Category: Video Games

Despite Buying Activision Blizzard for $69 Billion Just Last Year, Microsoft Is Still Looking at Even More Video Game Acquisitions

Microsoft is still in the market for acquisitions despite having splashed out $69 billion for Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard just last year.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer said he’s up for buying more companies, although cautioned that nothing’s “imminent” and big deals are off the table for now.

So, if Microsoft does open its wallet once again, what might it spend its billions on? Deals that add “geographic diversity,” including in Asia, might be worthwhile, Spencer said.

Apparently Microsoft’s eyeing up buying another mobile company (Microsoft picked up Candy Crush maker King as part of the Activision Blizzard acquisition).

“We definitely want to be in the market, and when we can find teams and technology and capability that add to what we’re trying to do in gaming at Microsoft, absolutely we will keep our heads up,” Spencer said.

Microsoft is still busy absorbing Activision Blizzard employees, Spencer added, which is why very large deals are probably impossible right now. But that leaves the door open for major acquisitions in the future.

Spencer and co. will probably find future acquisitions easier to get over the line after Donald Trump becomes U.S. president in January. Microsoft faced a tough battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the Activision Blizzard deal — a battle it ultimately won. Wall Street is said to be foaming at the mouth with all the possible mergers and acquisitions that may now go through with Trump as president.

The focus, it seems, is fleshing out its mobile offering ahead of launching an app store of its own. But Microsoft’s App Store and Google Play rival has suffered a number of delays, with staff still trying to figure out a plan. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft still doesn’t have an effective way to get its own store on mobile phones, delaying the launch further.

Microsoft’s gaming aquisition ambitions continue despite cutting an eye-watering 2,550 staff just this year alone, with Xbox mobile game development teams recently hit hard.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Microsoft Confirms Plans to Release an Xbox Handheld, but It’s Years Away

Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer has confirmed the company’s plan to release an Xbox handheld, but stressed it’s years away from release.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Spencer said the “expectation is that we would do something” in the handheld game devices category, but such a device is a few years out.

Microsoft, Spencer said, is currently working on prototypes and considering what it might do, with its team developing its vision for a handheld based on what it learns from looking at the market.

Spencer has made no secret of his desire to enter the handheld console market with Xbox hardware, and practically confirmed the plan to IGN back in June following the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase.

“The future for us in hardware is pretty awesome,” Spencer said at the time. “The work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I’m incredibly excited about.

“Today was about the games… but we will have a time to come out and talk more about platform, and we can’t wait to bring it to you.”

When asked if a hypothetical Xbox handheld would be a dedicated gaming platform where you can play games locally (like a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch), or a cloud-based handheld, Spencer responded: “I think being able to play games locally is really important.”

In an interview with Polygon in March, Spencer listed various features that would make a handheld console “feel like an Xbox,” including having access to all your games with associated save files: “What should we build that will find new players?” he said at the time. “That will allow people to play at times when they couldn’t go play [in the past]?”

Rumors were fueled by the trove of leaked Microsoft documents last fall, which revealed plans for an Xbox handheld. Spencer, however, would later come out to say those plans were outdated.

Xbox had hinted at new hardware in the near-ish future, with Microsoft announcing a multi-year roadmap in February that includes a next-generation Xbox console.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Final Stalker 2 PC System Requirements Confirmed — and You’ll Need 160GB SSD Storage

Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World has confirmed the game’s final PC system requirements ahead of its release date of November 20, 2024.

“Examine the final system requirements carefully, and adjust your machinery for a trouble-free connection to the Noosphere,” GSC tweeted.

GSC provides four graphics presets here: low; medium; high; and epic, as well as a target resolution and FPS for each. The high graphics preset is what GSC calls recommended, and provides 60fps gameplay at 1440p.

For that high graphics preset, you’ll need a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 4070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU and 32GB of RAM. Low and medium require 16GB of RAM and less powerful GPUs.

All graphics presets, however, require 160GB of SSD storage, which is a significant footprint worth bearing in mind if you’re planning on playing.

Meanwhile, GSC confirmed Stalker 2 will feature upscaling options for DLSS and FSR. Specifically, Stalker 2 launches with DLSS 3 and Reflex, which means GeForce RTX 40 Series gamers can activate DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and Super Resolution from day-one, accelerating performance.

Stalker 2 PC system requirements:

Low (1080p / 30fps):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / Intel Arc A750
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Storage: 160GB SSD

Medium (1080p / 60 fps):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super / RTX 4060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Storage: 160GB SSD

High (1440p / 60 fps):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-11700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 4070 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
  • RAM: 32GB
  • Storage: 160GB SSD

Epic (4K / 60+ fps):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7-13700KF / AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 / AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • RAM: 32GB
  • Storage: 160GB SSD

Stalker 2 has suffered a number of understandable delays, most recently in July when the game was due out in September. Ukrainian studio GSC said at the time that the extra two months would give the developers the chance to fix “unexpected anomalies”, aka bugs.

GSC has been vocal about the challenges the studio has faced getting the post-apocalyptic PC and Xbox Series X and S shooter up to scratch after a mixed reaction to its debut public showing last year.

At gamescom 2023, GSC addressed what some had called a “downgrade” sparked by Stalker 2’s then latest gameplay trailer. At the time, GSC told IGN it was still targeting a visual quality and level of polish suggested by Stalker 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer despite the horrendous conditions suffered by the staff amid the war with Russia.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Random: Don’t Let Pets Wii On Your Switch, Warns Nintendo

Urine trouble now.

