Tag: activision blizzard

Microsoft Announces 4 Xbox Exclusives for PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Activision Blizzard Titles on Game Pass

Four Microsoft first-party games will launch on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, the company confirmed late Thursday after weeks of speculation over its exclusive titles releasing on rival platforms. The announcement came on the Official Xbox Podcast from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, who also shed further light on the reasons behind Xbox’s business decision and confirmed that the next generation of Xbox consoles were in development. Microsoft has not yet revealed the four Xbox exclusives coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, but The Verge reported that said games would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

Spencer addressed the rumours about Microsoft first-party titles and the future of Xbox exclusivity head on, confirming that contrary to reports, Triple-A Bethesda releases like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will remain as Xbox and PC exclusives. “We’ve made the decision that we’re going to take four games to the other consoles, just four games,” the Xbox chief on the podcast. He confirmed that Xbox won’t be fundamentally changing its exclusives strategy, explaining the decision to port the four unnamed games over to rival consoles. “We think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now to help grow our franchises,” he said.

While Spencer refrained from naming the four Xbox exclusive titles slated for launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch, a report from The Verge, citing sources privy to Microsoft’s plans, claimed that these would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of the Thieves and Grounded. The first three of these were previously reported to be coming to Sony and Nintendo’s platforms, too. There are no specific release dates or launch windows for these games, but Spencer said that their respective developers have plans for announcements that are “not too far away.”

Hi-Fi Rush has been rumoured to come to PS5 and Nintendo Switch
Photo Credit: Bethesda

The Xbox chief, however, did elaborate on the process of picking the four yet confirmed games for multi-platform transition. The company considered games released over a year ago that have been on Xbox and PC for a while. Two of the selected games are community-driven games, Spencer said, while the other two are smaller games that weren’t built to be platform exclusives. “As they’ve realised their potential on Xbox and PC, we see an opportunity to utilise the other platforms as a place to just drive more business value out of those games, allowing us to maybe invest in future iterations of those, or sequels to those, or just other games like that in our portfolio,” Spencer said. “And we don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that. We’re gonna do that.”

Spencer, however, cautioned players on rival platforms that the change in Microsoft’s strategy did not mean that all or several Xbox exclusives going forward would arrive on PS5 and Nintendo Switch. No other games besides the four already confirmed titles are currently being considered for a multi-platform launch.

In the wide-ranging podcast, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty also reiterated that Game Pass would only be available on Xbox on PC. Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond also announced that Activision-Blizzard games would soon arrive on Xbox Game Pass, starting with Diablo IV on March 28. Microsoft acquired Call of Duty maker Activision-Blizzard late last year in $69 billion deal after a long running regulatory battle with the US’ Federal Trade Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Bond also confirmed that Xbox Game Pass had reached 34 million subscribers.

Reports from earlier this month about Microsoft first-party games making their way to PS5 and Nintendo Switch had left the Xbox community unsettled, with many questioning the future of the platform. Major exclusives like Bethesda RPG Starfield and the recently announced Indiana Jones game were reported to be under consideration for a PS5 launch.

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Microsoft to Lay Off 1,900 Staff at Gaming Division, Including Recently Acquired Call of Duty Maker Activision

Microsoft will let go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, it said on Thursday, the latest cuts in the technology sector that has extended massive layoffs over the past years into 2024.

The cuts represent about 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division and will mostly happen at Activision Blizzard.

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra and Chief Design Officer Allen Adham are also leaving the company, while a previously announced survival game by Blizzard has been canceled, Microsoft said.

The news comes months after Microsoft closed its $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,73,621 crore) deal for Activision Blizzard, boosting its heft in the videogaming market with best-selling titles, including Call of Duty, to better compete with industry leader Sony.

“Microsoft’s announcement that it will be laying off 1,900 video game workers makes clear that, even when you work at a successful company in an extremely profitable industry, your livelihood is not protected without a voice on the job,” Communications Workers of America (CWA) said.

“We will continue to support workers at Microsoft and across the video game industry who want to have a union voice on the job,” it added.

Several other big firms such as Alphabet, Amazon.com and ebay have also laid off thousands of staff in recent weeks to lower costs and boost profitability.

Overall, more than 21,000 workers have been let go of in 76 tech companies in January, according to tracking website Layoffs.fyi.

