The Great Video Game Business and Financial (In)Stability Thread

Shadout wrote:
Stele wrote:

I just did for Zelda for the $30 discount.

What discount?

Nintendo online vouchers. 2 games for $100. So it's normally a $10 discount. But since Zelda is $70, it's $20 off.

Then I got my Nintendo online cards $50 for $40 last month at Costco. And that's the money I used to buy the vouchers. So I'm getting Zelda for $40 instead of $70, and a game to be named later for $40 instead of $60.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition approved by EU regulators

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard has been approved by EU regulators just weeks after UK regulators blocked the acquisition. The European Commission has concluded that the deal can pass thanks to commitments from Microsoft related to cloud gaming.

The EU found that Microsoft “would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision’s games to Sony” and that “even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision’s games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market.” But EU regulators, much like the UK, did find the acquisition could harm competition around the distribution of PC and console games through cloud gaming services.

The European Commission has identified remedies to allow for the deal to go ahead through 10-year licensing deals that Microsoft has offered to competitors. These include a free license to consumers in EU countries that would allow them to stream via “any cloud game streaming services of their choice” all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games that they have a license for. Cloud providers will also be offered a free license to stream these games in EU markets.

I think the UK/CMA has a problem. While they have an absolute legal right to block the deal in the UK, from a politics and legitimacy and business stability standpoint, it's really bad to be in a position where you are blocking an action between two foreign companies that every other similar organization has approved. Especially when the reasoning is kind of weird and unpersuasive to begin with. But, they also can't back down and admit that they may have gotten this wrong. That also compromises their legitimacy and makes them look weak and unprofessional.

Here's a statement on twitter, doubling down on their position: https://twitter.com/CMAgovUK/status/...

To me, this sounds oddly reactive and defensive for a major regulatory body. It feels like they got out over their skis on this thing and they know it.

It's hard to say what's going to happen, but I think there is a reasonable chance that the CMA walks this back after a few fig leaf concessions from Microsoft.

My understanding of the appeals process is that it is limited to procedural challenges, not substance of the decision. Is that correct?

And, if all other entities approve, does the deal happen? What if Vietnam (or whomever) says no? Does the new MSFT-ACTIZZ just not sell in that locale?

People Make Games did a documentary on the Disco Elysium - ZA/UM debacle and controversy.

Inside the making of Redfall, Xbox's latest misfire

Arkane was also perpetually understaffed, said people familiar with its production. The studio’s Austin office employed less than 100 people— sufficient for a relatively small, single-player game like Prey but not enough to compete with multiplayer behemoths like Fortnite and Destiny, which are developed by teams of hundreds. Even additional support from ZeniMax’s Wisconsin-based Roundhouse Studios and other outsourcing houses couldn’t fill the gaps, they say.

Morale at Arkane suffered. Veteran workers who weren’t interested in developing a multiplayer game left in droves. By the end of Redfall’s development, roughly 70 per cent of the Austin staff who had worked on Prey would no longer be at the company, according to people familiar as well as a Bloomberg analysis of LinkedIn and Prey’s credits.

Filling vacancies became a challenge. Within the industry, ZeniMax had a reputation for paying lower than average salaries, and convincing some progressive or moderate video game developers to move to Texas could be difficult due to the state’s conservative social policies. Since Redfall wasn’t yet announced, the studio couldn’t describe its details to prospective employees — a predicament that exacerbated the staffing issues, sources familiar with the process said. Arkane wanted to hire recruits with experience on multiplayer shooters, but the people who applied were by and large looking to work on single-player immersive sims.

I hope they can recover from this and get back to immersive sims, but...

A bit of conspiratorial thinking here, but I wonder if it is a "give them enough rope to hang themselves" situation.

Bethesda was brought in the promise that it would be given a huge amount of independence. Allowing them the independence to have a massive and unnecessary failure then provides the justification for greater levels of control by Microsoft and for cutting Bethesda's redundant business and management layers.

Naah. Too much 5 dimensional chess. But, the end result will be the same, with Microsoft corporate feeling like they've got to gain greater control and accountability over Bethesda's operations.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/prelimi...

The question is though is it too little to late.. my understanding was the deal had to get approved by the end of July 2023 and thats just a few weeks away.

July 18.

MSFT and ATVI can always agree to an extension -- say X months extension for an additional $500M or $1B added to the kill fee. If the deal closes successfully, no harm...no foul.