Even though the Switch is nearing the end of its lifespan, Nintendo is still offering up some valuable nuggets of advice for both new and current owners. After all, we want these devices to last as long as possible, right?

In a social media post, the company’s customer service branch has warned users to be mindful of where they leave their Switch consoles and accessories when in the presence of any pets. It states that pet saliva and urine can cause systems to malfunction due to excess water exposure. Duh.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Lego Horizon Adventures Recasts Late Lance Reddick With Star Trek Actor Tim Russ

Star Trek actor Tim Russ plays Sylens in Lego Horizon Adventures, IGN can confirm.

Russ, who famously plays Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager, assumes the role of Sylens after Horizon developer Guerrilla Games recast the character following the death of Lance Reddick in March 2023.

Sylens is the deuteragonist of Horizon Zero Dawn and a returning character in its sequel. He allies with protagonist Aloy to discover the truth behind the machines and the fate of the Old Ones. IGN’s Lego Horizons Adventures review returned a 7/10. We said: “Lego Horizon Adventures reimagines Horizon Zero Dawn with a playful Lego twist, simplifying the story while keeping the heart of its key moments and characters.”

Russ played Jetakka in 2022’s Horizon Forbidden West, so has a history with Guerrilla’s action adventure series.

Last month, Guerrilla Games’ senior world artist Lucas Bolt told IGN: “Lance Reddick tragically passed away in 2023, and he is deeply missed within Guerrilla and our community.

“He wonderfully portrayed the essential character of Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. The character of Sylens does appear in LEGO Horizon Adventures, and we will introduce the new actor at a later date. Hearing the voices of other original actors including Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl and John Hopkins as Erend has really brought back the tone of comradery found in the original game.”

Recasting perhaps suggests Russ will play Sylens in future Horizon games, though nothing has been confirmed on this front yet. Guerrilla is working on a live service Horizon Online multiplayer game, with Horizon 3 potentially a ways off. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered came out at the end of October.

Reddick, who was also known for his roles in John Wick, Destiny, and The Wire, passed away suddenly from natural causes on March 17. The entertainment and video game industries paid tribute to the actor following his death, with many major names coming forward to share their love.

Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sultan’s Game is a dark, fascinating, and irrepressibly horny oddity

I predict I likely won’t have fully gotten to grips with the strategy of Sultan’s Game for several more hours, but since I’m considering investing that time – after a morning spent card shuffling and deciding whomst to bone and whomst to murder in its Steam demo – I’m compelled to spotlight it. It’s deeply imperfect and willfully obtuse, but also absolutely fascinating. I’ll ground you with a slightly wonky and dull allusion to Cultist Simulator, then guide you through in more or less the order I experienced it. As we progress, you may feel steadily more disorientated. It’ll be like a brewery tour I’ve somehow inherited control of by murder-boning the previous owners. Onward!

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Stellar Blade Is Coming to PC in 2025 — and the Dev Expects More Sales on Steam Than on PS5

Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has confirmed plans to release the PS5 action game on PC in 2025.

In a financial report, the South Korean company pointed to Black Myth: Wukong’s incredible success on Steam, adding it expects to see more sales on PC than on PS5.

The Sony Interactive Entertainment-published Stellar Blade launched exclusively on PS5 in April and sold more than one million copies in two months. IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.”

Since then, Shift Up has continued to update the game and even added crossover DLC with other video game franchises, most recently Nier: Automata.

In its financial report, Shift Up said that after Stellar Blade’s launch “sales continued at a stabilized level,” although it failed to provide an updated sales figure. It did, however, provide revenue directly attributed to the game: 25.8 billion won (approx $18.5 million) during the quarter Stellar Blade came out (April to June), and 22.5 billion won (approx $16.1 million) during the company’s third quarter (July to September). That’s a total of 48.4 billion won (approx $34.6 million) as of the end of September.

For context, Shift Up’s other game, mobile action RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikke, makes more money than Stellar Blade (approx $51.9 million during the same two quarters).

“To enhance the IP value and maintain momentum, we have been consistently releasing content patches and updates, which has helped sustain the game’s popularity,” it said.

Shift Up plans to keep interest in Stellar Blade on PS5 going until the game launches on PC next year, what it calls the “platform expansion.”

“The release is being considered within 2025,” Shift Up confirmed. “Considering recent trends such as Steam’s expanding market share in the AAA game sector and the global success of Black Myth: Wukong, we expect the performance on PC to exceed that on consoles.”

In July, Shift Up raised 435 billion won ($320 million) in its first day of trade after an initial public offering. According to Bloomberg, that was the largest in the country for a gaming company since 2021, when PUBG maker Krafton Inc. raised $3.8 billion from its own IPO.

Shift Up has an unannounced multiplatform RPF codenamed Project witches in the works. It said it plans to launch it at some point after 2027, with more information due in the first half of next year. Given the success of Stellar Blade, it seems likely Shift Up is also considering a sequel.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Here’s the updated system requirements for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and it looks like a big’un

A stupid inside joke I had with a housemate once was asking each other if we were “born in Chornobyl?” as a play on “were you born in a barn?” whenever either of us left the lights on before leaving the flat. This doesn’t make too much sense now I think about it, but such things rarely do. A more accurate jab, in hindsight, might have been “you been running S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at full specs or something?”, because based on the upcoming FPS’s new system requirements, you’re going to need a reasonably laissez-faire attitude to literally any other concern in your life that doesn’t involve acquiring a notably juice-guzzling rig.

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