A federal court judge has approved Activision Blizzard’s $18 Million (13.63 million GBP) settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last year by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Current and former employees going back as far as September 1st, 2016, can officially submit a claim about sexual harassment, retaliation or pregnancy discrimination, to be considered for relief. While the EEOC settlement as of today, is the second biggest of its kind the agency has ever agreed, it is not without its critics,including the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Prior to US government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filing a lawsuit last September , the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) sued Activision Bilzzard back in July last year. due to their failure to handle discrimination and sexual harassment against female employees.

The EEOC is a federal agency, whereas the DFEH is a state agency have been involved in a dispute over how much victims should receive from Activision Blizzard, with the latter being far more aggressive in its pursuit of compensation.

The DFEH fears it’s case, which is scheduled to go ahead in court February 2023 may be undermined by today’s settlement, which it had been attempting to delay. As first reported by The 

Washington Post, victims who are apart of the EEOC settlement can’t be apart of the DFEH’s lawsuit on the specific issues of harassment, retaliation or pregnancy discrimination.

Back in October, labour union the Communications Workers of America, which is representing a number of current and former Activision Blizzard employees, have called the previous proposed $18 million settlement “woefully inadequate”, being quoted that it would “provide the maximum settlement for only 60 workers” when many more may have been adversely affected.

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Microsoft and Twitch have banded together to host a third ID@Xbox indie games showcase next week

Following from the previous game showcase from March and August last year, this year’s showcase will take place on Wednesday, March 16th at 6PM GMT/1PM ET/10AM PT.

“We’ll be featuring updates, new trailers, and gameplay from Finji and Whitethorn, as w

ell as the first game from iam8bit’s brand new publishing label,” Xbox said.

“In addition to all this, fans will also get a chance to see the latest and hear from teams working on Shredders, Roblox, and some new games that you need to tune in for to see!”

The ID@Xbox will be streaming exclusively on Twitch. Microsoft made the decision to bring back Twitch streaming integration directly into the Xbox dashboard last month. The twitch app can be found by navigating to the “Capture and Share” tab on the guide and selecting “Live streaming”. If not purchased yet you can download the app for free off the Microsoft store. Players also need to link their Twitch account by scanning the QR code with a mobile device or by visiting the URL on PC or mobile.

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We’re getting closer and closer to the release date of the brand new video game titled ‘United Football League‘ (UFL), the newest name on the football video game market and one that is set to challenge FIFA and eFootball. Electronic Arts (EA) and Konami have been battling it out for over well over two decades for superiority over the football game industry but now they have a third competitor in UFL, which is also backed by footballing legend in Cristiano Ronaldo as well as other well renowned footballers and teams around the world, both EA and Konami will have to work hard to retain there loyal fanbase if the UFL does live up to the hype.

Details on UFL are emerging all the time, so here’s a look at everything we know so far.

What is UFL?

UFL is a brand new football game developed by Strikerz Inc . The game was announced at Gamescom in Cologne last year in August and ever since then, the hype and anticipation has been growing ever since. Strikerz Inc have formed a partnership with FIFPRO, an organisation that represents 65,000 professional footballers, as well as analytics company InStat.

UFL release date?

As of today, there’s been no exact release date for UFL but the game will likely drop sometime in 2022, If I had to guess, an Autumn launch could be on the cards as that is when one of their biggest competitors FIFA would drop their next installment and will also coincide the new 2022/23 season. We will update this blog on further developments around the official release date.

UFL price tag?

Yeah the price of the UFL game is going to be a bit of a doozy….Nah I’m just kidding, one of the main appeals to the game is that its set to be free to play.title with some in-app purchases, going by Strikerz Inc. comments when announcing the game.

“The game will be available for free and we will regularly add new features and updates with no mandatory payments or yearly fees,” a press release read. “The game is designed to be a fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero pay-to-win options.”

I mean usually you’re looking at parting with around £50 if you want to buy copies of FIFA at the time of release, so this is potentially a huge development for the football gaming industry.

What consoles will UFL be on?

