Today's testimonies in the   FTC's legal battle to press pause on Xbox's merger with Activision   were bookended by a closed session with Microsoft senior finance director Jamie Lawver and a brief questioning of Google Stadia product director Dov Zimring. But the real meat of today was the Phil Spencer show. The suit-clad head of Xbox kept steady throughout a lengthy questioning by the FTC before laying out, in cross-examination, a clear map of Xbox's mobile-focused strategy for acquiring Activision. When Microsoft wrapped up its inquiries, Spencer's stint at the front of the court was concluded by a rather awkward line of questioning during which he found himself patiently explaining to FTC lawyer James Weingarten how, exactly, money works in acquisitions. Relevant Markets Revisited Once again, the FTC spent a solid portion of time focused on defining the "relevant markets" as part of its job in this affair is to prove that Microsoft acquiring Activisio...

  Industry juggernaut Electronic Arts has today announced a huge restructuring that splits its studios into two major organisations - EA Entertainment and EA Sports. As explained by CEO Andrew Wilson, this "evolution" allows the company to give studio leaders more power, including "creative ownership and financial accountability to make faster and more insightful decisions" about development and other related areas. EA Entertainment will be led by president Laura Miele, who will oversee many of EA's key studios. Vince Zampella will helm the studios responsible for Apex Legends, Star Wars games and  Battlefield  IP, Samantha Ryan is in charge of lifestyle and solo blockbuster franchises, and Jeff Karp heads the mobile division. EA Sports' president is Cam Weber - responsible for handling the whole organisation's portfolio of sports games. Other appointments include Stuart Canfield as Chief Financial Officer and David Tinson as Chief Experiences Officer - ...

  Hundreds of video game demos are available to try — for free — on Steam as part of   Steam Next Fest . Valve describes the event, which runs from June 19 to June 26, as “a celebration of upcoming games,” and it   is   certainly that. It can be overwhelming to navigate the sheer number of demos available, but it’s worth digging through the lists. You’re sure to find something that catches your eye, and there’s no limit to how many games you can install and play. We’ve curated a list of 13 games that we   are excited for, but it’s not even close to a complete list of promising games featured in the latest Steam Next Fest. Venba , from Visai Games, is a narrative cooking game set in the 1980s after an Indian mother moves to Canada with her family. The game centers around cooking puzzles that will restore lost family members and unravel a “story about family, love, [and] loss.”  Venba ’s release date is set for July 31. From developer Soft Not Weak,  Spi...

  While Microsoft had a blockbuster showcase last week with Starfield as the main feature, there were two notable absences, Microsoft’s main two action games before this new era: Halo and Gears of War. While Gears 6 is supposed to be in the works, Halo Infinite has shifted to its live service seasonal model with nebulous plans for Master Chief himself to return, as there were recent cuts to those working on campaign content at 343. In an interview with The Guardian, Phil Spencer was asked about Halo, which he says is still important,  but… “I wouldn’t say Halo is of lesser importance, but we have over 20 studios now,” Spencer said. “I’ll go back to the years where I had basically four games – Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, the four horseman of the apocalypse. We have a lot more games now.” This was always the point of Microsoft picking up more and more studios, and big ones at that, so they could expand their reach past those limited franchises. The original Fable trilogy is ...

  Blizzard had a “Fireside Chat” about   Diablo 4   on Friday, which was not an official developer stream going over every nerf and buff coming, but they did reveal a lot of additions and quality of life changes that are coming either before, during or after season 1. Many of these are pain points in the community they are attempting to address as soon as they can, including some common questions about the upcoming season itself. Here are the highlights from the hour-ish long stream if you don’t have time to watch all that (which I did!). As announced previously, season 1 is still on track to launch in mid to late July, albeit no specific date has been announced yet. Nightmare Dungeons are not necessarily increasing mob density, but they will give more XP per monster, making them a better source of farming XP. Also, Nightmare Sigils will now teleport you directly into a dungeon rather than making you walk there, and once you finish one, you can pop another sigil and go di...

  Having been out for the best part of a month now, we think it's fair to say that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is going to be one of those games where we never stop discovering new things. In our playthroughs so far, these discoveries have had us grinning cheek to cheek on a pretty consistent basis, but that hasn't stopped the smiles from being wiped from our faces as we stumble across some game-changing mechanic at the 100-hour mark. The question of whether Tears of the Kingdom is "too open" of an open world (if there is such a thing) might be best left until we have a better idea of  everything  that this Hyrule has to offer, but the sheer range of possibilities and options does mean that there have been countless occasions where we stumbled across a new feature only to think "I really wish I knew about that earlier!" For us, the list of these features is growing longer by the day. A quick whip around Nintendo Life Towers produced a compendiu...

  Some of Microsoft’s biggest missteps over the years have come not from being too late but rather too early, leaving the door open for competitors — especially Apple, it seems — to popularize a product category years later, when the technology and the market are ready. Pocket PC … iPhone Tablet PC … iPad HoloLens … Vision Pro? That last one sure looks like a possibility after Apple unveiled its new augmented reality headset this week. The device, which looks like a pair of high-tech ski goggles, lets users navigate with gestures in a manner very similar to Microsoft’s mixed reality headset, the first version of which was unveiled in 2015 and shipped in 2016. The similarities even extend to the language used by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday, and then-HoloLens leader Alex Kipman at a Microsoft event in 2015. Cook:  “Vision Pro is a new kind of computer that augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world. … You can see hear and i...