EU Wants To Know If Microsoft Will Block Rivals After Activision Deal

'Unlike most sports, tennis is a year-round sport except for four weeks off in December. Players compete in tournaments in 31 countries in cities like Dubai, Paris, Shanghai, London, Rome, Cabo, and many more. 

Explaining the move, Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison noted Google's investments in gaming through its Google Play digital distribution service, its cloud tech and YouTube streaming.

BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are asking games developers whether Microsoft will be incentivised to block rivals' access to "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard's best-selling games, according to an EU document seen by Reuters.

The company, which had a bumpy time after the bug-ridden launch of "Cyberpunk 2077" game in late 2020, said it started conceptual work on an entirely original project, outside of the Cyberpunk and The Witcher sagas.

The EU competition enforcer also asked if Activision's trove of user data would give the U.S. software giant a competitive advantage in the development, publishing and distribution of computer and console games, the EU document shows.

Apart from new games, CD Projekt said it planned to set up a new studio in North America, adding multi-player to the majority of future projects, and further expansion of its franchises into film and TV.

Meanwhile more than 90 per cent of ten to 16-year-olds play online games regularly. Campaign group ParentZone has claimed children feel under pressure to make ingame purchases and almost half believe games are only fun when spending money.

It appears that Google didn't tell many developers about the shut-down prior to the public blog post. Destiny 2 makers Bungie tweeted on Thursday about coming up with "a plan of action" in the wake of the announcement. Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft intends to allow players who've bought its games on Stadia to bring them to PC through its Ubisoft Connect digital distribution service, it said Friday. 

People using Stadia will still to be able to access to their game libraries, including Pro games if you had an active Pro subscription as of Thursday. In an email sent to players, Google warned that publisher support for games may vary, and it's possible that your gameplay experience may be affected during the shut-down period (suggesting that some games could vanish or lose features early). 

The lawsuit, led by consumer champion Alex Neill, claims Sony charged a 30 per cent commission on every digital game and in-game purchase made through the Playstation store - an online shop for consoles selling games and extra content to users. 

While Stadia will shut down on January 18, 2023, we're happy to share that we're working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect. We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date.

TOKYO, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Sony Group Corp's gaming business is looking at fresh investment to bolster its push into PC and mobile, a senior executive said, as the PlayStation 5 maker competes for talent with deep-pocketed rivals and as industry dealmaking heats up.

Many popular games are free and make the majority of their money from paid addons, with figures showing £46bn was spent on in-game purchases in 2020.
Figures also show more than 60 per cent of adults in the UK regularly play a game on a console or mobile phone. 

"Our core activities and values remain unchanged. We want to create revolutionary role-playing games with memorable stories that inspire gamers," the company's chief executive Adam Kicinski said in a statement.

Cloud gaming service Google Stadia will shut down on Jan. 18, the search giant said in blog post Thursday. Google will refund all Stadia hardware purchased through its Google Store, along with all games and add-on content purchased from its Stadia store.

Neill, poker Pkv who runs consumer complaints website Resolver, said 'the game is up' for Sony.
She said the case is particularly important as gaming is the biggest part of the UK's entertainment industry - ahead of TV, video and music. 

Neill said: 'The drive towards in-game purchases allows companies like Sony to profiteer and abuse their power because they have a captive audience. Sony knows its customers are hooked once they are part of the PlayStation world and it exploits them with exorbitant charges on every digital purchase.' 

Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas, 24, has been with his girlfriend, Theodora Petalas, for three years now. The two reportedly met through family friends while she was studying at New York University.

They asked if such exclusivity clauses would reinforce Microsoft's Windows operating system versus rivals, and whether the addition of Activision to its PC operating system, cloud computing services and game-related software tools gives it an advantage in the video gaming industry.

Regulators also wanted to know if there would be sufficient alternative suppliers in the market following the deal and also in the event Microsoft decides to make Activision's games exclusively available on its Xbox, its Games Pass and its cloud game streaming services.