Strikerz Inc are yet to officially annouce what consoles UFL is going to be on but we can be sure that it’ll be announced on the following;

• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X
• Series S
• Nintendo Switch
• PC

UFL main features?

UFL allows players to create their own football clubs made up with more than 5,000 licensed footballers,If I have to make a guess, I can imagine it being like FIFA’s ultimate team but more precise and articulate.Players will be able to compete with opponents from around the world in various game types. These game types include 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 online and offline matches. We’ve also been told that they’ll be many “mission and challenges” to complete with further details to emerge soon.

UFL have licensed clubs?

Strikerz Inc have managed to gain partnerships with the following clubs;

• West Ham
• Sporting CP
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• Borussia Monchengladbach
• AS Monaco
• Besiktas
• Celtic
• Rangers

Which footballers have partnerships with UFL

At the top of this article, we announced that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the players that is backing the UFL as well as being an official partner of the game but he’s not the only one; Alongside Ronaldo we also have Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kevin De Bruyne , Bobby Firmino and Romelu Lukaku have all advertised the game on their social media, and they also appeared in the gameplay trailer that dropped in January.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited, I like the look of the game from the trailer I have seen and heard from the UFL announcement last month. For years now players (myself included) have had only two football games to choose from so adding a third option is quite refreshing from a players standpoint and adds much needed competition to both eFootball and FIFA, any competition is good competition and the only winners here are the players, you can’t go wrong no matter what you choose. Both eFootball and UFL are free to play and FIFA would cost around £50, so if you’re a football head, I’d recommend you’d go for all three and try them out yourselves, I mean that what i’m going to do and I doubt i’m going to be disappointed. Looking forward to playing UFL this year and seeing how it holds up with the other two football game giants. I feel like 2022 will be an interesting year.

The post UFL: Release date, price & features for new football game. first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Gaming and filming rights to J.R.R Tolkien projects including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are reportedly up for sale and the rumors suggest that Amazon is leading the race for both.

According to Variety, J.R.R owner Saul Zaentz Co. has hired ACF Investment Bank to orchestrate the sale of its Tolkien holdings. The holdings include; merchandising, live events and theme parks, reports suggest that the cost of the holdings are valued at $2 billion. The Saul Zaentz Co was set up by producer Saul Zaentz who died back in 2017. He was responsible for Oscar-winning films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient.

As stated above, Amazon have an interest in obtaining the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit licenses, Amazon are also set to launch a new Lord of the Rings TV show in September. Currently, Amazon are leading the race to obtain the rights at this time.

It has been put forward that Amazon could have possibly spent over or at least £500 million pounds on the first eight episodes of the upcoming TV adaption; The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Interestingly enough, last April, Amazon Game Studios said it had cancelled a Lord of the Rings MMO it was co-developing with Athlon Games, a US subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Leyou Technologies. The cancellation of that project was due to a dispute between Amazon and Tencent  which acquired Leyou in December 2020.

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Publisher’s Bandai Namco has revealed it’s plans to develop its own “IP Metaverse” to help their fans interact, improve and create communities with each other. Namco Bandai has shared details on their blueprints of their mid-term plans (April 2022 to March 2025) during their meeting with the shareholders on Tuesday, and explained that the plan’s core aim will be what it calls its ‘IP Axis Strategy’.

This strategy consist of three main goals – using the IP Axis Strategy to connect with the fans through its IP, enhancing IP value and making its projects span worldwide to improve sales outside of Japan. As part of this strategy, the creation of the ‘IP Metaverse’ is vital, Namco Bandai has also said that the project will cost ¥15 billion (£95 million) on implementing.

The Metaverse is currently a popular term among tech companies with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg going the extra mile and releasing their own VR Metaverse to the public. The Metaverse is used to describe a hypothetical, online virtual world focused on social connection.

Facebook are not the only ones to actually give the Metaverse a try. Microsoft aim to incorporate the Metaverse into Mircosoft teams to add a “personal but fun” spin on meetings and social event which is similar to what Namco Bandai would like to do with their expansion into the metaverse.

Namco Bandai’s plan reads as this;

“Bandai Namco will develop a metaverse for each IP as a new framework for connecting with fans,”.

