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Monopolies, GTA 6 and a new player in the console market: the year that was - voila! The gaming channel

2022-12-30T11:27:19.671Z


Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision-Blizzard-King, Rockstar's giant leak and the launch of the Steam Deck designed to shake up the console and laptop market. Summing up 2022


A year has passed and the new one is already upon us, and we are here to summarize all the major events that have passed us by during 2022. From huge purchases and an arms race to the future, a total boycott of Russia, the huge leak of GTA 6, and a disgraceful launch of the most successful game in the world.

Without wasting time, let's get started.

Selling the farm

The deal with which we opened the year 2022: Take-Two, the distributor and owner of 2K, Rockstar and many other developers, announced the purchase of the mobile game developer Zynga at a value of 12.7 billion dollars.

Popular titles like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells have joined the family of keys that are also responsible for GTA and NBA 2K.

The mobile world is an area that Take-Two plans to invest in and put emphasis on in the future, and until that moment this was considered the biggest deal in the gaming industry that set a new record.

The one who held the previous title was Microsoft, when it acquired the Zenimax corporation and the distributor Bethesda at a cost of 7.5 billion dollars.

But this is a record she will break very quickly once again, a few days after Take-Two and Zynga's announcement...

Zynga (photo: official website, Zynga)

Microsoft's giant deal causes a shock in the gaming world

The Microsoft company shook the gaming world and announced that it is interested in purchasing the gaming giant Activision-Blizzard-King for an unprecedented amount of 68.7 billion dollars, and thus began one of the biggest stories in the industry that has not yet come to an end, and continues to provide us with countless headlines.

The never-ending dispute is mainly from the direction of Sony, which is afraid of the acquisition and of losing a brand like Call of Duty and making it exclusive to Xbox, and is doing everything in its power to try to prevent its approval.

including putting pressure on regulators around the world.

This has put the two companies in a head-to-head battle, with each claiming the title of "defender of competition" in the industry.



As of these days, the competition supervisory authorities in countries such as Serbia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil have given their approval, but the European Union and the Competition Authority in Great Britain have decided to enter deeper inspection stages.

Recently, an antitrust lawsuit was also filed on behalf of the Federal Trade Authority in the US in an attempt to stop the purchase - a move that apparently may drag Microsoft to court if no understandings and settlements are reached. The management at Microsoft stated that they expect the deal to be approved by June 2023, but it is likely that by then We will continue to hear more about the issue.

good to know (in advance)

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Served on behalf of B Cure Laser

The purchase of the giant that shocked the gaming world (photo: official website, Microsoft)

Sony's answer: purchases purchases and a revamped subscription service

Sony promised its investors significant growth this year, and as part of those steps, it realized it couldn't just sell consoles and games.

It must also invest itself in aspects that until now it has not emphasized, and they are becoming significant in the current market.

This is in the field of Live Service multiplayer games, Call of Duty or Fortnite style.

Or any game that has a digital store.

The second is the mobile field.



So not only Microsoft tried to arm itself for the future, Sony also made quite a few acquisitions during this year.

The first purchase was Sony's answer to Microsoft, and it added to its ranks Bungie - the developer and creator of the Halo series, which was mainly associated with Xbox.

Two months later it was Haven Studios, founded by producer and creator Jade Raymond, the former Ubisoft employee who helped create the Assassin's Creed and Watchdogs game series.

The two new additions to Sony's roster have been tasked with developing new multiplayer games that will be exclusive.

Both of these games (one of which will likely be a shooter according to the rumors) will contain a store that will offer skins, items, and of course Battle Passes that will bring in a steady stream of cash.



The mobile field is another direction that Sony will direct itself to, and it has acquired the developer Savage Game Studios to work on a AAA game based on an exclusive Sony brand for cell phones.

Maybe God of War?

Maybe Uncharted?

Maybe a Pokemon Go-like game only in the world of Horizon?

