Hello, my name is Benjamin Le. I am an avid gamer whose passion resides in Marketing for the Video Game Industry. This site is for people to read about gaming news and how the industry works. Please feel free to reach out to me at lebenjaminj@gmail.com for any questions.
Despite creating amazing games and long-lasting franchises, you would be surprised to hear Ubisoft was trying to avoid a hostile takeover of their company for several years from Vivendi. Vivendi is a French multimedia company. They are active in music, television, film, and video games. They were the previous owners of the most shares for Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, OverWatch) before they became Activision Blizzard. Vivendi began to purchase shares of Gameloft and Ubisoft to own the companies. CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot and Michel Guillemot, viewed their acquirement as a hostile takeover and worked together to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more stocks.
What do Shareholders do?
Investors can purchase a majority of shares than others to have influence on the Board of Directors (BoD). The Board of Directors vote to determine which direction a company should move and they represent the shareholders. Depending on how much a person invests into shares determine the amount of power within their votes. Vivendi attempt to buy more shares was to own Ubisoft just like they bought most of the shares for Gameloft. Vivendidenied the accusations on December 2016. They had owned 27.5% prior to the current news. France laws states if a person owns more than 30%, they are obligated to offer to buy the company.
Tencent’s portfolio in 2014
Yves worked with individuals to prevent Vivendi from purchasing more shares. Vivendi is now selling its 27% shares for 2 billion euros. Ubisoft and the Guillemot Brothers C.E. (Representative company of Ubisoft‘s founders Guillemot family) will acquire 15% of Vivendi‘s shares. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — an independent organization that administers pensions for about 318,000 teachers in Canada’s most populous province- and Tencent (League of Legends, PUBG China), a Chinese conglomerate will purchase the 3.4% and 5% of the remaining stock but won’t have seat on the BoD. The rest will be sold through accelerated book building.
Why is this important?
The Board of Directors have huge influence on companies but they may not follow the same views as the CEO or how people want the company to act. Their biggest focus is on the companies to earn as much money as possible. With Ubisoft owning most of the shares and already setting plans for 2018 – 2020, they can choose their own business practice. Shareholders won’t have the influence to force Ubisoft to use “dirty” business strategies such as releasing more DLC, releasing unpolished games or creating more mobile games. We want gaming companies to choose their own business goals without compromising their principles because of the shareholders.
E3 is coming and guest passes are finally out for a general audience to purchase. However, more gaming companies are stepping away from E3 to host their own events. Microsoft has announced that they will not have a dedicated booth at the LA Convention center. Instead, their E3 focus will be held in Microsoft Theater. It will be a separate venue: “a new booth completely dedicated to Mixer, where you can play, stream and interact with games and catch the latest E3 news live throughout the entire week.” The venue will be X-Box focused and have hands-on demos. What will be shown has still not been revealed or leak. Currently, the Xbox One’s Console total sales are $35 million. The PlayStation 4 has sold $70 million and the Switch is almost $10 million since its launch last year. Whether Xbox can surpass the PS4 remains unlikely for this generation. Maybe this E3, Microsoft will showcase exclusives that don’t disappoint longtime fans.
Schedule for their Stream:
Microsoft’s E3 part will begin on Monday, June 10th at 1pm.
While there are not huge features added to Patch 5.0 for the Switch, there are new features and fixes that are important for the system.
Playtime reset bug has been fixed. Many people who noticed that after a year’s worth of playtime on their games, the timer would state how many days since last played rather than how many hours played. Nintendo of America acknowledges it as an error before the fix.
You can now add friends through Facebook and Twitter. A useful feature that most the PS4 and the Xbox One have. It makes adding friends more convenient rather than adding them via codes.
Parents control have been changed. Instead of using a number pad, your parental control is done via the controller for privacy.
Purchasing and downloading games from your PC to the Nintendo Switch will start faster.
I’m trying a new format for TLDW by adding bullet points to keep it short and sweet. Let me know if you like this format.
Nintendo 3DS Games
WarioWare Gold: Releases August 3rd.
300 mini-games for 3DS involving Wario-Ware games.
Some returning characters have been redesigned
Games involve motion controls, your voice, touch screen and button presses
Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breaker: Demo available May 10th. Releases May 24
Partner with your Mii animal characters.
Your friends Miis can join
Tower defense+racing and some arena fighting
Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story 3DS+Bowser Junior’s Journey: Launches 2019
Fight as Mario and Luigi and Bowser.
