Tag: xbox

Palworld Accused of Plagiarising Pokémon as Game Sells 6 Million Copies, Pocketpair CEO Responds

Palworld, the viral hit action-adventure survival title from Japanese developers Pocketpair, has taken the gaming industry by storm, climbing to the top of Steam charts and selling six million copies in just four days of release. But as the game’s player count balloons, it has found itself embroiled in a plagiarism controversy, with many on the Internet pointing out alleged similarities between the designs of Palworld’s creatures and those in popular Pokémon games. A user on social media platform X has gone as far as to compare in-game 3D models from both Palworld and Pokémon, claiming evidence of outright plagiarism.

Palworld features Pokémon-style animals, or Pals, that can be captured and utilised for combat, traversal and base building in the game’s open world. Gamers and commentators have even called the new survival title from Pocketpair “Pokémon with Guns.” Some, however, have gone beyond the claims of Palworld’s creatures being inspired by or satirising cute pocket monsters from the iconic Game Freak franchise and levelled accusations of plagiarising in-game assets.

On Sunday, X user @byofrog posted side-by-side mesh comparisons for character models from both Palworld and Pokémon games, first highlighting the similarities between a creature from the newly released game and the Cinderace model from Pokémon Sword and Shield. The user went on to post several other side-by-side comparisons, sparking more copycat accusations against Pocketpair. Since Palworld’s January 19 early access release, gamers and game developers have engaged in intense discourse over the game’s perceived Pokémon inspirations, with some alleging plagiarism and others defending the developers.

A former game designer at Blizzard, Eric Covington, quoted one of @byofrog’s comparison posts and claimed that the close similarity seen between character models couldn’t be accidental. “To “accidentally” create a complex model mesh with so near-exact proportions is practically impossible. To repeat that improbability throughout your roster… doesn’t pass the sniff test,” he said in a post on X. Others, meanwhile, were more cautious in their judgment, claiming the game included enough original ideas. Dinga Bakaba, studio/co-creative director at Arkane Lyon, defended Palworld in a series of posts on X, saying the game effectively mixed and matched gameplay concepts from popular games like Pokémon, Fortnite, Ark: Survival Evolved and Rust. “As a game designer, I’m baffled that some say this is lazy. Even if you copy an idea from another game you can just copy/paste it. Even doing a sequel to your own game with the same programmer in a new engine, it takes crazy amount of time to develop a viable V2.0 of a mechanic,” Bakaba said in one of his posts.

X user @byofrog also went on to qualify his posts comparing Palworld and Pokémon in a later post, saying the 3D models from the two games weren’t identical, despite close resemblances. “I want to emphasize that while some elements are similar these meshes are not literally “exact” copies of each other,” they said.

Meanwhile, game director and Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe responded to the plagiarism accusations on X Monday, claiming the team had received what appeared to be death threats on the socil media platform. “I have received a variety of opinions regarding Palworld, but all productions related to Palworld are supervised by multiple people, including myself, and I am responsible for the production,” Mizobe said in his post (translated from Japanese). “I would appreciate it if you would refrain from slandering the artists involved in Palworld.”

Amid all the noise, Pocketpair confirmed Tuesday that Palworld had sold six million copies in just four days, with its all-time peak player count surpassing 1.7 million. The studio also said that it was prioritising issuing fixes for bugs and other issues reported by Palworld players. At the time of writing, Palworld has hit the third-highest all-time peak concurrent players in Steam history, surpassing Lost Ark and Dota 2. Palworld is also currently the most played title on Steam with almost double the player count of Counter Strike 2.

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Xbox Developer Direct 2024: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Unveiled, Senua’s Saga Gets Release Date

Xbox kicked off its 2024 with a jam-packed Developer Direct showcase, bringing reveals and updates on four upcoming releases from four studios, plus a bonus update from Square Enix. The 45-minute presentation, streamed live on YouTube and Xbox’s other social channels late Thursday, took the covers off MachineGames’ upcoming Indiana Jones game, provided a release date for the highly anticipated Senua’s Saga, and revealed a release window for Avowed, Obsidian’s next big fantasy RPG.

