription service, they would not be able to become exclusive to any one cloud gaming platform. Ubisoft+, which includes big blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege, already costs more than Game Pass on console, and it will be interesting to see how this new side-deal transforms the service.

How exactly will this messy divestiture work? According to the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft through a “one-off payment” as well as a “wholesale pricing mechanism” that includes the option to pay based on usage. Ubisoft will then have the ability to license out the games to other subscription services, as well as to pay a fee to force Microsoft to port Activision Games to competing PC gaming operating systems like Linux.

Originally set to close by mid-July, Microsoft’s plan to buy Activision Blizzard ran into all sorts of roadblocks in the U.S. and UK. Despite regulatory approval in the European Union, the Federal Trade Commission ended up suing to try and prevent the deal from closing earlier this summer, only for the judge in the case to end up denying the request and side with Microsoft. The CMA, meanwhile, blocked the deal back in April claiming it would give Microsoft a big competitive advantage in the cloud gaming market if it ever decided to make games like Call of Duty exclusive to streaming on Game Pass.

After the failure of the FTC’s lawsuit, Microsoft and the CMA began negotiating on potential remedies again, culminating in the new and much more convoluted version of the deal laid out today. An agreement was also signed with Sony to secure ongoing access to Call of Duty games on PlayStation 5 and future consoles for the next 10 years. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard recently signed a 90-day extension of their merger agreement which expires on October 18. The CMA will review the new terms before then, but this whole saga isn’t over yet.

“This is not a green light,” CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in a statement. “We will carefully and objectively assess the details of the restructured deal and its impact on competition, including in light of third-party comments. Our goal has not changed — any future decision on this new deal will ensure that the growing cloud gaming market continues to benefit from open and effective competition driving innovation and choice.”

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft Is Finally Done Making Kinect (For Real This Time)

Don Mattrick shows off the Xbox One on a stage.

Photo: Bloomberg / Contributor (Getty Images)

It finally happened. Microsoft has fully ended production of Kinect hardware. And no, you didn’t stumble upon an article from 2014. Yes, it’s 2023 and Microsoft, in case you didn’t know, has been still trying to make Kinect work, just not in the gaming space. Well, today Microsoft has thrown in the towel.

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

A sophisticated motion sensing camera, Kinect first premiered on the Xbox 360 in 2010. While the tech was rather neat, Kinect arguably struggled to appeal to many gamers and gained a reputation for necessitating various shovelware games such as Fable: The Journey. In 2013, Microsoft revealed that the Kinect would ship with each Xbox One. While the new Kinect unit was technically impressive, it once again failed to gain a foothold with, well, just about anyone. Microsoft later stopped bundling the Kinect with Xbox One, and the device moved on to Microsoft’s mixed reality and enterprise solutions. Keeping the Kinect name, Microsoft offered the Azure Kinect Developer Kit in 2019 to those looking to implement its depth-sensing technology in various business environments. And today, that chapter of the Kinect’s life comes to a close.

“As the needs of our customers and partners evolve, we regularly update our products to best support them,” a Microsoft blog announcing the death of the Azure Kinect Developer Kit opens.

But while Azure Kinect Developer Kit has now ended production, the tech seems like it will continue to live on. Microsoft shouted out Orbbec’s new Femto Bolt, a device very similar to the Azure Kinect DK, as providing the hardware necessary for those still interested in working with 3D depth camera technology. Via a dedicated software pipeline, developers will be able to use Azure Kinect DK software on the Femto Bolt. Meanwhile, Microsoft states that it plans to continue providing the necessary software tools to work with Azure Kinect DKs still out there in the wild.

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft Aiming To Release Next Xbox By 2028

A Xbox Series X/S sit in front of a black grid.

Image: Microsoft / Kotaku

The successors to Microsoft’s current game consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, seemingly won’t be coming out until sometime in 2028. That’s according to conversations between company executives that were recently made public in federal court filings following the Federal Trade Commission’s failed attempt to block the Activision Blizzard acquisition back in June.

