• Microsoft has signaled strong interest in the metaverse with the latest acquisition of Activision.
• The deal is worth a staggering $69 billion and will be finalized over the next few months.
• This is not the first time that tech giants will be dabbling into the metaverse.

It is easy to argue that gaming might be the best application for NFTs and the metaverse and Microsoft certainly agrees. The company’s latest acquisition signals intent to be a major player in the growing metaverse industry.

The Deal

According to an announcement by the Microsoft News Centre, the tech company will acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction that is worth nearly $69 billion. Upon completion of the deal, Microsoft will ascend the ranks to become the third biggest gaming company behind Tencent and market leader, Sony.

“Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, inclusive of Activision Blizzard’s net cash,”  read the report. To close the deal, Microsoft had Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC as its financial advisor while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP were legal counsel.

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella hinted that the reason for the splurge was as a result of the growing interest in the metaverse and the tech company is “investing deeply” in introducing an era that puts players at the forefront for a more inclusive approach. “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” noted the CEO.

The acquisition adds to Microsoft’s growing Game Pass portfolio that has over 25 million subscribers. Activision Blizzard is behind popular gaming titles like Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Candy Crush with over 400 million monthly active players around the world and will certainly make Game Pass a force to reckon with in gaming.

The current CEO of Activision Blizzard will continue to serve in his current role until the close of the 2023 fiscal year, and then the management team will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Previous Metaverse Forays

The race for a nice chunk of the metaverse between Facebook and Microsoft has been heated in recent weeks after the report that 100 Microsoft employees left to join Facebook’s Meta. 

Before the close of the year, Microsoft’s CEO disclosed the company’s plan for the metaverse through the introduction of “Mesh”. Through Mesh, company staff can create custom avatars that will allow them to hold meetings and interact with each other in the metaverse. The CEO also hinted that the company could integrate attributes of the metaverse in its Xbox consoles.

Microsoft has also been knee-deep in the development of virtual reality hardware with the release of its wide range of devices like the HoloLens 2 amongst others. The company also boasts of VR-ready PCs and ultra-modern Windows Mixed Reality. As part of its drive to a metaverse future.

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At the eve of numerous companies debuting their latest products in the gaming sphere such as Google Stadia, Apple Arcade, Sony RemotePlay as well as the soon to be launched Google Play Pass. And Following a deal with Epic Games to make Fortnite exclusively available for download on some select few Samsung devices as – Galaxy S9/S9+, Note 8, Galaxy S8/S8+, Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Tab S3 and Tab S4.

Samsung recently enlists a new software on the Galaxy App Store that enables PC game lovers to stream the games they love to play right onto their Samsung Note10 series with the best streaming experience. This Gaming Trajectory App termed the ‘PlayGalaxy’ is at present available for download on Android and Windows PC. 

PlayGalaxy System Requirement

Although similar to the Sony – RemotePlay that casts everything from a Playstation 4 console onto any screen provided (either an Android, PC or Mac). However, the PlayGalaxy app expects more advanced resources because establishing a connection between the Note 10 device and a PC requires a steady Internet connection as well as a sturdy PC architecture.

Designed by developers from the New-York based Technology firm – Parsec, the PlayGalaxy App begs for more advanced system features before a successful connection terminal can be initiated.

Such as a processor requirement of Intel core i5 and above, a Windows 10 OS or later, an updated graphics driver along with a graphic card of Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 550 built or better, an 8G DDR4 RAM and a Gigabit router Access point. On the other hand, the PlayGalaxy app on Note 10 can be powered over WiFi or a 4th and 5th Generation (4G & 5G) mobile network. 

The Samsung Glap Controller.

Another notable discrepancy resides around the smartphone gaming handling. Traditionally this defaults to on-screen controls, nonetheless another alternative is by means of a Bluetooth wireless controller like the Samsung Glap. The Glap device is a handy gaming tool well fitted for the Samsung Galaxy Note series with a battery life of 10 hours per single charge.

Similarly, Samsung suggests that a Bluetooth mouse and Keyboard could suffice for the PlayGalaxy App in the event of the absence of an option. Evidently, Samsung has been carving a niche in the mobile gaming sector since the launch of Fortnite for Android particularly on Samsung devices.

