News Mash-Up - Week # 49

• • The game developer Maze Theory has merged with tech company Pluto Digital to form Emergent Entertainment PLC. The value of the company is estimated at more than $65 million and it is currently laying the foundation for a new future IPO event.
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  • Sony has released a 300£ collection of motion tracking tools known as Mocopi that will work together to allow their users to control the movements of an anime-style avatar. Users will be able to add this avatar to locations in the real world and use the avatars with background images found in the app. This collection includes six sensors for the user to wear around his or her head, waist, wrists, and ankles.
    
    
  • On November 29, PlayStation Tournaments for PS5 officially launched. This is an updated iteration of the feature that was first seen on PS4 when it was added in 2016 for players to play in competitions against each other to win prizes. With the debut of Tournaments on PS5, Sony launched official tournaments in FIFA 23, NBA 2K23, and Guilty Gear.
    
    
  • After Pokémon Scarlet and Violet received a fair amount of criticism for its buggy performance, Nintendo has released an apology. The game has not yet received a major update, but on December 1, Nintendo did release an update 1.1.0, which fixed several bugs present and added some new features, such as Season 1 of Ranked Battles. There is another update, 1.0.1, scheduled for release on November 10.
    
    
  • Nintendo and Illumination have announced that the Super Mario Bros Movie will be released in March 2023. Release dates vary, with the first being Belgium on March 22, 2023.
    
    
  • Andrew Wilkie, the Australian MP, has proposed legislation concerning loot boxes which would give any game containing loot boxes a rating of R18+ or see the games refused a rating in general. Additionally, games containing loot boxes would need to contain a warning for parents.
    
    
  • A recent report published by Newcastle and Loughborough Universities stated that loot boxes cause “financial and emotional harm” to children and recommended that they only be sold to people over the age of 18. The report showed that children have trouble tracking financial spending and exhibit “patterns of compulsive spending” in games where digital items that are “highly alluring” are advertised using strategies common in gambling.
    
    
  • In the ongoing investigation into the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to make some formal concessions to the EU regulators who are currently investigating its Activision Blizzard acquisition. One of these concessions will reportedly be the guarantee that Call of Duty will be available on PlayStation during the next ten years.
    
    
  • This month, a resolution requesting increased investment into the EU’s gaming industry was approved by members of the EU Parliament. The resolution is the result of ten months of work. ISFE has emphasized that this is a big deal – it includes the acknowledging of the economic power of the video game industry, the value of European IP, and gives more support to small studios and makes access to talent and digital skills easier. Additionally, it recognizes esports as its own industry, separate from regular sports with its own requirements and needs. Resolutions, however, do not guarantee legislation. This resolution is essentially a “non-binding text” that requests further action and investigation to be taken into an issue.
    
    
    

Week commencing Monday 28 November 2022