After more than a year that they could not come to a new agreement and let games being removed from Chinese market (except Diablo Immortal), Blizzard Entertainment will return to China via Xbox consoles. Back in November 2022, when Activision Blizzard were still independent, could not reach a new business agreement beyond the availability of Diablo Immortal (a whole different agreement) and let January 2023 as the official month of most of Blizzard Entertainment games to be retired. This week's announcement is basically a Microsoft Gaming led gaming success in China gaming market, that includes to explore bringing new NetEase games to Xbox consoles and other platforms. NetEase hasn't been in the bench despite losing a powerful partner like Blizzard (which rumors saying that in part, is was due disturbed communication with unpleasant misunderstandings for then CEO Bobby Kotick), as buying and investing in Westerns gaming studios. For immediate effect, Chinese gamers will expect the recovery of access of previous available titles like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and other titles in the Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo and StarCraft franchises. Of course, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer considers this agreement a new Xbox victory for bringing more games to more players around the world. #Gaming #GameNews #youtubegaming 🕹 🎮

During a big update on expectation for the launch of Senua's Saga #Hellblade2, Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades has left the studio, confirmed by Xbox Game Studios acknowledging his unignorable absence on the latest updates of the game. The game has achieved Unreal Engine 5 visual benchmark, regardless being capped at 30 fps for Xbox consoles, it is touted as true next-gen experience & one of the best good-looking games so far as game's realistic FMVs scenes will match movie theater's quality at 24 fps. Hellblade 2's Storyline will be a narrative, linear action experience with very high production values, focus on story and cinematic craft, impactful combat & puzzles, expected to take players between 8 to 9 hours to complete. Combat system was designed to be a one on one only, slow-paced and expect to feel brutal with swinging your sword always feeling heavy & impactful. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 launches DIGITAL ONLY on Xbox & PC, both for sale & Day One release with Game Pass on May 21, 2024 with no physical version announced (yet maybe?). #Gaming #GameNews #youtubegaming 🕹 🎮

Nintendo announced that #NintendoSwitch have surpassed the 139.36 million unit sold and overtaking DS family as the best-selling video game system of all time in Japan. During their quarterly conference with investor, Nintendo claims that Switch will be main business for 2024 & didn't mention anything about its successor, slated to be released this year and reportedly, key partners are already developing games with dev kits. During the three months until December 31, Nintendo reported an operating profit of ¥184 billion yen, slightly down on the same period last year but still, went better than analyst expected. Analyst are impressed on how Nintendo have a steady business with an aged Nintendo Switch ecosystem & limited hardware compared to PC and gaming consoles, all this without major price cuts. #Gaming #GameNews #youtubegaming 🕹🎮

Sony consoles annoy the shit out of me. I have a fully functioning PS3 and physical copies of the Ratchet and Clank games. Can I stream from the console? Of course not! the system's HDCP stops me from capturing anything. I tried multiple different work arounds and nothing pushes past the HDCP unless I use the A/V cables and an HDMI upscaler which looks like I'm playing a snuff film. So I can either hit the high seas and play the games through ROMs or pay for Sony's trash subscription service so I can STREAM the games to my PS4 and rely on their dog water servers.

It has been massively suggested that the recent hype on classical #CallOfDuty games of Xbox 360 era games, thanks to Microsoft quietly repairing servers, has actually provoke Xbox Series S & X consoles being unexpectedly sold out in many stores. #Gaming #GamingNews

