nobody knows for sure what clause they have for COD, so its a wait and see i would guess?
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nobody knows for sure what clause they have for COD, so its a wait and see i would guess?
I mean, MS are throwing them a colossal bone by allowing the franchise to remain in their platform indefinitely. Only seems fair that MS can carve a little piece out of the contract that says no Game Pass.
I mean they dont really have a choice, but if there is one then itll end when Sonys marketing deal ends after 2023 so its not that big a deal.
Kotick and Co changed their business model, which had been in operation for decades, just after Microsoft bought the company.
It's extremely difficult for me to believe that this is a coincidence.
But why would that sway Sony to concede on an advantage they already have in place? Unless MS is willing to redo contracts for an exorbitant price, I don't see any reason why Sony would just give that up regardless of what MS has said.
Why? CoD Vanguard missed on their expectations and they lowered their revenue forecasts in turn citing game cannibalization. They still have to operate this company as its own thing until the deal passes regulator scrutiny.
If the MS/ABK deal doesn't go through for some reason, they would still be running this the same way and just leaning on Warzone 2 and this other F2P CoD game they're releasing next year to make up the difference.
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Nice! and on a closed XSX system could be better :)
Vanguard is not the first COD that missed expectations.
There have been other CODs that failed and still continued with their model of one COD per year.
And ABK also had other games picking up slack when CoD had a down year, which was pretty much only Infinite Warfare. Blizzard has been essentially non-existent since Overwatch and the side games like Tony Hawk or Crash barely scratched the surface in regards to revenue generated.
Also, they didn't have a massive revenue driver in Warzone in previous years that allowed them to make revenue in parallel with mainline releases.
If starfield has ray tracing of any kind on consoles...i really hope they lean into global and shadows. From what I've experienced so far...global is by far the most important. It does so much to the scene to have light leak properly into rooms, caves, structures etc. And shadows because i think it gives a whole lotta depth to said scenes. Diffuse too if they can squeeze that in.
For anyone who has had issues with xCloud on iPad/iPhone, try it again now. Got a note from a dev (SpartyCrunch, see below!) on Reddit and they've rolled out some major improvements addressing device heat, input delay, stream quality/consistency, etc.
My iPhone used to get hot to the touch within 10 minutes, but now it's completely normal and the input lag/image stability is massively improved! Gives me a lot of confidence in the future of xCloud, this feels scary close to a native experience. (using a Backbone controller)
My iPhone used to get hot to the touch within 10 minutes, but now it's completely normal and the input lag/image stability is massively improved! Gives me a lot of confidence in the future of xCloud, this feels scary close to a native experience. (using a Backbone controller)
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Ah ha, I wondered! Thanks for lurking around and for the heads-up — update is working well.
Nor is it that Activision is bleeding money, to justify a radical change in its model.
And even if they have additional sources of annual revenue in Warzone, not launching a COD means hundreds of millions of dollars that they are going to lose, a difficult pill for anyone to swallow.
Especially for a company that cares very little about the quality of their games and is willing to sacrifice as many studios as necessary to release a COD on time.
I haven't read the entire regulatory filing, but there is a clause on page 89 that allows Microsoft to terminate the agreement and receive a Termination Fee of $2,270,100,000 if ABK fails to comply with warranties that compromise the closing condition. It may be that one of the warranties is not signing new contracts for the exclusivity of their games.
I just hopped on my iPhone 13 PM with Backbone and.. wow. I agree. Halo Infinite campaign for a quick FOB capture was near-native. Only issue was my audio sounded off. Like it was in a reverb filter or something. But it wasn't out of sync. Video and input wise it was fantastic though.
I even played two rounds of Fiesta to get some challenges done and it was perfectly playable. Went like 10-13-3 on the first game which isn't terrible for a controller game for me (especially on cloud!)
Used about 4% of battery over the span of maybe 30 minutes or less at max brightness. Doesn't feel warm at all.
Great to hear!
The audio doubling issue is something the team is looking at. In the meantime it should go away if you force close the browser and reopen, reconnecting to the same session.
Good to know 👍 I submitted a feedback report saying the audio was off, hope that provided some sort of telemetry for you lol
Sure, but this isn't about new contracts, it's about the ones that are already in place that Microsoft has publicly said they'll be honoring once the deal has closed.
That's cool! I'll try it today, my iPhone would get insanely hot after like 10 minutes.
edit: I just played the gunk for 30 minutes and it was pretty great. There was no way my iPhone could have done that before, it would have melted after 10 minutes max. Very impressive. It played well and is only mildly warm.
