Xbox boss Phil Spencer ripped off the bandage this morning. In an Xbox Wire blog post, Spencer confirmed that Xbox’s acquisition of publisher Bethesda will result in some games that are exclusive to Xbox and PC. And he once again reiterated that Xbox Game Pass is the focus for Microsoft and now for Bethesda’s studios as well.
“With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should…
With the Bethesda purchase now legally approved, Microsoft has posted an “official welcome” to its newest acquisition from Xbox boss Phil Spencer. This notes that more Bethesda games will be coming to Game Pass later this week. It also mentions Xbox’s philosophy about…
Regulators in the United States and Europe approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Zenimax Media, and that means Bethesda is now an Xbox studio. But what does that mean for the companies involved and for fans of games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls? Well, Microsoft is…
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Zynga has pledged $100,000 from its Social Impact Fund to support Girls Who Code on International Women’s Day 2021.
The Women at Zynga group pledge will enable Girls Who Code to support girls at all points throughout their educational journey from third grade into the workforce.
Girls Who Code is an…
Two years after it put some money into Epic Games in 2018, Smash Ventures finally came out of hiding with its $75 million fund for media, entertainment, and games.
Smash Ventures was founded by Eric Garland and Evan Richter. Garland formerly led venture investments for…
The Super Nintendo Switch rumors are back thanks to a new report from Bloomberg. You can read what reviews editor Mike Minotti thinks the system needs right here. The Bloomberg story claims that Nintendo is sourcing new OLED 7-inch 720p screens from Samsung for the upgraded…
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After a relatively quiet January, video game brands upped their TV ad budgets in February by 34%, to a total of $16.6 million. Not only did Nintendo account for 81.3% of that outlay, it had 74.1% of the total airings. Overall, 15 brands aired 41 spots 4,497 times, generating 682.6 million TV ad…
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Roblox, the platform for user-generated games, will go public through a direct listing of its shares on March 10. I see its pending success or failure as a stock as a kind of…
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In 2018, Uber AI Labs introduced Go-Explore, a family of algorithms that beat the Atari game Montezuma’s Revenge, a commonly accepted reinforcement learning challenge. Last year…
I never got into Apex Legends as much as some other people. The reasons for that came down to how I play battle royale games. With Apex Legends, developer Respawn Entertainment emphasized team-based combat and cooperation on three-player squads. I primarily play battle royales on my own, and then I dabble with the team modes once I’m more comfortable with a game. But now, as Apex Legends…