microsoft: Last News

Playground Games has released a new Forza Horizon 5 update which adds sign language support.Previously announced last year, the sign language support feature has been in development for a while but has finally arrived today for all platforms.When players boot up Forza Horizon 5, they should be able to find both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) features in the settings.The sign language update will support 150 in-game cinematics that are shown throughout the game, making the driving game much more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing players.The newly released YouTube video shows how the feature has been implemented, with actors from the deaf and hard of hearing community signing in the corner of the screen during the cinematics, story segments, and challenges.In a new blog post detailing the update, Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie, discussed the new update and talked about her own deafness, saying that with the addition of signing in the game, she no longer needs to ask her family what she missed.“There are so many people with disabilities and people who are deaf. And, there are a lot of closed doors every day.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard regarding the recent acquisition occurred days after the report on CEO Bobby Kotick.An SEC filing was published on Friday (February 18) stating that Kotick and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer entered talks about the acquisition on November 19, just three days after a report alleged that Kotick had known about Activision Blizzard’s misconduct for years.In September of last year, it was announced that Activision Blizzard was cooperating with an SEC investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment at the company, which this filing refers to.Part of the SEC filing reads: “On November 19, 2021, in the course of a conversation on a different topic between Mr. Spencer and Mr.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has said that staff at Activision Blizzard will be “under scrutiny” following its acquisition of the publisher.Last month, Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard in a deal worth around £50billion, with the US Federal Trade Commission currently conducting an antitrust investigation.The purchase comes after Activision was hit by a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and another by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and workplace misconduct.In between that, its own staff also filed a complaint too, alleging that the company used intimidation and “coercive tactics” to stifle staff trying to improve working conditions.It’s also been alleged that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick was aware of sexual misconduct claims within the company since 2018 but did not inform Activision’s board of directors. A report by the Wall Street Journal also suggested that Kotick played a first-hand part in the culture that has embroiled Activision in sexual harassment lawsuits and investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission.Speaking CNBC (via VGC) about the accusations, Smith said: “We’re looking to the leadership team at Activision Blizzard today to make culture and workplace safety a top priority every single day, until the day when this deal hopefully closes.

Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard is causing concern for smaller game developersLast month it was announced that Microsoft was acquiring Activision Blizzard for around £50billion, followed by news at the end of January that Sony would buy Bungie for £2.6billion.Now multiple indie developers have spoken to the BBC about their concerns with the Microsoft acquisition, and what it could mean for them.Director at Kitfox Games Tanya Short – the developer of Boyfriend Dungeon – said: “This Activision acquisition strikes fear in us because it makes it so much more obvious – maybe they could dominate the rest of the year and then what do we do?”“Conceivably, indie games outside of these services might lose engagement as subscribers focus most of their attention on games they can access for free within the service,” adds Yura Zhdanovich, founder and director at Sad Cat Studios.The Federal Trade Commission is set to investigate the deal and whether or not it would harm the competition. FTC Chair Lina Khan is an advocate for a more assertive approach when handling deals.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that he doesn’t believe its acquisition of Activision Blizzard should be blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission.The deal, worth around £50billion, was announced on January 18 but earlier this week it was announced that the US Federal Trade Commission would be conducting an antitrust investigation after fears the acquisition would harm competition.Talking to the Financial Times, Nadella said that the deal would only place Microsoft as the third largest player in the video games industry behind Sony and Tencent. He also believes the fragmentation of the market would prevent it from ever gaining a monopoly.“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about, and what about the market structure?” said Nadella.“Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with a low teens (market) share, where even the highest player is also in the teens (for market) share.

Microsoft is to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over their proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.News broke last month that Call of Duty and Overwatch developers Activision Blizzard were being acquired by Microsoft. But the deal isn’t actually set in stone yet, and now according to Bloomberg, the deal will see the FTC conduct an antitrust investigation over the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Halo Infinite has now become the biggest launch in franchise history according to Microsoft. It’s worth noting that there wasn’t a delineation between the campaign and multiplayer of the newest Halo title, meaning the figure likely comes from a combination of both. As Halo Infinite’s campaign is on Xbox Game Pass – which was confirmed to have passed 25million subscribers recently – and the multiplayer is free-to-play, it isn’t entirely surprising that the launch has been so successful.Over 20million players have suited up, according to a recent earnings call and a note from the official Halo Twitter.With over 20 million Spartans joining us so far, we’re thrilled to announce that #HaloInfinite is the biggest launch in Halo franchise history!Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the next step in this great journey.

Sony has made some of its first comments regarding Microsoft‘s £50billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying it expects the games to remain on PlayStation.As spotted by Bloomberg, a Sony spokesperson speaking to the Wall Street Journal today (January 20) has said that it expects Activision to honour its contractual agreements despite being bought out by its competitor Microsoft.“We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform.”Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming has said that Microsoft does not intend to pull communities away from PlayStation by taking games away from the platform. Analysts also suggest that due to the large number of players of Activision’s biggest franchise Call Of Duty, regulators would prevent Microsoft from making it an exclusive title over fears of monopolisation.However, Spencer made similar remarks during the acquisition of Zenimax.