While 2023 was a quiet year for Xbox, the news is good this year for players on the platform — all games showcased at the Developer Direct presentation will launch across Xbox Series X/S, PC, Game Pass and/or cloud later in 2024. The four games, which saw deep dives and extended gameplay trailers along with release details, will also arrive as day-one Game Pass titles, Xbox confirmed. There were no surprise shadow releases like Hi-Fi Rush, announced at last year’s Developer Direct on January 25, 2023, and released into the wild the same day, but with concrete information on upcoming titles, Xbox fans should have little to complain. Here’s a handy rundown of everything announced at Xbox’s Developer Direct 2024 presentation:

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – MachineGames

When: 2024

Where: Xbox Series X/S, PC, Game Pass

Indy is back and he’s on Xbox. After an eternity of speculation, developer MachineGames, the studio behind recent Wolfenstein titles, finally revealed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle at last night’s Developer Direct. First things first: No, it is not a third-person action-adventure title; Indiana Jones will instead play out from the first-person perspective — an interesting choice that perhaps mirrors the initial surprise and disappointment of finding out that Cyberpunk 2077 would not be a third-person title. But on second thought, it seems to be a wise choice, not just from an artistic point of view, but also as a smart way to avoid inevitable comparisons with Uncharted and Tomb Raider games.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, will put you in the shoes of the iconic, whip-cracking archeologist and adventurer. And while Indy retains the facial likeness of Harrison Ford, he will be voiced by none other than Troy Baker in the game. The first-person action-adventure title promises arcane mysteries, hidden treasures, puzzle-solving, fist-fighting, whip-combat, first-person shooting, and more. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is arriving sometime later this year on current-gen Xbox consoles and PC.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II — Ninja Theory

When: May 21

Where: Xbox Series X/S, PC, Cloud, Game Pass

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II finally received a release date at the Xbox Developer Direct presentation. The game, announced over four years ago, is coming May 21. We’ve already seen multiple gameplay and cinematic showcases from the game over the years and yesterday’s segment provided a little more insight and details about the game’s story, showing off some more gameplay and stunning visuals. Developers Ninja Theory also detailed some of the enhancements coming to the third-person action-adventure title compared to the first game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

Avowed — Obsidian

When: Fall 2024

Where: Xbox Series X/S, PC, Cloud, Game Pass

RPG veterans Obsidian provided a first gameplay deep dive into Avowed, first announced at Xbox Games showcase in July 2020. The fantasy RPG is in line with prior Obsidian RPGs, featuring an immersive world, deep questlines and dynamic combat. And of course, the choices you make in the game will leave a mark on the narrative, changing the course of the story later down the road.

The trailer showed off the vibrant world of Living Lands, where players are tasked with stopping a mysterious spiritual plague and uncover a big secret behind it all. It also provided a detailed look at the first-person melee and magic combat, both of which can be quickly swapped out. Avowed is launching sometime in Q3 or Q4 this year.

Ara: History Untold — Oxide Games

When: Fall 2024

Where: PC, Game Pass

The Developer Direct showcase also featured Oxide Games’ upcoming strategy title, Ara: History Untold. The turn-based grand strategy game, made by a team of developers that includes veterans from the Civilization series, will arrive on PC and PC Game Pass later this year.

First announced at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase in 2022, the game will focus on building up a nation from scratch and leading it through different periods of an alternate history. The trailer showed off expansive strategic combat, design features and other gameplay systems. The developers stressed on the fact that player choices will leave indelible impacts on the game world

Ara: History Untold is launching sometime later this year
Photo Credit: Xbox

Visions of Mana — Square Enix

When: Summer 2024

Where: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC

Amid all Xbox and PC exclusive titles from in-house developers, Square Enix popped in at the Developer Direct presentation to give a detailed glimpse at Visions of Mana, the first new mainline entry in the Mana series in over 15 years. Square Enix showed off cute, cartoony visuals, real-time combat and other gameplay details for the game, in addition to providing a detailed look at the colourful world.