The tech sector shed 168,032 jobs in 2023 and accounted for the highest number of layoffs across industries, according to a report by Challenger, Gray and Christmas earlier this month. That included more than 10,000 cuts at Microsoft.

Analysts and industry experts have said they expect fewer layoffs this year, with firms that are racing to catch up in the AI space more likely to downsize to offset the billions of dollars they are spending on the technology.

The Verge was the first to report the news on the latest job cuts by Microsoft.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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Xbox Game Pass Will Not Include Activision Games Like Call of Duty Until 2024, Phil Spencer Explains Why

Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games won’t appear on Xbox Game Pass until next year. On the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer claimed that players wouldn’t be seeing a big drop of those titles immediately, due to the lengthy regulatory challenges the company faced in its buyout attempt. Since it was uncertain whether the acquisition would be approved by Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) until recently, Xbox wasn’t able to do the groundwork for adding the catalogue to their gaming subscription service. Ahead of the deal’s closure, Activision Blizzard confirmed on Twitter that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and newly-launched Diablo IV won’t be coming to Game Pass soon, but Spencer’s statement covers older titles as well.

This is in stark contrast from Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media, where just two days after the buyout, 20 Bethesda back catalogue games, including franchises like Fallout, DOOM, Dishonored, and more were flooded onto Game Pass — free to play for members. “So now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work. But there is work,” Spencer said on the podcast, attesting that Activision Blizzard’s tweet is ‘accurate’ in terms of the 2024 timeline. He further assured that there’s no ‘secret celebration drop’ coming in the next few weeks, while acknowledging that fans have the right to be disappointed about it. It’s a long-term acquisition though, granting Xbox a lot of time to experiment with the average gamer’s ever-growing needs, and to that effect, Phil states that he’s excited about the future.

The elephant in the room, of course, is Call of Duty. Spencer reiterated on the same podcast that the franchise will maintain ‘100 percent parity’ across all platforms, including PlayStation for a 10-year duration. The acquisition shouldn’t cause other players to miss out on exclusive content or timing, which is something the Blue team took advantage of by granting early access to multiplayer beta and an exclusive operator called Lockpick this time. The bundle will be available only to those who pre-order Modern Warfare 3 on PS4 and PS5 for a year, until November 9, 2024. That said, Spencer said that there could be some performance and resolution changes depending on the platform. Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox port is an example, where the developers are unable to include split-screen coop on the lower-end Xbox Series S due to technical limitations. However, the in-game content is expected to remain the same (at the time of writing).

“We have no goal of somehow trying to use Call of Duty to get you to buy an Xbox console,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think making platform exclusive beta weekends helps players. The regulatory process for Activision Blizzard acquisition took more than a year, thanks to the US FTC stepping in to express concerns that Microsoft’s $69 billion (about Rs. 5,74,528 crore) deal was anti-competitive and that it had plans to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox. During those court proceedings, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan also claimed that a bunch of video game publishers he’d been speaking to unanimously agreed that Xbox Game Pass was ‘value destructive.’

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Microsoft-Activision Blizzard $69 Billion Deal Closes as UK CMA Gives Approval

Xbox maker Microsoft closed its $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,75,620 crore) deal for Activision Blizzard on Friday, swelling its heft in the video-gaming market with best-selling titles including Call of Duty to better compete with industry leader Sony.

Originally unveiled in January 2022, the biggest deal in the gaming industry cleared its final big hurdle — an approval from Britain — earlier in the day after Microsoft agreed to sell streaming rights for Activision’s games to allay competition concerns.

The completion is a major win for the US tech firm in its push to attract more people to its Xbox consoles and Game Pass subscription service. Microsoft’s gaming revenue trails that of Sony, whose PlayStation consoles outsell the Xbox.

“Today is a good day to play,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a post on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter. He will oversee the Activision business, with the video-game publisher’s CEO Bobby Kotick staying on until end-2023.

Spencer has touted the purchase as a way for Microsoft to break into the more than $90-billion (nearly Rs. 7,50,800 crore) market for mobile games.

Activision makes popular mobile titles including Candy Crush Saga and Call of Duty Mobile — games that were excluded from the cloud streaming deal Microsoft signed with France’s Ubisoft Entertainment to secure approval from Britain.

