A new Xbox update available for testers removes the ability to upload gameplay clips directly to Twitter. Windows Central downloaded the patch and found that it's now only possible to upload clips to your phone directly from the Xbox dashboard. Users can then share these on Twitter, but it's an extra step.

Xbox has included the ability to upload gameplay clips and screenshots directly to Twitter from the system for years. Microsoft has not said why it has removed this functionality in the new build for testers.

It is possible that this is not a permanent change and that the removal is only for testing purposes. But that would be odd. Windows Central contacted Microsoft for comment and did not hear back. GameSpot is also attempting to reach the company in an attempt to get more details on this.

Posting clips directly to Twitter is available on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. It's generally seen as a good feature that people enjoy to share moments from gameplay sessions without the need for dedicated capture equipment or applications.

In other Xbox news, Microsoft has announced the next wave of Xbox Game Pass titles coming throughout the rest of March, while the company also confirmed the titles that are leaving Game Pass. The indie game Tunic saw a surprise-release on Game Pass this week as part of Microsoft's wider ID@Xbox announcements.

As we celebrate 20 years since the first Xbox was sold to Japanese fans, we are proud to announce that the official home for all Xbox news and announcements, Xbox Wire, has also launched in Japan! We are so excited to bring the joy and community of gaming to so many more fans, journalists and […]

The Last Worker has been revealed by Wired Productions, Oiffy, and Wolf & Wood, with the game heading to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Meta Quest 2 later this year. The game places you in the shoes of an employee in the fictional online retailer Jungle, who works in the fulfilment centre JC1. The centre is 650 million square miles big and occupies the same space as Manhattan, which in this world has submerged under the waves of the Atlantic. The Last Worker is a narrative game in which players will go through the JC1, which has been the subject of a tour by Jungle CEO Josef Jüngle. However, what is soon apparent is that something is going quite wrong in this fulfilment centre as the machines start to turn on the human workers. What follows is a lot of death and it seems as The Last Worker you will have to survive and figure out what is happening. “The Last Worker is a true labour of love and I’m lucky to be working with the best creative talent money can’t buy,” said Writer, Director and Producer Jörg Tittel. “With people like these, one can’t help but deliver the goods, but should we fail, I hope Mr. Jüngle can give me a job?” “We have all become attached to the characters in The Last Worker. Seeing them transition from Mick McMahon’s sketches and then brought to life by such amazing actors has been a fantastic process to be a part of.” Said Ryan Bousfield, Creative Director of Wolf & Wood. “I’m extremely proud of the innovative approach taken by our team to create a rich and exciting world that is as immersive on screen as it is in VR. We’re looking forward to showing you the first elements of gameplay.” “The Last Worker is a truly unique experience, and we are proud to support both the innovative work of Jörg Tittel and the multi-talented indie studio Wolf & Wood in creating this awe-inspiring title,” said Leo Zullo, Managing Director, Wired Productions. “We are excited to formally introduce players to Jüngle and the epic Fulfilment Centre in which the game is set. The intense, surprising, and heartfelt story is one that we cannot wait to share later this year.” The Last Worker will include a number of different endings dependent on the choices players make throughout the story. It will star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jason Isaacs, Clare-Hope Ashitey, and David Hewlett, plus more to be announced. The music has been scored by Oliver Kraus who has worked with the likes of Adele, Sia, and Florence and The Machine. Source: Press Release