Of course, you can't forget its subscription service, PlayStation Plus, which was relaunched with three different tracks and was designed to give a fight to Microsoft and its Game Pass service.

And a final aspect worth noting is the electronic sports industry, which Sony did not neglect and it acquired the online competition platform Repeat.gg and even EVO - the world's largest prestigious fighting game tournament.

Sony acquires the developer of Halo, Haven Studios, the mobile developer Savage Game Studios and the platform Repeat.gg (photo: official website, Sony)

A new player in the console field: the Steam Deck

For many players the launch of the new mobile console from the old Valve went under the radar, and although many console players will raise an eyebrow and call it "an advanced imitation of the Nintendo Switch" - this is quite a Game Changer for the industry.

Although Valve is a new player in the world of consoles (if you don't count the failed Steam Box), it is not new to the world of gaming, and it has developed a new console that undermines the holy combination of Sony-Microsoft-Nintendo in the market.

This is a portable console with an open system on which you can install practically any possible operating system you can think of.

And hence the possibilities are simply endless.

This is of course for the players who like to experiment and customize their system and gaming experience.



The Steam Deck is not only important for competition in the console world.

He is trying to create a shock in the laptop market.

Since it is more or less considered a tiny and portable Med-Range gaming PC, it provides all the benefits of the PC world.

For example, it can also be considered a portable emulator machine.

And perhaps one of the best you will find on the market.

There is no shortage of examples and performances on the net, and users have even installed a Windows operating system on it and enjoyed all PC platforms, not just Valve's.

This allowed them to also play on Game Pass, the Epic Games Store and the other stores and launchers.

As we said - the potential is huge and the possibilities are endless, and this is just the beginning.

Steam Deck console gif (photo: official website, valve)

The gaming industry boycotted Russia

We have also experienced the consequences of the ongoing war in Ukraine in the gaming world.

Let's start with the call of the Ukrainian government that demanded giants like Sony or Microsoft to open an economic and consumer boycott of the Russian market and impose sanctions on the country.

The boycott also reached the field of electronic sports, and the BLAST Premiere and ESL leagues that suspended Russian teams and players.

Even EA removed Russian teams and Russia's national team from FIFA, and quite a few companies like CD Projekt Red, Ubisoft, THQ, and Gearbox donated to humanitarian organizations active throughout Ukraine. The war also affected the release date of STALKER 2, which was pushed back to 2023 because And the Ukrainian developers were forced to flee the country.

The appeal of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine to companies in the industry and the request to boycott the Russian consumer audience (photo: screenshot, Michael Fedorov)

We parted like this: FIFA and EA split

It started as rumors and leaked quotes from executive meetings where EA executives claimed that FIFA was only delaying the development of the game, and was "providing nothing beyond a name on the game's cover." This revealed to us the murky relationship between the gaming giant and the soccer organization, and since then The two have announced that they are parting ways.While EA will go independent with EA FC Sports next year, FIFA is still searching for itself.

In the first few months, quite a few rumors surfaced that talks were taking place between FIFA and Take-Two (the distributor of the NBA 2K series). The company's CEO, Strauss Zelnik, confirmed that talks had indeed taken place, but that they had no intention of sponsoring the brand.

Since then, FIFA has managed to develop a World Cup game on Roblox, and three NFT-based blockchain games.

Get used to the new name: EA FC Sports (photo: official website, EA)

GTA 6 is finally officially announced... and leaking online

Perhaps the most anticipated game of the last decade, and while it was known to everyone that the game was in development, we never received an official word from Rockstar or Take-Two.

Instead, Rockstar just focused on the online mode, releasing GTA V with more and more new versions.

Then came the long-awaited moment in February 2022 when Rockstar finally officially confirmed that GTA 6 was on the way.

But it wasn't enough.

After all this anticipation people wanted to see at least a teaser, or pictures, or anything.

And what Rockstar doesn't update, the hackers will leak.