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My problem with icloud is my internet is trash, but thats a me problem and not indicative of the service itself really.
Because in a years time MS will become one of the largest 3rd party publishers on Playstation, and Sony might be interested in keeping a good relationship with such entities.
Is it possible that Microsoft could go Intel anytime they want and have games just work thanks to DirectX? Not sure how all that would work, but having that flexibility would be nice, not to mention competition to get the best SOC for the price. Especially since Intel seems to be doing a lot more than AMD in GPU tech. Also it seems like Intel's new server GPUs have support for hardware AV1 encoding which would be huge for cloud gaming.
Any time they want meaning like... if there was a mid-gen refresh the XSX Pro could have an Intel APU? I mean.. maybe..? There's a lot of AMD hardware specific optimizations that would likely not transfer over, but I'm sure things would *run* still. I know Intel is making discrete GPUs, but have they announced anything regarding APUs with console level quality? I think power draw is another concern when it comes to AMD vs Intel.
Intel's plan to stack an Arc GPU on its Meteor Lake CPUs will form 'a new class of graphics'
Intel's Raja Koduri is "super excited" about the performance and efficiency Arc will offer in future processors.
www.pcgamer.com
I mean it's possible in theory, but practically 2 things would need to happen for this to be a reality.
1. Intel would need to demonstrate that they are capable of building a competitive GPU, or an APU in this case.
2. It would need to be priced extremely competitively, something that Intel is not known for.
But even with those two things, it would still be a hard sell for MS or Sony, given that backwards compatibility would now require much more effort and possibly not even be guarantied. Intel would have to bring something extraordinary to the table for this to be a reality.
Yeah, my hope would be that backwards compatibility would still be possible, at least for Xbox thanks to DirectX. I'm sure there is a lot more work that would have to be done, it just sucks being stuck to one company.
Why would keeping a good relationship entail being pressured to rework a supposedly exisiting agreement?
It is typically games, as delays happen all the time. Which is why when FF7 got delayed and people were speculating that it may come to xbox sooner as a result its like no, it doesn't work out like that. And if it is time, there would normally be stipulations in the contract where if there were too many delays, there would be some form of concessions. It is a bit harder to judge with CoD because it has been an annual franchise for so long so it may be different to the typical situation. But I imagine if Sony paid however much money for the deal, they would have had something in the contract in the event it got delayed.
Because the agreement was made (if it even exists) under the old owners and that is not the people who you'll be building a relationship with going forward?
Jason reported that Sony had 3 games under their deal, including Warzone 2... so I doubt it's based on time.
I was looking back on a list I made in 2020 about games Microsoft could make a sequel for or do a reboot/remake and it would be interesting if some of these actually do happen someday.
343 Industries-Brute Force
World's Edge- Age of Mythology, Nightcaster, or Black and White
The Coalition- Crackdown or Azurik: Rise of Perathia reboot
Compulsion Games- Haunt remake without Kinect mode(https://youtu.be/6hQlwYJaOuA) or We Happy Few/Contrast sequel
Double Fine- Brutal Legend 2
The Initiative- Shadowrun(https://youtu.be/k50BhzxVU4Y)
InXile- Jet Force Gemini or MechAssault
Mojang- ilomilo(https://youtu.be/wpXWyWj2p04), or Fusion Frenzy
Ninja Theory- Heavenly Sword or Enslaved remake/sequel
Obsidian- Fallout New Vegas 2
Playground Games- Jade Empire
Rare- Banjo, Conker, Kameo, or Viva Piñata
Undead Labs- Grabbed By The Ghoulies remake
Turn 10- Project Gotham Racing or Hydro Thunder
Xbox Game Studios Publishing:
Asobo- Crimson Skies
PlatinumGames- Scalebound
Netherealm, Capcom, or Bandai Namco- Killer Instinct
Bandai Namco- Blue Dragon
Moon Studios or Playtonic Games- any game Rare doesn't want to revisit
Sega- Lost Odyssey
Crytek- Ryse 2
Armature Studios- Recore sequel(Armature Studio Says New ReCore 'Would Be Great To See' - Xbox News)
343 Industries-Brute Force
World's Edge- Age of Mythology, Nightcaster, or Black and White
The Coalition- Crackdown or Azurik: Rise of Perathia reboot
Compulsion Games- Haunt remake without Kinect mode(https://youtu.be/6hQlwYJaOuA) or We Happy Few/Contrast sequel
Double Fine- Brutal Legend 2
The Initiative- Shadowrun(https://youtu.be/k50BhzxVU4Y)
InXile- Jet Force Gemini or MechAssault
Mojang- ilomilo(https://youtu.be/wpXWyWj2p04), or Fusion Frenzy
Ninja Theory- Heavenly Sword or Enslaved remake/sequel
Obsidian- Fallout New Vegas 2
Playground Games- Jade Empire
Rare- Banjo, Conker, Kameo, or Viva Piñata
Undead Labs- Grabbed By The Ghoulies remake
Turn 10- Project Gotham Racing or Hydro Thunder
Xbox Game Studios Publishing:
Asobo- Crimson Skies
PlatinumGames- Scalebound
Netherealm, Capcom, or Bandai Namco- Killer Instinct
Bandai Namco- Blue Dragon
Moon Studios or Playtonic Games- any game Rare doesn't want to revisit
Sega- Lost Odyssey
Crytek- Ryse 2
Armature Studios- Recore sequel(Armature Studio Says New ReCore 'Would Be Great To See' - Xbox News)
The whole GP cod thing, the very least that will happen is every cod from now and into the past will most likely be added to GP right when the deal is done.