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

As first reported by Axios, transcripts of a May 2022 meeting recently released by the Northern District Court of California show Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asking if the “plan for 2028” is to stick with a single main platform target for developers to make games for or pursue something more like the range of specs seen on PC. Based on other executives’ responses, it sounds like some combination of the two.

“We have already started this journey with Xbox One and Xbox One X, furthering it in Series S | X,” corporate VP Kevin Gammill wrote, as transcribed by Axios. “We need to be even more flexible going forward with gen 10, but also provide the ability for creators to take advantage of unique hardware capabilities.”

Plans can always change, but the exchange makes it appear as though Microsoft will double-down on its current multi-model approach with the Series S being weaker but more affordable than the Series X, a more direct competitor to Sony’s equivalent PlayStation 5. 2028 would also make the current generation nine console cycle one of the longer ones. It was six years between the PS2 and PS3, and seven between the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

“I think we’re kind of at the end of the beginning,” Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer told IGN in an interview last month, three years into the life cycle of the current consoles. Early supply shortages and game delays due to the global pandemic may have slowed things down initially, but major new game releases ticked up in 2023, and have already called into question the long-term capabilities of the less technically powerful Xbox Series S.

Despite an apparent requirement that games on Series X have gameplay feature parity with the Series X versions, Larian Studios got an exception to the rule and will eventually ship Baldur’s Gate 3 for Series S without the split-screen co-op it will enjoy in other console versions. While Microsoft continues to back its weaker console, it’s hard to see how it can make it all the way to 2028 without being forced to make more compromises, or some games potentially seeking to skip it altogether.

                

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft Discusses Buying Nintendo Or Valve In Leaked Email

A leaked 2020 email from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer reveals his sustained interest in buying either Nintendo or Steam developer Valve. The Northern District Court of California released the email—along with many other documents from the Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft lawsuit that, earlier this year, unsuccessfully attempted to block Microsoft’s proposed merge with Call of Duty publisher Activision.

What You Should Know About Mario Strikers’ Big Free Update

Microsoft first made a pass at acquiring Nintendo back in 1999, when it gave the Zelda developer an offer that caused its execs to “[laugh] their asses off” for at least an hour, Bloomberg reported in 2021. Microsoft has also been rumored to want to nab Valve in the past; though, in 2018, Valve co-founder and former ‘80s Microsoft employee Gabe Newell supposedly told a fan it wasn’t selling.

In the 2020 email, Spencer tells Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela and executive vice president Takeshi Numoto that “Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming.”

“I’ve had numerous conversations with the [Leadership Team] of Nintendo about tighter collaboration and feel like if any US company would have a chance with Nintendo we are probably in the best position. […] Nintendo is sitting on a big pile of cash.”

The rest of the email thread between the three executives discuss Microsoft’s ultimately snubbed attempt to buy social media platform TikTok (or “Tic Tok,” as Numoto writes) in 2020 and other, potentially lucrative buys, including Warner Bros. Interactive and Elder Scrolls developer ZeniMax, which Microsoft absorbed in 2021. Despite this, Spencer acquiesces that he doesn’t see “an angle to a near term mutually agreeable merger of Nintendo and MS.”

“I don’t think a hostile action would be a good move,” he continues, “so we are playing the long game. But our [Board of Directors] has seen the full writeup on Nintendo (and Valve) and they are fully supportive on either if opportunity arises as am I.”

“At some point, getting Nintendo would be a career moment,” Spencer says. “It’s just taking a long time for Nintendo to see that their future exists off of their own hardware. A long time…. :-)”

In 2022, to sweeten its controversial, planned Activision merger, and possibly to improve relations with Spencer’s apparent crown jewels, Microsoft made a 10-year promise to release Call of Duty on Nintendo consoles, and it sweared to keep releasing the shooter on Steam. Kotaku reached out to Microsoft for comment.