“Microsoft instantly has more than $3 billion (nearly Rs. 25,000 crore) of mobile revenues,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

“The big benefit is that Microsoft has a vision that they are going to deliver games through a subscription, and they need more content to give subscribers. So, this is a big step toward having sufficient content,” he said. 

Regulatory hurdles

The deal still faces opposition from the US Federal Trade Commission, which failed in its previous attempt to block the purchase. The FTC said on Friday it was focused on its appeal, but would “assess” Microsoft’s agreement with Ubisoft.

But analysts believe that will change little. “The impact of an FTC challenge will be limited to incremental concessions in the future,” DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said.

The main hurdle came from Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority, which had originally blocked the deal in April over concerns it could give the US tech giant a stranglehold on the nascent cloud gaming market.

The deal was the biggest test of the CMA’s global power to take on the tech giants since Britain left the European Union.

The regulator said on Friday “sticking to its guns” in the face of criticism from the merging companies had delivered an outcome that was better for competition, consumers and economic growth. 

Microsoft’s concession on streaming was a “game changer”, the CMA said, adding that it was the only competition agency globally to have delivered this outcome.  

“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,” it said in a statement. 

The CMA’s block had drawn fury from the merging parties, with Microsoft saying that Britain was closed for business. 

The British government only offered limited support to the CMA, with Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt saying that while he did not want to undermine its independence, regulators also needed to focus on encouraging investment.

CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator had “delivered a clear message to Microsoft that thedeal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and we stuck to our guns on that.”

She said the CMA took its decisions “free from political influence” and it would not be “swayed by corporate lobbying”.

The CMA would see it as a victory, but would need to be careful not to over-regulate the tech sector, Quilter Cheviot equity analyst Ben Barringer said. 

“There are fears the UK is a bad place to do business and the tech industry in particular will be watching its moves closely,” he said.

The European Commision gave the green light in May when it accepted Microsoft’s commitments to license Activision’s games such as Overwatch and World of Warcraft to other platforms.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Overwatch 2 Becomes Steam’s Worst-Reviewed Game of All Time

Overwatch 2 has made history by becoming the worst-reviewed game on Steam. Publisher Blizzard, which usually kept its PC games locked to the Battle.net client, brought its team-based shooter to Steam on August 10, only to be flooded with negative reviews. At the time of writing, merely nine percent of the overall ratings (111,234) are positive, with many criticising the title’s approach to locking heroes and cosmetics behind a battle pass and the cancellation of its long-advertised PvE mode. While Blizzard might have expected some backlash, this reception must’ve been eye-opening for them, given Battle.net did not have a review system in place.

With the release of season 6 ‘Invasion,’ Overwatch 2 had moved on from early access, though it still swayed from the purpose of its existence. You see, the sequel was announced to have PvE as an always-on game mode that would let players gather XP by completing story missions to level up their preferred heroes, by way of a role-playing-game. It was supposed to push its overarching lore forward, but back in May, Blizzard confirmed that it was no longer in development, instead releasing it in gradual, smaller batches as a means to flourish the co-op experience. Not only does this render the sequel useless, but the addition of a battle pass and other live-service gimmicks at the start didn’t sit well with longtime fans.

Another cool thing to note here is that nearly two-thirds of those reviews are reportedly in Simplified Chinese. As per games analyst Daniel Ahmad, Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft were the biggest PC games in China before the regional servers were shut down due to a disagreement between Blizzard and its Chinese distributor NetEase. The 14-year-old partnership was brought to an end earlier this year over new terms in the licensing agreement, which ultimately led to gamers in the country using VPNs to play those games. There haven’t been any announcements of the servers returning, and Overwatch 2’s arrival on Steam was a means for them to communicate those concerns, in addition to criticising the aforementioned changes made to the game. The reliance on VPNs also forced them to suffer slow logins and connection issues.

With these numbers in merely three days, Overwatch 2 has overtaken the Chinese card-battle game War of the Three Kingdoms as the worst-reviewed game on the platform. The former has garnered 101,826 negative reviews, at the time of writing, dropping it to an ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ tag. Blizzard also has plans to bring a selection of its other titles to Steam, which would be highly beneficial to PC players since a good majority of them hate having to switch between different accounts and clients to play their favourite games. It’s unclear which ones would be making the jump, but I really hope that the Diablo games are next.

