bear

I'm not sure but the last Call of Duty listed on either companies site was Advanced Warfare which came out in 2014. Either way theres a lot of people at those studios facing uncertain futures and I hope their potential plight gets highlighted. Does that not leave them tied into Battle.net for the PC version? I don't think Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein are congratulating Bungie just out of the goodness of their hearts.

I can understand why the likes of Schreier are including how the Bungie staff reacted to this news but I hope we see more coverage of what the feeling is like among the staff at High Moon and Vicarious Visions. Those poor sods look like they are in an awful spot right now. Will they go with Bungie, will Activision reassign them to supporting something like Call of Duty or is it just waiting for the axe to fall? Happy New Year everybody.

How big is that segment of the market? More importantly, how valuable is that segment of the market to publishers? I'm not saying the end of physical media is great or even good for customers, I just think that the big players want a digital only future. If they don't kill it off at the launch of the PS5 and next Xbox then they'll have to wait another 5+ years for another chance. They won't wait that long.

Its £190 for the console and controller bundle on Amazon right now but its been on sale for £130 for stuff like Prime Day and Cyber Monday. Gamecube emulation is borderline. Some games are fine, others have noticeable hitches. Its a really good emulation box right now but an updated version, which looks unlikely anytime soon, could be amazing. EDIT: One thing that is annoying is that a lot of apps that should work well on Android TV aren't compatible with the Shield. Segas Mega Drive releases for instance.

According to Brad Sams, who has a good record of breaking Microsoft news, they are working on a scheme where you can trade in discs in exchange for a download code to go alongside the launch of a discless Xboxone this spring.

I think the fundamental flaw in their strategy last time around was that they spent precisely zero hours getting the market ready for the shift the Xboxone represented. If they had invested in studios when they were on top of the market or just waited to snap up the remains of publishers that went bust or were taken over (Midway, Eidos, THQ, Tecmo, Bizarre Creations etc.) they would have had a formidable lineup of studios and exclusive games going into this generation. On top of that the experience of buying full games digitally on Xbox360 was miserable until very late in its lifecycle with pathetic sales so anyone who owned a 360 would be understandably cautious about the future MS were proposing. Kinect is its own messed up waste of interesting technology. Starting with the strongly rumoured discless Xboxone S due this spring Microsoft have basically got two years to finally convince console owners that a digital only future isn't all bad. Of course I think the big sweetener will be the removal of Gold as a requirement to play online if you subscribe to Gamepass/Xcloud on an Xboxone 2.

The recent launch of the Epic Gamestore and Valves changes to their revenue split arrangement will put Microsoft in particular under pressure to follow suit and move away from the 70/30 split when it comes to digitally distributed games (they've already announced and failed to deliver on a new revenue split arrangement for non-gaming apps on the Windows 10 store) so selling games digitally will become more and more attractive as times goes on and I think we'll hit a point in the next few years where the increased value to publishers of digitally distributed games will put them in a position where they are willing to give up a percentage of total game sales and go for exclusively digital distribution. So in short I think the PS5 and next Xbox will move to exclusively digital distribution.

The whole Red Dead getting nominated for most disappointing game hold-up was odd because it was never suggested that it was going to win the category. Did it really matter that much to Brad and Alex to try and stop Dans disappointment with the game being recognised in a minor way? Just weird.

Just going back to Parmesan being a bit of a hassle, try keeping it in the freezer. I saw Simon Hopkinson do this when he had a series on BBC. He put a few cubes of Parmesan into the chopped attachment for his stick blender and blitzed it to dust. He then put it in a bag and left in the freezer. I'm guessing it's something to do with the high fat content but it doesn't set into a lump when in the freezer, just stays crumbly. Maybe I'm a monster for following his lead but he has won awards and stuff so I guess it's fine.

Based on the pricing for their All Access programme in the US then I could see them offering a discless One S for less than £100 that way. The base plan was $22 which effectively priced a One S at $170. If they were equally aggressive in pricing the discless model (which Brad Sams says they are targeting a $200 price for) then a One S for less than £100 is possible but with the caveat you'll need to sign up to two years of Gold+Gamepass to get that pricing.

Why do Sky keep Mardle on their coverage? He had a good theme tune but that was it. Annoying git.

But I thought the main reason they hadn't sacked Mourinho yet was because they'd save £30+million if they waited until it was impossible for them to reach next year's Champions League? So they've waited until their top 4 chances are practically dead anyway and still given Mourinho a big payout? I know Woodward is meant to have done a great job with the commercial side of the operation but surely it's time for him to go as well?

Yule Log surely? That or a Christmassy pannacotta. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/food/recipes/christmaspannacotta_93082/amp

The video title buries the lead. -Expect the regular and Elite Xboxone controller to change from micro USB to a type C connector next year The most interesting news is the detail on the disc trade in programme. He thinks 360 games will be included. Every Xbox game disc has a unique serial number so the way the scheme is planned to work is that you bring your discs to a store and put your discs in a kiosk which reads the serial number of the disc and then gives you a download token. I'm not sure if that means it just prints a code or if you need to be signed into your Xbox account on the kiosk and have it added directly to your account. The video makes it sound like you just need the disc. If every game disc has a unique identifier like he says I wonder can you trade in something not on the backwards compatible list and have that game added to your account even if you need a 360 to play it.

Are there multiple Scorpions like there are multiple Sub-Zeros? Anywho, I liked the last two MK games.