Industry News / Upcoming Games

[Antimatter]

And another round of layoffs at XBOX:

• 268 roles are being terminated
• Halo is now under Activision
• Halo Studios is moving to a support studio role
• Rare (Sea of Thieves) is now under Activision
• Same with World’s Edge, the studio behind the Age of Empires franchise
• Obsidian is now under Bethesda/ZeniMax
• Playground and Turn 10 are merging into one studio to work on Forza and Fable
• Ninja Theory is closing
• Arkane's status is TBD

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-layoffs-update-ninja-theory-acquisitions-fall-through-halo-to-be-given-to-activision-obsidian-joins-bethesda-and-more

 

[O_Bruce]

Obsidian is now under Bethesda/ZeniMax

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

A new ad-related patent has been published by Microsoft earlier this month, called ‘Contextually Aware Management of Interactive Software Application Access’.

Well, that’s just awful. Going back to that discussion here about voting with our wallets. It’s time to stop putting up with this crap.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

Well, that’s just awful. Going back to that discussion here about voting with our wallets. It’s time to stop putting up with this crap.

I just hope game-client based PC gaming platforms like Steam, GoG, and even platforms like Battle.net (Blizzard) don't follow suit. Theoretically, there's nothing stopping them from using a similar ad-insertion technology on games being played on their platforms, which can even be old games that originally were sold on physical discs.

I guess at least with GoG, you could maybe avoid it by using offline installers and not using GoG Galaxy.

I'm really in sympathy with the Generation Z trend of going back to physical media for entertainment. That old business model of "purchase a product, you privately own the product" needs to come back before we lose all privacy and personal autonomy.

 

[JustKneller]

I guess at least with GoG, you could maybe avoid it by using offline installers and not using GoG Galaxy.

This is why I pretty much entirely switched to GoG. I even wishlisted some games I already have on Steam so I can have DRM-free installers on case things take a really bad turn.

 

[JustKneller]

• Obsidian is now under Bethesda/ZeniMax

Holy hell! I just noticed this. Obsidian is under Bethesda? There goes the neighborhood.