Warner Bros Interactive Reportedly To Be Split Up After WarnerMedia And Discovery Merger

Warner Bros Interactive will be "broken up somehow" after parent company AT&T's confirmed it will now be merging WarnerMedia with Discovery to create a new "premier, standalone global entertainment company."

The supposed deal is expected to close in mid-2022 and will see AT&T receive $43 billion USD and also getting stock that represents 71% of the new company.

In regards to WB Interactive, a spokesperson apparently told a reporter at Axios (as per journalist Stephen Totilo on Twitter) "Some of the gaming arms will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company."

details on the split are currently not known, Warner Bros Interactive is home to a ton of prolific studios that includes: NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady Studios (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League) , TT Games (Lego Star Wars: A Skywalker Saga), Avalanche Games (Hogwarts Legacy) and Monolith (Shadow of Mordor).

Sadly, this isn’t the first hurdle that WBIE has had to overcome, with reports suggesting that AT&T were possibly looking to sell the games divisions last summer. Interest in making the purchase came from companies such as Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and EA. However, they apparently changed their minds by September, deeming the business "too valuable to unload during its effort to pay down debt and streamline."

How this turns out is gonna pretty impactful to the gaming industry and I could see AT&T possibly pushing contracts to other companies to create games based on licenses and then just sitting collecting royalties.

Halo Infinite confirms multiplayer cross-play

Xbox has announced that the upcoming Halo Infinite will have multiplayer cross-play and cross-progression on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

in a post on the Xbox Wire which is titled 'Continuing Our PC Gaming in 2021 and Beyond', they announced that cross-progression will allow players to have access to their unlocks/customization regardless if you're playing on a console or on the PC. The PC version of Halo Infinite will also include support for ultrawide and super ultrawide screens, triple keyboards, a "wide variety of advanced graphics options" and more.

Later on in the post, Xbox's Matt Booty also confirmed that the company plans to bring several Xbox Series X|S enhancements to the PC, including DirectStorage technology which means games can load faster, and even the console's Auto HDR feature which has given developers the ability to bring graphical upgrades that weren't possible for "1000s" of older DirectX based titles.

Lastly, Microsoft announced it will be making changes to the developer revenue share for games sold in the Microsoft Store, and from August 1, the net revenue developers will earn from sales will increase from 70% to 88%.

Bethesda Officially joins Team Xbox

Xbox has announced that the Bethesda acquisition is completed, and confirmed some additional details on the partnership.

a statement from both parties was posted on the Xbox News Wire blog, with Xbox's Phil Spencer kicking things off by saying "Now that everything is official, we can begin working together to deliver more great games to everyone. At every step building toward this moment, I’ve been inspired and motivated by the creativity, insight, and community-first approach of the talented people at Bethesda. Our goal is to give these teams the best foundation for doing their greatest work and to learn from them as we continue to build Xbox into an inclusive platform for all players."

Spencer also reiterated his previous statements on the deal, saying that "Xbox consoles, PC and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games" and continued by saying "Some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players" but sadly did not confirm any exact games that these could possibly be.

on Bethesda's side, Pete Hines' posted his own statement on Bethesda's website saying "First, let me say that we’re not making any landmark announcements or changes right now. As we’ve all shared, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as we have in the past, just with more support and resources than we’ve ever had before. Obviously, Game Pass has been an important initiative for Xbox, and we’ll be working on putting even more of our games into Game Pass than ever before. Beyond that? Stay tuned, we’re just getting started together."

Lastly, Spencer went on to say "We are bringing addition Bethesda games into Xbox Game Pass this week" and to "Stay tuned for more details"

First Batch Of Games Coming To Xbox Game Pass In January

Microsoft has just announced all the upcoming games coming and leaving Xbox game pass in the first half of January.

New Games Added

January 7

PES 2021 Season Update (Android and console)

Injustice 2 (Android, console, PC)

The Little Acre (Android and console)

January 14

Neoverse (PC)

Torchlight III (Android and console)

What Remains of Edith Finch (PC)

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG (PC)

Games leaving on January 15

FTL: Faster Than Light (PC)

My Friend Pedro (Console and PC)

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet (Console)

Tekken 7 (Console)

Additionally if your an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, you'll get the following perks:

Spellbreak – Chapter 1 Pass (Claim by April 8)

World of Warships: Legends – Holiday Cruisers (Claim by April 1)

World of Tanks – Legend of War Pack (Claim by March 31)