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Brazil Approves Microsoft Acquisition, the UK denies Microsoft, Xbox heads into the Metaverse, Call of Duty asks for Cell Numbers, and Spider-Man Gets Release Date!

Brazil has approved Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard acquisition, while the UK's CMA has not, Microsoft fires back at the UK, bringing their Xbox Game Pass into the Metaverse, Activision continues Blizzard's trend by requiring cellular access for games, and Miles Morales swings onto Steam!

Void

• 2 min read

An exciting week as Brazil approved Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard acquisition. In contrast, the UK's CMA has not, Microsoft fires back at the UK while also bringing their Xbox Game Pass into the Metaverse, Activision continues Blizzard's trend by requiring cellular access for games, and Miles Morales swings onto Steam!

🕹ī¸ The Console War Rages On

  1. Brazil has approved Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard - The Competition regulator for Brazil, CADE, has approved the acquisition without restrictions. (Source)
  2. Persona 3 Portable & Persona 4 Golden gets a 2023 release date. In a tweet, the Official Atlas West Twitter account announced that Persona 3 Portable & Person 4 Golden will be released on the 19th of January 2023. (Source)
  3. Call of Duty will require phone numbers - According to a Battle.net support page, Call of Duty's new game release will require players to have a linked valid phone number in their Battle.net account before being able to play the game. The system will be the same SMS Protect that plagued Overwatch 2's launch, prevUK'sng certain prepaid phones from being used. (Source)
  4. The Xbox Game pass is heading toUK'sa Quest VR - Game Pass will enter the virtual world. In the Meta Connect Event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on stage to reveal that the Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox are heading into the Meta Quest Store. (Source)
  5. UK's Competition and Markets Authority receives pushback from Microsoft. This week, the CMA has revealed their report outlining patterns of Microsoft acquiring development studios and making their upcoming games exclusive to the Xbox. The report notes ZeniMax's upcoming Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI being console-exclusive. Other studios mentioned include Obsidian, inXile and Ninja Theory. Microsoft's lawyers have stated that the CMA's concerns are misplaced. They went over PlayStation's 20-year-long history with an install size of over 150 million and Playstation's investments, including minority stakes in FromSoftware and Epic Games.   (Source 1, Source 2)
  6. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales gets a release date - The game will release on Steam on the 18th of November, 2022. (Source)

✨ Going to Events Spiritually

  1. PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup for October: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Assassin's Creed Odyssey

🎮 Where's My Controller?

  1. I've still been playing Terraria.

📝I don't know what a pen looks like.

  1. I haven't done much writing; as once again, my day job continues to be aggressively frustrating.

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