“In this IP Metaverse, we are anticipating virtual spaces that will enable customers to enjoy a wide range of entertainment on an IP axis, as well as frameworks that leverage Bandai Namco’s distinctive strengths to fuse physical products and venues with digital elements.

“We are aiming for open frameworks that provide venues for connections with and among fans and business partners. Through the IP Metaverse, we will establish communities amo

ng Bandai Namco and fans, as well as among fans themselves.

“Through these communities and content, we will build deep, broad, mul

tifaceted connections that continue for long periods of time, and we will focus on the quality of those connections. In this way, we will work to maximize IP value over the medium to long term.”

As the plan states, the ¥15 billion (£95 million) investment into the metaverse will go towards establishing the “data foundation” (data universe) and creating content for the IP Metaverse itself.

The plan ends with a reiteration that “realizing the metaverse concept” is one of Bandai Namco’s main strategies over the next three years.

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The Pokemon Company has announced that it will release a Pokemon Trading card game themed around Pokemon Go. The announcement caught everyone by surprise when it was made official the Japanese Twitter account, accompanied by a brief teaser video released. This set in particular will be named “Pokemon Go” and to feature card art taken from Pokemon Go. The set appears to be a mini expansion, as booster packs released in Japan will only contain 6 cards, and will feature Mewtwo as one of the set’s mascots. Nothing else was announced about the set, such as if it will include any mechanics inspired by Pokemon Go. 

The special set release date is June 17th 2022. As of right now, there is no plans on an international date at this current time. The cards will likely either be integrated into a full US set or released through a series of special box products, its important to note that retailer listings has confirmed that the US/International audience would their special set in June, which has not been announced yet. So there’s a possibility that they could have a simultaneous release for both US and Internationally.

For those unaware; Pokemon Go is an 2016 augmented reality (AR) game developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokemon Company for iOS and Android devices. A part of the Pokemon franchise, the game is the result of a collaboration between Niantic, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company. It uses mobile devices with GPS to locate, capture, train, and battle virtual creatures, called Pokemon, which appear as if they are in the player’s real-world location. The game is free-to-play, with options to purchase certain items at certain times in the game.

The new card set continues a collaboration between Pokemon Go and the Pokemon Trading Card Game which started last year with release of Professor Willow themed card, during that time, Niantic has stated that further collaborations were possible, so it does look like we’re seeing it come into fruition now.

The Pokemon Trading card game is set to release its first English set sometime this month. The new expansion will add a new “VSTAR” mechanic to the game, which gives players the chance to use a VSTAR power once per game. The mechanic acts as a combination of sorts for the Pokemon VMAX mechanic currently used in the game, as well as the GX mechanic used in the previous “Sun and Moon” period. The next set for release is will feature Pokemon from Pokemon Legends; Arceus,a new Pokemon mechanic labelled as “Sparkling Pokemon” is also set to be introduced in the game at some point.

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Tango Gameworks Ghostwire: Tokyo,has had many gamers left in the dark or curious since it was first revealed in 2019. But on February 3rd, Sony and Tango offered all-new details about (and first extended gameplay of) the upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, which is slated for a March 25 release on console and Windows PC.

Tango Gameworks the same developers that created Evil Within franchise is back with another scary addition in Ghostwire: Toyko During the new video showcase, Tango Gameworks founder Shinji Mikami asked his co-workers to describe their new game Ghostwire Toyko, which resulted in various different answers. Character designer Reiko Hiroshima, who also worked on the Evil Within franchise called it “paranormal,” while programmer Tsuyoshi Okugawa described the game simply as “authentic Tokyo.” However, game designer Suguru Murakoshi, had an very unexpected response.”

Game Designer Suguru Murakoshi said;

“The origins of it are truly Japanese,” “In a Japanese studio, and a game set in Japan, it’s a game where everyone can find something to love. With some sweet and tangy parts, just like a strawberry shortcake.”