Microsoft‘s acquisition of Activision Blizzard apparently came about due to the misconduct allegations against the latter.A new report from Bloomberg has detailed some of the behind the scenes actions that are said to have taken place regarding the Activision Blizzard acquisition. According to the report, when the news broke of misconduct allegations at Activision Blizzard from The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft Corp.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has talked about how Microsoft wants to make sure all of Activision Blizzard’s studios feel safe following the announcement of the acquisition.Spencer made the comment during an investor call today (January 18) after it was announced that Microsoft would be acquiring Activision Blizzard for £50billion ($68billion USD).“We’re looking forward to working with the thousands of Activision Blizzard employees with the same approach of proactive inclusion and partnership that we extend to every member of the Microsoft family,” he stated.“We believe firmly that the great teams at Activision Blizzard have their best work in front of them, and we’re looking forward to making sure they feel safe, supported and engaged in every aspect of their work going forward.”“That includes respecting the creative vision and identity of individual game studios. We have fundamental values that we refuse to compromise on,” Spencer added.According to the call, this deal will make Microsoft third to only Tencent and Sony in terms of revenue, with it expected to go through some time in 2023.Spencer also added that the acquisition “is not about short term results.

Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley has responded to a video saying that online toxicity in video games needs to be stopped.Blackley shared a video from streamer Grenade Queen, who was playing an online match of Halo Infinite only to receive abuse for being female. Blackley responded by saying that “This wasn’t the future for Xbox Live we envisioned.

Microsoft has shared part of the letter it sent to Nintendo in 1999 when it wanted to buy the company.This was before the launch of the original Xbox in 2001, and can be found by going to the Xbox museum website and exploring the history of the original Xbox (thanks, Kotaku).As we learned earlier this year, the desired acquisition had embarrassing results, as Xbox founding member Kevin Bachus said: “[Nintendo] just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you.

Minecraft Caves & Cliffs: Part 2 update is on its way, due to be released later this month.Mojang has revealed that the ambitious Caves & Cliffs: Part 2 update is will finally launch at the end of the month, on November 30.Minecraft’s Caves and Cliffs update promises new cave types, with new blocks, mobs, and items. There are also new underground lakes and waterfalls to find, too.“Part II gives the mountains and caves that you know and love a makeover,” reads the official announcement.

Xbox Cloud Gaming has launched on consoles and is available right now for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.Announced over at the Xbox official blog, Xbox Cloud Gaming is now available across“Today you can play Game Pass games from the cloud on your Xbox console,” it revealed. “We’re excited that Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription.”Xbox Cloud Gaming was unveiled earlier this year and has been slated for a console release for some time.

Xbox has announced that over 70 games will be added to its backwards compatibility program during today’s Xbox Anniversary Celebration.Titles first released on the original Xbox and Xbox 360 will be available, including the entirety of the Max Payne series. Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne were both released on the original Xbox, while Max Payne 3 was released on the Xbox 360.

Valve has reached an agreement with Microsoft to waive the fee required for paid mods of its games that need a Havok engine license. This comes from TF2 Cut Content Wiki on Twitter, who had reached out to Valve regarding the price and payment for a Source developer repository license. The entire exchange between them and Valve was posted on November 13, and Valve’s response reads:“We reached an agreement with Microsoft to have Havok fees waived for future mods of Valve games,” said Steam support.

1 vs 100, a quiz game for Xbox Live, is rumoured to be making a comeback using avatars from Microsoft Teams and optimised for VR.According to Jeff Grubb of Giant Bomb, the quiz game which originally came out in 2009 for Xbox 360, is definitely in development by Microsoft. Grubb spoke about the rumours being confirmed following Phil Spencer alluding to a quiz game in development back in 2020.In 1 vs 100, a hundred players compete online answering quiz questions in various rounds.

343 Industries highlights plenty of the features coming to Halo Infinite on PC later this year.Releasing across Xbox consoles and PC on December 8, the game aims to highlight Microsoft’s commitment to a interconnected ecosystem between all methods of play.

Xbox is apparently working with Finnish developer Mainframe on its cloud-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) title codenamed Pax Dei.This was first mentioned by Windows Central reporter Jez Cordon on The Xbox Two Podcast, when he said “Microsoft is working with a studio in Finland, or at least I’ve heard, called Mainframe on making a cloud native game.”“I have no details about that,” he added, “it could be tied up to one of the codenames that I do know about the project info for, but that is what I’ve heard, that they are looking to make these sort of cloud-native games.”This was then supported by a report from Jeff Grubb at GamesBeat, where he wrote that the same has been confirmed to him “through independent sources”.

Xbox Game Pass is regularly cited as one of the best deals in gaming, but it appears that the service has not attracted as many subscribers as Microsoft had hoped.According to a filing for the financial year ending June 30, 2021 (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz), Microsoft had aimed to grow Game Pass’ subscriber base by 47.79 per cent.

Xbox Game Studios, the coalition of developers owned by Microsoft, already boasts more than 20 studios under its umbrella – but that number may be set to grow, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer.Speaking to Wall Street Journal as part of its Tech Live event (paywalled; as spotted by VGC), Spencer said Xbox is “always out there looking for people who we think would be a good match and teams that would be a good match with our strategy”, and that the company is “definitely not done” acquiring studios.However, Microsoft isn’t looking to gobble up any team going.