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Another long week on the books, and luckily it wasn’t completely dominated by the Microsoft-FTC-Activision Blizzard scuffle. Since Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended their acquisition deadline to October, it looks like the entire event is on ice for the foreseeable future. This gives both parties (and the UK CMA) more time to negotiate. Anyway, if I have another week to do a column on the FTC vs Microsoft, I’m going to get a little crazier than usual. Instead, let’s talk about other things that happened this week.
Ubisoft reported a slight drop in revenue for Q1 FY24, though CEO Yves Guillemot remains optimistic, saying it was a “better-than-expected performance.” The company also announced that it plans to launch 10 games this fiscal year, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Rainbow Six Mobile, The Crew Motorfest, The Division Resurgence, Just Dance 24, XDefiant, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, Skull & Bones (FINALLY), and “another big game.” Your guess is as good as mine as to what that last one might be.
PlayStation released a new story trailer for the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which finally gave us a proper look at Venom. They’re still very shy about letting us hear Tony Todd’s voice – in two trailers he’s said nine words. But it still looks very good and I’m excited to hear more. Speaking of trailers, Netherrealm released two new trailers for Mortal Kombat 1 today. In the first, we saw three new confirmed combatants: Li Mei, Tanya, and Baraka. In the second we got our first confirmed DLC characters, and the rumors were true: Homelander, Omni-Man and Peacemaker join the fray, as do returning fighters Takeda, Ermac and Quan Chi.
As for my personal game schedule, I can finally, FINALLY play Final Fantasy XVI now that my husband has finished it. The sacrifices I make for love, honestly. But now I can finally see what it’s all about – I’ve barely been playing the game for a few hours and I’m already loving how different the game is from previous titles. You know me, I love a good spectacle action game and it certainly is until now. I’ll probably also play some Pikmin 4 now that it’s finally out. I’ve never played a Pikmin game before, so this will be new to me!
What to play this week
What’s new:
- Picmin 4
- Xenonauts 2
- Viewfinder
- pokemon sleep
- My friendly neighborhood
- Cross tails
- Brewpub simulator
New on subscription services:
- Techtonica (Xbox Game Pass)
- Toem (Xbox Game Pass)
- The Cave(Xbox Game Pass)
- Model (Xbox Game Pass)
- Figure 2: Creed Valley (Xbox Game Pass)
- The Wandering Village (Xbox Game Pass)
- It takes two (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Sniper Elite 5 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Snowrunner (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- World War Z (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- The Ascent (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Undertale (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Melty Blood: Type Lumina (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Dysmantel (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Dynasty Warriors 9 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Samurai Warriors 5 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Monster Jam Steel Titans (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Gravity Crash Portable (PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Turned Metal (PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Twisted Metal 2 (PlayStation Plus Premium)
- Wytchwood (first gaming)
- Embr (GeForce Now)
- Stardew Valley+ (Apple Arcade)
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