Category: Video Games

Microsoft’s actions following its acquisition of ZeniMax and Bethesda is “powerful evidence” in favor of preventing the company’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, the Federal Trade Commission [FTC] said in a new filing ahead of the upcoming showdown over the agency’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Last week, the FTC requested a restraining order temporarily blocking the $68.7 billion deal ahead of a hearing beginning on June 22. Leading up to this week’s hearing, Microsoft, Activision, and the FTC were able to submit opinions on the matter.

In the FTC’s document, the agency pointed to Microsoft’s willingness to make games Xbox exclusive in its argument against the acquisition.

“Defendants put great stock in Microsoft’s concerns about ‘infuriating gamers’ if it were to foreclose rivals’ access to Activision content… But those same concerns did not stop the ZeniMax decision,” the opinion reads in part.

Microsoft announced plans to acquire ZeniMax and its portfolio of studios in 2020. Following the deal’s closure, we’ve seen Xbox games like last month’s Redfall and the upcoming Starfield become Xbox exclusive. We’ve heard that Microsoft canceled a PlayStation 5 version of Redfall, pivoting instead to Xbox console exclusivity and Game Pass.

This statement from the FTC argues that the precedent set by the Bethesda acquisition means Microsoft could make Activision Blizzard games exclusive to Xbox platforms, despite Microsoft’s persistent attempts to sign 10-year commitments for Call of Duty on other platforms.

The filing goes on to argue that the deal may “substantially lessen competition in high-performance consoles and all consoles.” It also addressed the Switch, arguing that Nintendo’s console should not be compared to the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 while citing an expert who claimed that “even if the Switch were included in the market, the likely anticompetitive effects of the Proposed Acquisition are the same as in the high-performance console market.”

Speaking of Call of Duty, Activison’s juggernaut came up elsewhere in the FTC’s document. The FTC said that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard’s side “badly assert that ‘most PlayStation gamers do not play [Call of Duty] at all”, but the FTC claims it has evidence to contradict that statement. The FTC’s reasoning for disputing the popularity of Call of Duty on PlayStation is redacted from the released version of the document.

Microsoft’s battle to get the Activision Blizzard deal has dragged on for more than a year amid opposition from both the FTC and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority [CMA]. Microsoft is currently in the process of appealing the CMA’s decision to block the deal.

The Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal needs to close by July 18, 2023, or the parties will need to renegotiate.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Dota 2 is hitting its 10th anniversary this year, and Valve is doing something no other game dev has done for their live-service games: getting rid of the Battle Pass.

Valve detailed its future plans for Dota 2 in the game’s official blog post on Monday, which included ditching the battle pass system. According to the company, most Dota players never buy the battle pass, and if they did they never get any rewards from it other than discovering new maps, playing with new items, enjoying UI improvements, and even accidentally dying to a Tormentor.

“Most Dota players never buy a Battle Pass and never get any rewards from it,” Dota 2’s development team wrote. “Every Dota player has gotten to explore the new map, play with the new items, and accidentally die to a Tormentor; every Dota player benefits from UI improvements and new client features. Community response to New Frontiers has helped us build confidence that working less on cosmetic content for the Battle Pass and more on a variety of exciting updates is the right long-term path for Dota as both a game and a community.”

As a result, Valve is removing the battle pass system, which originated from the annual Dota 2 tournament called The International. The Dota 2 development team claims that it became a yearly content update that usurped the dev team’s time, ideas, features, and resources that would’ve otherwise been used for updates that were more frequent during the game’s infancy. In other words, the Battle Pass grew to the point where it would be the biggest event of the year while the rest of the year had no new content updates whatsoever.

“When we recognized this, we made a deliberate choice earlier this year to run an experiment: to take some of the resources that would normally produce Battle Pass content and instead put them towards more speculative updates, including features and content that couldn’t fit into a Battle Pass,” Valve said. “While work is still in progress on future updates, the first of these has shipped: New Frontiers and patch 7.33 couldn’t have shipped as they did if we were focusing all our efforts on producing Battle Pass content.”

Valve mentioned that Dota 2 will still have content that is tied to The International and its prize pool, but players won’t have any new skins or other accessories to grind for. That update is set to release in September.

Dota 2 is one of the first free-to-play games of the last decade to introduce the concept of the battle pass system, with Fortnite and Rocket League taking the lead. It is also the first to retire it, which is a major shift considering how common battle passes are, even in games that aren’t free-to-play, like For Honor.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.

CCP Games has finally launched the Microsoft Excel add-in on EVE Online, leaning hard into the famed spaceship MMO’s reputation for being a spreadsheet simulation.

The Iceland-based game studio announced the launch of the Excel add-in Tuesday, enabling even the most organized players access and analyze their in-game data regardless of their level of programming experience. Whether they’re general players or players assigned to different roles, from manufacturer to enforcer to PvP fighter, everyone will have easy access to the information and knowledge they need to complete any task, including managing frontline warfare, tracking their earnings, maximizing their profits, monitoring kills, and tracking character progress over time.

CCP Games collaborated with the Excel team at Microsoft to integrate the spreadsheet add-in into EVE Online, making it the first PC game to receive the feature.

Unleash the full power of your data with our new Microsoft Excel add-in. From tracking ISK to managing your builds, the universe just got a little bit more accessible.

Get ready for Spreadsheets in Space 2.0! @msexcel @mspartner#EVEonline #Excel #Microsoft365 #EVExExcel pic.twitter.com/qpdinPYfJR

— EVE Online (@EveOnline) June 20, 2023

“Collaborating with Microsoft to provide EVE players with direct access to Excel’s spreadsheet software tools has been both a very enjoyable experience and a very natural fit, which should come as no surprise to the data enthusiasts at our two companies and within our respective communities,” EVE Online creative director Bergur Finnbogason said. “Our players continue to encourage us to explore more ways to make EVE approachable. Advanced EVE players are known to use spreadsheets as a data management tool, so the Excel add-in is a crucial step in achieving that goal. No matter your role, skill level or identity in New Eden, the power of this add-in is at your fingertips.”

Catherine Pidgeon, Microsoft’s head of product for Excel, added, “CCP Games has extensive experience in the MMO space, so it’s only natural that we collaborate with them to launch the first-ever native Microsoft Excel add-in for a video game. With the add-in, the EVE Online player base can seamlessly export and manage data without third-party tools. Through this collaboration, we’re excited to see how players of EVE Online of all skill levels can use Excel to streamline data management and take their in-game experience to new heights.”

CCP released an extensive FAQ explaining how to install the add-on, which is being released free of charge. If you’re using Excel as you’re reading this, click the Insert tab, then the Get Add-ins button, and the EVE Online add-in should appear.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.