Microsoft Would Buy Valve ‘If Opportunity Arises’

Disney has long had a toe in the world of gaming, first through numerous adaptations of their classic cartoon franchises, and later through a wide slate of Marvel and Star Wars titles, but they’ve never really gone all in on in-house game development and publishing. Instead, they’ve mainly focused on licensing their lucrative properties to outside developers, with mixed success. For every Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga there’s a Marvel’s Avengers.

Amid the litany of awesome Prime Day gaming deals out there are some truly brilliant PS5 games. From Elden Ring to Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, some of the biggest games on the flagship Sony console are going for record prices or very, very close to them. There are a few that I know I'd be buying if they weren't already in my collection, though. 

It would seem Microsoft’s long, uphill battle to acquire Activision Blizzard could be nearing its end. The Verge reports via an unnamed source that the deal could be closed by the end of next week, though they mentioned that is still tentative, as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority could still threaten the successful closure of Microsoft’s long-sought deal.

Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard might be coming to a particularly spooky conclusion. Sources close to the deal have told The Verge that the long, knock-down drag-out process might conclude on Friday October 13.

If you don't yet have a Valve Steam Deck to call your own, now might not be the time to consider fixing that by treating yourself to a new handheld gaming system. Because if you do, it might turn out that you bought the old model pretty soon.

Microsoft boss Phil Spencer thought about pulling support for Fallout 76 back when the platform holder acquired developer Bethesda as part of the larger purchase of parent company ZeniMax. In a revealing email, Spencer suggested that if the game couldn't manage 10 million monthly average users (a number it would ultimately surpass), a decision should be made to «move on from it».

AI Roundup: Infosys has partnered with Microsoft to jointly develop AI solutions, using services such as Infosys Topaz and Microsoft Azure. On the other hand, French billionaire Xavier Niel will invest $212 million in AI, to retain French talent within the country. The funds will be split between a Paris-based research lab, startups, and Nvidia-powered cloud supercomputing. AppyHigh has launched an AI-powered app bundle, including an AI image generator, photo editor, chat assistant, avatar maker, and VPN & Camera Scanner.

The success of Baldur’s Gate 3 came as a surprise to many people. This includes developer Larian Studios, with concurrent player counts surpassing 800,000 players on Steam. It also seemed to surprise another big name in the industry, Microsoft.

GameStop is currently having a massive clearance sale on a lot of its inventory. Besides the regular discount, customers can also avail of a Buy 3 Get One Free offer on a wide variety of products. All you need to do is add any three eligible products into your cart, and the two cheaper items will be available for free.

When Yakuza: Like a Dragon released in 2020, there was an odd situation where the PS5 version released four months after the Xbox Series X/S version, with no explanations given.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer considered buying Nintendo at one point, a leaked 2020 email revealed. Multiple documents from Microsoft's trial with the US FTC were leaked Tuesday, with one showing a casual discussion about buying the Mario maker, where Spencer called it a “career moment” and implied that a collaboration would be a ‘good move' for either company. It's worth highlighting that this conversation happened in August 2020, before Microsoft acquired Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion (about Rs. 62,431 crore). The leaks also disclosed Bethesda's release schedule, alongside details for Microsoft's planned mid-generation console refresh.

Microsoft is planning a mid-gen refresh for its Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, eyeing a release in 2024. A series of leaked court documents from the Microsoft vs. US FTC trial revealed a roadmap and concept images for its upcoming set of gaming systems, which also includes a new controller with gyro and haptic feedback. Codenamed ‘Brooklin,' the all-digital Xbox Series X boasts the same horsepower as the existing version, albeit lacking a disc drive. The console is cylindrically shaped and comes with a generous 2TB storage — up from 1TB — which I'm guessing is an SSD. It'll bear the same price tag of $499/ Rs. 54,990 and is slated to drop in late October, next year.