Altering the deal

Booting Up. What did y’all think of Gamecom’s “Opening Night Live” broadcast? Feeling excited or underwhelmed?

Here’s an X (ugh, weird) poll from Geoff Keighley’s account on how the event went. Seems like most found it ‘middle of the road’.

— Jason Liu, Derek Neville, Tim Rhyne

HEADLINES

Microsoft to sell cloud gaming to Ubisoft. British regulators launched a new investigation into the Microsoft-Activision deal and now have until Oct. 18th to render a decision. Microsoft is submitting a revised plan to sell off the rights of Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming business to Ubisoft for 15 years, effectively preventing title exclusivity to Xbox. Microsoft has already gained approval in 40 jurisdictions, including the EU.

Ubisoft reveals new AC Mirage trailer in Arabic. One of the major titles featured in Gamescom ONL was AC Mirage. While it’s been previously reported that the game would be getting an Arabic dub, the latest trailer on the big stage made it clear that devs wanted to elevate the true-to-context voiceover to be the star.

Atari brings back 2600. How much is Nostalgia worth? Atari is about to find out with the 2600 coming back into production. Time to dust off all those cartridges you’ve got stored in the attic. While it’s not the exact console released in the 80s, the ‘faithful' recreation is available for preorder at $130. Will Atari’s potential success bring forward a wave of early gen console resurrections?

HUD

• ⏭ Call of Duty NEXT is announced for October 5th, giving a streamer showcase of Modern Warfare III, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Warzone Mobile.

• 🧛‍♀️ Blizzard announced Diablo 4 Season 2 (Vampires!) at Gamescom — will it be enough to raise D4 players from the dead?

• 🙈 ‘Neflix Stories’ will be a series of experimental narrative-driven mobile games based on popular Netflix shows — starting with Love is Blind.

• 🥶 Former exec discusses Xbox’s cold start problem in the early 2000’s — often paying millions to get date parity with Sony.

THIS DAY IN GAMING HISTORY

• 👁️ GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997. While the game was recently rereleased on Xbox, nothing beats split screen with your friends after school on the N64.

• 🚀 Elon Musk Simulator was released in 2018, giving players the opportunity to attempt to colonize Mars. We’re still waiting for the DLC where we get to buy Twitter.

• 🍬 Candy Crush Friends Saga was released in 2018, putting a new twist on the game, and raking in $5.6 million in its first month.

PATCH NOTES

• 🎮 PoE’s console launch of The Trail of the Ancestors launches today —Ancestor Leagues begin at 5 PM PDT.

• ⚔ Black Desert Online globally releases a new region — Ulukita.

HIVE MIND

Relevant

Missed out on the Gamescom ONL live stream? Check out all of the trailers.

MAJOR W

• 🎫 Microsoft’s PC Game Pass arrives on NVIDIA GeForce Now, which allows users to subscribe to cloud 4080 GPUs, turning any computer into a gaming rig.

• 👕 100 Thieves announced a collaboration with Dragon Ball Z set to go on sale on August 30th. The collab will feature apparel & accessories sold by 100 Thieves, as well as keyboards sold by Higround.

• 🏆 The Game Awards announces their 10th annual show will be held December 7th.

• 🌍 Xbox wins Green Studio of the Year Award.

• 🎵 Stormgate’s development update included that they are working with Chainsmokers and Frank Klepacki from Command & Conquer Series for their soundtrack.

F IN THE CHAT

• 📷 Microsoft gives up on the Kinect for the second time.

• 🤬 ‘Fan’ interrupts Gamescom opening ceremonies with “Bill Clinton wants to play GTA 6”.

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