I keep seeing people complaining that this will reduce competition. That is patently false. The entire reason Microsoft is making this purchase is to be more competitive. Currently, Sony and Nintendo are stomping Microsoft in the console market, and Valve/Steam has such a stranglehold on the PC gaming market. Microsoft faces a massive uphill battle on PC, which players like Epic and Google Stadia have clearly struggled to succeed at. If you believe the market needs more competition, then this acquisition will help that cause. Also, this is government overreach and bureaucracy overkill. Nobody can objectively say that the company currently in last place (among the big players) is going to monopolize the industry with this deal (or even come close). This legal situation is obnoxious and a massive waste of everyone’s time and money.

Well, let’s think about this for a second. 343 has done little to improve Halo. Sure, there are bright spots, such as Infinite’s gameplay. But they’ve always been met with equally significant stains, such as the story from all their Halo games.

Microsoft has a stable of competent developers thanks to acquisitions. Namely, Bethesda, and by proxy, ID software. If they can leverage some of the talent from, say for example, the Doom team, this could yield solid results. The key will be for them to properly manage their resources, which is still to be seen as every acquisition so far has either pumped out duds or has yet to release anything substantial.

For what it’s worth, Halo has a solid gameplay foundation, much like Doom 2016. Now, it’s simply a matter of capitalizing on all the missed opportunities and delivering a solid evolution like Doom Eternal did. That may not be a perfectly apt comparison, but there are certainly parallels.

I think the most important thing for Microsoft to realize is that single player games still sell consoles and units, and Sony and Nintendo are the prime examples of that currently. If we look at Sony, God of War, Demon Souls, the Last of Us 1 and 2, Horizon, Ghosts of Tsushima, and more are their staple first party games. All of these are more single player oriented. They leave live service games to third party companies. Microsoft must compete on this front. Currently, their single player lineup is non-existent. I mean, Gears 5 is the last one that I felt made a meaningful splash. And that’s been quite awhile now.

Well, this film should’ve never been green lit to begin with. Batgirl is not a popular-enough character to warrant a standalone movie. So unless they hit a cataclysmic home run the size of Guardians of the Galaxy, which is highly unlikely, it was going to bust. They need to bring Batgirl in through another movie like they did with Harley Quinn.

In what way is this meaningful news? Who cares?

You know what we care about? Quality James Bond movies. Oh and James Bond movies that accurately portray James Bond, which does require that the character be male.

Gamespot and IGN are utter left-wing propaganda garbage. This has nothing to do with gaming news. Stay out of it.

I like how snappy it appears, but good grief that is sensory overload. How do I opt out? I’ll keep my small thumbnails and groups, thank you.

This is a sensible assertation that few would disagree with, especially as it comes from the actress that plays an awesome female role within a James Bond movie. I would've loved to see Paloma get far more screen time than she did, and I definitely would've preferred it over Lashana Lynch's character that usurped the 007 title for no other reason than because they wanted to make a statement about representation. Paloma didn't feel forced like Lashana's character did, yet she too was female and minority (Cuban).

No, it's an overstatement to say this movie is highly anticipated. The last movie was a let-down, and the trailers look abysmal, which is why the box office estimates are the lowest for the series. With one poor review coming in after another, this will be a flop here in the states, and the OUS market will be what makes the movie profitable.

Loving it. Gives me access to some Sony exclusives without needing to buy their platform since I already own a Series X, Steam Deck, and Switch (among others). There’s just not enough justification to own even that many platforms when there’s so much quality gaming to be had already. For example, Game Pass is such a huge library that you don’t need much, if anything, outside of it truly. So having their exclusives on PC gives them a potential revenue stream from gamers such as myself that aren’t going to shell out for a PS5 with or without those games on PC. If and when they get PS Plus closer to the level that Game Pass is on (especially with streaming), that’ll be another huge win.

@gatsbythepig: Well, have fun repeating the same mistake.

@naryanrobinson: I think your interpretation of cult following is narrowly defined, and in the context of this article, they clearly meant a game that became highly-touted by a small but vocal group of gamers that actually played the game. Most people would consider this a "hidden gem," but I think the point of the article was to highlight games have an ardent fan base. Not all hidden gems have this last fact. For example, I think Hunter the Reckoning is a hidden gem, but I don't think it has a significantly vocal fanbase to warrant cult status.