Cross “Guitar Herorevival speculation” off your 2022 bingo card Microsoft’sacquisition of Activision Blizzardis, and will likely continue to be, the domineering story of the year so far. Both are giants in terms of industry scale and impact, with headlines both good andnot-so-good. A new interview from the Washington Post touches on another aspect, however: the potential hidden in the Activision Blizzard vault. Speaking toThe Washington Post, Xbox head Phil Spencer references the laundry list of well-known but dormant franchises in the Activision Blizzard catalog....

I Vatican’t believe it! Football Manager 2013— you may read our review of the2014edition here— was cracked in May of 2013. A flub in the crack allowed series head Miles Jacobson and company to track the IP addresses of all the people that downloaded it. All 10.1 million people. Yikes. Jacobson didn’t goUbisoft-crazyand attribute all the downloads to lost sales, saying that would be “ridiculous.” However, he did state that sales dropped off heavily once the crack was exposed, and estimated that 1....

And it’s doomed if things don’t change Did you know that the studio behindThe Order: 1886has a new game out? It’s true. Released last week,Deformersis an altogether different concept from Ready at Dawn, trading out a cinematic romp through alternate-history London for little blob creatures that like to duke it out in arenas and also play soccer sometimes. I was looking forward to playing and reviewing the game, but at this rate, I don’t think it’s gonna happen....

Eight members to leave retailer this summer Turbulent times continue for GameStop. The gaming retailer has announced that several incumbent members of its board of directors will be stepping down at the company’s 2021 Annual Meeting, which is set to take place in June. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, among the eight directors retiring from their posts on the board are former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime,who took the part-time role with GameStopjust over a year ago....

Performance will be negatively impacted As annoying as the Xbox 360’s disc drive is,Rockstar Games is recommendingthatGrand Theft Auto Vplayers install only one of the game’s two discs. Disc one is a mandatory one-time install, after which point you’ll play the game with disc two in the drive. It’s possible to install this as well, but “For optimal performance, we recommend not installing that disc,” Rockstar wrote. “We will have more info on our Support Site at launch....

When I walked intoan empty West Hall before Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 started, I was floored by the large banner forSplinter Cell: Conviction. I realized then thatConvictionwas a real thing and we were definitely going to hear more about it very soon. We did. What I didn’t catch at the time was just how old Sam Fisher looked. And old he is. According to a developer for the game who spoke withVG247on the show’s floor, Fisher is in his 50s during the events ofConviction....

Sounds like plans for Xbox are in the works Sony Online Entertainment — developer of popular MMOs such asPlanetSide 2,Everquest, andH1Z1— is no longer a part of Sony’s stable of studios. After 20 years, SOE has been offloaded. Sony recently sold its subsidiary off to New York-based investment firm Columbus Nova. As a result of the acquisition, SOE has been rebranded as Daybreak Game Company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed....

On this day in 1994, Sony launched its PlayStation console to the Japanese market. With Europe and the US getting theirs the following September, the system went on to not only be a worthy contender against the likes of Nintendo and Sega, but practically dominate the gaming sphere. Impressive for a newcomer. Today, we celebrate its 30th anniversary. The occasion has been marked by the official PlayStation X account with a two-minute video that showcases some of the brand’s most recognizable mascots that have graced our collective screens over the past three decades....

Dota 2 is also doing very well It looks like Steam, most likely as a result of the Autumn Sale, has broken its previous record of five million concurrent users, and pushed 6,046,104 over the weekend. Of course, new additions like big picture mode, Linux support, Mac support, and Greenlight have no doubt contributed to this growing number of users. In other Valve news,Dota 2also peaked at 170,248 players, whichisn’t enough to start making Riot Games running scared, but is still fairly formidable for a developer who has as wide of a portfolio as Valve....

July 11 through July 22 All is right with the world. After much speculation, the summer Steam salehas officially begun. You know what that means, right?It’s on! Today’s daily deals include a few highlights, likeBioShock Infinite($29.99),Hotline Miami($2.49),Scribblenauts Unlimited($4.99), andCall of Juarez: Gunslinger($10.04). In particular, be on the lookout for flash sales, which only last for eight hours before being rotated out. The current lineup isCounter Strike: Global Offensive($5.09),The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition($35....

YAHOO! Are you looking to grab a Switch solely forSuper Mario Party? This new bundle will get you and three friends going without fuss. Nintendo of America has unveiled a newSuper Mario PartyJoy-Con bundle just in time for Thanksgiving. Going for $99.99, the bundle will include a physical copy of the game alongside a pair of Neon Green and Neon Yellow Joy-Con for you to jump straight into four player action....

VR adventure from Monument Valley devs Monument Valleyis agood gamefor good people. Its creator Ustwo Games is prepping its next project, a first-person virtual-reality adventure, for release on June 29, 2025. But the thing is, it’s only coming to Samsung’sGear VR— a platform many of us don’t intend to buy. Between Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard, Fove, and a handful of other VR solutions, software exclusivity is going to get worse for us, the players, before it gets any better....

Disappointed, but not surprised Last of Usactor Troy Baker has been known to ruffle some feathers on Twitter in the past few years, and he’s just stoked the flames again by pushing NFTs to his followers. He shared this morning that he would be partnering withVoiceverse NFT, which claims to have NFTs built by AI that “[provide] you ownership to a unique voice in the Metaverse” that you’re able to use in Discord, Zoom Calls, YouTube, TikTok, or anything else that would require a voice....