Acquisition pause, Venom, and Ubisoft’s ‘large game’ | Kaser Focus

Another long week on the books, and luckily this one was not entirely dominated by the Microsoft-FTC-Activision Blizzard scuffle. In fact, given that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended their deadline for the acquisition to October, it appears that the whole event is on ice for the near future. This gives both parties (and the U.K.’s CMA) more time to negotiate. Anyway, if I have to go one more week doing a column on the FTC vs Microsoft, I’m going to go slightly more mad than usual. So instead, let’s talk about some other stuff that happened this week.

Ubisoft posted a slight dip in sales for Q1 FY24, though CEO Yves Guillemot remains optimistic, saying it was a “better-than-expected performance.” The company also revealed it plans to launch 10 games in this fiscal year, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Rainbow Six Mobile, The Crew Motorfest, The Division Resurgence, Just Dance 24, XDefiant, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, Skull & Bones (FINALLY) and “another large game.” Your guess is as good as mine as to what that last one could be.

PlayStation dropped a new story trailer for the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which finally gave us a good look at Venom. They’re still very shy about letting us hear Tony Todd’s voice — across two trailers, he’s said nine words. But it still looks very good and I’m excited to hear more. Speaking of trailers, Netherrealm today released two new trailers for Mortal Kombat 1. In the first, we saw three new confirmed kombatants: Li Mei, Tanya and Baraka. In the second, we got our first confirmed DLC kharacters, and the rumors were true: Homelander, Omni-Man and Peacemaker join the fray, as do returning fighters Takeda, Ermac and Quan Chi.

As for my personal gaming schedule, I can finally, FINALLY play Final Fantasy XVI now that my husband has finished it. The sacrifices I make for love, honestly. But now I can finally see what all the fuss is about — I’ve barely made it a few hours into the game and I’m already loving how different the game is from previous titles. You know me, I love a good spectacle action game and it certainly is that so far. I’ll probably also play some Pikmin 4 now that it’s finally out. I’ve never played a Pikmin game before, so this’ll be shiny and new for me!

What to play this week

What’s new:

• Pikmin 4
• Xenonauts 2
• Viewfinder
• Pokémon Sleep
• My Friendly Neighborhood
• Cross Tails
• Brewpub Simulator

New on subscription services:

• Techtonica (Xbox Game Pass)
• Toem (Xbox Game Pass)
• The Cave(Xbox Game Pass)
• Maquette (Xbox Game Pass)
• Figment 2: Creed Valley (Xbox Game Pass)
• The Wandering Village (Xbox Game Pass)
• It Takes Two (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Sniper Elite 5 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Snowrunner (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• World War Z (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• The Ascent (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Undertale (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Dysmantle (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Dynasty Warriors 9 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Samurai Warriors 5 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Monster Jam Steel Titans (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
• Gravity Crash Portable (PlayStation Plus Premium)
• Twisted Metal (PlayStation Plus Premium)
• Twisted Metal 2 (PlayStation Plus Premium)
• Wytchwood (Prime Gaming)
• Embr (GeForce Now)
• Stardew Valley+ (Apple Arcade)