Overwatch 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Microsoft-Activision Blizzard Deal Approval Again in Hands of UK’s CMA

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal is back in the hands of Britain’s antitrust regulator after an appeals court granted an adjournment, and the grounds for why the UK should reconsider its block on the US software giant’s takeover were published.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) set out on Friday Microsoft’s arguments for the reconsideration, as the US battles to win UK approval to buy Call of Duty maker Activision.

Having initially blocked the $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,65,480 crore) deal in April over concerns about its impact on competition in the cloud gaming market, the CMA has since reopened the file, after it was left increasingly isolated amongst world regulators in its opposition.

The CMA said it is likely to be able to reach a new provisional view on the restructured deal in the week beginning August 7.

Explaining why the deal should now be given the green light, Microsoft argued that the binding commitments accepted by the European Union shortly after Britain had blocked the deal changed matters, court documents published showed.

The software company gave legally-binding commitments to European authorities that Activision games can be streamed for a decade after the merger, and has entered into agreements with Nvidia, Boosteroid and Ubitus.

As part of that a monitoring and enforcement regime will be established, which Microsoft said should ease some of the CMA’s concerns.

Microsoft also argued that the terms of the CMA’s proposed block reached further than necessary to tackle its cloud gaming concerns, for example in covering Activision Blizzard’s King unit, which makes mobile device games like Candy Crush Saga.

The CMA said it understood that Microsoft considered the recent licensing deal it agreed with Sony constituted a further material change of circumstance or special reason.

For its part, the CMA dismissed as “irrelevant and immaterial” to its decision to look again at the deal the failure by US authorities to get it blocked in the courts there.

Britain’s Competition Appeal Tribunal provisionally approved the adjournment on Monday subject to further submissions from the parties. It formally granted it on Friday.

© Thomson Reuters 2023  

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Microsoft’s Appeal Against UK Block on Activision Deal Paused for Two Months by London Tribunal

Microsoft’s appeal against Britain’s block on its $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,66,100 crore) takeover of Activision Blizzard was formally paused by a London tribunal on Monday, to give the parties more time to resolve the dispute.

Microsoft, Activision, and Britain’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), had all asked for a two-month stay of the case after the CMA said it would consider a modified deal put forward by Microsoft.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled on Monday that the full hearing of Microsoft’s appeal, which was due to begin on July 28, should be adjourned.

Judge Marcus Smith said he was willing to adjourn next week’s hearing if the CMA provided set out why it considers there has been a material change in circumstances or special reason justifying its adjournment application.

The judge also asked for the CMA to set out any new consultation process “so that everybody is clear as to how it will work”.

The CMA in April became the first major regulator to block the acquisition of the “Call of Duty” maker, citing concerns about the impact on competition in cloud gaming.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also opposed the tie-up but suffered a major defeat last week when a federal court rejected the FTC’s application to temporarily halt the deal.

In Britain, the CMA’s final report is usually the last word. Companies cannot offer remedies after its publication and their only recourse is to the CAT.

But last week, less than an hour after a US federal court ruled the deal could go ahead, the CMA said it could look again at a modified proposal. It later said a restructured deal could satisfy its concerns subject to a new investigation.

All sides applied for a two-month pause of the case at the CAT, which the CMA’s lawyers said in court filings will “allow the CMA and the parties to engage swiftly and constructively in relation to Microsoft’s proposals”.

David Bailey, a lawyer representing the CMA, told the tribunal that the FTC’s initial defeat “formed no part of the CMA’s thinking” when it decided it would look at a new deal.

He added: “Based upon the discussion to date, both sides – Microsoft and the CMA – have confidence that Microsoft notifying a restructured transaction is capable of addressing the concerns that the CMA has identified.”

Microsoft’s lawyer Daniel Beard said: “The UK is the only impediment to closing (the deal) and speed is of the essence.” 

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

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Microsoft Asks London Court for Two-Month Pause of Appeal Over Activision Deal

Microsoft on Monday asked a London tribunal to pause its appeal against Britain’s block on its $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,66,100 crore) takeover of Activision Blizzard to give the parties more time to resolve the dispute.

Britain’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in April became the first major regulator to block the acquisition of the Call of Duty maker, citing concerns about the impact on competition in cloud gaming.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also opposed the tie-up, but suffered a major defeat last week when a federal court rejected the FTC’s application to temporarily halt the deal.