Quite a few materials showing us the game in the Pre-Alpha stages have been distributed to the network which reveal new details: the plot of the game will focus on a couple of criminals named Jason and Lucia (the version of Bonnie and Clyde) and we will return to the virtual version of Miami - Vice City.

And what about the hacker they ask?

A 16-year-old boy was arrested by the FBI and suspected of being the one who headed an organization that broke into giants like Uber, Microsoft, Samsung, Nvidia and many more.

Returning to Vice City: the giant leak of GTA 6 (Photo: screenshot, Rockstar Games)

The merger of Embracer Group and Square Enix developers

If the acquisitions of Sony and Microsoft were not enough, the Swedish holding giant Embracer Group also purchased from the Japanese distributor Square Enix all its western studios for 300 million dollars.

This means that the three old developers Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal who are responsible for more than 50 well-known and beloved brands such as Tomb Raider, Hitman and even Guardians of the Galaxy - are all moving to new ownership.

On the one hand, this is a positive step.

Embracer Group has already expressed a desire to bring some of these brands to life, and fans of Legacy of Cain or Deus Ex couldn't be happier.



On the other hand, industry analysts explained that Square Enix had already been planning for some time to get rid of all its western brands.

Mainly after disappointment in sales and failures of games like Marvel's Avengers, and the fact that it sees most of the growth and revenue from Japanese mobile role-playing games.

The company's president, Yosuke Matsuda, himself stated that he would like the company to invest more in NFT, and blockchain-based play-to-earn mechanics.

So this purchase wasn't a complete surprise.

only a matter of time.

The Swedish holding group Embracer Group acquires Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix Montreal at a cost of 300 million dollars (photo: official website, Embracer Group)

A failed launch for the most successful game in the world

Pokemon is perhaps the most successful and profitable gaming brand ever.

Not even GTA can compete with the amount of merchandise that Nintendo's yellow mouse sells.

And so fans were especially disappointed and upset this year when the new Pokemon Scarlet/Violet games were released in an embarrassingly problematic state, giving players flashbacks to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. What wasn't there?

Lots of bugs, technical failures, optimization problems - Unim It.

And the painful part?

Behind all the fuss, fans swore that this is a particularly fun game that succeeds in refreshing the formula.

We even praised him very much in our review, but the problem is that first impressions may not be everything, but they are significant.

Nintendo and Game Freak (the developer) did apologize and promised to fix all the technical problems and failures, but the damage is done and in the meantime it is very difficult to remove the stain.

Not the launch that reached the fans: Pokemon Scarlet/Violet (photo: screenshot, t_a_b_e_r_u)

And of course: impressive achievements for Israeli eSports

Even in 2022, our Israelis managed to deliver quite a few impressive achievements in the competitive sports industry.

Let's start with the historic achievement of Neta "33" Shapira, who together with the Tundra team won the prestigious Dota 2 World Championship this year.

The Israeli FIFA player, Roy Feldman, also came fourth in the FIFA and EA Champions League, and returned home with a cash prize of $20,000.



Also in the Counter Strike scene we had local acquisitions that put Israel on the map: Team Finest (which has since disbanded) won the Pinnacle Cup and $80,000 - the highest winning amount ever for an Israeli club.

The European team Vitality and the player Lotan Spinx Giladi took the first place in the 16th season of the ESL Pro League.



We won an Israeli derby in the final stages of BLAST Premier between the players Shahar FlameZ Shoshan on behalf of OG, and Lotan Spinx Giladi on behalf of Vitality.

Unfortunately, Vitality fell in the quarter-finals and OG fell in the semi-finals.

The MOUZ team with the player Dorian "xertioN" Berman reached the semifinals of the Rio Major, and the JiJieHao International team with the players Maoz "BluePho3nix" Paz, Tal "meztal" Khahiashvili and Mori "MOREE" Mizrahi qualified for the Asian finals.

Neta "33" Shapira wins together with his team Tundra in the Dota 2 International Championship (Photo: screenshot, The International)

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Source: walla

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