News Mash-Up - Week # 41

• • The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK is continuing its investigation into the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft while authorities in Brazil and Saudi Arabia have already approved it. The CMA raised concerns in a new report that the acquisition creates the potential for Microsoft to monopolize big game franchises like Call of Duty by selling them primarily on Xbox, Game Pass, and PCs. In response to the report released by the CMA, Xbox responded that the acquisition will not inhibit healthy competition due to PlayStation’s spot as the current market leader. Microsoft additionally added that if every player of COD on PlayStation decided to switch over to Xbox, there would still be a significantly larger number of PlayStation users.
    
    
  • A report released by Brazil’s Administrative Council for European Defense (CADE) revealed Xbox Game Pass’s annual revenue. Game Pass brought the company $2.9 billion during the last fiscal year, or approximately 18% of the $16.28 billion total company revenue and 30% of games and services revenue ($12.58 billion). These figures only include console subscriptions, not PC Game Pass.
    
    
  • Twitch has recently been criticized for its decision not to change the split of revenue between the platform and its streamers. Right now, Twitch and its streamers split revenue 50/50, while other platforms such as YouTube implement a 70/30 split, with streamers receiving 70% of total revenue. During TwitchCon San Diego this year, Mike Minton, chief of monetization officer of Twitch, responded saying that Twitch “did look at all possible options,” but in the end, the 70/30 split was “simply not viable for Twitch in the long term” largely due to high costs in the industry.
    
    
  • Following its release, FIFA 23 hit 10.3 million players during its first week out, breaking the record for the “biggest launch period in EA Sports FIFA franchise history.” Additionally, FIFA 23 outsold its predecessor FIFA 22 in boxed game sales slightly during the first week of release. This comes despite an overall trend in the industry of physical game sales decreasing.
    
    
  • FIFA’s first solo venture into video games following its split with EA (due to the rising cost of leasing the "FIFA name") is an “immersive experience” in collaboration with Roblox within the game known as “FIFA World.” It is meant to provide with a new way to interact with others and learn about the culture of “the world’s biggest sports competition.”
    
    
  • Following its acquisition by Embracer Group in May of this year, Square Enix Montréal, the developer of titles such as Lara Croft Go and Hitman Go, has changed its name to Studio Onoma. In a post on its website, the now Studio Onoma revealed its new logo and explained that “Onoma is Greek for name and names offer endless possibilities.”
    
    
  • Netflix has joined the TV ratings agency BARB, marking the first time in its history that its audience will be measured by an external company. Starting in November of this year, BARB will report Netflix’s viewership statistics.
    
    
  • Xbox Cloud Gaming will be coming to Meta Quest VR headsets as per an announcement by Microsoft and Meta. An exact release date has not yet been announced.
    
    
  • Nintendo has released an initial trailer for the new Super Mario Bros. movie featuring Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario. The movie is currently scheduled for release in the US in April 2023.

Week commencing Monday 09 October 2022