Defining Duke, Episode 110 | Are Things Falling Apart Between Xbox & Activision? (Patreon)

We haven't heavily discussed the Xbox-Activision deal in months following many of us being fatigued from constantly revising it. Since December, we said it would take something truly noteworthy to move it into our headline and given the current scuttlebutt across the community -- it appears now is that time. The CMA has made its stance clear that Xbox will have to relinquish plenty to get the deal done, but how much is too much for the two seeking to make a deal? With calls for divestiture and even outright relinquishing Call Of Duty, many have hit the panic button for Microsoft. As usual, we run through our same rigamarole of big executive quotes and how the CMA came to such a decision. Beyond that, Xbox has become known for its many experimental titles like Pentiment, Grounded, and Hi-Fi Rush. Unfortunately, titles of that same ilk have been canceled over at one of their marquee first party studios: The Coalition. Furthermore, BioWare seemingly continues to struggle to get its next Dragon Age game out the door, we have smaller updates on Compulsion/Fable, and 2022 GOTY Crossfire X is gone... but at what cost?

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:04:16 - An Oreo confessional

0:10:25 - Is there more to the Xbox price increase than meets the eye?

0:17:36 - Xbox’s marketing budget has been reduced

0:22:40 - New Xbox discoveries have come via LinkedIn

0:32:24 - The Last Case of Benedict Fox drops on April 27th

0:33:55 - CrossfireX will shut down in May

0:41:06 - Physical games might be no more (in Brazil)

0:48:16 - A Forge community playlist is now available

0:49:42 - Ubisoft+ on Xbox is imminent

0:50:39 - A demo for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty arrives February 24th

0:52:16 - DBZ Kakarot’s next gen version is finally available

0:53:54 - Wild Hearts will have free post launch content

0:55:52 - Midnight Suns was a critical success but commercial flop

1:04:35 - Judas should launch by March 2025

1:05:37 - Support for Back 4 Blood is ending

1:06:17 - Moon Studios’ creative director shares a little insight

1:09:05 - Darkest Dungeon 2 exits early access soon

1:10:23 - What we’ve been playing

1:39:15 - How will Microsoft handle the 360 emulator?

1:43:29 - The CMA has made some demands for the Activision acquisition

2:00:13 - The Coalition was working on several non-Gears projects, but not anymore

2:08:13 - New details have emerged for Dragon Age Dreadwolf

2:26:13 - Coming soon to Game Pass

2:28:46 - Game Pass Pick of the Week

2:33:47 - Should The Evil Within come back?