Visions of Mana also showed off its varied monster design, evocative score and giant cat-like companions, the pikuls, which can be used as a mount to ride around the game world. Visions of Mana arrives on Xbox, PlayStation and PC sometime later this year.

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Halo Infinite’s Unannounced Battle Royale Project Rumoured to Be Cancelled

Halo has had a period of tumultuous recent years under the development umbrella of 343 Industries. The iconic Xbox franchise, that laid down the blueprint for first-person multiplayer shooters during its heyday, has faltered with recent releases. Halo Infinite, which came out in 2021, received critical acclaim at launch, but fans cooled off on the title as 343 scrambled to push out timely seasonal multiplayer updates to keep players hooked. While Halo Infinite saw a resurgence in player count when its season 5 content launched late last year, the game’s unannounced battle royale mode has reportedly been cancelled.

The information comes from XboxEra co-founder Shpeshal_Nick — as reported by Eurogamer — who went on the XboxEra podcast Monday and said that long-gestating Halo battle royale project, codenamed Tatanka, was rumoured to be no longer in development. “I got a DM about it last week, that Tatanka has been cancelled,” Nick said on the podcast.

The Halo infinite battle royale mode was being co-developed by Certain Affinity. Back in April 2022, the developer had said it was deepening its relationship with 343 industries. “We’ve been part of the Halo franchise for more than 15 years and we’re honored to say we are deepening our relationship with 343 and have been entrusted with further evolving Halo Infinite in some new and exciting ways,” Certain Affinity had said. And while 343 has remained tight-lipped about the battle royale mode, Certain Affinity had hinted at the same in late 2022, confirming that the company had been the development lead on the unannounced Halo project for more than two years with close to 100 developers working on it. “It’s something big and new for the franchise. But I can’t say any more about it,” Certain Affinity COO Paul Sams had told Venture Beat in September 2022.

Reacting to the information from the XboxEra podcast, video game historian and leaker Liam Robertson also confirmed the cancellation of the Halo battle royale project in a post on X Tuesday. “I talked about this last year and I can back this up. I researched it a bit. However, I think it was cancelled even earlier than this claims but yes, it was 2022,” he said.

Early last year, in the wake of a spate of layoffs at Microsoft that impacted developers at The Coalition, Bethesda Game Studios, and 343 Industries, the Halo maker had assured fans that it would continue development on the franchise “now and in the future.” This came after rumours that claimed development on future Halo games were being handed over to a third-party studio, with 343 Industries being moved to a supervisory role.

343 Industries also saw a flurry of high-level departures since the release of Halo Infinite, hinting at instability at the studio. 343 founder and lead Bernie Ross, who had worked on Halo titles for 15 years, stepped down in September 2022. The studio also went through restructuring, with Bryan Koski, who previously took care of marketing for Halo, becoming GM of the franchise, while Elizabeth Van Wyck heading business and operations.

Halo Infinite received its Season 5: Reckoning update in October last year, bringing two new maps, a reimagined Halo 4 Extraction mode, a new 50-tier Premium Battle Pass and other additional content. The season 5 launch also introduced new updates to Forge, the Halo mode that allows players to create and edit multiplayer maps, bringing in the ability for players to populate their custom maps with friends and foes from the Halo Infinite campaign.

