Feeling extra good about last week's Axios video game newsletters. I was first to report on:
- Stadia's lost exclusives
- Embracer's Saudi $$ defense
- EA CEO's $20m pay drop
- uh...Sonic not kissing women anymore
More to come! It's free. Emailed daily:
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Stephen Totilo
@stephentotilo
Covering video games for Axios. Co-author of Axios Gaming newsletter (sign up for it here: axios.com/signup/gaming). Former EiC. DM for Signal. he/him
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Recently released game Grim Guardians to be taken off sale due to trademark complaint, to return as Gal Guardians
Shades of DoubleFine's 2011 game Trenched getting renamed Iron Brigade.
Doesn't happen often...
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[Important Announcement]
INTI CREATES is changing the title of "Grim Guardians: Demon Purge" to "Gal Guardians: Demon Purge."
During the transition, the game may become unavailable on some storefronts. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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Google's Jack Buser told me: "We are not offering that streaming option, because it was tied to Stadia itself. So, unfortunately, when we decided to not move forward with Stadia, that sort of [business-to-business] offering could no longer be offered as well."
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Something not in my story but that may clear up some confusion:
Google is not offering its Stadia-style game-streaming to clients. While it had offered that for some business deals (like steaming a Batman game to AT&T 5G users), that's ended
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Post-Stadia, Google is promoting Cloud for live service games as its big gaming tech play
Former Stadia exec running the Google Cloud gaming team:"We are at our best when we’re helping other people build this stuff, not necessarily building it ourselves"
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I love this news story from who bothered to follow-up on something hyped by PR
No shame running stories that PR comes to outlets with (if it's legit interesting), but the lane is wide-open for follow-up coverage that reports what happened next
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Starfield release date is now Sept 6. Had been expected by end of June.
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One step closer to answering humanity's greatest mystery.
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Activision doesn't outright say that Warzone Mobile will displace CoD: Mobile, but Microsoft sure does in today's reply to the UK's competition regulator
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Wonder what footnote 11 said about 10 years on Nintendo platformS...
From Microsoft's response to the UK competition regulator's provisional findings about the Activision deal
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Broke my own thread when I tried to fix it yesterday. Probably blame me, but it’s more fun to blame Twitter
Anyway, if you’re reacting to this, please expand replies and read to the end first.
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Last week, a Microsoft lawyer said the company currently plans for two upcoming ZeniMax games to be Xbox/PC-exclusive (no PlayStation).
But in December, Microsoft lawyers said "three future titles" from ZeniMax would go Xbox/PC-only
Some thoughts about what this indicates:
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...which is why I assumed that ESVI was one of the three games Microsoft cited in December.
But if Hi-Fi Rush was one... then either Redfall, Starfield, or ESVI hasn't been internally designated as an Xbox/PC exclusive yet?
Microsoft declined to clear this one up for me, alas
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Back on Halloween, they sent the UK's skeptical competition regulator 111 pages of argument for the deal, including a section that seemed to make the case that hypothetically (?) taking Elder Scrolls VI exclusive wouldn't contradict its pledge to keep Call of Duty multi-platform
!["Titles such as Elder Scrolls VI (which is not expected to be released
before [] with the last instalment in the series being released in 2011),
as well as other future titles, will not involve Microsoft forgoing ca. USD
[] per annum of revenue from PlayStation customers or
disenfranchising ca. [] million MAU on PlayStation. "](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqpP4MpWcAUvYnT?format=jpg&name=large)
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Microsoft's got wiggle room on this in terms of what count as a finalized platform decision, I guess.
Its lawyers and execs keep saying they never pulled a planned cross-platform ZeniMax game from PlayStation. And have said future exclusivity calls will be made case-by-case
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Back in December, the speculation (including from me) was that the three games had to be Starfield, Redfall and Elder Scrolls VI.
The Verge even threw MachineGames' Indiana Jones in there for consideration
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Sorry, one correction: That MachineGames game is Indiana Jones, not Bond
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The simplest explanation is that one of the three games cited in December (and redacted from public view) was the then-yet-unannounced Hi-Fi Rush
It was surprise-released in January from ZeniMax's Tango Gameworks, for PC and Xbox
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The claims were made in different cases related to the attempted purchase of Activision.
The March count comes from MS' attempt to fend off a preliminary injunction against the deal in a federal lawsuit (the so-called gamer suit)
The December one is in MS' response to the FTC
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Last week, a Microsoft lawyer said the company currently plans for two upcoming ZeniMax games to be Xbox/PC-exclusive (no PlayStation).
But in December, Microsoft lawyers said "three future titles" from ZeniMax would go Xbox/PC-only
Some thoughts about what this indicates:
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Nintendo faced a second labor violation charge last year.
It was officially withdrawn last week, just a little over six months later.
