For a few years, rumors have persisted that Microsoft was exploring building some form of streaming stick to offer Xbox Cloud Gaming via a more affordable dongle, similarly to Chromecast and Google Stadia. The first hint was Project Hobart. More recently, a code name “Keystone” appeared in an Xbox OS

Vietnamese blockchain game developer Sky Mavis created the Ronin Network to serve as a sidechain for the company’s Axie Infinity game. The tool is used by gamers to transfer virtual coins in and out of the game. However, it has been revealed that hackers were able to break into the

When Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion last month, the tech giant’s CEO Satya Nadella was quick to bring up the metaverse in his comments. “In gaming, we see the metaverse as a collection of communities and individual identities anchored in strong content franchises accessible on every device,”

Microsoft has Minecraft, Epic Games has Fortnite, and Sony now has Destiny. In a $3.6 billion deal, Sony is acquiring Bungie, the game studio famous for creating the Halo and Destiny universes. It’s a big deal, in a month already full of massive deals. It’s also backed by some equally

Microsoft was positioning itself as one of the pioneers of the metaverse even before its US$75 billion deal to buy online gaming giant Activision Blizzard. In the days after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook last October as Meta with his near movie-length promotional film about the potential for virtual worlds, Microsoft

Animoca Brands, an Australia-based metaverse startup focused on NFTs and gaming, has raised $358.88 million in new funding round and is now valued at over $5 billion. Liberty City Ventures led the round, with several other investors participating, including Soros Fund Management, Sequoia China, 10T Holdings, Mirae Asset, Pacific Century Group,

Microsoft is acquiring Activision, the troubled publisher of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo. The deal will value Activision at $68.7 billion, far in excess of the $26 billion Microsoft paid to acquire LinkedIn in 2016. It’s Microsoft’s biggest push into gaming, and the company says it will

Take-Two Interactive says it is buying mobile gaming company Zynga for $12.7 billion with a mix of cash and stock, marking the latest blockbuster acquisition in a string of major deals in the video game industry. The company announced Monday that it would acquire all outstanding shares of Zynga at $9.86

Modern video games are rife with microtransactions. Whether simple things like costumes or accessories, or more elaborate offerings like characters and weapons, these in-game purchases have largely divided the gaming community. When done right, they can offer new content at a fair price, but when abused, they lead to “loot

Ubisoft has formally announced its intention to develop “play-to-earn” NFT and blockchain games, the publisher revealed during last week’s Q2 earnings call. Executives raised the subject of blockchain games several times in both its earnings report and during the call itself (thanks, IGN). The French publisher is one of the major