Things certainly look dim for many businesses operating in the legal cannabis sector in the US. And some Wall Street firms opine that things will be no different in 2022. That is the prediction of a report prepared by Viridian Capital Advisors. Based in New York, the firm looks after financial and strategic advice exclusively […]

The post Cannabis Stock Predictions for 2022 appeared first on Latest Cannabis News Today - Headlines, Videos & Stocks.

The studio behind Wallace and Gromit (as well as the excellent Chicken Run and Flushed Away) is creating a bonkers open-world game, it seems. As spotted by TechRadar, esteemed animation studio Aardman has posted a job listing for a level and narrative designer working on games who will help build "a mad, open world and fill it with compelling stories". There's very little to go on in terms of what the game will be, exactly, in the job description. However, we do know it'll be a "brand-new IP" so it won't tie into any of the studio's existing worlds, though it sounds like we can expect it to be as fun and distinctive as Aardman's adventures have been so far, given the role is aimed at helping to "build" a "mad" open world and create "compelling" stories within it. There's a smattering of other clues giving us an idea of what the game will be, too. "We’ll be scoping out the size and structure of our world, the player journey from end to end and the way we implement and explore our core, open-ended mechanics," the description reads. It also indicates that the game will be in the "3D action-adventure genre".

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) community continues to grow after reaching a milestone of more than 1.145 million holders – an all-time high for the cryptocurrency.

Cloud infrastructure identity detection and response firm Permiso has emerged from stealth with $10 million seed funding. The company identifies and tracks human, machine, vendor and service provider identities in IaaS and PaaS infrastructures.

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Barely two weeks have passed since the release of Dead Cells' third paid expansion, The Queen and the Sea, but developer Motion Twin's astonishing post-launch support continues apace, with the studio now requesting input as it looks to improve the acclaimed rogue-like action-platformer's accessibility features.

"Recently we've been exploring how to make Dead Cells as accessible as possible," Motion Twin - or rather, subsidiary Evil Empire, which now handles Dead Cells' development - revealed on Twitter. "We're doing our own research, but the best way to figure out what we're missing is an open dialogue with the players."

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888 Holdings has provided an update on its financial health, closing in on its purchase of William Hill’s non-US assets. The results show considerable gains, despite a slower fourth quarter for the gaming company in 2021. 888 Holdings is putting together the final pieces of the puzzle that will allow it to complete the purchase […]

The post 888 Holdings Reports ‘Record-Breaking’ 2021 as Sales Increase appeared first on Casino.org.

The Kingdom Hearts cloud-streaming versions are set to launch for the Nintendo Switch on Feb. 10, with each game carrying a pretty hefty price tag.

How will the California housing market change and how will state and local officials respond to continuing affordable housing challenges in 2022.

By Kai Zhang On 14 December 2021, National Westminster Bank Plc (“NatWest“), a major bank in the UK, was fined by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA“) close to £265 million for failure to comply with the relevant anti-money laundering (“AML“) requirements with respect to one single client, a Yorkshire jewelry company (“the Client”) during the […]

Crypto-focussed Silvergate Bank's Q4 net income dipped nearly 9% to $21.4 million from $23.5 million in Q3. The bank's digital currency customers grew to 1,381 at the end of December from 1,305 at the end of September, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Average digital currency customer deposits also increased to $13.3 billion from $11.2…

The post Silvergate Bank’s Quarterly Net Income Dips 9% to $21.4M appeared first on Bitcoin News Miner.

Woah.

A curious consequence of Microsoft’s earth-shattering $70 billion buyout of Activision is that Xbox now owns legendary PlayStation franchises Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Sony made these games in collaboration with Universal Interactive back in the 90s, but that company was acquired by Vivendi which later merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft has now purchased Activision Blizzard – and all of its intellectual property and development teams – meaning that it’s to become the incumbent custodian of Crash and Spyro, assuming the acquisition closes. Many had hoped that Sony would, one day, wrangle the rights to the series back – but that looks impossible right now.

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Microsoft has announced their intention to acquire Activision Blizzard King in a deal that values the monolithic publisher at $68.7 billion. This, Microsoft states, will help to ‘provide building blocks for the metaverse’, and is expected to be approved by regulators in FY23, which runs from July 2022 to end of June 2023 for Microsoft. Activision Blizzard is the third largest video games company in how much revenue they draw in, behind only Sony and Tencent, thanks to their vastly popular and successful franchises like Call of Duty, Candy Crush and Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch. They also have a sizeable position in esports, thanks to owning Major League Gaming, which hosts popular Call of Duty and Overwatch competitions. This leaves massive questions over what the future of video games looks like. With Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda for $7.5 billion in early 2021, ones of the biggest concerns was that all of Bethesda’s future games would become Xbox exclusives, a fear that turned out to be warranted. However, nothing that Bethesda produces has the reach and pervasiveness of Call of Duty or Candy Crush – not even Skyrim. Will Microsoft be content to keep the next Call of Duty game as a cross-platform release? Will COD Warzone remain on PlayStation while Modern Warfare 2 becomes an Xbox exclusive? We simply do not know right now, but this is a huge deal. Activision Blizzard comes with a significant stigma right now. The company is embattled on multiple fronts with lawsuits and government investigations into the workplace culture, as well as employees who are striking while also preparing to unionise. This has drawn stern criticism from the leaders of Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo, so with that in mind, Microsoft acquiring the company could be a huge step forward in cleansing it of its unsavoury whiff. That certainly seems to be the implication. While the deal works its way through anti-trust regulators, Bobby Kotick will remain as CEO of Activision Blizzard. However, “Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming.” This certainly implies that the man who allegedly knew of the allegations running through his company for years will be hanging around for the transition period and then sail off into the sunset. Just last week, Spencer said that he doesn’t believe it’s his job “to punish other companies” like Activision Blizzard for such misdeeds, though now that Activision will be part of his company, he needs to ensure that they are squeaky clean. In the here and now, Spencer said, “Players everywhere love Activision Blizzard games, and we believe the creative teams have their best work in front of them. Together we will build a future where people can play the games they want, virtually anywhere they want.” “For more than 30 years our incredibly talented teams have created some of the most successful games,” Kotick said. “The combination of Activision Blizzard’s world-class talent and extraordinary franchises with Microsoft’s technology, distribution, access to talent, ambitious vision and shared commitment to gaming and inclusion will help ensure our continued success in an increasingly competitive industry.” Considering the size of this deal, you can expect that it will draw much greater scrutiny from legislative bodies over the next few months. While the Bethesda purchase was waved through, this is much more significant and will have a higher barrier for success. Source: Microsoft