Games Inbox: What happens next with Xbox and Activision Blizzard

The Wednesday letters page reacts to the Microsoft vs. FTC court case ruling, as one reader is upset at Just Dance 2023 Edition bugs.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

What happens next
So that’s it then, Microsoft has won its court case and will now almost certainly be allowed to buy Activision Blizzard. I say almost certainly because this whole saga has been so strange and unpredictable that I certainly wouldn’t put any money on which way it’s going to go, even if it is Microsoft’s to lose now.

On the one hand I don’t care, because I don’t care about any Activision or Blizzard game but on the other hand it’s such a revolting display of capitalist greed, with inhuman amounts of money being spent to buy Microsoft market domination, that I can’t help but be against it.

It’s certainly going to change the games industry, there’s no question about that, with Xbox now becoming a much bigger fish and other publishers not sure if they should be competing with them or trying to get them to buy them.

Nintendo will carry on regardless, but this is going to break the minds of Sony execs, if it hasn’t already given how that company has been carrying on ever since this whole business started. What I’m interested in seeing now is whether Sony will give up on their pointless radio silence policy and actually have a proper showcase, or are they going to stay under their rock until everything’s 100% finished and signed over?

I guess we’ll see in the coming weeks, but I really wish this whole mess had never started. Although I’ll be very glad when it’s over.
Focus

Show your workings
The verdict from the FTC vs. Microsoft case makes for interesting reading, as unlike a lot of opinion pieces you actually get a good explanation of law and the precedents from case law that quantify the bar that needs to be reached to block a merger (also, it’s mildly amusing how many times brown shoes are referenced).

After following the case and reading through the verdict it’s hard to disagree with it. The FTC’s model essentially used a made-up number to prove it made financial sense for Microsoft to make Call Of Duty exclusive and the judge did give the FTC multiple opportunities to explain where the number came from, somewhat highlighting that if they didn’t it was going to be an issue. Nor did they find any evidence they would make Call Of Duty exclusive.

As Sony is the only company they could get to support the case. and they have to prove there will be a substantial reduction in competition, it wasn’t much of an argument.

However, potentially the more interesting thing to come out of it is a reference to figures in the redacted data showing the console gaming market is actually shrinking.
Tim

Strangely unsurprising
Well, I’m not at all surprised by the FTC court ruling. The judge clearly didn’t seem to know the video game industry very well or what the big deal was over a ‘shooter game’. Seems strange then that she was allowed to have final say in such a hugely impactful and potentially industry shaking decision.

Despite confirming how this deal is ‘negative’ for Sony, not once in her ruling does she reflect on how having Call Of Duty included essentially for free on Game Pass on release day may affect competition in the console market. Like I say, strange, but not surprising.
SteJFin

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Power costs
Is anyone else concerned that the Switch 2 will only be as powerful as the PlayStation 4/Xbox One? As a non-Switch owner I have seen countless ports from that generation be released – Doom, The Witcher 3, No Man’s Sky, etc. What good will a little more power be?

I really hope it sits somewhere between the PlayStation 4 and 5, otherwise a Wii U situation could occur.
Robert

GC: We’re not sure that’s physically possible without being prohibitively expensive.

Aspirational design
I guess the issues with all these Sony hardware rumours is that usually the cost of manufacturing reduces as the generation moves forward, so at some point down the line it makes sense to redesign elements of the machine, use updated innards, etc. and produce a new version of the console.

However, at the moment those costs aren’t coming down and some are actually going up, so we seem to have hit a plateau. A PlayStation 5 slim won’t be much cheaper than the old machine and a PlayStation 5 Pro likely to be absurdly expensive for marginal gains developers won’t fully take advantage of.

I wasn’t sure it’d be worth Sony (or Microsoft) doing this, however the existence of niche halo products in the PlayStation range, like the PlayStation VR2 and this upcoming Project Q handheld, suggest management are seeing some advantage to putting out expensive devices that target power users and brand loyalists. These products don’t seem to have been put out to turn profits with sales in the traditional sense, but make PlayStation seem like a cutting edge and aspirational brand.

Could it be that Sony have designs on some kind of Apple-fication of gaming? They want people to see the brand as much of a luxury good and not just an electronic entertainment device? In that case putting out a PlayStation 5 Pro for, say, £799 that is designed to be a desirable living room object as much as a box that plays existing games slightly faster would make sense. It would be comparable to Apple with its basic iPhone and iPhone Pro ranges. Sony have a bit of work to do on the design of it if that’s the case.
Marc

GC: It’s only Microsoft that’s described it as a slim model. The original rumours claimed that the main difference was the removable hard drive, not the more typical changes you describe.

Down to the wire
The spin-off game from the Forgotton Anne creators called The Forgotlings has got four days until the crowdfunding ends on Kickstarter. It has not been 100% funded yet and hopefully it will make up the roughly £14,000 it is short by 17th July.

Most Kickstarters I have backed have been 100% funded at this stage and I am hoping this game can get there too. If you would like to back it or know someone who would like to back it then you have time to do so until 5.09pm BST on Monday.
Andrew J.
PS. I am looking forward to Monday as I am getting The Last of Us Season 1 SteelBook 4K version. Normally I trade TV series in when I have watched them but because I really like The Last Of Us games I am going to keep the TV box set in my game and film/TV collection. The following Monday I have also pre-ordered a 4K SteelBook for The Super Mario Bros. Move. As a big fan of the Mario games I hope I will like the film after the mixed reviews for it.

Dance off
Ubisoft are failing to fix their bugs in the Just Dance 2023 Edition of their game. The game has been released since November and Ubisoft has left millions of players stung until now on their newest Just Dance game.

Support has failed to acknowledge their players and has lied about a feature that does not work for half of their players.
Anon

More Tears
After playing Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom for well over 100 hours now, I’m starting to wonder how they’ll implement any DLC, presuming they do DLC for the game. If they didn’t do DLC I think it would be a missed opportunity.

Master mode needs to be the first thing they add back. I sorely miss it even though normal mode is more difficult than on Breath Of The Wild.

The sky map is pretty baren compared to the floor level and the depths. I hope that’s been purposely left free to add in more areas as DLC. I really like it up there.

I’d like to see the ancient Sheikah technology added back in and have that explained as to why it’s not present in the world. I also miss the guardian fights from Breath Of The Wild, so fingers crossed they can bring them back too in some form.

I’m feeling they probably will do something like what they did with Breath Of The Wild’s DLC in that all the armoury you’ve amassed will become useless and they take you back to bare bones and make you start again under new rules to complete challenges. Denying you the use of Ultrahand may make things more difficult too.

I’m still finding new things out on Tears Of The Kingdom. My tip of the day is try throwing dazzle fruits at skeletal enemies, as it performs a one hit kill on them.

Now off to find the rest of Misko’s hidden treasure.
Nick The Greek

GC: The Nintendo website did use to mention DLC in the small print, although they seem to have removed the reference now.

Inbox also-rans
I have only just bumped into Master Kohga in Tears of the Kingdom and his music is excellent.
John Atkinson

Great Prime Day deal for the Nova Pro Wireless headset.
Anon

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

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