This year has started off so busy, I’m going to have to make this a series. I’m still working on the series name….
There’s been a crap ton of news that has come out recently, and I’ve been meaning to cover them. To boost that mindset, I’m going to make this a series where I cover pieces and give my insight toward them. It’s going to take some time as I hope to evolve this and make it into something unique with fancy artwork (fancy by my bad definition) and a catchy slogan. If anybody has any catchy ideas for what to title this segment, let me know and I’ll repay you with a virtual hug.
I hope ya’ll like it, and let’s get right into it.
Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard…
By now, you’ve probably heard and seen all the news and industry analysis regarding this monstrosity. If you haven’t, rise and shine buttercup, Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard for dang near $70 billion USD. I’m late to the party, but here’s my take on this juggernaut.
- I didn’t even know this was possible.
- Going off of the first point, I never could’ve imagined Microsoft would want this because of all the crazy news going on with Activision Blizzard and how lawless they’ve been.
- Phil Spencer scolded Activision back when the news was breaking, and now he’s their boss. Chess not checkers folks.
- I’m assuming this is a strong push to get all of these titles on GamePass. To be fair, if that’s what happens, that’s a solid boost to the already massive fanbase GamePass has.
- The deal isn’t set to be complete until I believe July 2023… and Bobby Kotick is set to make big money if/when he is removed from position.. $390 million’s worth.
Couple of last points I want to make. It seems like Sony and Microsoft are gearing up for some cold war-esque gaming showdown. Microsoft acquired Bethesda around this time last year, and Sony has acquired a ton of smaller studios. I don’t get what’s going on, but it feels like we might shift to losing games being multi platform as these giants look to drive more traffic to their own platforms. Phil Spencer has said that they will look to honor previous agreements with Sony in regards to Call of Duty (yay…. that was sarcastic), Starfield is rumored (or not rumored) to be exclusive to them… I don’t like what I’m seeing guys.
Also, I’m interested to see how Microsoft handles all of these titles especially in regards to their respective esports. It’s been no secret the Call of Duty League has been a joke in regards to the design of the titles and how the league has been run. Overwatch is in shambles right now due to numerous reasons. Can we expect Microsoft to fix these problems and bring both titles back to their glory days?
Holy W to the writer who presented us with one of the best “What If’s” in gaming history.
And Sony “responds”
This heading is click-bait.
Sony broke the bank earlier this week when they announced the purchase of Bungie: former Halo developers and current developers of Destiny.
- The deal which goes for $3.6 billion is not what you’d expect it be as it is defined as a “partnership” between the two not Sony swallowing up Bungie.
- Bungie will go on to continue making their own titles, and Destiny will not be a PlayStation exclusive.
Those are the only two points I found to be important. A lot of internet users and industry analysts have put their brains together to figure out what this could mean, and it sort of makes sense as to why it happened.
Chris goes on to mention that this deal was in the work for about 5/6 months so it’s not a direct retaliation to Microsoft scooping up Activision. Sony is supposedly looking to get strengthen their live services, whether you hate live services or not, and I will be interested to see if Bungie’s rumored next project has anything to do with this push. Just recently, it’s been brought to light that Sony have at least 10 live service projects they hope to release by March 2026… Maybe Bungie has been brought in to oversee them?
I will say I don’t personally care for the deal unless we see some really cool shit such as:
- A Killzone remake with Bungie at the helm. The irony of the team working on the game that was supposed to kill their first series would be amazing, but on a serious note, I think Bungie could pull it off if given a chance. Will it happen? Most likely not.
- A television series featuring Destiny. My biggest gripe about Destiny is the story, but nothing a good show couldn’t fix!
Also, Sony does not own Halo now. Tell all your friends please.
Oh, and this isn’t the last acquisition…
I’m being bought out by PC GamePass.
The customer is always right… unless you’re Ubisoft
This was actually pretty freaking funny.
I’ve talked about it before, but here’s a quick recap. Last year, Ubisoft jumped on board of the NFT “hype” and managed to make Ghost Recon Breakpoint even worse with the launch of Ubisoft Quartz. Basically, if you played 600 hours of Breakpoint you’d earn an armor set that you own and can sell in this virtual marketplace setting.
The overall announcement and implementation was heavily trashed, and despite the overwhelmingly negative feedback, Ubisoft still launched the feature and is still looking to move forward with this strategy in future titles. You’d think they’d stop since the people have grown to hate Ubisoft, due to their philosophies, and this is just another step forward to making us hate them more… Right?
Wrong, and it’s our fault because we don’t understand the system.
In a recent interview with Nicolas Pouard, VP at Ubisoft’s Strategic Innovations Lab and Didier Genevois, Ubisoft’s Blockchain Technical Director, about this new system, Pouard went on to say:
I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself.
So, it’s really, for them. It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.
