Jedi Survior and Surviving Microsoft

The Dove is a dork. No doubt about it. With that thick layer of dorkiness comes a decent knowledge and lifetime love of video games. And that love is ready to tell you all about some recent developments in the video game world.

Jedi: Survivor Nearly Here

For the Star Wars nerd inside us all, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will likely not have the same fate as the Star Wars Unleashed series. The director of the new Star Wars Jedi game, Stig Asmussen, was pretty clear of the direction of the franchise in a conversation with IGN.

Asmussen said, “We had a pretty decent idea of time-frame where we wanted Survivor to take place, what the stakes were going to be, what the tone of the game was going to be, what Cal was going to be up against, and how the crew was going to factor into that… And there's ideas of what we could do beyond that as well."

Not a clear date and title announcement, but at least the developers had the third installment in mind when writing and executing the second title of Respawn’s powerhouse IP. The first installment of the hopeful trilogy sold 20 million copies as of 2021, and is just outside the all-time top 50 best selling video game titles. Despite the meager 79 score given by Metacritic, the game sold well and was successfully ported to the next generation consoles.

Fans of the Star Wars Unleashed series were let down in 2010 when the second game in the series came out and was a colossal flop. The game itself was a rather short play-through and seemed liked more of a DLC than a new game. It was later revealed that the game was basically forced into a measly 12-month development cycle. The title did so poorly that it stopped the production of a third game dead in its tracks.

The new Star Wars Jedi: Survivor seems to have been given enough time to put a polished title out on April 28th of this year, including an extra month and a half as the title was slated for March 12th originally. I have been burned by many titles before, but with the pleasant surprise that Fallen Order game me, I am very optimistic about the next installment.

The Show Shows Up

MLB The Show 23 is coming to both Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo consoles on March 24. There are two versions to buy. You can get the standard version for $69.99 at most retailers. There is also a Captain’s Edition for $99.99 which looks to give those playing Diamond Dynasty or other online modes in the game a competitive advantage, and for just $30 more why wouldn’t you try to cheat other online players?

I cannot express how sick of the business model sports games have adopted over the last two decades. I am just dried up of any excitement of these repetitive crapped out titles that are literally just copy-and-paste codes from the previous year. Oh wow, you added new players and some random new mode I do not want to play? Where do I sign up? It is shameless and stupid. I plan to go in-depth about my disgust very soon with a Dove’s Dorky Digital Deep Dive.

Discount Games

There are plenty of discounts right now on some great titles with some unabated garbage on discount, as well. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is $4.99 on the PSN. A major discount right before the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. A few more of my favorite titles are on sale at the PSN at the moment: God of War (2018) $9.99, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition $19.99, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla $19.79, Death Stranding: Digital Deluxe Edition 19.99. Also some yearly regurgitated crap is cheap with Madden 23 at $20.99 and NBA2k23 at 23.99. Or you can buy last year’s versions of the same game for a third of that price at most GameStops or discount bins.

Microsoft Deal

Lastly, Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard takeover has a little bit of news. In one of gaming’s biggest markets, the European Commission has pushed their decision on the proposed takeover to May of this year. Initially scheduled to for April 22, the commission is going over new deals from Microsoft with Nvida and Nintendo that would allow bring Activsion’s biggest IP, Call of Duty, to the respective platforms.

Sony is waiting out the European Commission and FTC’s decisions after turning down Microsoft’s “olive branch” offer to keep COD on PlayStation for 10 years following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

As gaming monopolies have ruined many titles, like all of sports video games, this proposed 68 billion dollar deal from Microsoft could slowly kill a game that is loved world wide. As Microsoft tries to move gamers to the Xbox, they may find out how loyal gamers can be to their console or PC setup. Most gamers will just find a new title rather than buy a whole new console.

I know Microsoft has made its fortune in part by just buying out the competition, or in this case use a vertical monopoly to try to squeeze out the competition, but this move could blow up in their face also. All other consoles and PC could generate a new title similar to COD that is cross-platform sans Xbox. COD has been panned for being copies of previous installments of itself already, most gamers would likely revel in a new challenge of a multiplayer FPS that is on par with COD gameplay and graphics.

We will be doing more gaming news on Two Hats and a Beard, so make sure to check back soon. Enjoy your vids and GG!