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has taken to Twitter to talk about one of the key bones of contention surrounding the agreed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. While Sony has stated that they expect Microsoft to honour contractual agreements with Activision, Spencer has now confirmed that it’s Microsoft’s intention to “keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.” Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship. — Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022 This follows previous statements in interviews that “It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that,” but there’s still plenty of leeway in the practical act of keeping COD on PlayStation. This is a statement that has absolutely been framed in a way that’s meant to please government regulators, similar to those made in the run up to the Bethesda acquisition last year. Call of Duty is no longer a single product line for Activision, and is instead made up of the yearly main game releases like Call of Duty: Vanguard, alongside the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone, and the free-to-play mobile shooter Call of Duty: Mobile. Sony has an exclusive content agreement with Activision that guarantees them some kind of bonus content for PlayStation. When regular map packs were still a thing in 2015 that was a one month head start on DLC releases, but that has morphed into PlayStation exclusive game modes and now, for Vanguard, PlayStation exclusive cosmetics and XP boosts. The most likely course of action for Microsoft to take is to have the main Call of Duty games continue to release on PlayStation through the course of the agreement with Sony – up until the 2024 Call of Duty if they have been signing 5-year deals – and only then shift the game to being an Xbox exclusive. After that point, Microsoft can say that COD is still on PlayStation by keeping a free-to-play game like Warzone on Sony’s consoles. It could even be that Call of Duty no longer sees yearly releases, as Spencer said in an interview with the Washington Post that he will talk with the many studios toiling on COD content “about working on a variety of franchises” from the Activision Blizzard vaults. Even the developers of Crash Bandicoot 4 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 have been roped into supporting efforts at Activision and Blizzard, and there’s no denying that it would be good to see Activision’s 11 studios no longer beholden to grinding out content for a single franchise. Further Reading: What does Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard mean for gamers? All of this follows Microsoft’s track record with recent acquisitions. Psychonauts 2 was a cross-platform release, albeit with an Xbox Series X|S exclusive upgrade for the new generation, while Wasteland 3 was released with Koch Media publishing. Similarly, despite having acquired Bethesda at the start of last year, Microsoft is honouring the exclusivity agreements that have made Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo into timed PlayStation 5 exclusives. Of course, where there hasn’t been an existing agreement, Microsoft and Bethesda have confirmed that Starfield, Redfall will be Xbox console exclusives, and hinted that The Elder Scrolls VI will follow suit. Source: Twitter

I had not heard of Blackwind until the release announcement dropped in my inbox but it looks certainly my thing. It’s a new hack and slash shooter featuring men in stompy robot suits blasting aliens, what’s not to love. The game has been created by Drakkar Dev from Catania, Italy, and published by Blowfish Studios. Here’s the trailer. Here’s more about the game: Blackwind is a hack n slash shooter platformer sci-fi action game that puts you against hordes of enemies and frantic battles in a desperate attempt to stop a planetary invasion. The Raknos hordes are raging the planet Medusa-42, a small human mining colony. When the starship “Pandora” is shot down, James Hawkins finds himself trapped inside a military Battle Frame prototype. He’ll have to discover its powers to survive the alien forces in different planet locations while searching for his father. FEATURES Story-driven and played like an adventure rather than a list of arenas to fight into. You can choose your fighting style to be melee, ranged or a mix of them. Enemies can be brutally killed with fierce termination moves. Exploration, platforming and some environmental puzzles play a larger role than in the listed competitors. Also the presence of the detachable drone is a plus that can be used both in single player and in local co-op mode. I did say in the headline the game is available on all formats and I did meant that, it’s even coming out on Mac. You can find on the PlayStation Store for both PS4 and PS5, on Xbox, on Switch, on Steam, GOG and the Mac App Store. Blimey. Source: Press release