Day 3 of FTC Preliminary Injunction request against Microsoft buying ABK 1st recap: -The day opened with a pre-filmed deposition of SCE CEO Jim Ryan (he is currently in Japan) -Playstation doubles wariness on having Microsoft with PS6 details/dev kits -An email from Phil Spencer in August 2022 was the moment he knew things will not go well for Playstation if the transaction closes -Acknowledge that was convinced that it was King and mobile studios the main target of the purchase -Ryan told Bobby Kotick that wanted the deal blocked -Jim Ryan contradicted on a meeting with Fidelity Investors in 2022 that he was wary of Xbox Game Pass business model claiming publisher are not sold, but at the same meeting was confident that the buyout wasn't about Call Of Duty -Playstation 5 lost against Xbox Series X in the first three month of respective availability -Economist expert as FTC witness, Dr. Robin Lee, agrees with the FTC’s market definition of Xbox Series S / X and PS5 consoles as “high performance” BUT, included Nintendo Switch where FTC wanted NOT to count Nintendo at ANYTHING -At counter-questioning, Microsoft legal team brought a document were Sony sees Nintendo as competitor, but it seems that FTC prepared Dr. Lee as he was very evasive on not sounding contradicting -An scenario where COD is not available on Nintendo and other assumptions, Xbox would increase its share on Call Of Duty by 8.5%

Microsoft confirmed that with the exception of US, Japan, Chile, Brazil & Colombia markets, Xbox Series S/X consoles will have a $2 price increase & Xbox Game Pass a $1 increase. To be fair, Microsoft resisted longer than most other brands passing inflation cost on customers.

I did a misfit thing this week and... I did NOT renewed Nintendo Switch Online. Honestly I had been paying for the last 4 years and I barely touched NES catalog and to be completely transparent I renewed collecting Master Lists from Nintendo old consoles, so no point renewing. Yes, I know that I am actually fueling Nintendo rationale against emulation, but this self-entitlement on gaming history preservation behind a paywall needs to be address.. ...And also I can still play Overwatch 2!

Ubisoft+ is now available on Xbox It was just a matter of time that we could have this news and finally Microsoft and Ubisoft landed a new partnership where we are seeing a new house for Ubisoft’s subscription Ubisoft+ landing on Xbox both for console and PC. Xbox users can join the service via the Ubisoft+ Multi Access plan. Priced at $17.99 / £14.99 per month, it lets users access over 100 games on PC and a selection of titles (listed below) via Xbox consoles and Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service. Unfortunately and contrary to general belief, there was NO mentioning that Ubisoft+ was another perk for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as the case of Electronic Arts’s EA Play but users could have their Xbox account on both console and PC to access games. Ubisoft will include day 1 launches for new games and the list of available games includes: Anno 1800 (Xbox Series X|S only) Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (includes Assassin’s Creed Liberation) Assassin’s Creed Unity (Gold Edition) Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ultimate Edition) Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, India, and Russia Assassin’s Creed III Remastered Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Deluxe Edition) Assassin’s Creed Origins (Gold Edition) Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Gold Edition) Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection Battleship Boggle Child of Light (Ultimate Edition) Family Feud Far Cry Primal (Deluxe Edition) Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Classic Edition) Far Cry 3 (Classic Edition) Far Cry 4 (Gold Edition) Far Cry 5 (Gold Edition) Far Cry 6 (Gold Edition) Far Cry: New Dawn Fighter Within For Honor Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Ultimate Edition) Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ultimate Edition) Grow Up Hungry Shark World Immortals Fenyx Rising (Gold Edition) Jeopardy! Monopoly Plus Monopoly Madness Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (Gold Edition) Rabbids Party of Legends Rainbow Six Extraction Rainbow Six Siege (Deluxe Edition) Rayman Legends Riders Republic Risk Risk: Urban Assault Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Scrabble Shape Up (Gold Edition) South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Gold Edition) South Park: The Stick of Truth Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Deluxe Edition) Steep The Crew (Ultimate Edition) The Crew 2 The Division (Gold Edition) The Division 2 Trackmania Turbo Transference Trials Fusion Trials of the Blood Dragon Trials Rising (Gold Edition) Trivial Pursuit Live Trivial Pursuit Live 2 UNO (Ultimate Edition) Valiant Hearts: The Great War Watch Dogs (Complete Edition) Watch Dogs 2 (Gold Edition) Watch Dogs: Legion (Deluxe Edition) Wheel of Fortune Zombi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmqeKMffcCg The use of your Ubisoft+ PC account on Xbox consoles needs to have the Multi-Access tier.