Except the 'people going forward' have pledged to honour those agreements and clearly see it as the best way to maintain a good relationship.
What is up with so many people here thinking Elden Ring is gonna be bad lol.. I played the network test and it was so good
Ain't no way this game is gonna be bad.. Have booked the whole weekend off just to play it
Ain't no way this game is gonna be bad.. Have booked the whole weekend off just to play it
Current number of open positions within XGS, Bethesda and ABK as well even though the deal has still to go through (includes temporary positions and I took these from their websites, keep in mind this is just a rough approximate idea because sometimes it's not updated regularly and can be out of date + some people leave and have to be replaced too so it's not pure growth. And maybe some numbers are wrong. But still interesting):
Blizzard: 657
King: 200
Playground: 130
Infinity Ward: 130
Sledgehammer: 101
Bethesda Game Studios: 54 (Austin 25 / Montreal 20 / Rockville 11)
Demonware: 52
ZeniMax Online: 45
Raven: 43
Obsidian: 36
Arkane: 31 (Austin 23 / Lyon 8)
343 Industries: 29
Mojang: 25+
id Software: 25
The Coalition: 25
Beenox: 25
High Moon: 22
Treyarch: 21
Rare: 21
Machinegames: 18
Tango Gameworks: 18 (10 on ZeniMax)
Digital Legends: 17
Turn10: 17
Undead Labs: 15
Toys for Bob: 12
inXile: 10
World's Edge: 6
The Initiative: 4
Ninja Theory: 4
Compulsion: 4
Alpha Dog: 3
Xbox Game Studios Publishing: 3
Double Fine: 1
Roundhouse: 1
Solid State: unknown (Activision website is messy)
Activision Shanghai: unknown
Blizzard: 657
King: 200
Playground: 130
Infinity Ward: 130
Sledgehammer: 101
Bethesda Game Studios: 54 (Austin 25 / Montreal 20 / Rockville 11)
Demonware: 52
ZeniMax Online: 45
Raven: 43
Obsidian: 36
Arkane: 31 (Austin 23 / Lyon 8)
343 Industries: 29
Mojang: 25+
id Software: 25
The Coalition: 25
Beenox: 25
High Moon: 22
Treyarch: 21
Rare: 21
Machinegames: 18
Tango Gameworks: 18 (10 on ZeniMax)
Digital Legends: 17
Turn10: 17
Undead Labs: 15
Toys for Bob: 12
inXile: 10
World's Edge: 6
The Initiative: 4
Ninja Theory: 4
Compulsion: 4
Alpha Dog: 3
Xbox Game Studios Publishing: 3
Double Fine: 1
Roundhouse: 1
Solid State: unknown (Activision website is messy)
Activision Shanghai: unknown
According to their website yes
Search results | Find available job openings at Blizzard Entertainment
Search results. Find available job openings at Blizzard Entertainment
careers.blizzard.com
But a part is probably out of date / already filled as it's often the case.
Blizzard has more than 5,000 people (not just developers). Vicarious Visions merged with them too.
I seriously don't have time to play all these new games. Of course ER will now consume my time, since I am going in pretty much fresh. Only watched the first trailer they put out and avoided all the recent beta and stream stuff.
I haven't seen people saying it will be bad, but the network test was sublime.
Exact same here. Really bad at Souls games but ER is very tempting and appealing for some reason. But have to restrain. In the middle of Forbidden West right now so ER will have to wait for a future date.
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