Microsoft acquisition blocked; Sony’s selling plenty of PS5s | Kaser Focus
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It’s been a weird week, watching Microsoft. I’m no less tired of the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, but I was a bit animated by the news this week that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority are blocking the acquisition. This came only a few days after Microsoft revealed its Xbox division isn’t doing great in terms of profit. Microsoft have said they’ll appeal the decision, natch. But I’m not sure I’m on their side in this one given it’s a more complex situation than it might seem.
Sony today released its latest financial earnings report, which shows that the company is selling PlayStation 5 consoles by the truckload. Now that it seems to have sorted out the supply chain issues, it sold 6.3 million units last quarter and 38 million overall. Still, it’s not all great news: Game software units sales dropped slightly compared with last year, and PlayStation Plus subscribers haven’t gone up. According to Bloomberg, the company is concerned with the downturn, and their outlook for the next fiscal year isn’t as optimistic as one might think.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is also launching this week, one of the major AAA releases of 2023. Let’s just say the PC performance has been raked over the coals by fans — and not without reason. I have a decent work PC, less than a year old, and I couldn’t run Jedi: Survivor on it if my life depended upon it. I’d be lucky if the framerate ran in the double digits. But on my much older home gaming PC (which, admittedly, I built myself with better components) it runs almost perfectly. Here’s hoping we get a patch pre-May the 4th that makes it run easier.
In more personal news, I’m trying
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