Hitman 3 – Year 2, a fresh year of DLC and content for the final game in the World of Assassination trilogy has now launched on all platforms. Patch 3.100 for the game is available – the patch notes are at to the bottom of this post –  and the game releasing on Steam for the first time. The full trilogy has also come to Xbox Game Pass on both console and PC. Elusive Target Arcade The most significant free addition is Elusive Target Arcade, a new take on the single-shot Elusive Target game mode introduced in the 2016 game. Now you have not just one level to try, but a string of targets to try and take down in succession, each with different objectives and challenges. Completing Elusive Target Arcade will bring exclusive rewards for the full game. Interestingly, this ditches the one-shot format. The series of missions in Elusive Target Arcade will be permanently available within Hitman 3, though you can only try each mission one time per day. More missions will be added over time. Hitman Freelancer Another new feature is Hitman Freelancer, coming in Spring 2022. This gives you a customisable house that will be your base of operations. You will be able to take on a string of missions across the full World of Assassination, letting you choose different threats to the world. You have to start off at the lowest rungs, taking out the lower echelons of a criminal organisation, building up to taking down the overall leader in a final mission – you’ll have to figure out who they are, as well! It’s all remixed ever time you play, changing depending on which missions you choose to take on early. There will be more planning involved as you have to purchase gear from vendors that you will use up or lose if you fail. VR and Ray Tracing for PC PC players will also receive full VR support  having been a PSVR exclusive since Hitman 3’s launch. There will also be ray tracing added for the PC, variable rate shading and Intel’s new XeSS upscaling technology. Steam & Xbox Game Pass Hitman 3 will arrive on Steam after a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity. For the release, IOI are bundling the entire trilogy together into one bundle for newcomers to purchase. That trilogy release will also be added to Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC today. New levels teaser sneak peak… Finally, IO Interactive teased a new location that will be coming later in 2022. Check it out… Hitman 3 was one of the first major game releases of 2021. It wraps the stylish and inventive trilogy perfectly, having scored an 8 out of 10 in our review: Charting the series’ progress since that 2016 Paris debut has been a fascinating journey. IO have learned a lot over the past five years and that really shows in Hitman 3. It’s a flashier, more fluid evolution of IO’s original template – a rewarding conclusion to one of the most unique video game franchises around, and one we’ll continue playing for many weeks and months to come. Hitman 3 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, as well as streaming to Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch. Here are the patch notes: HITMAN 3 RESOLVED ISSUES (Year 2 Patch: 3.100) PS5hhhhhhhh We’ve resolved an issue where audio could abruptly cut out or become muted during gameplay. This issue was especially prominent on PlayStation 5. Xbox Access We’ve resolved an issue where some Xbox players could intermittently lose access to content. After an investigation, we’ve identified that players who owned a lot of different Hitman content on the same console were most likely to be affected. Improved Stability We’ve made back-end changes to ensure a smoother online experience and reduce the number of ‘disconnection’ issues encountered by players. Epic Achievements We’ve added support for Epic Achievements and Avatars. More details can be found on the Epic Games Blog. Windows PC Support In addition to Epic Games Store and Steam, HITMAN 3 and HITMAN Trilogy are now available on Windows PC (Microsoft). Players on this platform (including PC Game Pass players) will have access to their existing HITMAN 3 progression that was earned playing HITMAN 3 on any Xbox console. That progression will also be synchronised between Xbox consoles and the Windows PC (Microsoft) versions of the game. Also, any Contracts created on this PC platform will be shared with Xbox console players and vice versa. These features are possible because Xbox Live is the central service that brings the two platforms together. Shoulder Swap Controller We’ve implemented a permanent fix for the ‘Shoulder Swap’ option, so that it’s now available when playing in Offline Mode with a controller. Target Down Dialogue We’ve implemented richer NPC dialogue that triggers when certain NPCs discover a target or VIP has been pacified, eliminated, or otherwise hurt. They will refer to them by name in several ways, such as when reporting their knowledge to a guard. Lens Flare Reduction We’ve resolved a handful of issues that could result in an excessively strong lens flare when certain light sources met reflective surfaces. 2 Easy 2 Silent We’ve tweaked the unlock conditions for the ‘Silent Assassin’ trophy so that it unlocks more consistently according to the requirements. Challenge Display We’ve fixed an issue that could cause the menu UI to incorrectly display the mission that a challenge could be completed on. Now, the game will be more accurate when displaying what mission is best suited to complete a given challenge. Glass Smash We’ve resolved an issue where several glass panes were missing SFX when being smashed. HUD Flash We’ve resolved an issue where some HUD icons and messages would repeatedly flash during gameplay, depending on specific player actions. We Use This To Fix We’ve resolved an issue where the Versatile Assassin challenge on ‘The Author’ (H1 Patient Zero campaign mission) did not unlock, despite completing all the requirements. To ensure that the challenges are completed and tracked accurately, we recommend players complete all objectives and end the mission. Dubai: Deadly Elevator We’ve resolved an issue where NPCs that were attacked and thrown down an elevator shaft in Dubai would be pacified rather than killed. Now, only death awaits. Dartmoor: Outdoors, Indoors We’ve resolved an issue where 47 could see through a specific wall from outside the mansion in Dartmoor. Chongqing: You’re Dead to Me We’ve made changes to several areas in the Chongqing, so that any NPCs that find themselves outside of the playable area are classified as ‘killed’ and the bodies are ‘hidden’. Chongqing: Table, No Table We’ve tweaked the properties of an ‘invisible table’ in the Gluttony Gobble Escalation. Basically, it’s gone. Mendoza: No Soup For You We’ve resolved an issue where Agent 47 would be unable to move without being spotted, when starting as the Asado Chef. Mendoza: Overly Persistent Prompt We’ve removed a ‘prompt’ icon from near one of the persistent shortcuts in Mendoza. Mendoza: Rich Harvest We’ve made the Rich Harvest trophy/achievement slightly easier to unlock by not requiring the completion of a ‘hidden’ mission story on Mendoza. This should remove confusion amongst players who appeared to have fulfilled the requirements but did not receive the trophy/achievement. Mendoza: Diana Dialogue We’ve resolved an issue that could cause Diana’s dialogue not to trigger at the start of the Mendoza campaign mission. Bangkok: Unusual Identity We’ve resolved several issues where NPC names and images did not match up with the actual NPC in Bangkok. Credit Where It’s Due, 3.100 We’ve updated the in-game credits where needed to reflect work done since the last patch, including new members of the team that have joined.  

Ubisoft has revealed its new For Honor. The Pirate has set sail for the fighting game’s expanding roster and will be playable from January 27, 2022. You can catch the latest episode of Ubisoft’s Warriors’ Den in which the developers showcase this swashbuckling new hero. The Pirate stands out for a number of reasons. She doesn’t fit the typical medieval fighter archetype, wielding a cutlass in one hand and a pistol in the other, using them in tandem during combat. The reveal trailer gives us a taste of how this new fighter will play with a sneak peak at some of her moves, executions, and cosmetic gear. For those For Honor lore buffs, here’s the lowdown on the latest hero: The people of Heathmoor were afflicted with rising waters and a devastating storm that flooded the landscape. Thankfully, the storm passed, and though the skies began to clear, a cold winter settled in. The high waters froze, and snow covered the terrain. Ships were stuck in the ice, which only added to the odd serenity that had befallen Heathmoor. After so many hardships, so many battles and natural catastrophes, the people took this small respite as an opportunity to reconnect. After being separated for so long, friends and families were reunited once again, and everyone took the time to count their blessings, and celebrate. But amid the festivities, something unforeseen came from the frozen sea. A large ship with red sails reached the harbor, the herald of uncertainty – and intrigue. Naturally, fans of the fighting game are already asking what comes next. For Honor is fast approaching its fifth birthday which raises questions as to whether we can expect a Year 6 roadmap loaded with fresh content. The arrival of new heroes, maps, and modes has slowed over time. 2021 brought us the Kyoshin whereas 2020 saw Apollyon, and the wandering mercenary, Gryphon, make their debut. That said, the team at Ubisoft Montreal have been tirelessly looking to tweak and rebalance its sizeable cast of fighters, each with their own unique fighting styles. Hopefully the upcoming stream will give us a tiny glimpse of what to expect throughout the year. In the meantime, we’ll be revisiting For Honor this year for our updated 2022 review.