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E3 Is Officially Dead After a Series of Failed Attempts at Reinvention

E3, what was once the biggest video game expo, is officially dead. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) confirmed the news on Twitter, thanking the fans and developers who attended and supported the in-person show for over two decades. Its closure was only a matter of time, slyly signalled in March, when the 2023 edition got cancelled due to a lack of interest from several publishers including the big three — PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo — all of which pulled out. Add to that pandemic-era disruption which caused global lockdowns, competitors such as Summer Game Fest, and the general audience preferring to catch up on game reveals from the comfort of their homes, eventually leading to its demise.

“We know the entire industry, players and creators alike have a lot of passion for E3. We share that passion,” ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis told The Washington Post in an interview. “We know it’s difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it’s the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners.” Several attempts were made to revive and reinvent E3, but online digital events became a go-to favourite for both fans and developers, who didn’t want to deal with the hassle of travelling long distances to attend a crowded physical show and spending large amounts to secure booths at the event. During the peak COVID-19 period, industry giant Geoff Keighley decided to quit working with E3 and took the opportunity to kickstart his own online season of games called the Summer Game Fest, allowing developers to switch on their webcams and promote games.

In fact, PlayStation even adopted that digital format for both its smaller State of Play events and its bigger showcases, as a medium to present a slew of video games at once and generate hype. Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft was another major publisher, who backed out of this year’s proposed E3 event and decided to host an online Ubisoft Forward show, albeit with select journalists at the venue. This year’s E3 was supposed to be held from June 13–16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, marking the first in-person extravaganza since 2019. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic, then there was an online version in 2021, and the 2022 E3 was outright cancelled in the hopes of revitalising it. And now we’re here.

Since its conception, E3 also served as a stage for some of gaming’s biggest figures like Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima. As such, the latter has shared his favourite memories from the show and expressed gratitude for opening the gates for Japanese games to flourish in the global market. Meanwhile, God of War reboot game director Cory Barlog reminisced on the time when he debuted the bearded and reserved look for Kratos to thousands of screaming fans. “Both loved and hated this show. RIPs to the E3,” he tweeted. At the time of writing, there are reportedly no plans for selling the E3 brand name, either.

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Everything You Need to Know About The Game Awards 2023: When and How to Watch in India, Nominees, and More

The Game Awards is back for its 2023 edition, signalling that time of the year when the industry and fans gather together to celebrate the best in video games. Marking the 10th iteration of the Geoff Keighley-hosted show, the annual event is held in high regard by developers worldwide, who will be competing in 31 categories that acknowledge games across genres. As usual, the ceremony will be spruced up by big announcements and trailers for upcoming titles, backed by a dedicated musical orchestra conducted by returning composer Lorne Balfe. There haven’t been as many leaks this year, so anticipation is high as gamers keep their fingers crossed hoping for the biggest reveals.

Given how the trailers and awards are spaced out, host Keighley once again expects The Game Awards to run for around three hours, albeit this year, Valve isn’t giving out free Steam Decks every minute to online viewers. Instead, the company is doing a sweepstake to hand out 100 Steam Deck OLEDs (1TB models) to the lucky few — residing in North America, Europe, and select Asian regions — who can all enter once the show goes live. There aren’t any big changes to the nominations this year, but Keighley has confirmed that the creators are moving away from using the ‘World Premiere’ card at the start of their announcements to treat every trailer or first look as ‘great game content.’

Security is also getting tightened, as we’ve seen two instances of stage crashers walking in to interrupt good moments and making absurd comments — the first one occurred during The Game Awards 2022 when Elden Ring lifted the trophy for Game of the Year, while the other occurred at Summer Game Fest, earlier this year. Understandably, Keighley hasn’t gone into the specifics of the beefed-up measures.

The Game Awards 2023: Date and time

The Game Awards 2023 kicks off on Thursday, December 7 at 4:30pm PT/ 7:30pm ET, just like last time. For India, this translates to early morning Friday, December 8 at 6am IST with plans to end at 9:30am — not the most comfortable time to catch up on the biggest gaming event of the year. The first thirty minutes of that runtime will be dedicated to a pre-show, hosted by Sydnee Goodman, serving as a way for smaller developers to showcase their games and content creators to talk about what they’re expecting from the show.

So if you’re only planning to watch the main show, tune in at 5pm PT/ 8pm ET in the US and 6:30am in India.

The Game Awards 2023: How to watch?

The ceremony will be held live from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles with an in-person audience, but as always, there’s a simultaneous livestream planned. You can watch The Game Awards 2023 for free on its official Twitch and YouTube channels, in addition to major platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook Live, Steam, TikTok Live, and Instagram Live. Of course, one could also watch it through other gaming livestreamers’ channels, who will have registered to co-stream the event and react to it. Viewers in India can also stream the show live on Disney+ Hotstar, MX Player, Voot, JioTV, and Loco, and can tune into YouTube Gaming for a Hindi-language feed.

Or you can just watch the embedded stream below:

In case you happen to miss The Game Awards live, a VOD will be published soon after the event ends and there are always 4K uploads of the trailers and biggest moments, available individually on its official YouTube channel.

What to expect from The Game Awards 2023?

One of the biggest reasons players tune into The Game Awards is to learn about any upcoming games and have their unrealistically high expectations checked. Larian Studios will finally unveil when Baldur’s Gate 3 will be coming to Xbox, which is still on track for release this month, as promised. The studio was initially facing trouble with incorporating split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S due to its technical limitations, so it will be interesting to know whether the team decided to ditch it or maintain content parity. There’s also some exclusive Xbox reveals in store for us at The Game Awards, which many are hoping is a tease for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II news.

Meanwhile, SEGA has been sending letters to fighting game content creators around the world with the quote ‘New Era New Energy,’ promising some exciting stuff. Supermassive Games — best known for the choice-based horror titles like the Dark Pictures anthology — is collaborating with Behaviour Interactive to develop a single-player game based within the universe of Dead by Daylight. Staying with the horror theme, The Outlast Trials developer Red Barrels has planned an ‘important broadcast’ for us. Then, Epic Games prepares to show a trailer for Rocket Racing, a car racing game mode built within Fortnite, featuring all the exaggerated mechanics from Rocket League such as boosting and taking flight. The mode is expected to launch for free on December 8, but the publisher plans to show something at the awards show.

The Game Awards’ official Twitter account briefly teased a Hideo Kojima announcement using a side-eyes emoji, before getting deleted. This could very well be a trailer for Death Stranding 2, which was revealed at last year’s event via a cryptic teaser with returning leads Léa Seydoux and Norman Reedus. So yeah, its game director Hideo Kojima is also expected to make an appearance, having arrived in Los Angeles earlier this week. Fans also expect FromSoftware to drop a trailer and release date for the much-awaited Elden Ring DLC ‘Shadow of the Erdtree,’ announced last year, with hints pointing at a new explorable region and the presence of the Empyrian Miquella. While it was initially believed that the expansion would be out in early 2024, an interview from last week suggests that it’s ‘a little ways off’ but promises new battles and characters.

Reports claim Arkane Studios will showcase its next title at The Game Awards 2023, which is expected to be Dishonored 3 — details of which emerged from the Microsoft v US FTC court proceedings in September. We might also get another glimpse at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the untitled Mass Effect game, Tekken 8, Hades 2, and more.

The Game Awards 2023 presenters

To honour the winners, Keighley loves mixing things up by inviting both game industry titans and Hollywood actors. Christopher Judge, who played Kratos in the God of War reboot games, is returning to the stage to present an award this year — presumably for Best Performance, given he was the winner last year. Other standout presenters include Anthony Mackie, whose show Twisted Metal is also competing in the Best Adaptation category; Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella; and famous DJ and EDM artist Zedd. Besides them, the lead cast of the Fallout series will be making an appearance at The Game Awards 2023 — specifically Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten.

