Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard (UPDATE: CMA says NO!).

[Stanley]

I still think that city fly by bit during the intro to Killzone on PS4, which was a launch day title, is one of the most next gen things I’d seen on PS4 overall. It looked amazing. 
 

Two games I’d love to see resurrected from Activision would be Pitfall and H.E.R.O - they could be amazing with modern technology. 

[bear]

18 hours ago, deerokus said:

Syphon Filter reboot as an fps please.

This sounds awful. How many games are out there doing third person stealth well nowadays, Hitman and The Plague Tale games maybe (edit: Last of Us)? I don't have nostalgia for Syphon Filter but bringing it back just so you'd have a name to slap on a CoD competitor seems a waste. 

[Kevvy Metal]

6 minutes ago, Uncle Mike said:

Is it the PS4 one, or all of them, where also your character is about 4 foot 6? You spend all this time looking up at everyone else.

 

That's also the case with 2 and 3. You're a wee guy. 

[K]

I also liked KZ2 for the most part, and thought the PS4 one was underrated, tbh. It's mostly landfill, but that first open-world level was really good - it looked amazing, the multiple objectives worked really well, and it was full of fun toys like the zipwire and the multi-function gun you had. The rest of the game felt uninspired - I get the sense they made that first level as a vertical slice of a much more ambitious game and didn't have the time to make the rest of it because it had to be out for launch.

[Darwock]

1 hour ago, Uncle Mike said:

I still think Killzone 2 (that was the one with the controversial opening CGI fake movie Sony pretended was real?) was an actually good game. Not any of the other Killzones, except maybe the top down tactical one, which also had its moments, but KZ2 played an excellent game of slow tactical heavy gunplay.

 

 

Agreed on KZ2, and for it’s faults KZ3 was blessed with one of the best control schemes I’ve ever used on a console shooter (Move + navigation controller) which made multiplayer a joy to play. Unfortunately the game really gave the impression they had designed lots of locations and then run out of time to build a cohesive narrative that used them. There was a connecting cutscene which amounted to the main characters jumping over a fence, and teleporting to an entirely different place. Then the end of the game was basically ‘the entire planet of the Helghast has been destroyed’ which seemed like a massive shark jump for a supposedly continuing series.

[Kevvy Metal]

4 minutes ago, Darwock said:

Agreed on KZ2, and for it’s faults KZ3 was blessed with one of the best control schemes I’ve ever used on a console shooter (Move + navigation controller) which made multiplayer a joy to play. Unfortunately the game really gave the impression they had designed lots of locations and then run out of time to build a cohesive narrative that used them. There was a connecting cutscene which amounted to the main characters jumping over a fence, and teleporting to an entirely different place. Then the end of the game was basically ‘the entire planet of the Helghast has been destroyed’ which seemed like a massive shark jump for a supposedly continuing series.

 

I really wish I'd bought the Move controller and concentrated my gaming time on the PS3 in it's later life. The PS3 slim, Move and Sony first-party was far more interesting then than the first-party hemorrhaging, Kinect focussed Xbox 360...which was then still my main thing, for some reason. 

[bear]

Looks more and more like this deal is going to go through inside Microsoft's original timeframe. 

 

[layten]

Looks like the only thing Sony will achieve with all their interventions is an investigation into their own anti competitive practices.  

 

 

[Darwock]

It’s not Sony’s fault no bugger wants to buy an xbox over here… it’s Nintendo’s!

[Uzi]

On 28/03/2023 at 11:15, layten said:

Looks like the only thing Sony will achieve with all their interventions is an investigation into their own anti competitive practices.  

 

 

Sony are stupid, they don't need to lift a finger for the xbox to fail in japan lol

 

The congress members argument

 

"I feel it is incredibly unfair that Sony are kicking this long dead corpse"

[rgraves]

1 hour ago, Darwock said:

It’s not Sony’s fault no bugger wants to buy an xbox over here… it’s Nintendo’s!

 

Yes, but they've all just (totally incorrectly) spent ages arguing that Nintendo aren't really the competition in that market.....

[Stanley]

Nintendo, the Keyser Söze of the videogame industry. 

[rgraves]

The CMA might not be, but Sony is still concerned.....

 

 

[SeanR]

4 minutes ago, rgraves said:

The CMA might not be, but Sony is still concerned.....

 

 

genuine concerns?

[mikeyl]

One day, if we all get a bit better at this, us too can be used as evidence in a CMA investigation.

[Stanley]

19 minutes ago, mikeyl said:

One day, if we all get a bit better at this, us too can be used as evidence in a CMA investigation.

They couldn’t afford us. 

[layten]

Quote

"Call of Duty gamers are passionate, knowledgeable and sophisticated"

I think Sony has completely lost the plot now.

[JPL]

Let’s say this deal goes through, but Sony are still kicking up a fuss and refusing any deal MS are offering. Would that mean no CoD on PlayStation, or does it have to happen as a condition of the acquisition?

[thesnwmn]

5 minutes ago, JPL said:

Let’s say this deal goes through, but Sony are still kicking up a fuss and refusing any deal MS are offering. Would that mean no CoD on PlayStation, or does it have to happen as a condition of the acquisition?

 

I don't think any regulatory body has yet stated that must happen in a binding way. I might be wrong.

 

The CMA and EU might do that but I don't think they actually issued final guidance yet.

[moosegrinder]

*dons tin foil hat* wouldn't it be something if one of the conditions of the deal with Nintendo to get this done was that Microsoft had to remove the ability to emulate Nintendo consoles on the Series in retail mode at the very least?

 

 

https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/07/xbox-emulation-ban-is-nintendos-fault-says-microsoft-18574851/

 

[JPL]

“an email she received from a friend on the Xbox Q&A team”

 

Sounds legit! What’s the Xbox Q&A team?

[Hitcher]

Quality and Assurance.

[Superunknown]

3 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

*dons tin foil hat* wouldn't it be something if one of the conditions of the deal with Nintendo to get this done was that Microsoft had to remove the ability to emulate Nintendo consoles on the Series in retail mode at the very least?

 

 

https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/07/xbox-emulation-ban-is-nintendos-fault-says-microsoft-18574851/

 

 

Microsoft have since confirmed it was *not* Nintendo, and just them enforcing a 'long-standing policy'. One that they didn't bother properly enforcing, throughout two years of well-publicised emulation in retail mode, until just after someone ported the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia. I guess emulation was cool right up until they perceived they might lose a few quid.

 

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-addresses-xbox-emulator-ban-says-its-based-on-long-standing-policy

[moosegrinder]

*throws tin foil hat away*

[footle]

Something, something, EE.

Who are yet another bunch without a significant cloud presence.

So that’s just ensuring marketing access to a whole bunch of customers, right?

[deerokus]

They have a deal with EE already where you get game pass when you buy a phone or something.

[MidWalian]

UK's decision due this week.

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/uk-decision-on-687bn-microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal-due-this-week

 

Quote

A final ruling by the CMA must arrive before the end of its deadline day - this Wednesday, 26th April - and Microsoft has recently had reason to hope its efforts to win over the UK authority will ultimately prove successful.

 

[Sarlaccfood]

Sweet release.
 

Fucking hell I cannot wait for this to be over and I’m not even a games journalist. 

[Mr. Gerbik]

Going to be weird not getting a Call of Duty every year, but instead once every 10 years. And also running at 30FPS going forward!

[Kevvy Metal]

Shall we take bets on which way it goes?