Chip Shortages to continue into 2024, Nintendo's Labour Lawsuit heats up, and Square Enix has sold Tomb Raider!

This week sees Embracer Group buying Square Enix's western properties and its IPs, including but not limited to Tomb Raider. Nintendo continues to face backlash over its treatment of contractors, and Intel CEO explains why chip shortages will continue into 2024.

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🕹️ The Console War Rages On

1. Warner Bros. is rumoured to be putting up their game studios for sale - A report has come out from several sources indicating that there could be a significant sale of Warner Bros. game studios. The announcement comes from Imran Khan of Fanbyte Media. He further clarifies that Warner Bros. wants to sell its studios and not its intellectual properties.  The studios reportedly up for sale ranges from Middle-Earth developers Monolith Productions, Mortal Kombat creators NetherRealm Studios, Batman: Arkham developer Rocksteady, and their orbital studios in Montreal, Boston, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco. (Source)
2. Nintendo reduces Switch Sale expectations due to ongoing shortages - Nikkei Asia has reported that Nintendo expects to sell only twenty million Switch console units for 2022. This report comes as Nintendo indicated issues with getting microcontrollers and other semiconductors needed for the Switch due to the ongoing chip shortages and disruptions to the logistics networks. (Source)
3. Intel CEO reports that chip shortages will last into 2024 - Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, told CNBC that the semiconductor industry is expected to suffer shortages until 2024. He explained that the shortages are related to the constrained availability of essential manufacturing tools. (Source)
4. Square Enix sheds western studios and its IP in a sale to Embracer Group - Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal have been sold to Embracer for 300 million USD. Embracer recently acquired Gearbox Studios for 1.3 Billion USD. Embracer will have more than 14,000 employees, including 10,000 developers, across 124 internal studios when the acquisition completes. Embracer will also get a back-catalogue of over 50 games, including Tomb Raider, from the acquisition. Square Enix stated in their press release that they sold the studios and its IPs for that amount to fund Square Enix's step into the Blockchain space. (Source)
5. Square Enix lost 200 million USD on Marvel games -  A report has come out that states that Square Enix lost upwards of 200 million USD on the two Marvel games that it released. (Source)
6. Prince of Persia returns to its home - Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake has been returned to the studio that created it. Ubisoft Montreal will now spearhead the remake's development, gaining it from Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai. (Source)
7. Nintendo of America ill-treats their Contractors - An in-depth report by IGN looks at the inner workings of Nintendo of America and how their treatment of contractors pans out. The report noted that full-time employees are treated much better, but contractors have additional requirements. Though the reports mention that Nintendo of America had a much better track record before 2015 and Iwata's passing, they used to have a clear path to becoming full-time employees though it isn't there today. Contractors noted that Nintendo of America is viewed as a marketing branch, which contributes to their contractors' state. There is much more to read about worker issues inside Nintendo of America. It would be best if you read the full article by IGN. (Source)  
8. FTC to investigate Sony's acquisition of Bungie - Much like they did for Microsoft's 69 billion USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the FTC is set to investigate Sony's acquisition of Bungie.  (Source)
9. Fortnite streamed free on Xbox Cloud Gaming Service for free - Fortnite can now be streamed and played on iOS, Android, or PC using Xbox Cloud Gaming without a subscription required. Xbox noted that this is the first foray, and its success might open the doors for more free-to-play titles on Xbox Cloud Gaming. Twitter user @tomwarren noted that xCloud, part of Microsoft's 'Xbox Everywhere' project, is set to roll out in more markets and devices. (Source, Tweet)  

✨ Going to Events Spiritually

1. Xbox releases a list of games for their New Games With Gold for May 2022. I cannot recommend that you go and get Hydro Thunder: Hurricane. I loved this game growing up. (Source)
2. Playstation Now gets Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Soulcalibur VI and Blasphemous playable as part of the subscription. (Source)
3. More games have been added to Nintendo's Golden Week Sale. (Source)

🎮 Where's My Controller?

1. I continued playing Yakuza 0 this week, and I absolutely adore this game.
2. I haven't been doing much else.

🎵 Turn it up to 11!

1. The beautiful expanse of Chrono Trigger's Corridors of Time endures decades later. The entire Chrono Trigger OST is a marvel to behold, but this eternal, ethereal, densely layered symphony is one for the ages. Listen to it on YouTube.

📝I don't know what a pen looks like.

I want to take the time to thank everyone who has been reading this little newsletter for the past twenty-five weeks. I can't believe it's been so long since I started this. I mentioned before that the next month or so would see Void0Media improve its content roadmap. I want to offer something more than simple reviews.

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A little backstory, I was initially going to wait until I could roll my subscription platform, but the recent issues with my current job have taken away my joy for development. Now I'll be using pre-existing platforms, which means using several different apps to hopefully build out a lovely friendly members-only community here on Void0Media.

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