The Final Stretch
The Final Stretch
E133: Microsoft has officially defeated the FTC in court.
Good morning gamers! After a long winded battle, Microsoft has officially defended their Activision Blizzard King acquisition in court against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Judge Corley decisively rejected the FTC's preliminary injunction, subsequently denied their appeal, and ultimately, the 9th Circuit Court denied the FTC's third appeal. Judge Corley, in her initial ruling, said
“After considering the parties' voluminous pre-and-post hearing, writing submissions, and having held a five-day evidentiary hearing, the Court DENIES the motion for preliminary injunction. The FTC has not shown it is likely to succeed on its assertion the combined firm will probably pull Call of Duty from Sony PlayStation, or that its ownership of Activision content will substantially lessen competition in the video game library subscription and cloud gaming markets”.
Following the court's decision granting Microsoft clearance to close the Activision Blizzard King acquisition ahead of the July 18 deadline, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that they’re "open to working with Microsoft'' to find a solution behind-the-scenes. Both parties have jointly agreed to pause litigation and have reportedly started to work out some sort of remedy, likely a divestiture of cloud gaming in the UK. A case management conference is scheduled for July 17 but it remains unclear if Microsoft will close the deal over the CMA or if they will wait for an agreement to be reached.
Xbox Head Phil Spencer said,
“We're grateful to the court for swiftly deciding in our favor. The evidence showed the Activision Blizzard deal is good for the industry and the FTC’s claims about console switching, multi-game subscription services, and cloud don’t reflect the realities of the gaming market”.
Update: Microsoft and Sony have officially signed a legally binding 10-year agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. The terms of the deal have not yet been revealed.
The Last of Us
It was an exciting week for Naughty Dog, particularly for The Last of Us franchise as a whole. The franchise's live-action tv-series received 24 Emmy TV award nominations, including for outstanding drama series, lead actor in a drama series (Pedro Pascal), lead actress in a drama series (Bella Ramsey) and more.
HBO’s The Last of Us will have at least two more seasons according to showrunner Craig Mazin. Mazin said that “the show will not end with Season 2 unless people don’t watch it and we’ll get canceled”. The first episode of Season 2 was written prior to the writer's strikes and the show is expected to return in 2025.
Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells announced that he is retiring later this year after 25 years at the company. Wells expressed that he is proud of the team and that he has the utmost confidence in the leadership of President Neil Druckmann.
The composer for The Last of Us Part I has hinted at the release of a director’s cut or remake for The Last of Us Part II. Gustavo Santaolalla has his own character in the game that plays the banjo, but players cannot interact with him. According to Santaolalla, players will now be able to request songs from his character in the new version of the game.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to DarkZero for winning the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs, to Vampire Esports for winning the PUBG Mobile World Invitational, to Team BDS for winning Gamers8 Rainbow 6 and to Team Brazil for winning the FIFAe Nations Cup.
The world's biggest fighting game tournament, the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) 2023 is set to host a record-breaking 9,182 unique players at their upcoming event in Las Vegas, Nevada. EVO 2023 features 8 major fighting games but more than 7,000 participants will compete in Street Fighter 6. Additionally, at least 50% of players that are competing in other games are also competing in SF6.
The Olympic Council of Asia announced that esports will remain an official medalled sport for the 2026 Asian Games. This years Asian Games, taking place in Hangzhou, China features 8 major titles as part of their esports program including EA Sports FC, League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Data 2, Hearthstone, Street Fighter V, PUBG Mobile and Dream of the Three Kingdoms 2
EDward Gaming, Bilibili Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix have qualified for the VCT Champions 2023 by finishing as the top-3 teams at the VCT China Qualifier. Additionally, Gentle Mates have secured promotion to the 2024 and 2025 VCT Challengers League (joining The Guard from NA and Bleed Esports from the PACIFIC).
Gaming Roundup
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is reportedly getting a remake in 2024 according to the original game’s voice actor Simone Bailly.
The Horizon series has several plans in development that will keep them around for a while says Guerrilla Games studio director Jan-Bart van Beek.
Black Panther from EA’s Cliffhanger Games is confirmed to be in early development. It’s a single-player action-RPG with an original story.
Fable’s narrative lead Anna Megill announced that she will be leaving the team in August and that the game remains in good hands.
Grand Theft Auto VI leaker responsible for releasing several clips was deemed not fit to stand trial after being assessed by psychiatrists.
Antstream Arcade, a cloud based gaming service with over 1,300 games is coming to Xbox. The service will allow you to play select PS1 and Nintendo games.
Starfield and Indiana Jones were forecasted to sell 10 million units on the PS5 according to Xbox CFO Tim Stuart (during his Microsoft v. FTC court testimony).
Sony is reportedly planning to spend $2.13 Billion in gaming research and development before March 2024, which is 40% of their R&D budget.
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