Defining Duke, Episode 146 | Xbox Opens Up On Activision's Future - What's Next? (Patreon)

After almost two years of going back and forth on every layer of this deal, it is finally complete. Xbox owns Activision Blizzard King and have massively expanded both the IP as well as talent under their possession. Now, the real work begins! As Phil Spencer says he's going to begin visiting all these teams, gamers have many burning questions! What is the future of exclusivity for the many upcoming Activision games? Will Xbox dig into the massive backlog of titles at their disposal? How will the integration of Activision games in Game Pass work? With a sense of finality, we can begin to answer those questions. That wasn't the only massive news this week as Bethesda's Pete Hines is leaving Bethesda after spending 24 years there. With Will Shen out too, many are wondering if it's time to worry about folks jumping ship. The Dukes are here to settle things down. Otherwise, we dig into Halo Infinite's resurgence, Starfield being one of the best selling games of the year, and much more!

Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:11:41 - Do we address the haters too much?

0:20:41 - There is pushback on Disney, actually

0:31:39 - Halo Infinite is reaching new heights

0:50:12 - Best Buy and Ubisoft speak on physical goods

1:00:24 - Starfield was the best-selling game of September

1:12:50 - Cities: Skyline 2 has some performance problems

1:14:58 - Shinji Mikami may be making a return

1:18:28: - Xbox versions of Xenoverse 2 are arriving in 2024

1:22:51 - Microsoft is appealing the IRS back taxes request

1:23:55 - Minecraft has surpassed over 300 million copies sold

1:27:17 - Paradox Interactive and Harebrained Schemes will part ways

1:33:18 - What have we been playing?

2:03:30 - The Activision deal is complete

3:06:58 - Pete Hines is retiring

3:26:00 - Coming soon to Game Pass

3:30:53 - Game Pass Pick Of The Week