PlayStation
A few weeks ago PlayStation Italia presented us with a new vodcast format called La Casa dei Player. This series of videos puts the gigantic container of videogame experiences that is the PS Plus subscription service under the magnifying glass, all presented and told by one of the most iconic and recognized voices we have here in Italy: that of Ualone. Now after a first episode much appreciated by the fans of the Sony brand, this format will also be present at the next Lucca Comics & Games 2022.
But the personalities of the sector who will populate the House of Players do not end here at all, given that MikeShowSha will also be present, creator of contents on the web with over 3 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, and more than 700,000 follower on Twitch, he is one of the most followed and appreciated Italian creators. Francesco Frank Lotta, Italian radio host, aired daily on Radio Deejay frequencies, also joins, passionate about travel "on the road" and the videogame medium.
Finally, it is emphasized that all the appointments within de La Casa dei Player will be broadcast live on the official Twitch channel of PlayStation Italia, to allow, even those who cannot be physically present in Lucca, to watch live broadcasts from the comfort of their own home. Obviously the focal point of the broadcasts will be to discover all the news of the new PS Plus service and the contents present in the digital catalog that guests prefer.
Microsoft Is Running Out Of Ways To Promise They Won’t Pull ‘Call Of Duty’ Off PlayStation
ActivisionYou can feel the exasperation coming off Microsoft as it tries to convince regulators to approve its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, this time sparring with UK regulators who it claims are parroting PlayStation talking points without addressing the meat of the issue.
The UK is concerned that Microsoft’s pending ability to pull a game like Call of Duty off PlayStation is anti-competitive and bad for consumers. Microsoft, meanwhile, is running out of ways to promise it will not do this, short of swearing on the grave of the Zune or something.
This time around, Microsoft is saying explicitly it both wants and need the revenue that Call of Duty generates on PlayStation, which is the biggest platform where the game is played:
“Microsoft has no intention to take Call of Duty away from gamers and, indeed, it has publicly committed not to do so. The value of Call of Duty depends on its community of gamers, the majority of whom are on PlayStation. Keeping Call of Duty on PlayStation is, therefore, a commercial imperative for the Xbox business and the economics of the Transaction.”
The statement goes on to say that if Microsoft did an about-face and did in fact pull Call of Duty off PlayStation after saying they wouldn’t, it would “alienate the Call of Duty gamer base and tarnish both the Call of Duty and Xbox brands, undermining the rationale for the Transaction.” In other words, “everyone would be extremely mad at us, and this thing we just bought would lose an immense amount of value.”
Modern Warfare 2
SonyMicrosoft does have a clear example it can point to of a major acquisition they made, Minecraft, where they kept that game on all platforms without issue, even if that’s not what it’s doing with its recent Bethesda purchase. Its main point of exasperation appears to be some of these regulators using rationale the sounds purely like it’s protecting PlayStation specifically, when A) other rivals like Nintendo have thrived without access to Call of Duty for years and B) Microsoft is in a distant third place in the console market, with PlayStation having dominated for generations.
This entire thing has been pretty exhausting on all sides, full of hypocritical arguments from both Sony and Microsoft in some areas, with both being transparently self-serving. Microsoft wants to buy something valuable to make itself a ton of money while pretending like this is a move “for the gamers,” which everyone should be skeptical of. Sony, meanwhile, is lamenting the idea of the potential loss of a game that it makes little sense for Microsoft to actually take away from them, plus they’ve built their entire brand on exclusive content and have often paid to keep games off rival platforms in the past. It’s entirely disingenuous. And whether or not regulators seem to actually understand this industry they’re regulating seems to vary from country to country.
I still think this ends with the acquisition going ahead, but expect many more fights like this to come.
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