Game Thoughts (17)

Game news, reviews, complaints etc.

It seems the Judge in the case involving the FTC, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard thinks that the FTC failed to reach a sufficient threshold to prove harm in a request for a preliminary injunction. To some this is cause for…
So, it seems that under direct questioning Microsoft has been forced to admit that cloud gaming is not as big of a deal as they have been saying it is. We have long held that their generous 10-year cloud licensing…
Unless you have been living under a rock or just do not care about gaming at all, you have probably heard a lot about the Microsoft Activision merger/acquisition. The deal, one of the largest in history, is a monster. Microsoft…
In our coverage of the Microsoft Activision/Blizzard deal we have often wondered why so many of the groups that approved the deal, and one that opposed it, focused only on cloud gaming. We saw the UK say that the deal…
Remember how the EU regulators said the Microsoft Activision deal was pro competition and pro-consumer? Well, I wonder what they might be thinking now as news is dropping saying that both Microsoft and Activision are considering pulling games out of…
For the second of our game reviews, since returning to covering games, we decided to look at the Microsoft flagship game RedFall. If you have heard of this game, it has probably been in a negative light. Most reviews have…
RedFall by Akrane Austin was not a well-received game. It has been pretty much panned by everyone that played it. The complaints range from a bad story line and plot to bad graphics, game lag and terrible AI (you can…
There is no such thing as a coincidence, especially in the business world. If you hear of something and the timing seems suspicious, it is because someone pushed something in the right direction at the right time. This is the…
Microsoft’s $69 Billion wish list includes the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and all the goodies that it controls. This deal has been called the largest in gaming history and it should be. It involves a massive amount of money, and…
Long, long ago in a development studio far away there was a concept for a game where the protagonist was something more than just another boss to beat. In 1994 LookingGlass studios launched the game System Shock. It was a…
When DecryptedTech was much more hardware and gaming focused we used to have a review style called Short Attention Span. It was a very quick 90-minute test of a game which included first launch, general configuration and any game play…
Yesterday we talked about how the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal had been approved by the European Commission (on antitrust) touting licensing deals that were pro competition. As we stated in that article, the licensing agreements only extend to cloud gaming…
It looks like the folks at the European Commission have decided that Microsoft buying out Activision Blizzard for $69 billion (with a B) is not going to be a violation of their antitrust rules. The approval means that there are…
Game reviews are always fun things to do. I mean it is playing a game and then writing about anything you found while playing it (sounds like fun). The challenge comes from being objective in your writing Vs subjective. Something…
The UK’s CMA (Competition and Markets Authority has added new restrictions on Microsoft and Activision Blizzard after already issuing a formal anti-trust warning over the deal back in January. Now the regulator has added additional orders that prevent either party…
After Phill Spencer’s recent comments on why Microsoft can’t beat Sony or Nintendo via “normal methods” we started to wonder why he would make this kind of statement. So, with our usual OCD we dove into some of the things…
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