Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of October 10, 2022
Meta announces the Quest Pro, Microsoft's woes in acquiring Activision Blizzard, and Netflix reveals its ad-supported plan.
Welcome to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more. At the end of each newsletter, there will be a section called On The Calendar, which will include some of those notable dates that are near-term. Eventually, there will also be a separate newsletter called ChartChitChat, where I'll take a look at the various weekly charts, including the box office, Nielsen television charts, Netflix’s Top 10 charts, and the Steam charts.
Also, the folks are KindaFunny are doing a massive livestream today to celebrate the opening of their new studio, The Spare Bedroom! If you like what they put down, tune in.
Without further ado, let's get into the news.
Video Games 🎮
No New Call of Duty in 2023, Modern Warfare 2 Getting New Content Instead
Call of Duty remains one of the biggest franchises in gaming, but the annual schedule is shifting slightly. Instead of releasing a brand-new entry for the series' 20th anniversary, leaks and reports point to further additions to Modern Warfare II, which is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC on October 28, 2022.
The buzz kicked off last week when leaker TheGhostOfHope said that Activision Blizzard was going to release a map pack with classic maps from previous Call of Duty titles. The leaker followed that news up by saying that Campaign DLC would also be coming alongside the map pack. This became information worthy of this newsletter when Bloomberg's Jason Schreier confirmed that more content would be coming to MWII rather than a new CoD.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Again, Call of Duty is one of the biggest franchises in gaming, period. On NPD rankings of 2021's best-selling games in the United States, the franchise took the top two spots, with 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard and 2020's Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War outselling everything else. Call of Duty is also one of the key points in the UK Competition & Markets Authority's argument against Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard.
While the Warzone 2.0 experience will likely keep players going, it means that Activision Blizzard needs to come up with an expansion experience that will justify something near the $60-70 price tag the publisher would normally get from a new entry. (Realizing that not every player will buy the DLC.) Or it needs to realize that potential 2023 revenue might be lower than expected.
Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard Hits a UK Barrier
As mentioned above, the UK Competition & Markets Authority released its first report in regard to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The 76-page report outlined the need for further investigation and threw a bit of cold water on Microsoft's plan. The CMA decided that the acquisition could lead to "a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition" in a few key areas.
Those areas are gaming consoles, game subscription services, and cloud gaming. The CMA acknowledges that Sony's PlayStation 5 is far ahead of Microsoft's Xbox this generation, but it worries that making Activision Blizzard games — Call of Duty in particular — exclusive in subsequent generations could give Microsoft too much strength. In the latter areas, game subscription services and cloud gaming, the CMA notes that Microsoft already has the leadership position due to Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Azure.
Microsoft released its response to outlets like Ars Technica, arguing the CMA is only listening to Sony's arguments and not thinking of the wider market. The response is essentially an outline of how much Microsoft sucks at gaming, the company's attempt to lower the amount of visible leverage it has.
"The CMA adopts Sony’s complaints without the appropriate level of critical review. Sony is not vulnerable to a hypothetical foreclosure strategy, and the Referral Decision incorrectly relies on self-serving statements by Sony which significantly exaggerate the importance of Call of Duty to it and neglect to account for Sony’s clear ability to competitively respond," said Microsoft.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Getting through regulatory groups in each region is key to any major acquisition. Microsoft's response largely focused on how strong Sony is in the marketplace, while the CMA is more concerned with the long-term effects.
As an example of a similar situation, you can look at the CMA's dealings with Meta. in November 2021, the CMA ordered Meta to sell Giphy, the GIF marketplace the social media company purchased in 2020. Meta has appealed that order and paid a fine for not selling Giphy off. The CMA is investigating the situation once again, but it's probably not going much better for Meta. And the sale price of $315 million for Giphy is far, far less than the $68.7 billion Microsoft is paying for Activision Blizzard.
Nvidia Takes a Knee On The RTX 4080 12GB, Noting Its "Not Named Right"
When Nvidia announced its latest RTX 40-series cards, the community noticed the odd man out in the lineup. The RTX 4080 16GB is pricey but properly placed as a prospective xx80. The RTX 4080 12GB, however, looked suspiciously like an RTX 4070 renamed to charge a higher retail price.
