Game Bytes: Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard, And Dark Souls Shuts Servers
We are coming to the end of January and lots has happened this past week. If you haven’t seen the news lately, Activision and Microsoft were once again making headlines everywhere and we have a roundup of everything that happened as well as other video gaming news that fell under the radar.
Last week was a big one for the video game industry, Microsoft surprised the world with the announcement that it will acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The news came exactly two months after Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer described the sexual harassment and discrimination scandal at Activision Blizzard as “horrific,” and said Microsoft was “evaluating all aspects” of its relationship with the company. As of now, Bobby Kotick is still CEO of Activision Blizzard and while there are rumors he will leave after the merger has closed, no official declaration from either party on that has been made. Microsoft says it’ll honor existing Sony contracts, but it is likely that some future games will become Xbox and PC exclusives, though which games will be exclusive hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Also in the news last week, the striking workers from Raven Software, which is an Activision subsidiary, formed a union which is supported by the ABK Workers Alliance and the Communications Workers of America. Dubbed the Game Workers Alliance, the union asked for immediate, voluntary recognition from Activision Blizzard. The union formation wasn’t directly related to the acquisition, but it does introduce a variable that wasn’t present when Microsoft made the decision to buy, and Microsoft will have to work with it after the deal closes. Due to the union formation, the strike has ended.
The Dark Souls 3 servers are offline as the dev team works to maintain multiplayer security. Recently it was revealed that there was a vulnerability in the online versions of the game that allowed remote access of a player’s PC, and immediately hackers started exploiting them through the games PVP servers. On January 23 the official Dark Souls Twitter account posted an announcement about bringing the servers offline. The tweet reads as follows: “PvP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls: Remastered have been temporarily deactivated to allow the team to investigate recent reports of an issue with online services. Servers for Dark Souls: PtDE will join them shortly. We apologize for this inconvenience.” A follow-up tweet mentioned that this problem is entirely absent from PvP servers on Xbox and PlayStation consoles. While apparently only a tiny percentage know how to employ the hack, PC players are still at risk every time they use Dark Souls 3’s multiplayer components.
Super Rare Games, a company best known for publishing physical indie games and related media for games that never got physical editions, announced a new indie-first publishing label called Super Rare Originals. Super Rare Originals will publish indies digitally on consoles and PC. It dropped five games already available digitally through this new label.
We have a much-anticipated game releasing this week, but there are other just as amazing games also releasing. On the 25th of January El Hijo – A Wild West Tale (iOS, Android) and The Artful Escape (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch) were released. On the 27th both Circuit Superstars (PlayStation 4) and Daemon X Machina (PC) will be released. One of the most anticipated January titles gets released on the 28th with Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch). Also releasing on the same day will be Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PlayStation 5, PC). Enjoy all the upcoming games that come out this week.
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