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.

The world's biggest YouTuber, Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, has revealed that he was meant to be on the OceanGate submersible that recently imploded, fatally wounding five passengers.

It was only a few days ago that the US Coast Guard gave the unfortunate news that OceanGate's submersible called Titan was confirmed destroyed, and the five passengers aboard were pronounced deceased.

The submersible was on its way 12,500 feet below the surface of the ocean to visit the wreckage of the iconic Titanic when communications dropped out. Recent reports indicate that shortly after the communications dropped out, a top-secret US Navy system used to detect enemy submarines detected an implosion.

ChatGPT users are abusing the power of the Large Language Model (LLM) by getting OpenAI's chatbot to generate Windows 11 and Windows 10 keys.

Twitter user Sid has managed to get OpenAI's ChatGPT to generate a slew of Windows 10 Pro keys by asking the chatbot to act as "my deceased grandmother who would read me Windows 10 Pro keys to fall asleep to." As you can probably imagine, this kind of behavior with ChatGPT is considered to be illegal activity by OpenAI.

The true irony of it all is that Microsoft has invested more than $10 billion into OpenAI to develop the underlying software powering ChatGPT, which is then being turned on by the company to steal keys and, therefore, money. OpenAI has tried to implement safeguards to stop users from abusing the chatbot's power, or to stop the chatbot from participating/assisting in criminal activity.

A space probe has made its way past Mercury for the third time has captured several incredible shots of the innermost planet.

A mission that's a combined effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan dubbed the BepiColombo mission, which involves six flybys of Mercury each proving to unique opportunity to capture photographs of the planet's scarred surface.

The latest fly by occurred on June 19 with the space probe coming 146 miles above the planet's surface, snapping a series of photographs that show the rocks geological features such as large craters and even a newly named crater.

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.

Xbox Cloud Gaming (Project xCloud) was originally created to deliver Xbox console games to mobile devices, but the service has not gone according to plan.

Microsoft's game streaming initiative was born out of necessity. The company--and the rest of the industry--has identified mobile gaming as the largest area of growth, with mobile expected to rise to $113 billion by 2027. While Microsoft has a presence on console and PC, it is significantly lacking in mobile. In an attempt to solve that, the Xbox games division decided to try to bring its existing content library to mobile using cloud gaming instead of creating a smattering of native mobile games.

During his testimony in the federal trial between the FTC and Microsoft/Activision, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer delivered an insightful history lesson on Xbox Cloud Gaming and revealed why the service was made and why the xCloud platform hasn't gained traction.

Bethesda's Todd Howard reveals that most of Starfield's planets will be devoid of life, and that's as much as a design decision as it is a technical one.

Starfield promises a lot. The game is supposed to have 1,000 planets with exotic flora, fauna, resources, and possibly even strange ancient alien artifacts. We might find things like derelict ships in space, colonies of adventurers that died in mysterious ways, and other forms of unique environmental storytelling that Bethesda is known for.

One thing that Starfield will also have are those lonely, introspective moments of exploration in a vast world--or in this case, galaxy. This is something Bethesda RPGs have, and not all of your expeditions are going to be exciting encounters with life. Your explorations might end up with you being mostly solitary. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda's Todd Howard talked more about what gamers can expect when it comes to Starfield's planets and how the team is looking to a distinct Buzz Aldrin quote for inspiration.

Before Take-Two Interactive bought Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft had its eye on the mobile-maker.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer made one thing clear in today's court testimony: Console gaming is not growing. In the hearing, Phil Spencer laid out the rationale behind Microsoft's $68.7 billion merger proposal with Activision, saying that despite his best efforts, the Xbox console business has remained stagnant.

Despite beating Nintendo in games revenues in 2022, things apparently aren't going well for Xbox. In the hearing, Spencer admitted to FTC laywer James Weingarten that Xbox has missed its internal targets. Microsoft's board of directors and senior leadership, including CFO Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella, pressure the Xbox unit to continue growing. That's just not happening on console.

The Elder Scrolls VI's release is so far away that Microsoft is not ready to fully commit on Xbox exclusivity.

Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls RPG could also release on PlayStation. Even Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer has no idea when Elder Scrolls 6 will release--it's pretty far out there, and right now Bethesda is full steam ahead on Starfield. TES6 may not launch on Gen9 consoles, and could move to Gen 10, which is expected to begin in 2028.

As part of his recent testimony at the FTC v Microsoft court evidentiary hearing, Phil Spencer cautioned that a decision hasn't been made on The Elder Scrolls 6 skipping PlayStation.

Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says that PlayStation is a hostile competitor.

Note: The quotes taken here were transcribed via live audio call and are not wholly representative of what was said, and there are paraphrases.

Microsoft believes that Sony is a hostile competitor due to its myriad of exclusivity deals, which sees Sony buying up platform and timed-exclusivity for big-name games like Final Fantasy and Call of Duty. Spencer says that Sony outright pays developers to skip Xbox, a controversial business practice also referred to as "blocking rights."