Re-release from Nintendo DS
Comes with additional Bowser Junior story where you play from his point of view during the main story
Detective Pikachu: releases March 23rd
Play as Detective Pikachu and solve the mystery of attacking Pokemon
A different form of gameplay that focuses on solving mysteries and less on battling Pokemon
Amibo is 5.3 inches. 2x bigger than normal
This Aimpom is dead
Luigi Mansion Remake: Releases this year.
The map is on the bottom screen
Fans of the Luigi Mansiongame returns!
You suck up the ghost with your trusty vacuum to save Mario
Nintendo Switch
Kirby Star Allies: releases March 16th. Free update releases March 28th.
Demo currently out
Can have fan favorite allies such as King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee…
More dream friends will be added after launch such as Rick, Kine, and Coo from Kirby Dream Land 2, Markx from Super Star Ultra, Gooey from Kirby Dream Land 3
If you pre-order, you get a special bag
Okami:Available this summer
HD remake of the game that is currently out for other consoles
Touch screen or motion control to use paint brushes
Classic Capcom game with an amazing cast of characters as you play as Amatarsu.
Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido: Available June 8th for Switch and 3DS
Raised in a war where sushi is forbidden
Ear more sushi with matching and match them such as a puzzle game. You can activate sushi sprites abilities after combining enough sushi. Think of it like Tsum Tsums
You fight against the emperor and their sushi monopoly!
Multiplayer mode. 1v1 sushi fighting
New IP from Nintendo
Octopath Traveler: Releases July 13, 2018. Demo currently available
Two new characters. Tressa the Merchant. Can purchase special items from town folks.
Apothacery Alfyn: inquire and gain special features when talking to town folk.
Job system: everyone starts with one but gain an additional one for battle. Combining jobs give you unique abilities. Game launches July 13, 2018.
The special edition comes with pop-up book, a map, CD, and in-game currency coin.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes:Releases later this year
Multiple game modes as Travis enters game worlds. 7 different worlds with different
Exterminate all bugs in your way with the beam katana
Tons of new bosses that aren’t trying to be number one Assassin
Co-op multiplayer where your partner plays as Bad-man!
Beam katanas, toilet save points, and suplexes are all returning
The game is much more colorful with the different game themes
Dark Souls Remaster:Releases May 25th
Solaire of Astora amiibo releases the same time as the game
Network test to try out the game if you haven’t played Dark Souls before
Details on Network test coming soon
Mario Tennis Aces: Releases June 22nd
The biggest focus of the direct
More than 15 players including chomp chomp.
Tennis refined and more ways to play tennis.
Multiple shots. Zone shot lets you pinpoint moves with motion action.
Rackets take damage and break. If you lose all your tennis rockets you’re out.
You can block the Zone shot if you hit it just right. Otherwise, your racket takes damage
Zone speed, time moves slowly so you can hit back the Zone shots with better timing
Zone depends on energy gauge. Fills up as the rally continues.
Trick shots give you special movements. If you hit the ball back you gain more energy but its a specific movement for each character.
Max energy can give you a special shot.
Play with simple rules if you hate fun.
4 player multiplayer online mode. Tournaments are based on ranking. If you win, you get in-game shirts and additional characters.
Swing mode is motion control if you prefer something like Wii Tennis
A pre-launch online tournament is a 1v1 online tournament. Details for a later date.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Releases July 13th
port from Nintendo Wii U.
Includes super Mario Odyssey game levels.
Can play multiplayer where your friend will shoot tomatoes to protect you
Nintendo 3DS port too!
Toad loves adventure
Undertale: Unknown release date
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy: Releases July 10th
Also out for Xbox One and Steam.
First time on a Nintendo console
Little Nightmare: Complete Edition: Releases May 18th
A puzzle platformer with horror influence.
Comes with 2 DLC stories and all previous content.
In-game Pacu Mask if you use the Pac-Man amiibo.
South Park: Fracture but Whole: Releases April 24th
South Park RPG with that classic South Park humor from the show
DLC isn’t included
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition: releases May 18th
Arms update:
Us and Canada open tournament: March 8 – 18th. Top 8 on March 31st.
Top winners get unique art piece. More updates in the future.
March 31st 3 -day event to play for free
March 21: GDC Developers will speak on Arms and Splatoon
Splatoon 3.0update: Late April.
100+ pieces of new gear. New stages.
Rank X is an extreme rank that will come soon. More conditions to meet where you meet Callie where you can climb to Rank X. Making the game more competitive.
New Singleplayer mode focusing on a new character called Agent 8. An Octoling w/o memory. Your adventure is through shady underground test facility. Its all one connected huge subway. Variety of mission that will expand on the characters and lore.
If you finish it, you can play multiplayer as an Octoling.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58960551/DXzIKecUMAAWtRm.0.jpg)
;)
The Gaming News Corner 