Alan Wake 2 fans are in for a treat as the Poets of the Fall band will be performing a musical piece live on stage, under its in-game alter ego Old Gods of Asgard. And as we all know, Keighley’s love for Muppets knows no bounds, so The Great Gonzo will also be around as a presenter.

The Game Awards 2023 nominees

As mentioned before, The Game Awards 2023 plays host to 31 categories, from which Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 are tied for eight nominations each, in addition to competing for the prestigious Game of the Year trophy. Other GOTY nominees include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 remake, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder — Keighley is strictly sticking to his six nominations rule, despite an extremely strong year for gaming. There are some strong contenders for Best Adaptation as well, with favourites being HBO’s The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The nominee list also sparked some debate on what constitutes an ‘independent game’ when people online noticed that Dave the Diver, the pixelated roguelike about deepsea fishing and selling sushi, was nominated as ‘Best Independent Game.’ The thing is, despite its aesthetic, the game is developed by Mintrocket, which belongs to a massive South Korean publisher Nexon — making it technically not indie. Keighley addressed these concerns in a live Q&A stating that the word ‘indie’ could mean different to different people — “Does independent mean the budget of the game? Does independent mean where the source of financing was? Is it based on the team size? Is it the kind of independent spirit of a game, meaning kind of a smaller game that’s different?”, he said (via Kotaku), adding that the concern is justified.

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Xbox Chief Phil Spencer Says Company in Talks With Partners to Launch Mobile Store on iOS, Android: Report

Microsoft has reportedly been developing an Xbox mobile storefront that would allow users to bypass Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store and download games off its own application. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer, too, had revealed ahead of the annual Game Developer Conference that the company intended to launch its own app store for both iOS and Android. Now, Xbox is reportedly in talks with partners for the same.

According to a Bloomberg report, Spencer claimed that the Xbox store app on mobile platforms could come out sooner rather than later. “It’s an important part of our strategy and something we are actively working on today not only alone, but talking to other partners who’d also like to see more choice for how they can monetize on the phone,” the report quoted Spencer as saying in an interview at the CCXP comics and entertainment convention in Sao Paolo.

The Xbox chief did not provide a specific launch date for the launch of the storefront but hinted at release window in the not-too-distant future. “I don’t think this is multiple years away, I think this is sooner than that,” he said.

A report in March had claimed that the Xbox mobile store was expected to go live by March 2024, once Microsoft’s $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,68,094 crore) acquisition of Activision Blizzard was finalised. That happened in October as Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which had earlier blocked the deal, stepped aside and gave approval for the acquisition to go through. The CMA, which held concerns over Microsoft’s cloud streaming dominance in the market, greenlit the deal when Microsoft announced that Call of Duty maker Activision would sell its non-European streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment to pacify British regulators.

Now that the deal is closed, it seems the plan to launch the Xbox store app on iOS and Android can go through. Apple and Google maintain strict storefront rules and do not allow app developers to host their applications on a third-party storefront, charging them a cut on every transaction made via the App Store and the Play Store, respectively. The companies’ stringent store policy has, however, come under regulatory scanner. Developers like Epic Games have initiated antitrust proceedings against the two tech giants and the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which intends to prevent tech giants from abusing their market position, is set to allow other app and game developers to introduce their own app stores on mobile platforms. Tech companies have until March 2024 to comply with all the rules laid out in the DMA.

Last month, Microsoft announced that it was partnering Inworld AI to create game development tools for the Xbox platform, enabling developers to create characters, generate entire scripts and quests, and more. Earlier this year, Xbox also hiked the prices of its popular subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, and its flagship current-gen console, the Xbox Series X.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Could Be Bundled for Free With PS5 Slim Disc Edition

Sony announced a slimmer, lighter refresh of the PlayStation 5 last month, bringing new design changes that help the console shed its bulky signature. The PS5 slim, which now comes with redesigned side panels that allow you to add a detachable external Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive to the digital edition of the console, is set to release this month. While Sony has not announced an official release date, both disc and digital editions of the new PS5 slim will reportedly go on sale November 10 in the US and could arrive in a Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 bundle. Now, the PS5 slim disc edition is seemingly getting bundled with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, too. According to a Call of Duty news portal, the upcoming shooter from Activision is set to be bundled for free with the console.