 

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Looks Like Microsoft Was Responsible For Leaking Its Documents

Microsoft is currently facing an unprecedented leak of confidential plans and conversations around both the recent past and coming future of Xbox. Sensitive documents meant only for the eyes of the court involved in the Federal Trade Commission’s failed battle to stop Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard were accidentally uploaded to public servers, revealing plans for Xbox Series X/S console refreshes in 2024, a remaster of the beloved open-world RPG Fallout 3, and more. Who’s to blame? Microsoft, apparently.

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

The last batch of redacted exhibits in the historic legal battle were finally made public on the Northern District Court of California’s servers on September 14. News began spilling out earlier this week about Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s take on Switch 2 hardware specs as well as Microosft’s plans to release its 10th generation console in 2028. On September 19, however, a ResetEra user discovered that one of the PDF files actually contained hidden, unredacted exhibits exposing confidential email exchanges, PowerPoint presentations, and meeting notes.

These leaked materials offer the most candid inside look yet at what’s been going on behind closed doors at Xbox from 2019 to 2022. The leaked documents detail cost estimates for getting games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Assassin’s Creed Mirage onto Game Pass, plans for new controllers, hardware, and operating systems, as well as Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer’s thoughts on trying to acquire Warner Bros. Games, Valve, and even Nintendo. All together, these leaks constitute a massive breach in an industry that often operates at heightened and sometimes ridiculous levels of secrecy.

Some Xbox fans, who are loyal to and defensive of the brand in ways often reserved for hometown sports teams, immediately started to blame the FTC. There was speculation that the regulatory agency, or some rogue member within its ranks, uploaded the wrong version of the files as payback for losing its anti-trust case against the tech giant. The agency, however, was quick to dismiss those rumors.

“The FTC was not responsible for uploading Microsoft’s plans for its games and consoles to the court website,” tweeted Douglas Farrar, director of its Office of Public Affairs. He later shared a new court order released by the judge in the case, Jacqueline Scott Corley. It called for both the FTC and Microsoft to meet again to go over the issues with exhibits, and placed the blame squarely on the latter for the latest leak.

“The Court ordered the parties to meet and confer and provide the Court with a secure cloud link to the admitted exhibits with the redactions set forth in the Court’s orders,” she wrote. “Microsoft provided the link on September 14 and the Court uploaded the exhibits to [the] internet page established for this case.”

Following today’s leak, the court nuked every remaining document pertaining to the FTC case from its server, something it did previously after an earlier batch of documents was uploaded with missing redactions. It’s unclear when the exhibits will return in their correctly redacted forms, but for everyone who follows the video game industry closely it won’t matter, as copies of the documents are already circulating far and wide.

Microsoft has yet to publicly acknowledge the historic breach, or comment on its contents. Spencer and other members of the Xbox team are headed to Japan this week for the 2023 Tokyo Game Show, where it will livestream a showcase on September 21.

Update 09/19/2023 4:45 p.m. ET: Spencer tweeted about the leaks late in the day, writing that it is “hard to see our team’s work shared in this way because so much has changed and there’s so much to be excited about right now, and in the future.”

He said Xbox will share its “real plans” when it’s ready.

…

by pbnbigesdi Posted on

New Microsoft Flight Simulator DLC Adds…Dune Buggies?

Sure, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a robust and impressively realistic video game dedicated to recreating the feel of flying an airplane around the world. But what if you flew by some sick-looking hills or ramps and wanted to hit them in a dune buggy? Well, now a new DLC from a third-party developer can help.

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

Launched in 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator was the long-awaited return for the franchise after being MIA for over a decade. The new entry in the series was released in the middle of the early days of the pandemic, and provided many folks a chance to safely travel around a recreation of the planet in over a dozen planes. Since its release, paid third-party DLC has been created for the game, adding new planes and features. But not all the DLC is focused on aircraft.

Out now, Juice Goose UTV is a new Flight Sim DLC that adds a highly-detailed electric off-road Utility Task Vehicle, aka cool dune buggy. The idea is that players can explore the massive open world of Flight Simulator from the ground level via the new vehicle.