Also, this is part of a paradigm shift in gaming. Moving from one economic system to another is not easy to handle. There is a lot of habits you need to go against and a lot of your ingrained mindset you have to shift. It takes time. We know that.
Pouard actually starts off the interview pretty interestingly as says Ubisoft expected the backlash they were going to get from consumers, and he says they will continue to implement these systems as it will eventually lead to consumers understanding the value they present…
Sure thing bud.
Different ending for Assassin’s Creed??? Hyper Scape shutdown
Way back when, Assassin’s Creed released to the world introducing a very complex war between Assassin’s and the Templars who wanted control over the free world. The overall story was good until the end of the first game introduced the Pieces of Eden, and from there I was completely lost. The original trilogy ended with the world ending in 2012 (ironic because that’s when our world was supposed to end), and since then the story never recovered from the otherworldly setup of the first three games.
Well it turns out the third game was supposed to have a different ending. Former PhD student, Lars de Wildt, interviewed former Assassin’s Creed developers in 2019 to piece together the story and came across a different planned ending, where Desmond Miles and Lucy Stillman end up in space starting a whole new civilization after taking down Abstergo. The change in the game’s planned ending versus its actual ending came when AC’s original creator Patrice Désilets had a falling out with the head honcho Yves Guillemot.
I’ve been very vocal with people when it comes to Assassin’s Creed and the story because it had such good potential until it ended the way it did come the first game. It was way to sci-fi heavy and just overly complicated, in my opinion. I would’ve much preferred the ending Désilets had planned, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.
I almost forgot, but Ubisoft’s take on the Battle Royale genre Hyper Scape is shutting down after a year and a half on April 28th (a birthday gift for me?). I guess some people actually really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t successful enough for Ubisoft to keep it going.
Rest in Peace Hyper Scape.
Battlefield 2042 can’t catch a break
I hope there’s a day when I can stop piling on this game, but since it’s launch, I just haven’t found one yet.
Cheaters don’t want to cheat it, players reportedly getting banned for using RGB software, no voice chat and scoreboard… Like come on man.
Well it gets worse. In a financial earnings call with EA so much crappy information came out, I don’t even know where to begin. If there’s one thing you take from it, it’s this tweet.
What’s most likely going to happen is EA is going to push out content due to legal purposes, and then drop support for this game. Not to mention no numbers were discussed when it comes to sales of 2042.
I’m sorry for everyone who bought this game, especially with the reports that this could go Free to Play after EA sucked everyone dry for their money.
This game is a mess, and its future is in jeopardy. I just can’t believe how far down the series has come after what looked like a promising future.
“Don’t be sad, this is just how it works out sometimes.”
Dying Light 2 is here
After many years of “development hell”, Dying Light 2 (I don’t like the full title) will finally release February 3rd/February 4th (if you’re in the U.S. the game releases early since the official launch is in Techland’s timezone not ours).
Reviews are already out by the time you read this post with some being good and some being meh. I for one am extremely nervous for the game since the first game has gone down as one of my favorite games of all time, and no amount of time they spent developing this title will surpass it (my opinion and if I’m wrong, I will come back to this). Could we see another Cyberpunk 2077 situation? It’s been said the Day 1 patch will include over 1000 bug fixes so take that as you will.
All I’m going to say is play the game and create your own opinion. I will have a review coming for it when I have spent plenty of time playing it!
Other headlines
- T1’s Valorant coach got the team disqualified from the NA VCT Open Qualifier #1 last weekend after typing “Help sewers” during a live match against TSM. Now it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but coaches aren’t allowed to communicate with players unless it’s during a timeout or tech pause. NA Valorant loved it. T1 will be allowed to compete in this weekend’s event, but the coach will not be a part of their pursuit.
- Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, clutched up a Warzone 2v1 for the win with former Call of Duty professional player Josiah “Slacked” Berry. I dove deep to find it, but it was really cool to
- Speaking of Call of Duty, Call of Duty League team the New York Subliners have launched their own NFT’s, and fans aren’t pleased. NYSL has acknowledged the disdain and have doubled down on them. Not going to lie; the announcement tweet was written so poorly I cringed.
- Halo The Series trailer released, and Cortana has been getting a lot of eyes but not for good reasons.
- The Rock could be working on a Call of Duty movie…. No idea what he would do or could do with it because at a certain point a Call of Duty movie could be the same as any other military movie. If true, give us a Black Ops or the original Modern Warfare stories. Hell throw us all for a loop, and make a movie based off of the zombies portion.
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 could be announced sometime this year with this year marking the 25th anniversary of the original title.
- Respawn Entertainment is going to be working on a new Star Wars first person shooter and a sequel to Fallen Order. Couple of interesting things: new FPS means we probably won’t get a new Battlefront game (cuz DICE is down bad) and we won’t be seeing Titanfall 3 anytime soon.
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed until 2023.
- Well known voice actor Troy Baker steps away from his bizarre partnership with Voiceverse NFTs amid humongous backlash.
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