In Britain, the CMA’s final report is usually the last word. Companies cannot offer remedies after its publication and their only recourse is to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

But last week, less than an hour after a US federal court ruled the deal could go ahead, the CMA said it could look again at a modified proposal. It later said a restructured deal could satisfy its concerns subject to a new investigation.

All sides applied for a two-month pause of the case at the CAT, which the CMA’s lawyers said in court filings will “allow the CMA and the parties to engage swiftly and constructively in relation to Microsoft’s proposals”.

Microsoft’s lawyers said in court filings that the CMA is “the critical impediment” to closing the deal and pausing the case would allow all sides to try and find a solution.

However, Judge Marcus Smith said he wanted to hear the lawyers on whether there was a “proper legal foundation” for the CMA to consider a modified deal.

The judge also asked whether the FTC’s initial defeat in the US had been taken into consideration by the CMA.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Microsoft to Let Call of Duty Stay on PlayStation After Activision Blizzard Deal

Microsoft has signed an agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a tweet on Sunday.

A deal to keep Call of Duty on Playstation could further ease concerns surrounding the acquisition’s impact on competition.

Speaking on the agreement, Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a tweet, “Even after we cross the finish line for this deal’s approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before.”

The FTC had argued the deal would hurt consumers whether they played video games on consoles or had subscriptions because Microsoft would have an incentive to shut out rivals like Sony Group.

To address the FTC’s concerns, Microsoft had earlier agreed to license Call of Duty to rivals, including a 10-year contract with Nintendo, contingent on the merger closing.

Microsoft initially announced the Activision bid in January 2022. The internet giant wanted to take on rivals Tencent and Sony with the acquisition. Earlier, both companies signed a 10-year licensing deals that will bring Call of Duty to their gaming platform if the Activision deal is approved. However, Microsoft has now decided to let Call of Duty stay on PlayStation. In fact, Spain’s Nware has also signed a 10-year deal to bring Xbox and Activision Blizzard games to the Spanish cloud-gaming platform.

It is to be noted that Brazil, Chile, Serbia and Saudi Arabia have already given an unconditional approval to the deal. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Microsoft vs FTC: US Court Rejects FTC’s Request to Halt Takeover of Call of Duty Maker Activision Blizzard

A US federal court on Thursday rejected the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request that it order Microsoft to temporarily hold off on closing its $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,65,480 crore) purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, a court filing showed.

A federal judge had previously ruled for Microsoft on Tuesday, saying the agency had failed to show the deal would be illegal under antitrust law. The FTC appealed that loss late on Wednesday, and Microsoft said it would fight that appeal.

Earlier on Thursday, the FTC asked for an order preventing the deal from closing until after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a separate stay request filed with that court.

Any outstanding regulatory hurdle makes it more likely the agreement between Microsoft and Activision will expire on July 18 without the deal having been completed. After July 18, either company will be free to walk away unless they negotiate an extension.

The FTC had asked for the court to decide on the pause as soon as possible, noting that an existing temporary restraining order on the deal was meant to end just before midnight on Friday.

“We’re disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case, and we will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said earlier in an emailed statement.

In its motion for the pause to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, the FTC argued her denial of a preliminary injunction to halt the deal “raises serious, substantial issues for the Court of Appeals to resolve.”

“The FTC asks this Court to enjoin the merger at issue pending resolution of the FTC’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The motion is denied,” the judge said in the order late on Thursday.

The FTC had said it was seeking a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop the deal until an internal FTC judge could assess it. But Corley applied the standard needed to permanently stop the deal instead, which the agency argued was inappropriate.

The FTC had also said the judge erred in assessing the deal’s effect on multi-game subscriptions and in how much credit she gave Microsoft for striking deals with rivals in order to save the proposed transaction.

To address the agency’s concerns, Microsoft had agreed to license Call of Duty to rivals, including a 10-year contract with Nintendo, contingent on the merger closing.

The deal, the largest in the history of the video game industry, was also struggling in Britain until this week. After the ruling in California, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority, which had opposed the transaction, said a restructured deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard could satisfy its concerns, subject to a new investigation.

It is rare for a merger fight to go to an appeals court. That said, the FTC appealed a ruling more than 10 years ago when it lost its fight against Whole Foods’ purchase of Wild Oats. The agency settled with the companies before the appeals court made a decision.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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