2023-04

Microsoft has released its financial results for Q3 of its 2023 Fiscal Year, which consists of roughly January through March of this year. In it, the company revealed that Xbox hardware revenue is down but its Xbox content and services revenue is slightly up thanks to Xbox Game Pass subscription growth.  More specifically, Xbox hardware is down 30% and Xbox content and services is up 3%. Overall, Xbox's gaming revenue is down 4%, though. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that the company set third-quarter records for monthly active users and devices, and that Xbox's gaming subscriptions (see: Game Pass) reached almost $1 billion this quarter. Despite this growth and revenue, though, Microsoft did not release new numbers regarding Game Pass subscription count – the latest count was 25 million in January 2022.  As for the dip in hardware revenue, Microsoft says...

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features many unique creations via the Ultrahand, and thankfully you'll be able to save them for later....

Editor's Note: This story was updated to include a statement from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and another from Activision Blizzard regarding the CMA's ruling.  The Competition and Markets Authority, a U.K. regulatory agency that serves the same function as the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S., has blocked Microsoft's pending $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard over cloud gaming concerns.  This news is somewhat shocking, as quite a few experts predicted the CMA would allow the deal to go through, and while this block presents a large barrier to Microsoft's progress forward toward this acquisition, it's not a be-all, end-all for the purchase. Microsoft says it remains dedicated to this acquisition and will appeal the CMA's ruling.  As for why the CMA is moving to prevent the acquisition, it cites concerns "the deal would alter the future of the...

Paul Ehreth, a former Halo and Control developer, has opened Anchor Point Studios, a new studio within NetEase Games.  The team is aiming to create "immersive and engaging action-adventure games that offer social and multiplayer experiences," according to a press release. Ehreth, who has more than 20 years of experience as a game director and designer on console and PC games, is joined by a team of industry veterans with experience from Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Division, and more.    “We’re so excited to officially drop our anchor in Barcelona, the hometown of my great-grandparents, and start building a strong team for our journey of exploration together with NetEase Games," Ehreth writes in the press release. "Our studio’s motto is ‘Per Aspera, Ad Astra’ (‘through hardships, to the stars’) because we want to build an adventure...

Two Alien: Isolation developers analyse the creation of The Quarantine, the level that proved the perfect hunting ground for Creative Assembly's hyper-intelligent xenomorph....

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Funko Fusion, the mash-up co-op action game featuring a bizarre assortment of disparate properties, is the first game from 10:10 Studios. The studio was founded by TT Games veterans like Arthur Parsons, who worked as lead designer on about a dozen of TT Games' Lego games. The game features Funko characters and worlds from Jurassic World, Back to the Future, The Umbrella Academy, The Thing, Child’s Play 2, Masters of the Universe, and other NBCUniversal properties. Many of the properties featured in the trailer above are R-rated, and characters lose limbs and heads, use flame throwers, and get eaten by monsters. It never veers into full, non-cartoon violence, but compared to the Lego games the team worked on in the past, Funko Fusion seems like it is going for a more mature audience.   Funko Fusion is coming to...

Netflix has released the first official teaser for its upcoming season of The Witcher alongside the release dates for Volume 1 and Volume 2.  The Witcher: Season 3 still features Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia but it will be his last season in the role as Netflix announced last year that Liam Hemsworth would be replacing him as the titular Witcher in Season 4. If this new Season 3 teaser is anything to go off of, Cavill's final season as Geralt looks like a great one to go out on. We get a new look at Geralt and what might be his biggest fear, Yennefer and other mainstay characters, and most interestingly, Ciri, who appears to be running from the Wild Hunt, which were the main antagonist of the last mainline Witcher game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.  Check it...

Employees within Sega of America have filed for unionization.  Today, The Verge broke the news that a supermajority of 144 employees across Sega of America's quality assurance, live service, localization, marketing, and product development departments have filed to form a union. This team of workers headquartered in Sega of America's Irvine, California office filed its union election with the National Labor Relations Board and will go by the name Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) in partnership with the Communications Workers of America, The Verge reports.  "We believe that the passionate, hardworking people at our Irvine offices deserve a say in our working conditions, and we are joining together to advocate for change in our workplace," this new union writes on Twitter. "This is our vision for the path forward. #UnionizeSEGA"  The AEGIS union also released a longer statement outlining why it's unionizing, what...

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