Unclear why, or if a settlement was reached in the dispute.
kotaku.com/nintendo-switc
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Company estimates revenue for $1 Rovio Classics: Angry Birds was about $1,000,000, a modest success, but not evidence people preferred it to free-to-play Angry Birds
Rather, Rovio says RC:AB dominated "Angry Birds" search results, hiding free games without drawing enough players
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NEW: The story isn't over regarding the recent controversial delisting (Android)/renaming (iOS) of a classic Angry Birds game
Rovio tells me the "drastic" measures are an experiment to resolve a search problem impacting all AB games
My article explains:
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One of the UK's main arguments against the deal is that Microsoft would have financial incentives to make Call of Duty Xbox/PC-only, regardless of Microsoft's promises not to
And the UK backed that up with its own survey
As you'll see in the story: two surveys, two results
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Exclusive: Microsoft believes the UK's competition regulator has overestimated the amount of Call of Duty fans who'd leave PlayStation for Xbox if Microsoft took CoD from Sony--and has survey results they say prove it
They shared their data with me
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One more data point:
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Happy #PokemonDay! Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises in gaming, but did you know that once Nintendo closes the 3DS and Wii U eShops next month, 74% of all Pokémon games released in the US will be commercially unavailable in any form? It's true!
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Nintendo may one day fill its Switch classics section with as many GB/GBA games as WiiU /3DS are losing
They announced another GBA game (Metroid Fusion) for Switch last night, after we ran this chart
But the system is 6. They're just getting to Game Boy, haven't touched DS
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TIP: If you have a 3DS and want to load it up with classic games from the eshop, you can't rely on that Virtual Console section to find them.
I recommend you cross-reference this list, which proved accurate when I was checking for Game Boy games:
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*My 3DS count for NES/SNES is likely low due to a quirk in easily confirming via the system's eshop.
3DS' Virtual Console section fails to list GB games added prior to March 2013. Shows just 45 of 81
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The Wii U eshop is also losing the ability to purchase:
- 94 NES games
- 51 SNES games
- 21 N64 games
- 31 Nintendo DS games
The 3DS shop will lose at least*:
- 42 NES games
- 23 SNES games
Switch currently offers:
- 64 NES games
- 62 SNES games
- 22 N64 games
- 0 DS games
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Nintendo's vanishing classics....
The company added 15 Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to Switch last month.
But it's removing 155 GB/GBA games across two other platforms' digital storefronts later this month.
axios.com/2023/03/02/nin
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Most important feature for me in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: You can pause the game.
I've steered clear of most Souls-style games because the lack of being able to pause doesn't mesh well with being a parent.
WL:FD is tough but fun, very much Nioh 3
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The industry's main lobbying group in DC, the ESA, is frustrated with this response, says game publishers are responsible stewards
Below my piece, you can read summaries of what 14 game companies, including Roblox, Activision, Xbox, PlayStation and Innersloth told DC lawmakers
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NEW: U.S. rep Lori Trahan is dissatisfied with games industry's response to questions posed by several Democrats about efforts to combat harassment and extremism in online games.
Is considering legislative action.
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It wasn't something I covered in my last piece, but the difference between 14% and 8% is well worth some scrutiny, too.
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- Nearly 14% of Americans are Black
- 8% of American gamers are Black
- For years, just 2% of game developers were Black, though there's been an uptick to 5% in North America
"We're worse than the mining industry," @BlackinGaming's Carl Varnado tells me
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As for mining, U.S. Census data puts it at 3-6% depending on how the mining work is defined.
So, yeah, Carl Varnado's got a point.
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I've been covering the lack of Black people in game dev since 2008 or so. It's a chronic problem that impacts who gets a chance, how people who make it in are treated and even what we get to play
Credit to everyone who covers this topic. Important always, not just in February
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Current gains are based on a low starting point. At Riot, for example, 2.2% of its U.S. workforce was Black in 2019, up to 3.1% in 2021.
Take Two reports 5% of its U.S. workers are Black, but the stats fall when looking at leadership roles (not just at TT)
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Video game companies have recently started reporting data about the diversity of their workforce.
As my reporting for this piece shows, there have been slight gains in recent years for Black devs. Many reasons why and many reasons to be concerned that such progress is fragile
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- Nearly 14% of Americans are Black
- 8% of American gamers are Black
- For years, just 2% of game developers were Black, though there's been an uptick to 5% in North America
"We're worse than the mining industry," 's Carl Varnado tells me
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Hmm. Just noticed that the arbitrator here goes from discussing 1,316 violations to 1,361.
If that's a typo, it's worth $112,500
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Notable that the arbitrator's formulation for damages wasn't based on the amount of money AimJunkies made, but on the grounds that the cheats amounted to copyright violations.
Sell 1,316 cheats. Multiply by the DMCA's max penalty.
For example, from the arbitrator's ruling:
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