The cross-gen bundle for Modern Warfare 3, which comes out November 10, costs $70 (Rs. 5,599 in India) on the PlayStation Store, but fans might be able to pick it up for free as part of a PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Edition – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III bundle. According to CharlieIntel, a popular Call of Duty news site, the MW3 PS5 slim bundle will be available November 10 for $499. The disc edition of the PS5 slim is priced at $499, thus making the game a free addition to the bundle.

CharlieIntel posted an alleged image of a new Call of Duty ad that shows the game bundled with the PS5 slim disc edition, at $499 (roughly Rs. 41,577). The bundle would presumably be available in the US, but there’s no world on its availability in India. PlayStation and Activision have not yet officially confirmed the bundle, but if the MW3 PS5 slim bundle does arrive, with the game as a free addition, it would be a surprising development. The next Call of Duty title is one of the biggest game releases of the year and it seems unlikely that it would be bundled for free with the PS5. However, it might be likely that Sony is willing to sell its slimmer version of the PS5 at a reduced price, bundled with the next COD title, to boost holiday season sales.

Call of Duty maker Activision was recently acquired by Sony rival Microsoft, after the Xbox parent secured approval from the US FTC and the UK’s CMA for the $69 billion deal. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, however, confirmed last month that Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games won’t appear on Xbox Game Pass until next year. Activision Blizzard, too, had earlier said on X that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III won’t be coming to Game Pass soon.

The PS5 slim, set to launch around the same time as MW3 in the US, will also reportedly arrive as part of a Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 priced at $559.99 (roughly Rs. 46,651). The Spider-Man 2 bundle, which is said to be releasing November 8, will also include the disc version of the PS5 slim.

The PS5 slim has seen a reduction in volume by more than 30 percent, and weight by 18 percent and 24 percent compared to the original PS5s disc and digital editions, respectively. While the PS5 slim’s processing power and graphical capabilities remain the same as the original PS5, the mid-gen refresh of the console does get slightly bigger internal storage, up from an 825GB custom SSD to 1TB. The disc edition of the redesigned PS5 slim maintains its pricing at $499.99 (roughly Rs. 41,615), but the digital edition gets a $50 price bump and will cost $449.99 (roughly Rs. 37,452), up from $399.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, meanwhile, is slated to release across PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S/X, and Xbox One on November 10. Digital edition pre-order customers will also get early access to the game’s campaign mode and will be able to play the main story up to a week before release.

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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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Cricket 24 Launches Globally; New India Edition PS5 Bundle Announced

Cricket 24, dubbed ‘the most licensed cricket game ever,’ is out now on PlayStation and Xbox consoles — both current and old-gen — alongside PC via Steam. Developer Big Ant Studios had also promised a Nintendo Switch port, though it won’t be available until late November. It’s not far-fetched to assume that developer Big Ant Studios rushed to put the game out right in time for the real-life ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, which also kicks off today. As a result, we have an uneven launch, with Sony PlayStation trying to capitalise on India’s love for the sport by unveiling a Cricket 24-themed PS5 bundle.

“We’ve spent years going around the world signing up nations from the majors to the minnows,” Rory Simmons, CEO, Big Ant Studios said in a developer diary. “It has a full calendar, so one minute you’re playing in the Caribbean, then you’re playing the T20 in India, and then you’re down for the big bash — up for the hundred, maybe in Ashes.” His choice of words to describe the Indian tournament is worth noting here, as it seems the team never received licensing from the annual Indian Premier League (IPL), albeit player and jersey likenesses of teams like Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians are present throughout. The Ashes, the longstanding test series rivalry between England and Australia, is another major draw in Cricket 24, promising detailed cutscenes, press conferences, and training sessions — all of which immerse you in the tour.