And by porting these PC games to next-generation Samsung Galaxy devices, this becomes a major advancement in both the Smartphone and Gaming industry by the Seoul head-quartered conglomerate. Even though the PlayGalaxy link is only currently made available in the US and South Korea, future plans are underway towards making this app available in more countries.

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Tron’s investment of $100 million in its Tron Arcade could be deemed as a good investment, since a lot of gaming, entertainment firms and developers are attracted to the Tron blockchain through it.

The current addition is OxGames, an investment firm based in Cyprus that helps in the development of games. Tron blockchain is one of the fastest blockchains with high scalability which is the reason for their choice.

One of its games OxWarriors will be launched in Tron’s blockchain even though that its Beta version is already available on the blockchain. The game enables gamers to trade items like bludgeons and swords which are used in the game by fighters to win and participate in events within the platform.

In a tweet, Tron Arcade wrote:

“The 0xGames team has now set its sights on using TRON’s technology to improve their decentralized gaming experiences.”

Commenting on this development, CEO of OxGames, Sergey Kopov said that:

“Apps based on blockchain that could boast really high popularity haven’t been released yet. What we’ve seen over the recent months is that trading and mining enjoyed less demand due to the cryptocurrencies’ downward trends, however, decentralized games have certainly been on the rise. They are likely to become the driver behind mass blockchain adoption in the future.”

This addition follows the migration of the largest gaming platform in Ethereum, EtherGoo to the Tron blockchain. Presently, Tron blockchain is the most active blockchain ahead of EOS and Ethereum.

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Reports on Microsoft from unknown sources rumored last year a cloud game streaming service which is to be called ‘Xbox Scarlett Cloud’ and stories about a next console for the company which will be made mainly for the cloud game streaming service.

According to stories around the console may have basic hardware inside which can enable streaming of games from the cloud servers and do other duties. Also, it was believed that the console might feature front-line silicon. However, there are now new rumors of Microsoft to present separate CPU and GPU parts for the Xbox Scarlett.

The console is supposed to use an Arcturus 12 GPU featuring 64 ‘Arcturus Engines’ and a total of 4,096 GPU cores, as told by a Reddit take on the rumored Microsoft Xbox Scarlett console. If this is true then, we are in for a killer graphics chip contrasted with Xbox One X powered Scorpio graphics processor’s 2,560 GPU cores.

Moreover, others like PCGamesN says that Microsoft may be distinct graphics part of the Xbox Scarlett because of the total size and the believe that chip will be compound. Other theories going around shows that the new Xbox may present 7nm Zen 2 CPU cores and may even be seen with the making of a system-on-a-chip that integrates both a 7nm processor and all these powerful graphics that most of the times are complicated in making and extremely expensive. This bodes well looking at what competitors often.

Anyway, these are all just rumors that are just going around but, reports say, indeed, Microsoft will release a conventional dedicated Xbox console together with the entire graphics and processing hardware inside the box though and not heard concerning the both. All the same, with much patience, we await the exciting news about precisely the Xbox Scarlett at E3 2019

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Based on rumors, some people expected a GTX 1160, but that became dead tales as Nvidia announced at its press conference at CES 2019 the RTX 2060. Nevertheless, that has sparked up other stories about a 1660 and a 1660 Ti.

This might be true as with more significant competition from AMD’s aging Polaris RX 500 GPUs, Nvidia’s are pushed to replace its last-generation GTX 1060 and other entry-level GPUs.

Nvidia’s next-generation of graphics cards lean toward a market segment above their predecessors which turns out to be a mutual aspect. The GTX 1660 can be close in competences to a GTX 1070, as the new RTX 2060 outdo the GTX 1070 Ti and explicitly, a GTX 1060 appearing similar to a speculated GTX 1650, etc.

Many stories going around tells that, the performance of GTX 1660 might be weaker than that of the RTX 2060 and if the rumors of it prices are correct then, a card that is 25% faster than a GTX 1060 would make a lot of sense.

Videocardz’s assumed performance figures supports this notion, although as limited to the notoriously difficult-to-compare Ashes of the Singularity benchmark, it seems not a solid stand to hold all the graphics cards.