Buy Microsoft Flight Simulator: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

Juice Goose UTV by Parallel 42 – TRAILER

This isn’t just some quickly-made mod that tosses a car model into the game and calls it a day. According to the DLC’s official site, the buggy comes in three motor variants designed for different driving experiences. It also includes 13 liveries, optional accessories, realistic suspension, simulated friction on the tires, cruise control, lighting options, a built-in radio, and is designed to be fully drivable with a standard Xbox controller. Phew.

Even better, the Juice Goose DLC supports crossplay with airplanes, so you and your friends can get up to all kinds of fun jumping cars over planes or racing different aircraft and buggies. Optionally, players can also download a custom pack that adds a virtual playground filled with ramps and other obstacles to test out the new vehicle.

According to the devs, the Juice Goose should be available to purchase via the official Flight Sim marketplace soon on PC and Xbox. It costs $15. Players can buy it now via the studio’s official website and install it themselves, if they can’t wait for the marketplace release.

.

…
by pbnbigesdi Posted on

Microsoft Crackdown On Unauthorized Controllers Sparks Backlash

Microsoft appears to be cracking down on third-party peripherals for its consoles. Players are reporting getting error messages when they try to use certain off-brand controllers on Xbox Series X/S, with the accompanying text telling them them that the devices are not authorized and will no longer usable come mid-November. The major policy change is sparking a loud outcry from various gaming communities, including fighting game players who often use third-party fight sticks for high-level competitions.

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

The upcoming change was first reported last week over on WindowsCentral. An Xbox One user reported getting an 0x82d60002 error code when trying to use her existing off-brand Xbox controller. “A connected accessory is not authorized,” a console warning read. “Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience. For this reason, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use on 11/12/2023.”

A similar warning was reported by accessory maker Brook Gaming, which specializes in fighting boards and steering wheel adapters. “Recently, we have received player feedback concerning these products when used on Xbox consoles (the latest OS version 10.0.25398.2266 released on 10/16) during online gameplay,” the company tweeted on October 20. “We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you.”

As many players have pointed out, this new policy could be one way that Microsoft is attempting to crack down on manufacturers of XIM and Cronus Zen adapters which help players modify their controller inputs to cheat in popular online shooters like Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and Rainbow Six Siege. At the same time, the blanket ban will also mean that lots of cheaper off-brand controllers and custom gaming accessories will no longer work on Xbox.

“Heyo [Phil Spencer, Xbox, Matt Booty] This is essentially a death sentence for local fighting game events that run on Xbox, much less, others that can only afford one arcade stick,” fighting game content creator and expert Maximilian Dood tweeted on October 29 as the news spread. “The Brookgamingfans converters are not cheat devices. They’re a huge boon to the FGC. Please reconsider!”

The biggest question about the new restrictions is whether peripheral makers will be able to apply to become authorized suppliers, or if the ban will remain in place for anyone who doesn’t have a branded deal with Xbox. That would mean companies paying Microsoft for authorization, potentially increasing the costs of the devices themselves or forcing some manufacturers to stop making devices for Xbox entirely.

This is the situation that’s already in place on PlayStation and it’s a huge drag. The PS5 only supports officially licensed controllers and accessories, of which there are very few. Most are also quite pricey. The result has been a near-total lockdown that gives players few alternatives to Sony’s DualSense. Microsoft now seems to be heading in the same unfortuante direction.

Update 10/30/2023 12:04 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed the ban will soon go into effect and said it’s for “performance, security, and safety.” “Microsoft and other licensed Xbox hardware partners’ accessories are designed and manufactured with quality standards for performance, security, and safety,” they wrote in a statement. “Unauthorized accessories can compromise the gaming experience on Xbox consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.) Players may receive a pop-up warning that their accessory is unauthorized. Eventually, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use to preserve the console gaming experience.”

The full list of of supported devices going forward is available on Microsoft’s website.

               

…

by pbnbigesdi Posted on
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Looks Blog by Crimson Themes.