What's more hostile than Mondays? Well Vivendi, if you're Ubisoft. Vivendi recently disclosed that they are looking at increasing their holdings into the video game industry. According to a Reuter source close to Vivendi, the French media giant is looking to acquire Ubisoft, and wrestling control away from the Guillemot family. As can be expected, the Guillemots are not keen on the idea. Especially since Ubisoft has been killing it in the US, in 2017; scoring not only the most triple A sales, but the 2 best selling games.
Even more hostile than Vivendi... Apparently, a 20 year old autistic kid with a keyboard. Adam Mudd was just sentenced to 2 years in the UK for operating DDoS services. Mudd plead guilty to 2 charges under the Computer Misuse Act (The UK equivalent to the US CFAA). He was charged with collecting around $498,413 (@ the current exchange rate) in cash and BitCoin, from users of his Titanium Stresser service.
If Titanium Stresser sounds familiar, it's because it became basis of Lizard Stresser; used by Lizard Squad's Christmas 2014 DDoS on Xbox Live and PSN. In other Internet related news, the FCC and it's Chairman; Ajit Pai are poised to shit all over US Internet users. The flaming douche canoe formerly known as Ajit Pai, recently made comments stating that he would be looking at rolling back key policies of net neutrality. Stating that there would be a vote on the matter at the next FCC meeting currently scheduled for 5/18. (RIP the Internet).
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| The Flaming Douche Canoe Formerly Known As Ajit Pai |
It'll be interesting to see if AAA publishers come out of the wood work if net neutrality is rolled back, as digital copies of games create more profit than physical copies. However, it's unknown whether this will happen; as AAA producers have troubles of their own to handle. At least they have problems according to Boss Key Productions founder and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski.
Bleszinski, recently presented a talk at Reboot Develop. During his talk he claimed that AAA games are stagnating the industry, as consumers are being presented with "category of eight games that are getting repeated over and over again". Bleszinski went on to state that triple A games cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the cost makes it "too scared to take the risk on new IP" for many developers. Which Bleszinski states, "This is a nearly unsustainable model, unless you're an Activision, 2K or a Sony.", and advised developers to produce "Double A". He clarified that double A games are "games that look and play great but pick their battles in terms of budget and marketing".
Incase you unaware, E3 will be open to the general public this year. According to ESA VP; Rich Taylor, the 15,000 general access passes are due to direct feedback from gamers. So, good job all of you reddit thread armchair activists!
In other E3 news, IGN has put up a list of games that have been confirmed to be playable at E3. The list will likely grow over time.
A few last topics before we leave off here. M. Night Shyamalan announced on Twitter that a sequel for Split and Unbreakable is in the works. Yes, Split and Unbreakable exist in the same cinematic universe. The sequel is reportedly, named Glass, and both Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis will be reprising their roles.
And as a final PSA, it took just under a week, and Wizards of the Coast have banned a new Amonkhet card from standard. The ban revolves around using Felidar Guardian in conjunction with Saheeli Rai to amass an army of cats. WotC estimates that roughly 40% of tournament decks will be affected by the ban.
-Chali Baicunn