It is quite clear that Nvidia’s GTX 16-series will be designed to canter AMD’s existing RX 500 series if Nvidia don not put RTX cards below that of the RTX 2060 and everything that Navi may be able to do. In any case, we are anticipating a similar performance to ensure the GTX 1660 Ti is still a workable substitute.

In spite of reports from the latter part of 2018, which proposed an argue of CES 2019 for a new-generation of non-RTX Turing graphics cards, yet, the said date has past and nothing happened. Therefore, we look to what’s to come. According to HardOCP’s sources, the GTX 1660 Ti will be launched on February 15 this year, priced at $279. They likewise trust that the rumored GTX 1660 will make a big appearance toward the beginning of March with a cost of $229 and after a $179 GTX 1650 later that month. GTX 1660 is expected to be priced well below that a $349 floor on the RTX 2060

Anyway, a $279 bodes well as that sets the 1660 Ti well within the price range of the AMD RX 590 which is the best mid-range card AMD currently offers. That additionally prevents Nvidia from quickly taking out its residual overstock of GTX 1060s, caused by the so-called, “crypto-hangover” from 2017’s major shortages.

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An Xbox Live issue made many gamers who use the Microsoft’s console have it nearly out of function prompting the owner of Xbox One to manage this serious issue. Some users reported that a black screen appears not long after their console boots up and that the black screen prevents them from doing anything on the console. On the other hand, some found it very difficult accessing their save data.

Initial thoughts of some gamers were that their console might have been broken, but it turns out that the issue was solely an Xbox Live and software error, though an alarming issue that had made Xbox One quite useless for some time. On Wednesday, Microsoft tweeted that it knew about the “Xbox One console startup, title update, and sign-in errors” and also declared they would give updates on that very soon.

A tweet from the official Xbox Support account admitted the current issues with both the console and the Xbox Live service, and it says it’s working to solve the problems. Head of the Xbox Insider program, Brad Rossetti, stated that the team traced the black screen problems to a service change on Microsoft’s end.

However, as time went on, some users announced that unplugging from Ethernet can allow the console to work normally as that takes away Live connection, yet, the problem was still going on as consoles set up for a Wi-Fi network couldn’t use that solution. Fortunately, the company identified the source of the issue shortly after it started and got to resolve it.

According to Microsoft, people might face some issues getting some support but all the same advice that you can follow the current status of Xbox Live through the respective support page. We will update you on further happenings as the company is working to address all of these issues.

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Anthem, the much awaited mech-flying game for online shooters kept online gaming industry busy, what with the service on which it was to demo not linking up and later the game itself not connecting to servers, not moving ahead of the intro segment. Finally publisher EA tweeted a much laundered – ‘issues list’ accepting that the major title had run aground.

Anthem by bioware

Anthem is a freshly minted online shooting game by devs Bioware and publishers EA. Announced at 2018 E3, this platform has been the most anticipated game since it was expected to take-on the big and established names in this segment – Destiny and other namesakes.

The demo-version finally arrived for those who had pre-ordered the game, after much delay. A 40GB demo, the story of the game is shooters to loot, by using pilot mechs with friendly combat and exploration.

Major embarrassment

What was to be a routine launch or demo by a leading title and much publicized publisher, turned out instead to be a major embarrassment to all concerned.

Though it is acceptable for demos to run into minor or initial-level glitches and eventually have a solid-run in for the serious game follower, Anthem proved to be a major oxymoron.

Not only was logging-into, setting-up and all a major issue and time consuming, what really reached annoying levels was the lack of support. The close-down of Help lines by EA only got on the nerves of the players of the demo since they were unable to bring it to the notice of the publisher that their much awaited game could not be played as yet.

Since those who purchased the demo pieces were serious gamers, and not some random players out to explore the launch of a new game, the onus was the top title developer and publishing game.

Busted pre-order bonus

In fact, EA was offering buyers the demo as a pre-order bonus for the weekend and the first day on Friday was a major disappointment indeed.

The surprise for the gaming community is the lack of preparation showed by all concerned with a major title such as Anthem, poised as it is to take on the almighty Destiny and  more!

For the selected few buyers of the game, Anthem is as promising as it was hyped to be. Developers it appears have gone by their word to be more than Destiny clones!

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