To briefly sum up what the game is about; Ghostwire: Tokyo is about a supernatural and paranormal event that takes place in Tokyo, Japan. The city’s residents just upright vanish, a deathly fog castes all over the city, and it comes down to the protagonist Akito and his partner KK, a spirit who inhabits Akito’s body and grants him supernatural powers. To cleanse to clean the streets of tokyo that is covered in Yokai (Yōkai are a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore), ghosts, Slender salarymen, headless schoolkids, and other paranormal creatures. Trying to stop Akito and KK is a mysterious and malicious masked man named Hannya.

GhostWire Tokyo is a peculiar one for Tango Gameworks cause like their previous games, this one

is first person, spell-casting action-adventure game which is quite the change from the survivor horror games that they did. normally there’s a pattern of theme with Bethesda and their open world adventure games and first person shooters, you know, with guns, armour and things of that nature but in GhostWire Tokyo, your weapons are your hands and the monsters you slay are inspired by Japanese legends and folklore.

“The power of the hands plays such an important role,”- said game director, Kenji Kimura. Akito will have the ability to master and control the four elements; earth, wind, fire, and water against the weirdest yet powerful creatures. He’ll also gain access to a bow and arrow, grappling hook as his way to move across rooftops and use stealth to overcome the toughest situations. And it’s not just the ghosts and demons trying to stop Akito from succeeding; Tokyo itself will get twisted and corrupted to mess with our hero’s mind.

Ghostwire: Tokyo arrives March 25, officially, on PlayStation 5 (where it will be a one-year console exclusive) and Windows PC. Early access to the game on March 22 is available through Ghostwire: Tokyo’s Deluxe Edition.

The post Creepy, Spooky and Frightening: Ghostwire Toyko gameplay trailer has dropped. first appeared on Get2Gaming.

NFTs (None Fungible Token) are a unique non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain (a form of digital ledger), which effectively allow users to own, buy and sell digital goods such as in-game items or artwork.

During EA’s third quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts (EA) acknowledged that NFTs are currently driving a lot of outside investment in the games industry. However, he compared the current rise of NFTs and investments to previous investments for 3D AR and VR in the video game industry.

Andrew Wilson during EA’s third quarter earnings call;

“The way I look at this is, collectabilty is really built on four key metrics,”. “That’s around high-quality content, it’s around scarcity, it’s around proof of authenticity, and it’s around a group of people that find value in that content.

“We’ve seen that happen in the real world and we’ve seen that happen in the virtual world with certain things that happened in and around our games for some number of years.

“And I believe that collectability will continue to be an important part of our industry and the games and the experiences that we offer our players.

“Whether that’s part of NFTs and the blockchain, well that remains to be seen. And I think the way we think about it is, we want to deliver the best possible player experience we can. And so, we’ll evaluate that over time, but right now it’s not something that we’re driving hard against.”

Andrew Wilson also said this during the second earnings call back in November;

“The play to earn or the NFT conversation is still really, really early”, before adding: “I do think it will be an important part of our – of the future of our industry on a go-forward basis.”

Since the earning calls, a few notable gaming companies have started selling NFTs, companies like Konami and Ubisoft, while Square Enix merely expressed interest in the whole NFT universe. With that being said, these companies have come under fire for producing or even expressing interest in these NFTs due to the NFT format’s high carbon footprint and what many perceive to be cynical implementation.

Earlier on Tuesday, the publishers behind Worms, TeamU17 decided to pass on entering the NFT space because of the backlash from its business partners and fans. Other companies have shown more Resistance to the backlash of game companies dipping their hands into the NFT space, going as far one Ubisoft executive recently claiming players just “don’t get it”

Andrew Wilson also addressed  Battlefield 2042’s disappointing launch day during the earning’s call on tuesday, saying He backed developer DICE to turn things around and claimed to believe the game “Will do well over the course of time”.

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As reported by various news outlets like  Bloomberg and CNET ,the FTC will conduct an investigation of the deal to determine whether the purchase of the publishing giant constitutes unfair competition, according to an anonymous source.

To be clear, it is understood that the investigation will not be carried out by the justice department, who do work with the FTC to handle similar cases. Currently as I am reporting this, Microsoft has declined further comment on the matter when reached out for a statement. Respectively the FTC have also do not comment on the situation at hand either.