In addition to big tournaments like the KFC BBL and Weber WBBL, the licensing also carries over to 50 official stadiums and sporting equipment that features familiar branding. Then, of course, there’s the Career mode, which lets you chart a fledgling club cricketer’s journey, as they hone their skills to become the next big sensation on the international stage. It’s unclear how in-depth this mode is, but Big Ant Studios claims that players will have to grow their fan base, and will be given more agency in how they want to balance Test matches and the big leagues.

As part of the launch, PlayStation also revealed a Cricket 24 PS5 bundle, costing Rs. 47,990 — Rs. 7,000 cheaper than the console’s retail price in the country. This introductory offer goes live from October 8 onwards and will be available to purchase from leading online retailers like Amazon, Croma, Flipkart, GamesTheShop, Reliance Digital, ShopatSC, and Vijay Sales. For now, though, the price is set at Rs. 57,990, so it’s recommended that you wait for the discounted price. The package itself comes with the 4K Bluray-equipped PS5 console, alongside a digital voucher code to download Cricket 24 (Indian Edition) and a DualSense controller. If you already own a PS5 or a PS4 console, the game is available to purchase digitally at Rs. 4,399 from the PlayStation store.

Cricket 24 is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. A Nintendo Switch version is planned for late November.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 2 Coming Soon With Performance Fixes, New Ending for Karlach, More

Baldur’s Gate 3’s second patch is right around the corner, with Larian Studios suggesting that it’s a ‘chonky’ one. In a community update post on Steam, the developer revealed that the patch will be focused on improving performance issues, specifically in Act 3, where players have reported laggy cutscenes and stutters when the camera pans around. In addition to fixing bugs that halted quest progression, our companion, the cheerful Tiefling Karlach, will be getting a new optional ending — a closure that is described as ‘fiery’ and ‘poignant’. The lengthy blog post also touches upon some cut content that was discovered recently by data miners, some of which have now been revealed as a consequence of bugs.

One such case is the ruthless drow Minthara’s reactivity in the game, whose dialogue was seemingly heavily cut down and felt inconsequential. Larian has now isolated the ‘very, very stupid’ bug, which prevented about 1,500 lines of content from triggering when necessary and will soon release a fix. “The game is super reactive and there were a couple of bugs that caused some of the companions to not react as they should. And so that felt like the content was not showing up,” Larian CEO Swen Vincke told IGN, adding that her dialogue triggered in previous versions — early access, I’m assuming — and further development caused it to drown out.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

The amount of new information data miners extracted caused some to believe that she was supposed to have an origin quest — similar to companions like Astarion or Shadowheart. Vincke assured in the interview that Minthara was just a side character, though once she’s fixed, they might consider doing ‘something extra’ with her. It also appears as if the team is looking into expanding Baldur’s Gate 3’s epilogue, which felt brief and abrupt to most players. As per Larian, the epilogue was heavily trimmed out of fear that the ending cinematics would’ve played out for way too long. The game already has cutscenes that run for over 174 hours. However, due to popular demand, the team will now expand on it, and we’ll get to see its first results starting with patch #2, which introduces a new ending for Karlach that doesn’t end in misery.

Larian Studios is also adding a new ‘Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends’ feature, which lets you get rid of co-op party members who join your campaign. The developer dropped a funny advertisement for it, which details that you can place any unwanted party members in our NPC skeletal friend’s closet and they’ll be gone. As for whether Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature a physical wardrobe at our camp or if it’s generated when you speak to Withers, only time will tell. Besides that, Larian is also cooking up the option to customise our character’s appearance midway through the campaign, though there’s no release window for it, yet. With each new hotfix and update, third-party mods have had trouble keeping up. So, support for customisation will be added ‘at some point.’

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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