This week, Corey and Stoy are joined by Josh Finney to discuss how well the Xbox Series consoles are selling, Take Two’s mega purchase of Zynga, Sega’s new studio, the massive Game Pass lineup for January, and more.

This Week’s Guest:

Josh Finney: Twitter

This Week’s Panelists:

Corey Dirrig: Twitter  |  Instagram
Stoy Jovic: Twitter

Headlines 

Xbox Seires X|S Consoles are the fastest selling generation ever. 

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Phil Spencer discussed Xbox and where the console is position as of January 2022. On top of discussing his current statements about Xbox’s relationship with Activision, he also talked more on Series X|S sales and the company’s various business models relating to Xbox. The good news: The Series X|S and the platform (including PC and cloud gaming) are thriving, and though he didn’t give direct sales numbers, he did state that the Series family of consoles are the fastest selling in Xbox history.

Take Two Interactive buys Zynga for $12.7 Billion 

Take Two Interactive, the company behind Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Borderlands, NBA 2K, and more, has purchased the massive mobile game developer Zynga for a whopping $12.7 Billlon, almost twice what Microsoft paid for Bethesda. The mega publisher stated they bought the company to create mobile experiences for their most popular franchises. Zynga is most notably known for their games FarmVille and Words With Friends, though the company hit financial trouble in the mid 2010s due to the lack of in game spending and poor managerial decisions. 

The Wrap-Up

Sega Opens New Studio Lead by Phantasy Star Online Producer

Sega is opening a new studio in Japan called Sega Sapporo Studio led by Phantasy Star Online 2 Producer Takaya Segawa. This studio is intended to develop and deliver high quality AAA titles and serve as a second development base for the company. Segawa stated he wants to lead the studio that “strive to provide a moving experience for customers and to create a studio that values its staff.” Not much else is known about the project the studio will be working on. 

RUMOR: Bandai Namco Working on Killer Instinct for Microsoft

It seems Killer Instinct may be making a comeback if recent rumors are to be believed. In a recent article over at Windows Central from Jez Corden, it seems that Microsoft is working with Bandai Namco to develop a new entry to the series. Microsoft has always shown a remote interest in returning to the fighting franchise, and recently Phil Spencer discussed as much on an episode of the DroppedFrames podcast. Killer Instinct originally released in 1994 in arcades and ported to the Super Nintendo. A second game was also released and a Gold version made its way to the Nintendo 64 in 1996. The most recent game, also titled Killer Instinct, released on the Xbox One on November 22, 2013. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been Delayed to December

After being rumored for over a week, the highly anticipated Xbox timed-exclusive S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has officially been delayed out of April, as confirmed by the official Twitter account for the game. In the tweet, developer GSC Game World stated that they delayed the title to December 8, 2022, and that the “decision was not an easy one.” They also said that they believe that “development should take as long as necessary, especially in the case of such a project.” 

RUMOR: Age of Empires IV Spotted for Xbox

Is Age of Empires IV coming to Xbox? It seems so, as Twitter user @ALumua_Italia, an account who follows the Xbox ecosystem pretty closely, discovered a tag in the Insider Hub for Xbox Insider’s Program named Cardinal. For those unaware, Cardinal was the internal codename for Age of Emires IV at World’s End and Relic, the co-developers of the game. Although there is no other indication that the game will make its way to Xbox, it does seem more likely a “when” than an “if” at this point. 

State of Decay 2 Getting More Content This Year

State of Decay 2 is getting more content this year.  A lmost four years after the game released and a third game well into development, Undead Labs has announced that State of Decay 2 will continue to receive multiple content updates. These updates will will rework infestations, making them more dangerous but more rewarding, update the game’s UI and make objectives more clear to the players, and tweaking some of the survival elements to make the game feel better. All of these changes are due to community feedback.

Pass It On: What’s Coming to Game Pass for the Week of January 17, 2022

Looking for games coming to Game Pass? Here’s the list of games coming to the service for the week of January 17, 2022.

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