Published right alongside the new gameplay overview trailer and release date announcement for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Polygon has a report with both current and former employees saying that TT Games has suffered years of extensive crunch, ever since the start of the popular franchise in 2005. Change has come in recent years, but has been slow and not addressed some of the fundamental issues with long working hours at the studio. The issue stems from the original workplace culture under co-founder Jon Burton who would reportedly “yell at staff to return to their desks if they tried to leave work on time, and that he regularly expected employees to put in extra hours.” Those expectations continued after he was replaced in the day-to-day by studio manager David Dootson (2013-18) and Paul Flanagan (2018-20), both “maintaining an atmosphere where overtime was expected.” While overtime was presented as being voluntary, employees were split into overtime and flexitime. While the former could exchange for extra pay or time off, flexitime could only be exchanged for late starts or holidays, and came with a 40-hour cap that meant those who were led to working more time were not rewarded for their efforts. When low morale was a concern in late 2017, and following meetings in which staff could air their complaints freely, new contracts were offered to give more holiday time and larger bonuses. Sadly, both current and former employees say that little else complained. Some sources highlight that TT Games has been a hostile workplace for women, who would endure bullying, derogatory comments and lacked opportunities for promotions. In a 2020 report on gender pay gap, women have only 2.4% of the highest-paid employee pay quarter and 8.7% in upper-middle pay quarter. Former managing director Tom Stone organised the staff feedback meetings, but asserts that he never heard complaints of bullying or harassment. Management changes came in 2020, when former Sony Worldwide Studios VP Michael Denny came in as studio head. Opinions on his leadership are split, with some sources saying he is addressing issues regarding excessive crunch and lack of diversity, while others point to his hiring of former Sony colleagues Eric Matthews and Mark Green to senior roles as cronyism. Their positions as director of game development and head of game were not widely advertised internally. In general, The Skywalker Saga has suffered from choices made by upper management. This includes choosing to go with the internally developed and incomplete NTT game engine instead of switching to Unreal Engine – this led to instability for development tools, unfamiliarity for new hires and a lot of lost time as work had to be restarted – and feature creep as management coined the phrase “strive for 85” to try and get a metacritic rating of 85 for the first time. This has actively fed into the gameplay overhaul for The Skywalker Saga, hoping to address common complaints from reviews regarding the camera, online co-op and platforming. “Let’s add a God of War-style combat tree! 5-year-olds will love it,” one former developer said. You can hear their eyes rolling. There was also the baffling decision in early 2020 to move staff from this game to another project, leaving Skywalker Saga seriously short of staff and potentially exacerbating delays. A spokesperson for TT Games provided Polygon with the following statement about its current work culture: “TT Games is committed to creating a respectful, fair and inclusive workplace for every employee. There have been many efforts in recent years, with new studio leadership and the support of Warner Bros. Games, to nurture a collaborative culture and work-life balance our employees can be proud of. Our legacy of delighting fans with the games we have created over the years is very important to us. We recognize our continued and future success relies on sustaining the momentum of the positive changes we have made to date, ensuring every employee feels supported, appreciated and experiences a true sense of belonging.” Thankfully it does sound as though some things will improve following the release of The Skywalker Saga. Sources say that TT Games will no longer use NTT on future games and will switch to Unreal Engine, and the company has started to be more aware of and limit the amount of overtime that staff can work. Source: Polygon

Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone Pacific Season 2 has been delayed, Activision has officially confirmed. The new start date for S2 has been pushed back to February 14, 2022. This push back to Valentine’s Day is in response to major issues across Call of Duty Vanguard, Warzone Pacific, and Modern Warfare, with developers working on updates for each game. “We will use this additional development time to deliver updates, including optimizations to gameplay,” reads the latest community blog. This will include weapon balancing for a fairer playing field, as well as important bugs fixes and stability improvements. Activision reminds players that these updates are being rolled out across multiple games, spanning a whole host of platforms, and two console generations. While some will see the Vanguard and Warzone Pacific Season 2 delay as a disappointment, others agree that it’s the best decision. In recent weeks there have been a growing number of reports of frustrating bugs and performance issues – it doesn’t make sense for Call of Duty to go live with its first major content drop of 2022 without some crucial clean-up work first. It’s a strange time for the power-selling first person shooter series. Developer Sledgehammer Games wasn’t able to capitalise on the franchise’s momentum with last year’s Call of Duty Vanguard. At least in terms of sales, prompting speculation that this year’s entry could release a little sooner in the year. Then, of course, there’s Microsoft’s acquisition of publisher Activision. Nothing’s been set in stone though there’s a chance we could see Call of Duty become an Xbox exclusive from 2023 onwards, a landmark shift for the genre and industry at large. In our review we scored Vanguard a mighty 9/10 for its cinematic story campaign, sharp multiplayer, and reworked Zombies: The stars have aligned for Call of Duty: Vanguard. For the first time, this truly feels like a full package without any caveats. Sure, some parts are naturally stronger than others but there isn’t a weak link in sight. After back to back triumphs, Call of Duty is now on a killstreak. Source: Call of Duty

