In video gaming – Gloomberg News

29Jan

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Gaming

Phil Spencer Defends Future Of Halo Amid Cuts And Criticism

Image: 343 Industries / MicrosoftThings haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to remain upbeat and do damage control on each of these points and more in a new interview with IGN.“Every year is critical,” he said. “I don’t find this year to be more or less critical. I feel good about our momentum. Obviously, we’re going through some adjustments right now that are painful, but I think necessary, but it’s really to set us up and the teams for long-term success.”This week captured both the p...

14Jan

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Gaming

Final Google Stadia Game, Released Today, Is A Piece Of History

Image: GoogleIf you haven’t heard, Google Stadia is shutting down and closing shop next week. But before the never-quite-successful game streaming service dies, it has provided one neat (and free) little gift you can only play for a few days before it all goes offline. Launched back in 2019, Google Stadia was a costly and massive investment from Google into the world of video games. Powered by the cloud aka a bunch of servers and off-site computers, Stadia’s big promise was instantaneous gaming on the go. No more updates or expensive consoles. And while it sometimes worked, the high cost of games, lack of features, small library, and internet costs ended up dooming the service. Sure, some superfans logged thousands of hours into it, but for most, it just wasn’t what they wanted or needed f...

24Dec

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Gaming

Getting A PS5 Or Xbox Series S/X Is Sorta Easier 2 Years Later

After two years on the market, you’d probably think scooping up a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X would be simpler by now.Sure, there’s the semiconductor shortage the world is still contending with and a supply-chain bottleneck that’s expected to last until 2023 (if not 2024 according to some estimates). But, as Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said at the annual PlayStation Partner Awards ceremony in Japan on December 2, the company has apparently “resolved the long-term supply issue of the PlayStation 5" in Asian markets. Oh yeah? Then why, when Kotaku called several brick-and-mortar stores just a few days before Christmas this year were we told inventory for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles was either very limited or completely gone?The truth of the matt...

12Dec

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Gaming

Microsoft Gaming CEO Says Sony Just Wants To Hurt Xbox

Image: Diego Thomazini / Kotaku (Shutterstock)Public squabbling between two of the biggest console gaming companies has intensified. On a recent podcast appearance, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer blasted Sony for wanting to grow by “making Xbox smaller.” The accusation comes after the Federal Trade Commission decided to sue to block Microsoft’s takeover of Activision because of a pattern of making recently acquired games like Starfield exclusive.“Sony is leading the dialogue around why the deal shouldn’t go through to protect its dominant position on console, so the thing they grab onto is Call of Duty,” Spencer said during an interview with the Second Request antitrust podcast last week (via VGC). “The largest console maker in the world raising an objection about the one franchise that...

17Sep

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Gaming

Phil Spencer Says Xbox Series Price Hikes Unlikely, For Now

Photo: JUNG YEON-JE / Kotaku (Getty Images)Sony turned a few heads when it unexpectedly hiked prices on the PlayStation 5 in the second year of the current generation of consoles. Naturally, many wondered if the same complicated economic situations we all find ourselves in would see a spike in Xbox prices as well. In a recent interview with CNBC, however, Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, stated that raising the price of the Xbox Series line wouldn’t be a wise move for the company right now. He also explained that Microsoft has no plans to slow down on investing in game studios, despite the Activision Blizzard bid.While in Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, Phil Spencer appeared on CNBC to talk about Microsoft’s potential interest in acquiring more companies, how it sees itself in the Japanese video...

2Sep

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Gaming

Call Of Duty Remains On PlayStation A Few More Years

Sony gets “several more years” of joint custody over Call of Duty with Microsoft.Photo: Activision / Kotaku / Barone Firenze (Shutterstock) (Shutterstock)Good news PlayStation Call of Duty players: Microsoft says you get to have “several more years” of playing the shoot-bang game on your Sony console. According to The Verge, earlier this year Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer made that commitment to PlayStation boss Jim Ryan in a written letter saying that Call of Duty wasn’t going to disappear off the PlayStation storefront anytime soon if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is approved by regulators.“In January, we provided a signed agreement to Sony to guarantee Call of Duty on PlayStation, with feature and content parity, for at least several more years beyond the current S...

16Aug

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Gaming

Stadia Fans Still Clocking Thousands Of Hours On ‘Dead’ Service

Image: Google / Kotaku / Zoa.Arts (Shutterstock)Google Stadia hasn’t really been in the mainstream spotlight since its high-profile launch in 2019. And outside of bad news and poor reviews, it mainly disappeared from most gaming sites and YouTube channels. But the players who’ve invested hundreds or even thousands of hours into Google’s video game streaming service don’t seem to care what others think. To them, Google Stadia is the perfect solution to a hobby that they feel has become too expensive, complicated, and restrictive. For most of you reading this, Google Stadia is that cloud-based streaming video game service Google launched a few years ago which may or may not be around still. It’s likely not something you engage with beyond reading occasional stories on Kotaku and other sites ...

11Aug

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Gaming

Microsoft Schools Sony On How To Better Run PlayStation Plus

Image: Sony / Microsoft / KotakuThat treasure trove of a document filed by Microsoft to the Brazilian competition authorities on Tuesday, in response to Sony’s objections to its efforts to buy Activision Blizzard, contains another absolute gem. In it, Microsoft took time out to tell Sony just how it could (read: should) better run its revamped PS Plus service such that it wouldn’t need to worry so much about competition like, say, Xbox Game Pass.As Kotaku reported earlier, the document—sent as part of one of the many international competition enquiries into Microsoft’s attempt to purchase Activision Blizzard—accuses Sony of creating deals with publishers that prevent games from being allowed to appear on Game Pass, which it cites as an example of Sony’s own competitive behavior. This is ac...

7Aug

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Gaming

Game Pass Vs. The New PS Plus, The Comparison We Had To Make

Image: Sony / Microsoft / KotakuTwo months ago, Sony reimagined PS Plus, its longtime membership program for PlayStation owners. Now, it looks a whole lot like Microsoft’s Game Pass: For roughly the same amount of money, both offer access to a Netflix-style games-on-demand library. Obviously, we had to stack the two services up against each other.PriceGame Pass is available as a subscription for console, PC, or both. The two separated tiers cost $10 a month. Xbox Live Ultimate, which joins the two and provides access to the EA Play Library (a similar games-on-demand service) and Xbox Live Gold, costs $15 a month. There is no way to pay for multiple months or a year up front at a tiered markdown (at least officially).PS Plus is also available for a subscription, but it gets very complicated...

4Jul

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Gaming

Sony Hiring Emulation Engineer Suggesting Hope For PS3 On PS5

Image: SonyA new job ad, reported by PlayStation Lifestyle after being spotted on ResetEra, strongly suggests that Sony might be trying to hire an engineer to get its PS3 emulation sorted. There’s also rumor of getting old PS3 peripherals working on the new machine. Which would all be such a relief.If you have partaken of Sony’s relaunched PlayStation Plus for the PS4 and PS5, you’ll have noticed that when exploring the 400+ games in its extensive archives, everything on PS3 has to be streamed. And oh man, the streaming sucks.The PS5 has, so far, been incapable of running PS3 emulation, which makes for a massive bummer when it comes to missing out on that entire generation of games on modern machines. The rebooted PS+ offers the option to download games from the PS1, PSP, PS2, PS4, and of ...