It seems Nvidia agrees, as the company has decided to table the launch of the 4080 12GB. The 4080 16GB will still be launching on November 16, but its little sibling will be coming at a later date.
"The RTX 4080 12GB is a fantastic graphics card, but it’s not named right. Having two GPUs with the 4080 designation is confusing."
Tech ⌨️
Meta Announces $1,499 Quest Pro Built For No One
This week, Meta unveiled its latest shot at virtual and augmented reality domination, the Meta Quest Pro. The headset is a top-tier premium offering meant to run alongside the Quest 2 as an answer for enterprise-level VR. The Quest Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It also features improved sensors and higher-resolution outward-facing cameras for augmented reality applications. The Quest Pro will cost $1,499 USD and begin sales on October 25.
It's a good-looking piece of hardware overall. The problems mount up, however, when you take a look at the details. The price tag is prohibitive for anyone other than high-end enthusiasts and companies. Meta realizes this, positioning the Quest Pro as a device for work. But no one is going to run meetings in VR when Slack or Zoom work just as well within existing budgets. And in other environments where VR and AR might be useful, the battery life of one to two hours simply isn't good enough for sustained work.
It's currently a solution in search of a problem.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Meta is desperately trying to find the case for widespread VR and AR, because it wants to be on the ground floor for the platform of the future. If it can become the Apple App Store for whatever is next, there are billions to be made. But it's not going great.
The New York Times ran a story about Meta's struggles, including huge expenses, a lack of vision, and few internal employees using VR headsets and tools in the first place. If your own employees aren't using VR for meetings, then perhaps it's not as productive as you tout. Add in the dissatisfaction from long-term VR proponents like John Carmack, and you have a recipe for a huge waste of money.
The final lines of the NYT story are damning: "Earlier this year, Mr. Bosworth tried to lead a staff meeting inside Horizon Workrooms, according to an employee who was present. The meeting was thwarted by technical glitches and the team ended up using Zoom, the employee said."
Microsoft Announces New Surface Lineup
Following the Amazon and Google hardware announcements in the past two weeks, Microsoft offered up its new hardware at Microsoft Ignite 2022. The products include the Surface Laptop 5, Surface Pro 9, and Surface Studio 2 Plus. All of the devices that were announced will start shipping on October 25.
The Surface Laptop 5 actually loses an option this year, only offering Intel Core i5 and Core i7 models and pushing AMD chips out of the device altogether. There's also support for Thunderbolt 4 support, but otherwise, this is an incremental upgrade for last year's Surface Laptop 4.
The Surface Pro 9 goes in the opposite direction, adding new ARM-based models powered by the Qualcomm SQ3 system-on-a-chip. This is an odd situation, as the Pro 9 is an update of the Surface Pro 8 and the Arm-powered Pro X. What is the company going to do next year for the Pro 10? The standard Pro 9 offers full-fat Windows 11, while the "Pro 9 with 5G" adds 5G support and better battery life, but with the stripped-down Windows for Arm.
Finally, there's the Surface Studio 2 Plus, a refresh of the 2018 all-in-one PC. it's powered by the older Intel Core i7-11370H and Nvidia RTX 3060 (laptop iteration). It's the same shell with minor updates, starting at an eye-watering $4,299. This is another device that seems badly aimed at the marketplace.
Intel Will Lay Off Thousands Of Employees
According to a report from Bloomberg, Intel is planning a huge reduction in its workforce. The chip giant had 128,200 employees when it reported its Q2 2022 financial results in July and it's expected to start downsizing around the third quarter results release on October 27.
The issue is an overall PC sales slump, as the combination of expanded PC sales during the pandemic and the recession. There's no need to buy a new PC if you just bought one during the pandemic in order to work from home, or if you lack the money to buy one because you're out of a job. And instead of taking depressed revenue head-on, Intel is going with the tried-and-true method of layoffs.
U.S. Government Rolls Out New Restrictions on Chip Exports to China
As reported by the New York Times, the White House has handed down new restrictions on selling semiconductors and chip-manufacturing equipment to China. The United States and China are two of the reigning superpowers on the global stage, and semiconductor tech currently underpins almost every aspect of life, from corporate infrastructure to personal tech like smartphones, and even agriculture. On the surface, U.S. restrictions are meant to keep China from possessing technology that could improve military and security operations.