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will release on 5th April 2022, coming out for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC. To mark the announcement, a new gameplay overview trailer has also been released. Finally getting a firm release date is a pretty big milestone for this game. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was originally planned for release in 2020, but after half a year of the pandemic, Warner Bros. made the difficult decision to push it back to early 2021, and then delay it again to early 2022. Hopefully the extended development cycle will be worth it, coming three years after the last TT Games LEGO game – The Lego Movie 2 Videogame – when there had been at least one LEGO game from them going all the way back to the original LEGO Star Wars in 2005. Update: Disappointingly, a report has emerged discussing a culture of crunch and overtime, as well as other development issues that have affected TT Games. TT Games has completely overhaul the series’ gameplay. There’s new combat mechanics, such as over-the-shoulder blaster aiming and tucking into cover, and a more dynamic 3D camera that’s closer to the action than ever before. Space battles will have 3rd person follow cams for broader space dogfighting. Levels will spice things up with different set pieces, like speeder bike chases, lobbing artillery at oncoming droid armies, and more. There’s also multiple routes through levels now, giving you a choice between head-on confrontation and stealthier paths, for example. Each location lets you progress the main story, or take a detour to explore more open world planets with side missions. Exploring and finding Kyber bricks will allow you to upgrade different character classes, such as Scavenger characters having access to a net launcher to create climbable surfaces, or Scoundrels sensing opportunities for special shots. Handy when there’s over 300 characters that you can play as. Last but not least, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will have fully voiced cutscenes and interactions, as all the most recent games have had… but a new Mumble Mode will let you switch back to the classic style of the original LEGO Star Wars games, replacing all voices with mumbles. Source: press release

With Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick seemingly heading towards the exit door following an agreed buyout by Microsoft, Blizzard Producer Tracy Kennedy took to Twitter to firmly pin the blame for Overwatch 2’s development delays on mismanagement by Kotick and his leadership team. Kennedy was tweeting in response to Kotick’s GamesBeat interview, in which he cited the delays to Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV as the main reasons for Activision Blizzard’s plummeting stock price through late 2021 – totally nothing to do with the sexual harassment and toxic workplace culture he reportedly turned a blind eye to for years, right? She said, “Bobby, tell everyone about the random projects for [Overwatch 1] you all would shove on us. The team would do [overtime], only for them to get cancelled and for months of [Overwatch 2 development] to have been lost. Or how almost entire teams are turning over and citing you as the reason. Don’t be shy. “Oh wait, that’s right you hide behind scapegoats because you’re a coward, my mistake. The entire world will remember you to be a greedy joke, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. We outlasted you and we won. Byeee 👋” Her tweet feels a little jumbled, referring to both the original Overwatch and its in-development sequel. The original game came after the cancelled MMORPG project Titan, fairly quickly going from the earliest concept stages in 2013 to a full release in mid-2016. Kennedy doesn’t seem to be talking about the original game’s development, but rather the juggling that the Overwatch team has had to do between maintaining the original game and developing the sequel Overwatch 2. Other staff also had a few thoughts on the matter, Kotick quoted as previously saying “There are no expectations for a date, just make it great”, that he’s throwing developers under the bus, and that his interview is merely a deflection tactic. Announced at Blizzcon in November 2019, Blizzard revealed the Overwatch 2 would expand upon the original game instead of fully replace it. All copies of the original game will be updated to have the same heroes, maps, PvP modes and balance changes coming to Overwatch 2, with the sequel then having a PvE co-op mode as the main draw for people to buy. The development of Overwatch 2 has understandably impacted the volume of continued support that the original game has received, though it was still somewhat surprising when both Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV were delayed from a 2022 release window to 2023 at the earliest. Of course, there are obvious extenuating circumstances here, with COVID-19 shifting development to working from home, but the middle of 2021 and the wave of allegations that hit Activision and Blizzard for toxic workplace culture and harassment also had an impact. Certainly morale will have been affected and the allegations led to Overwatch character McCree being renamed, because his namesake was implicated in the lawsuit and infamous “Cosby Suite” incidents. There’s also ongoing strikes on the Activision side of the company, unionisation efforts and there have been persistent calls for Kotick to step down as CEO. All of this, and Kennedy’s assertion that Kotick and his management team were sending the developers down wasteful rabbit holes, has led to a high turnover rate as people seek employment elsewhere. You have to wonder what development dead ends Kennedy is referring to, though perhaps one that did see the light of day was a shift to cross-platform multiplayer and a requirement for Battle.net logins. While Kotick might not come out of the multitude of scandals smelling like roses, I’m not sure that Kennedy can really claim that the employees have won over Kotick. For one thing, he will remain as CEO until a Microsoft buyout is approved, and if it is he will receive nearly $400 million for the stocks he personally holds. Even if it isn’t and he steps down, he’ll still have stocks worth several hundred million. Add that to the hundreds of millions that he’s regularly received as bonuses during his tenure and I’m sure he’ll be dabbing away any tears with $100 bills. Source: Twitter

