Creal shows breakthrough in light field AR glasses that focus your eyes better

In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft today finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King after 21 months of prep work and grappling with regulatory bodies. The $69 billion deal sees several of gaming’s most lucrative franchises come under the Microsoft/Xbox umbrella, including Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, etc. However, this begs the question: Now that the whole rigmarole of acquisition is done, what happens for Activision Blizzard now?

In the span of just four films (along with a few graphic novels and an underrated Netflix cartoon about King Kong), the “Monsterverse” has evolved quite a bit. What began as a pseudo-Spielbergian attempt at finally making a competent American Godzilla film quickly morphed into a more studio-driven extended universe. As such, the 2014 Godzilla stands in stark contrast against all that came after it; its atmospheric restraint was quickly replaced by a “dumping all the action figures out of the toy box” approach in later sequels.

Game Taco has officially changed its name to WorldWinner, signifying its focus on its biggest brand for publishing games for the skill-based games category.

Get ready for some frontlines action for something besides Call of Duty. Novarama is showing off multiplayer for its United 1944 first-person shooter game.

A chill breeze, a red leaf on a tree, the distant sound of “Spooky, Scary Skeletons” playing — October has officially arrived. And while my non-gamer, civilian self revels in the sudden appearance of pumpkins, fall foliage and literal spooky, scary skeletons … my gamer self is battening down the hatches. Because the most crowded, games-heavy month of the year is finally upon us. You thought you had no time for games before? You really don’t have time for October’s release slate.

Netflix revealed at a recent showcase that it’s working on several new animated shows based on video games. These include the reveal of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft and a show based on the Devil May Cry series, as well as updates on Castlevania: Nocturne and Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. Now that the entertainment industry has several proofs-of-concept that games make good shows — the first Castlevania series, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, etc — it appears Netflix is all-in on making games into anime.

Activision showed off multiplayer gameplay for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, the new premium combat game coming on November 10.

Landing gear is usually found on planes or Mars rovers. But now you can get it on a TV. 

Regular readers will know, perhaps rather unusually, I love trains. I’ve been covering Train Sim World in intimate detail for years now, much to developer Dovetail’s pleasure. (I will get around to reviewing Train Sim World 4 by the way, it’s just the schedule’s been brutal for me this past month. Also, maybe the studio would like to slow down just a touch with the sequels and expansions so I can catch up?)

For the last two weeks, it feels like at least 40-50% of the news I’ve heard about is about people in the games industry either being laid off or leaving their companies for whatever reason. On the retirement or job-shifting side, we’ve got Jim Ryan of PlayStation, Donald Mustard of Epic, Glen Schofield of Striking Distance, and Hideki Kamiya of Platinum Games. On the layoff side, we’ve seen the “restructuring” of Embracer Group, the losses at Crystal Dynamics and, most recently, the massive layoffs at Epic Games.

The FTC has brought back their in-house case against the Microsoft – Activision merger deal. Their decision to do so, however, doesn’t seem to have a reasonable endgame.

Qualcomm has launched two new chip platforms for Meta’s Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset and its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses.