Microsoft finally sees the end of the tunnel for the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard! Business news of the week

news business Microsoft finally sees the end of the tunnel for the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard! Business news of the week

Will the Xbox Games Studios logo be applied to Activision Blizzard King games soon?

18 months. It’s been so long since the acquisition agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Kinget for around 69 billion US dollars was announced today. A lot has happened between January 2022 and today, and we will not repeat the whole story. However, We are very seriously approaching the end of the operation, which is obviously developing very positively for Microsoft. First we learned that the court had done so exonerated the Redmond company against the FTC. The court ruled that the concerns raised were insufficient to block the acquisition and that Microsoft could therefore proceed with the acquisition. Very fast, The CMA cleared the way for an agreement by August 28Then The FTC appealed.

The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which hears appeals from the 15 Circuit Courts, dismissed the FTC’s case and refused to extend the duration of the injunction Blocking the takeover. In other words, the injunction is no longer in force Microsoft is free to take over Activision Blizzard King in all jurisdictions where redemption is permitted, but The call itself was not canceled. The final redemption date that corresponds the expiry of the signed agreement between the client and the publisher, is still set for July 18th It is up to Microsoft to reach an agreement with the CMA. However, it is very likely that the acquisition will happen quickly if possible, and then Microsoft will negotiate with the UK regulator. We saw it this week that Activision Blizzard would exit NASDAQwhich shows an acceleration of the process.

As for the UK, it is possible that the deal will come about on the basis of the idea resell the cloud management and cloud edition to a third party, according to Cassim Ketfi, journalist for Frandroid. So much for the unfolding scenario. However, it’s not quite over yet. There is two procedures that can block the takeover or make it necessary to reverse itbut it is now unlikely to succeed, although one should never say never. It is also possible that Microsoft and Activision decide to extend the deadline at the end of the long vacation to put everything in order, according to our colleague. It only remains to wait a few days to see how it goes. In any case, everything indicates that the takeover will actually take place. At the time of writing, the acquisition is not yet official.

Sony invests heavily in research and development for its video game division

As Microsoft writes the final chapter of a long book, Sony continues its work and according to a recent report published by Nikkei The company will invest $2.1 billion in research and development intended for video games by the end of fiscal year 2024. A huge sum that would mean 40% of the group costs in its entirety. Behind these investments we would find the desire to assert oneself on the gaming services.

While Sony is a hit with its solo games, they don’t generate long-term revenue, and both the company and its shareholders want productions that can provide that kind of cash flow. THE Bungie acquisition, billed for $3.7 billionwas a first step in this direction, but it is not enough.

According to Nikkei Sony plans to allocate 60% of development resources to live service PS5 projects and thus catch up in this area by the end of the 2025-2026 financial year. It is about twelve stakes in different sizes that can fill this gap in the catalogue. Finally, the report says that Sony wants to invest in the concrete metaverse through “augmented reality”. At the moment it is difficult to know exactly what that means.

A Genshin Impact voice actor complains about late payments

Brandon Wincklerwhose voice can be found in the English version of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Monster Hunter Rise or Honkai: Star Rail took to Twitter to complain about a significant delay in payment following his work on Genshin Impact, HoYoverse’s open-world free-to-play game. He would have waited several months for his payment and sent it Five emails that would have gone unanswered. Suffice it to say that the situation upsets him particularly as it highlights the precariousness of the environment:

Pay your damn actors on time. I’m so sick of waiting over three months to get paid for the BIGGEST video game project of all time. (…) After a fifth unanswered email it says Genshin Impact. It’s unacceptable for us as actors to wait more than four months to get paid when you’re making $86 million a month. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon problem. It’s really hard to justify working on something when you can’t afford the food. A lot of non-union productions have this problem, I’ve waited between 4 and 8 months for payment (…) 1000 here, 500 there and it adds up quickly.

He adds :

I can only speak for myself but I do budget months in advance and try to take that into account and not be a nuisance. Since I love gaming, I love working on the games/shows that these studios are working on. A game like this should definitely be a union production. I will no longer work on this game unless it is under contract to Union. I don’t have much to lose by making that decision – and if I’m lucky, I hope others will at least see where I’m coming from with that decision. I’m sorry to be so negative. PFOAH.

For its part, HoYoverse brings the ball back to the dubbing studio, which is responsible a priori for the payment of the amounts that the actors earn with the various services. In a brief statement, a representative said:

As for the payment to the language studio in this case, HoYoverse has always paid on time and we have reported this issue to the relevant studio.

Briefly in the business news of the week

• Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, has announced his departure from Xbox after a 20 year career. He was one of the faces of the brand and was present at every major event.
• Evan Wells, Co-President of Naughty DogHe also announced that retire from office at the end of the year after 25 years in the studio. Neil Druckmann will therefore take over the management of Naughty Dog alone, but will be supported in large parts by a renewed management team.
• The PlayStation Access Controllersa controller for people with disabilities, will be published on December 6 at a price of $89.99
• Media Molecule is now offering Dreams users the opportunity to market their creations outside the game
• Paris Games Week, which modestly returned to face-to-face events last year, will continue as before in three halls from November 1st to 5th, 2023.
• The African video game market continues to grow through generation $863 million for 2022 (+8.7%). Nigeria and South Africa dominate a market where Mobile is king. 90% of revenue generated comes from mobile games. By 2024, the billion mark should be exceeded.
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom still dominates the physical retail market in France by value. In the 26th week of the year (June 26 – July 2), it dominates Final Fantasy XVI, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, God of War: Ragnarok (PS5) and Diablo IV (PS5).
• People Can Fly (Outriders, Gears of War) has announced the opening of a studio in Montreal. The studio will be working on it, led by Roland Lesterlin a triple-A game still unannounced.
• A Destiny 2 player has been ordered to pay Bungie nearly $500,000 in damages after he harassed a community manager with racist messages in 2022. A lawsuit was filed as soon as a studio attorney was able to identify the repeat attacks.