Sony expects that Activision games will still come to PlayStation consoles if Microsoft’s buyout is completed, keeping some of the biggest franchises in video games as cross-platform titles and not turning them into Xbox exclusives. You might be doubting them, but they cite existing contractual agreements between PlayStation and Activision as the reason for their belief. A Sony spokesman told the WSJ that “We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform.” Activision and Sony have had a long-standing content exclusivity agreement with PlayStation for the Call of Duty franchise, dating back to the 2015 release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Since that point, Activision has given timed exclusivity on DLC expansions (when paid map packs were still a thing), bundled in PlayStation exclusive game modes for Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War, or simply offered specific XP boosts and other perks to PlayStation players. That should allay some of the fears that many have had over the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard buyout announced earlier this week, with Microsoft expected to shift previously cross-platform franchises to become Xbox, PC and Xbox Game Pass exclusives. Additionally, when asked directly about this by Bloomberg earlier this week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said “I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that.” All we have to do is look at Microsoft’s track record with their blockbusting gaming acquisition to find out what their most likely plan is. The company has never taken a hardline stance at acquired studios make their in-progress game releases into Xbox exclusives. Psychonauts 2 was a cross-platform release, albeit with an Xbox Series X|S exclusive upgrade for the new generation, while Wasteland 3 was released with Koch Media publishing. Similarly, despite having acquired Bethesda at the start of last year, Microsoft is honouring the exclusivity agreements that have made Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo into timed PlayStation 5 exclusives. Of course, where there hasn’t been an existing agreement, Microsoft and Bethesda have confirmed that Starfield, Redfall and The Elder Scrolls VI will be Xbox console exclusives. Further Reading: What does Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard mean for gamers? So, what can we expect to happen with Activision and Blizzard games? Call of Duty: Warzone is likely to be a permanent fixture across all platforms, the free-to-play game a money-spinner that nobody would sensibly want to shut down at this point. The main Call of Duty releases will likely stay as cross-platform games, while there’s still a contract to honour – historically this contract ran for five years from 2010-2014 when on Xbox, and would likely have been renewed in 2020 by Sony and Activision for PlayStation. This could see Call of Duty games remain on PlayStation until 2025, or until a set number of games have been released. Outside of Call of Duty, and if Activision ever produce any games based on their collection of IPs that include Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, you can bet they will be Xbox exclusives from the off. On the Blizzard side of things, Overwatch will be receiving a significant overhaul so that the game will remain in lockstep with Overwatch 2’s multiplayer content. That will likely continue to be the plan, though there’s a question mark over whether Overwatch 2 will be released on PlayStation, or if they’ll leave players with the old game. Diablo IV and all other future game releases will surely be Xbox console exclusives, though. Of course, that depends on whether either game is released before or after any Microsoft buyout can be completed. That’s a big if, as the last twelve months have seen much greater scrutiny on tech giant acquisitions by government regulators. Source: WSJ (paywalled)