#186: A Very Stupid Arms Race

Summary: Microsoft -- as it's wont to do -- just went and spent a bunch of money on a publisher. But this is no ordinary publisher or forgettable amount of money: By buying Activision-Blizzard for a record $68.7 billion, Xbox now controls some of the industry's most vital IP and studios, including the king of them all, Call of Duty, and its constellation of developers, including Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Yet, Microsoft's bullish move will likely set off an even-further damaging series of mergers and acquisitions that remove risk for certainty and eliminates creativity for volume. It amounts to a very stupid arms race that everyone else will be compelled to compete in, whether they want to or not, and there's only one entity to blame. Then: Release dates for Ghostwire Tokyo, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and WWE 2K22 have emerged, God of War does big numbers on PC, Sony renews trademarks related to defunct first party team Psygnosis, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! What's our temperature on Horizon: Forbidden West less than a month away from launch? Are we not keeping an open enough mind when it comes to the possibilities of gaming NFTs? Will Sony botch the little things that could make Project Spartacus shine? Is David Jaffe more attractive than Colin Moriarty? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices