Displaying items by tag: Sony

It seems the Judge in the case involving the FTC, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard thinks that the FTC failed to reach a sufficient threshold to prove harm in a request for a preliminary injunction. To some this is cause for celebration although most people who have followed Microsoft’s history of anti-competitive behavior, in any market they play in, will know this is not a good thing. What makes this decision even more suspect is the fact that the judge precising over the case, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, has a direct family member working at Microsoft.

Unless you have been living under a rock or just do not care about gaming at all, you have probably heard a lot about the Microsoft Activision merger/acquisition. The deal, one of the largest in history, is a monster. Microsoft wants to buy, lock, stock and barrel, the Activision Blizzard game development company for a whopping $68.7 Billion (with a “b”). The deal would give Microsoft complete control over everything Activision/Blizzard. Now for some this might not be a bad thing if you look at it from just a game perspective or if you are just a PC gamer. The problem comes when you get into how games are really developed and how game developers work with component and console makers to ensure their games work properly.

There is no such thing as a coincidence, especially in the business world. If you hear of something and the timing seems suspicious, it is because someone pushed something in the right direction at the right time. This is the case that we see here with Sony now being under investigation by the Romanian Competition Council for possible market abuse at a time when Microsoft is trying to gain a market advantage. If this news does not seem odd to you, you might not be paying attention.

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming recently admitted that Xbox is not able to beat rivals Nintendo and Sony using normal methods. The means that Spender is talking about is the release of console specific titles. He feels that gamers are not likely to change allegiances simply because Xbox comes out with a new Xbox only title regardless of how anticipated that title is. He is right about this, but it also works in the opposite direction. Xbox gamers are not likely to switch to Sony or Nintendo simply because of a premier title.

Yesterday we talked about Microsoft’s plans to buy Activision Blizard as well as Sony’ plans to buy Bungie. We covered what these could mean in terms of content control and splitting console ownership into what titles people like. Although both Microsoft and Sony are committed to releasing content for both consoles, once the existing contracts run out, things could be very different. Because of this potential monopoly of content by the Activision Blizzard deal, the FTC is going to take look at it.

The war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation has been going on for a while. As the two companies fight it out the consumer, for the most part, has been the winner. Each new generation of console has brought with it new technologies, better performance and really upped the game regardless of which camp you are in. It is true that prices have also gone through the roof, but that has not stopped eager fans from buying out inventory as soon as it hits the shelves.

It seems that the recent $81 million dollar attack against the Bangladesh Central Bank might have also been about the Seth Rogan Movie “the interview”... ok, not really, but the attack that happened at Sony in 2014 seems to have many things in common with the recent attack that resulted in the theft of $81 million. During the Sony attack the initial blame was centered on the release of the Interview, but that was never confirmed and seemed to be way off base.

So the big Sony Hack that everyone was talking about and that the US government blamed on Korea might not have been state sponsored after all. Despite the FBI’s initial (and way too fast) conclusion that the source of the attacks were from North Korea there was ample evidence that this was not the case from the start. Anyone familiar with the way an attack happens knows that the majority are going to be pushed through multiple proxies and will have some sort of obfuscation to hide who is doing what including using code that might have been used before.

There is no shortage of jokes about ignorance in big business and government, but there are times when some of the things that are really said just sound stupid. Recently members of the Hollywood Cartel decided that Google fiber will lead to an increase in piracy. Their reasoning is a “survey” that was conducted on illegal file haring as it relates to Google Fiber s that came up with some rather interesting numbers (they are magical). Fortunately for anyone wanting a laugh, it was leaked to the gang at TorrentFreak

If we have said it once, we have said it a thousand times, there is no such thing as a secure network or system. This is especially true when the network is, by design, intended to deal with external user or customer connections. We are, of course, talking about the Sony (Pictures) breach and the subsequent treasure trove of emails and documents that have been flowing from that event since. Sony is in a very bad way since the hack as they have (stupidly) kept some rather sensitive information on their servers that is no open for the public to see.