CMA is desperate to get an additional pound of flesh from MSFT so they can claim victory...if they are still out in the wind after MSFT closes on the deal, the CMA will get absolutely pounded in the UK press...their last moment to get an additional concession from MSFT is now...they have about a week.

In good news...

Sega workers form largest multi-department video game union in the US

The Verge wrote:

Workers at Sega of America, representing multiple departments, have voted to form a union. With 91 employees voting yes out of a total number of 212 eligible employees, the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (also known as AEGIS-CWA) becomes the fifth video game union in the United States and its largest multi-department video game union.

“We are overjoyed to celebrate our union election win as members of AEGIS-CWA,” Ángel Gómez, a translator for Sega, said in a press release announcing the news. “Now, through our union, we’ll be able to protect the parts of our jobs we love, and strengthen the benefits, pay, and job stability available to all workers.”

The AEGIS union drive was announced in April but was a year in the works for the employees at Sega of America’s Burbank and Irvine, California, offices.

AEGIS-CWA is the US’s fifth video game union overall, joining groups at Raven Software, Blizzard Albany, ZeniMax, and VR / AR game developer Tender Claws. In addition to being among the first video game unions in the country, AEGIS-CWA will also represent workers across a multitude of departments including brand marketing, games as a service, localization, marketing services, product development operations, product development, sales, quality assurance teams, and more. With so many participating departments, AEGIS-CWA has become the largest multi-discipline video game union in the United States.

AEGIS-CWA is unique in that it represents worker interests across a broad range of disciplines. All of the video game unions in the US so far have been contained within QA, a department with a reputation across the industry of underpaying and overworking its workers. There’s hope, then, that AEGIS-CWA and Tender Claws Human Union (the first multi-department video game union that was established in July 2022) will lead to more inter-departmental unionization efforts the way Raven Software formally kicked off union drives at Activision Blizzard.

The Verge has reached out to Sega for comment.

Update July 10th, 3:18PM ET: Added comment from AEGIS-CWA member.

I love that they were able to create a general game workers union rather than just QA. QA maybe is the most in need of one, but there's (for one thing) safety in crossing disciplines.

Well done!

Huh. With the (presumed) acquisition, I figured they'd move everything over to the Xbox app. Wasn't expecting this.

merphle wrote:

Huh. With the (presumed) acquisition, I figured they'd move everything over to the Xbox app. Wasn't expecting this.

Wouldn't be surprised if it's part of their strategy to appeal to the British regulatory board that pushed back against the acquisition. Show they're not keeping everything in their own world.

Aren't most MS games on Steam?

billt721 wrote:

Aren't most MS games on Steam?

Most of the Microsoft Game Studios games are, I think the main thing here is the Blizzard titles that had been kept to the Battle.net launcher for ages.

ActiBlizz screwed me out of Destiny 2 when I bought it on Acti's launcher near its launch. At some point it transferred off that and for no good reason there was a limited window in which I could have transferred the license to Steam.

Watch for news about any kind of limited license transfer window to make sure you do it and dont just lose all your content/progress.

That is if this isnt just a stunt/fakeout. The article only confirms Overwatch2 and could easily just be a trial to try and reinvigorate that game.

This is a path they intend on going... they brought CoD back to Steam last year. So not a huge surprise to be honest. Their new survival game would be my next guess if it actually launches, and maybe the older diablos.

A bit of sad news to me. I loved the game.

Saw this on several news sites today.
Ubisoft Reportedly Cancelled 'Immortals Fenyx Rising' Sequel Earlier This Month

Aww. I was entirely uninterested in the original game until I started playing it, and then I just couldn't stop playing it.

Yeah I got maybe 2/3 of the trophies and played the hell out of Fenyx. So fun.

Was surprised how much I enjoyed Fenyx. Gave me a bunch of ways to move around an open world and really liked the different ways it let me approach things. Then it did the thing I hate most; it took all the fun stuff away, and made me slog through that late frozen level where you had to walk a set path and do stuff in order or you'd freeze to death. Really enjoyed it until then, but, man, I hate it when game designers think they're being clever by pulling the rug out and suddenly making you basically play a new game.

Bioware is still a thing?
What are they going to do with the other 20 employees?

Make Dragon Age a text adventure?

With the Frostbite engine? Sounds about right...

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Make Dragon Age a text adventure?

Finally there'd be a second Dragon Age game worth playing.

I would much rather play a text adventure set in that world than whatever GaaS bullsh*t EA is gonna put out.

Volition shut down after thirty years of operation because even the Saudis don't want to do business with Embracer.