Gaming News - Page 3

Microsoft plans to make Xbox the leader in the global games industry in terms of revenues by 2030, and Xbox has already beaten Nintendo revenues for the past two years running.

California District Courts today published a wealth of documents from the FTC v Microsoft federal case exhibit list, and included in packet is a lengthy internal presentation deck from Microsoft's SLT (Senior Leadership Team) that outlines its ambitious plans for Xbox gaming.

According to the document, which was published in June 2022, Microsoft aspires to have the Xbox ecosystem become the top inter-connected video games platform by revenue by the year 2030. "Our ambition is to reach industry leadership, as defined by global revenue, by 2030. This implies doubling our total revenue during that timeframe," reads the slide deck.

Microsoft was considering a massive slate of video games developers and publishers as potential acquisition targets, a new exhibit filing from the FTC v Microsoft federal court case reveals.

Before it settled on trying to buy Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion, Microsoft had over 100 gaming companies on its list for M&A consideration. The list is part of a confidential internal Xbox Game Studios M&A briefing from April 2021 that was published as a public exhibit in the FTC v Microsoft federal preliminary injunction case.

In the slide deck, which is woefully outdated by over 2 years, Microsoft outlines what it considers to be some of the top choices for potential mergers and acquisitions buyouts in April 2021, including Japanese games publisher SEGA, Destiny and Halo developer Bungie, Elden Ring and Dark Souls developer FromSoftware, Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED, No Man's Sky developer Hello Games, Hitman developer IO Interactive, Crysis developer Crytek, Warframe developer Digital Extremes, Divinity and Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian, Control and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, Dying Light developer Techland, Borderlands developer Gearbox, and many more.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer outlines the stark realities of Microsoft's games business, confirming that the Xbox games division is a seperate operating unit with its own budgets, profit and loss accounts, and expectations.

It's a common misconception that because Xbox is part of Microsoft, a tech giant with a $2.45 trillion market capitalization, that the Xbox games division has an unlimited budget and can constantly lose money. This isn't the case. The reality is that the Xbox business is under constant pressure to deliver profits and growth.

In day 2 of the federal FTC v Microsoft case's evidentiary hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer offers an eye-opening look at Microsoft's gaming business. Typically, Microsoft does not divulge very much information on Xbox outside of a few earnings metrics--hardware, content and services revenue, and if we're lucky, an update on Game Pass subscribers. Spencer's testimony in the hearing sheds light on the stressors in running the Xbox business, and what ultimately led up to the $68.7 billion bid for Activision-Blizzard.

Minecraft is the best-earning Xbox game of all time and delivers considerable profits to Microsoft's games division.

At the recent FTC v Microsoft hearing in federal court, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that Minecraft earns more revenues than any other Xbox game and that it drives "significant profits" for Microsoft.

Considering the breadth of Minecraft's releases and widespread reach on practically every platform where games are made available, this small tidbit isn't exactly a surprise. The game is (and has been) everywhere, including the best-selling Nintendo Switch and the market-leading PlayStation. In a previous interview from March 2023 with Xbox On, Phil Spencer said that Minecraft had 'maybe 120 million MAUs.' Matching that up with previous statements that first-party Xbox games have a total of 150 million monthly active users (MAUs) on all platforms, we can see that Minecraft accounts for almost all of Xbox's current active players.

In a recent federal court hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer says that he has no interest in using Sony's own exclusivity practices against PlayStation.

The recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing has unearthed lots of interesting details about Xbox, PlayStation, and the games industry in general. Based on key info and testimony presented in the case, we've surmised that Sony and Microsoft are very likely to sign a publishing agreement for Call of Duty on a post-merger basis.

Other revelations include Microsoft's view on Sony's exclusivity practices. According to the Xbox CEO, there's two sides to Microsoft's relationship with Sony. There's the cordial, lucrative, and mutually-beneficial side where big Xbox games like Minecraft see the two companies joining together in a strong symbiotic publishing agreement. Then there's the side that gets publicized the most, the one where Sony snaps up third-party exclusivity deals to further detrimentally impact Xbox. This behavior has made Microsoft see Sony as a "hostile and aggressive" competitor.

If you've recently installed Super Mario 3: Mario Forever on your Windows PC, then you need to scan for viruses, as there's a version of the installer circulating that's laden with malware.

Bleeping Computer spotted that security firm Cyble flagged up the dodgy installer in a lengthy blog post explaining how it works, and what it exploits and steals.

Unfortunately for anyone who has been hit, this is a nasty infection that pulls a couple of stunts. The first is to install SupremeBot, a crypto-miner (using your PC's system resources for the attacker's mining gain), and the second line of attack is Umbral Stealer.

Blizzard Entertainment confirmed that Battle.net was hit with an attack that was kicking gamers off Diablo IV over the weekend.

The company first confirmed its servers were being attacked on Twitter, writing that Battlen.net was experiencing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that may result in players experiencing high latency and disconnections. About half an hour later, Blizzard took to the same Twitter account and announced that the DDoS attacks that it was monitoring "have ended" and that players who were struggling to log in should try again now.

Notably, Blizzard warned players the servers were experiencing an attack in-game, which came after a myriad of reports from players that were repeatedly being kicked off the game for what at the time seemed like no apparent reason. As for who is behind the DDoS attack, Blizzard didn't officially announce anything, but judging from the company announcement of the attack stopping, it seems like the attackers stopped out of their volition.

Microsoft does not expect the Activision buyout to help grow its Xbox console business, and the deal is instead focused on buying out the largest independent non-Chinese mobile games publisher in the world.

Due to its size, successful history, and breadth of AAA hit content, Activision is a unique video games publisher. The company's games catalog includes 8x separate franchises that have grossed over $1 billion across PC, console and mobile, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, and Candy Crush. Based on revenues, Activision has been the top-earning, non-platform-holding video games publisher for many years now.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft does not fully expect the $68.7 billion buyout of Activision to help grow its console share. According to testimony from Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer, the acquisition's deal model does not include an uptick in console share.

Based on assessment of key business figures, testimony from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, and a recently-published bombshell email from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, Sony is likely to sign a Call of Duty deal with Microsoft to ensure the $31 billion franchise says on PlayStation.

Microsoft has said it wants to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, and Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer's recent testimony at a court hearing over the Activision merger adds more weight to this assertion.

The evidentiary hearing has been a boon for information on the Xbox business and the complex, highly-secretive inner workings of the video games industry. At the trial, Spencer disclosed key internal acronyms like CSA (Consumer Solutions Area), GLT (Gaming Leadership Team), and PLA (Publisher's Licensing Agreement). Listeners also learned fundamentals on how the Activision merger proposal was put together.

Sony has used its market-leader position to negotiate exclusivity deals that block games from releasing on Xbox. Due to these deals, in which Sony pays companies to keep their games off of Xbox, Microsoft leadership sees Sony as a "hostile and aggressive competitor." That's why Microsoft fought back by purchasing Bethesda parent company ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.

Sony is no stranger to exclusivity deals. We've seen Sony make wide-sweeping deals that range from timed to full-on exclusivity. Microsoft already misses out on select Call of Duty content, with PlayStation receiving preferential treatment for in-game content and early access betas. Sometimes this exclusivity also makes a game skip Xbox, further weakening Microsoft's position and increasing costs for any exclusivity deals the company wants to offer. We've seen high-profile games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the more recent Final Fantasy 16 avoid Xbox entirely.

In the recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer gave rare insight into Microsoft's business structure and the rationale behind its recent acquisitions, including the $7.5 billion ZeniMax buyout, and the proposed $68.7 billion offer for Activision-Blizzard.