@richardmmorales BOTH Microsoft and Sony have both been privately communicating with the international regulators and supplying them information as part of the process for them to determine a decision on whether the deal should go ahead. The above comment about the PR campaign is about actions taken by Microsoft outside of that regulated process.
This is a massive and co-ordinated campaign on all fronts by Microsoft to pressure the CMA to green light the massive buyout of Activision.
There are stories through the sympathetic Tech/Games media with Stephen Tottilo at Axios and Tom Warren at the Verge. There is the awareness campaign with the wider public with the newspapers. And there has been the EU event where all the press were treated to a luxury trip so Microsoft would have the opportunity to persuade them to see...
I tried it a little earlier today. The introductory race was like, woah I'm inside a car racing! It was so good in that you feel like you're in a car racing. It got my stomach a bit, especially when I was moving lanes- but not too much. Then when I had a look at the car in the showroom/outdoor carpark it looked REAL. And then when I sat in it, my reaction was genuine wonder as it FELT real! I then did a race on the first NA track and it had depth and grooves and I won.
@Abriael: "The fact that some seem to be angrier about a simple request for the ban of a crap game than about tens of thousands of people being murdered in the name of Putin's hubris really shows their colours and how screwed up their priorities are."
It's not that anybody is endorsing or celebrating the illegal invasion of Ukraine - I don't think anybody here is doing that. Rather, the point you're making is that because THIS is such an important...
This is a bad precedent, for governments to ask companies to prevent art-based media to be banned. If individuals don’t want to play it then it’s their choice - but don’t force the removal of choice from the public.
These are dangerous times we’ve entered, where everyone wants to suffocated the voices of people they disagree with. What will you do about it?
Already I can almost hear the outraged complaints of cultural stereotyping from Kotaku, Polygon, The Gamer and ResetEra.
@blackblades Sony dropping Call of Duty after the Microsoft purchase? That’s an interesting idea based on the possibility that CoD’s popularity might not be eternal. Whilst it seems unlikely it reminds me of what happened with video game football. For a long time Konami’s ISS reigned supreme with playability and always had the best review scores, whilst Fifa was the ugly stepchild. But over time for multiple reasons ISS was forgotten and Fifa became king. Now if Xbox Game Pass becomes the onl...
This interview is not with the independent games media, it is with Xbox’s own UK channel.
It’s all very naturalistic but the questions have been pre-arranged, and the answers pre-prepared. When Spencer seeks to chastise PlayStation for making one quest of Hogwarts Legacy exclusive that would have been the natural point a real journalist would ask about why then Starfield is exclusive - but he didn’t want this fair comparison to be made. This is a deliberate attempt to manip...
The underlying message of this video that Phil Spencer wants to convey to the public is [not literal quote] 'Microsoft is not a BigTech behemoth with BigTech money, Microsoft is not anti-competitive - we are pro competition, we are on the side of gamers.'
The unusual press conference last week in Brussels and this - clearly Microsoft and Phil Spencer believe that winning over the media and the public is important to help the deal go ahead. Judging by the YouTube com...
At least she's based on the authentic Lara Croft character design.
So because of Microsoft’s requirement that games have feature parity on both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and the split-screen isn’t working yet on the S this means that the Series X version is being made to wait too? There were hints that this was the reason split-screen multiplayer was dropped for Halo Infinite.
My suggestion to Microsoft is to drop the parity requirement, if the Series X version can do it the release it day and date with the PS5 version. If you’r...
I had my PS VR2 come on launch day and it happened to me.
I spent about two hours farting around with it not realising it was busted because some of the buttons work outside of the menus. It was frustrating and got no proper help from Sony, so I sent it back today and will wait for a new unit.
* What I can say about it is the setup was joyous, with the headset on you see a digital wireframe overlay made around the room as it determines the size and obstacles - utte...
What's incredible about the impact Hogwarts Legacy, even before PS4/Switch/XBO sales, is that Warner are now looking to use the past setting of the game as the basis for its new Hogwarts TV series on HBO.
For PS Plus Extra subscribers it's a good month with a spread of some big third-party games.
Personally, I hope Tchia plays as good as it looks and sounds.
@Tacoboto Yes, that is correct.
Why would the game break the studio? My understanding was that going mostly-exclusive with Ori meant it was ruminated excellently so it could be secure?
Orchard said it perfectly.
Rest in peace Tohru Okada.
I've got my delivery next to me now, I'm just drinking a cup of tea and then I'm going to open it!
But I don't think VR will go mainstream... yet. My hope is that more people will try this and see how good VR can be, and that Sony and other publishers start releasing their flat first-person games with VR modes just like No Man's Sky. Then it will start to become more established. Games like GTAVI launching with a VR mode would definitely help. Then maybe...
To have launch day release parity on Nintendo hardware, if the Switch & Switch 2 hardware requires too much time to port, Microsoft may offer Call of Duty as a cloud version running of Xbox Series server 'blades'.
I love Uncharted (2 and 1 are my favourites). But there is such a thing as franchise fatigue especially with story or character driven games. So it makes sense to let a series rest, it’s good for the audience and it’s good for the developers who get to express their creativity on new projects. Like he⬆ said, it will return and if the gap is long enough that will be exciting for everyone.