If you’re looking to save money on some PlayStation games or movies, Sony has two free opportunities to earn 20% coupons. You can simply click the links below. One will link to Far Cry 5 trailers and the other is for MLB: The Show 18. MLB’s chance to obtain it will expire tomorrow but be usable until the end of March. The Far Cry 5 coupon will last until the end of April. They can be used for any game but they don’t stack. It will look similar to the image below.
Nintendo will be hosting a tournament at E3 for Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch. The tournaments will be hosted at E3 2018 in Los Angeles on June 11th and 12th. There will be two different formats for both games. Nintendo has announced they will continue to release E3 announcements next month.
Splatoon 2 will be 4 way round robin tournament with 4 teams at E3. One form Japan, the U.S./Can, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Winning the Splatoon 2 US/Canada Inkling Open 2018 online qualifiers will qualify your team for a spot. Qualifiers begin April 21, 11 a.m. PT, and finals will take place on April 28 at 8 a.m. This will be Splatoon 2‘s first World Championship. There is no entry fee and rules are in the link below. You can register online via this link http://e3.nintendo.com/splatoon-2-inkling-open
Nintendo has announced that the Smash game will be for Nintendo Switch. It will be a invitational with a non-disclosed amount of players invited by Nintendo. Details on whether its a new Smash game or a port of Smash 4 for the Wii U is still undetermined. The tournament will appeal to casual and competitive Smash players. Bill Trinen, Nintendo’s senior product marketing manager, said it will be similar in structure to the E3 2014 Super Smash Bros. invitational. Top players from the Smash community such as Mango, Hungrybox and ZeRo won in E3 2014 for the Super Smash Bros for Wii U.
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.
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. Vivendi denied 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.
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.
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.
Microsoft’s E3 part will begin on Monday, June 10th at 1pm.
The Gaming News Corner 