I think the “Microsoft dilemma” is between Making Some Money vs. Take All The Money.
If they publish a bunch of successful games on Steam or on Playstation, they will make Some Money, compared to games published exclusive to Xbox, where they can make All The Money.
By acquiring studios they are making sure that good franchises “don’t make all the money… yet” (on competing platform like Steam, Playstation or Switch, but also Android/iOS)
They could make good games exclusive for Xbox, but given how relatively unsuccessful is the Xbox platform, compared to Switch and Playstation, it would mean that very expensive (to make) games will bleed money
On the Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call this morning, CEO David Zaslav said that their quarter’s financials took a hit due to the “disappointing release of Suicide Squad,” the newest game from Rocksteady Studios
So far, the biggest bourdary for Valve seem to be: no 3 for software, no 2 for hardware (but we may still get a SteamDeck 1: Episode 1… if SteamDeck OLED isn’t already that)
Asus’ ROG Ally X is going to struggle against the Steam Deck OLED (www.pcgamesn.com)
100 Days Later, Neuralink’s First Human Patient Is Now Using His Brain Implant to Play Slay the Spire (www.ign.com)
Men of War II will be online-only at launch but an offline mode is in development (www.gamingonlinux.com)
Classic Marathon 2 TBA on Steam (store.steampowered.com)
Homeworld 3 performance analysis: Surprisingly scalable but no ultra-high frame rates (www.pcgamer.com)
God of War Ragnarok PC Port Announcement Is Imminent, Leaker Claims (gamerant.com)
Poppy Playtime Is the Latest Horror Video Game to Get the Movie Treatment - IGN (www.ign.com)
Nvidia's unannounced R100 AI GPUs reportedly coming in late 2025 — 'Vera Rubin' multi-chip designs using 3nm and CoWoS-L (www.tomshardware.com)
Incredible Apple M4 benchmarks suggest it is the new single-core performance champ, beating Intel's Core i9-14900KS — results of 3,800+ posted [Geekbench online database] (www.tomshardware.com)
After Buying Up Studios, Xbox Says It Doesn't Have The Resources To Run Them (kotaku.com)
AMD takes CPU market share from Intel in desktops and servers, but Intel fights back in laptops (www.tomshardware.com)
Mark Hamill Is Back As The Joker In MultiVersus (kotaku.com)
Crusader Kings III gets a Free Weekend plus a big Paradox sale on Steam (www.gamingonlinux.com)
Save 90% on Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition 90% off on Steam [~6€/$ for Mass Effect 1/2/3 +40DLC] (store.steampowered.com)
Steam Deck - SteamOS 3.6.0 Preview: Remote-Controlled - Steam News (store.steampowered.com)
Little Kitty, Big City - Little Kitty, Big City is available NOW! - Steam News (store.steampowered.com)
Asus’ next ROG Ally will be the ROG Ally X (www.theverge.com)
Capcom Is Making More Money Than Ever Before — and It’s Forecast Even Better to Come - IGN (www.ign.com)
Dead Games News: Response from UK Government (www.youtube.com)
EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO (www.tomshardware.com)
On the Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call this morning, CEO David Zaslav [....] "disappointing release of Suicide Squad," (nitter.privacydev.net)
On the Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call this morning, CEO David Zaslav said that their quarter’s financials took a hit due to the “disappointing release of Suicide Squad,” the newest game from Rocksteady Studios
With a Nintendo Switch 2 on the way, I hope Valve make a Steam Deck 2 (www.gamingonlinux.com)
Eyeing the Helldivers 2 backlash with a nervous flop sweat, Sucker Punch assures us that Ghost of Tsushima won't need a PSN login for single player [co-op online multiplayer mode still require it] (www.pcgamer.com)