The purchase of Activation Blizzard means that Xbox will gain exclusive ownership of some of the biggest game franchises to date like Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero and many, many more . The deal is expected to close in Microsoft’s fiscal year of 2023, however, the deal would only be closed if it meets the closing conditions and completion of the regulatory review.

Competition laws are looking to control market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. On the basis of mergers and acquisitions, regulators can prevent deals that are considered to threaten market competition or suggest remedies such as an obligation to divest part of the new business. Reacting to Microsoft’s plans, DFC Intelligence said the following;

“Will this deal go through? Regulators will take a close look and franchises like Call of Duty may not be exclusive to Xbox platforms because of antitrust concerns.”

David Cole, owner of the DFC had said the following;

The big issue is if COD becomes a Microsoft exclusive. Right now, I don’t think [it will]. For one thing, it would be hard to get it past regulators if they want to lock the competition out.” Talking to GamesIndustry.Biz.

Microsoft still have plans to create “some” games for PlayStation following the purchase of the publishers, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox claims that “it’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform”.

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Xbox Game Pass has reportedly received £4,780 ($6,317.35/AU$8,823) worth of games in 2021, which is an insane amount considering when you think about this year’s subscription Microsoft services only being £49.99/$59.99/AU$80.

The cost of the new Xbox Game Pass titles was calculated by The Loadout which was based off of the value of every title that was added to the pass on console and PC during the course of 2021 on the Microsoft Store.

The loadout also reported what was the best month for Xbox Game Pass in terms of value which turned out to be March 2021, March oversaw several Bethesda Game Studio titles hit the subscription service which included The Evil Within 2 and Rage which collectively came up to around £740 alone (around $964/AU$1,347).

The month that oversaw the least amount of value was back in April 2021, with the games totaling £247.69. When you consider the price of a month’s subscription is only £7.99($9.99/AU$15.95) it still comes up to a sizable fee. To fully experience every game added to the subscription service, you’d need to pay for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (which is currently on sale at this present time). Granted it’s more expensive the standard Game Pass but it still only comes up to £101.70 for the entire year, when you put in perspective the value of the game titles that are added to the Game Pass, it’s a very reasonable trade-off. Xbox Game Pass doesn’t come without it perks, with the Ultimate Game Pass, you gain access to Xbox Cloud Gaming and exclusive in-game rewards.

An Outsider’s Analysis: Xbox Game Pass is fantastic value for money

 I’m not going to lie to you, I have not played Xbox or paid their subscription fee since 2014 but as someone who currently pays for PlayStation and Nintendo services I have to admit, the deal you get for the Xbox Game Pass compared to PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Online is currently second to none, I have to say that there’s no deal out there at this current time that offers what the Game Pass offers in exchange for a reasonable subscription fee. Not to say that each respective companies Game Passes have their own impressive rewards and offers but with the Xbox Game Pass, not only do you have an abundance of game titles to choose from this year alone but Microsoft have also given its subscribers incredible savings that they can enjoy.

The Xbox Game Pass included magnificent game titles like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizons 5, Battlefield 2042 and Psychonauts 2, those titles alone at full price is more than one full year of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and with that being said, I can see why people would opt for the Game Pass in the first place; with that you have the option to buy these AAA titles day one.

Now, here’s the thing; if you’re affected by the fact that the Game Pass only allows you to rent titles, it can be overshadowed by the fact that any game that hits the service can be bought digitally with a 20% discount to go with it, not a bad deal for Xbox users there ay? If that’s not enough, Game Pass subscribers can also enjoy discounts on various DLCs too.

Well, my verdict is if you’re looking for a new console, I’d highly recommend giving some serious thought to an Xbox One, Xbox Series S or X if you don’t own one already. Microsoft has seriously improved its product over the last few years, righting the wrongs that has been pointed out over the years. Xbox right now is widely considered as “Sleeping Giants” but how things are going right now, they won’t be sleeping any longer. Now If you excuse me, going to have to see a certain store about certain Microsoft product I would possibly like to invest my time in.

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The post The value of the titles added to Xbox Game Pass in 2021 reportedly passed £4,780 first appeared on Get2Gaming.