Why It's Worth Knowing: The problem is it also limits manufacturers from supplying advanced semiconductors for other applications without a special permit. There are also worries that the Chinese government could respond in kind. In addition, U.S officials said that the new rules could become more restrictive in the future. Some American companies that operate in China are in a wait-and-see position, hoping there's no blowback.
YouTube Rolls Out Account Handles
YouTube is doing its best to walk and talk like upstart video platform TikTok. YouTube Shorts was the major move, with the streaming giant offering vertically-oriented short videos to counter ByteDance's service. The next step is account handles, a new service being offered to creators over the next month.
Similar to TikTok or Twitter, creators can have handles in the format of "@yourname." This will allow users and creators to tag each other in an easier fashion. Those with personalized YouTube URLs will see those URLs transferred over to the new "youtube.com/@handle" format.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Will this help YouTube blunt TikTok's strength? Probably not. They are fundamentally different platforms whose viewers use them in different ways. Case in point: TikTok says users should upload new videos 1-4 times per day, while YouTube is closer to one video per week on average. YouTube is trying to subsume the benefits of TikTok into itself, but I honestly think they're diametrically opposed.
CNN Pulls Its NFT Marketplace
CNN is shutting down its marketplace where it sold NFTs of major stories it published.
There's not much more to really add to this. Every big corporation rushed to crypto for easy money and the money simply isn't there.
Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️
Netflix Introduces Ad-Supported Plan For $6.99 a Month
Netflix will finally be launching its ad-supported service on November 3. The new tier, Basic with Ads, comes in under the current Basic service. It'll offer 720p video quality with an average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour for $6.99 a month. The service will launch in 12 countries: the US, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Spain. The company also says some shows and films won't be available on the plan due to licensing issues.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Netflix hit a plateau in terms of available folks it could get to subscribe to the service. The addition of a cheaper ad-supported tier is meant to hopefully open the service up to brand-new viewers. It's not a huge drop, as the Basic plan is only $9.99 a month, but those three dollars can add up. As a pure gut check, it feels like they should've shaved another $1 off the price point.
As it stands though, Netflix' ad plan is above similar plans from Paramount+ and Peacock, but $1 cheaper than Hulu and Disney+ (coming in December) ad-supported subscriptions. HBO Max is at the top of the charts, offering its ad-supported plan for $9.99 per month.
Another interesting side effect is that Netflix will allow Nielsen will use its Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) in the U.S to measure viewers. The point of this is to allow advertisers the ability to understand the actual reach of Netflix' ad plan. You can't price ads without knowing how many folks you're going to reach.
Warner Bros Discovery Cuts 26% of Workforce at Warner Bros TV
According to reporting by Deadline, Warner Bros Discovery made major cuts to its Warner Bros Television division. The layoffs involved 82 employees in the scripted, unscripted, and animation groups. The corporation will also not fill 43 vacant positions; the 125 positions in total amount to 26% of WB TV.
The company also decided to shutter the Warner Bros. Television Workshop program, which was aimed at training the next generation of directors and writers. Both programs were also aimed at increasing the diversity of the film industry, leading to a grand internet uproar over their closing. Warner Bros Discovery is bringing those programs back in some form, but under its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion unit. Essentially, it's an all-new program with the same remit and it's unclear what kind of funding it's going to receive.
The First Trailer For The Super Mario Bros Movie Releases
For months, we've been wondering what the collaboration between Nintendo, Universal Pictures, and Illumination was going to look like. During New York Comic Con, Nintendo aired a Nintendo Direct showcasing the first teaser trailer for the film. The official title is The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It's planned for release on April 7, 2023.
The trailer itself features some of the voice work from the cast, including Chris Pratt as Mario, Keegan Michael Key as Toad, and Jack Black as Bowser. While the latter two voices have seen a positive reception, fans have seemingly nothing but jokes for Pratt's Mario, which sounds like only a hint of Jersey over Pratt's normal voice. It's the La Croix of voice acting, especially for a the Italian plumber. Fans point to the French and Italian trailers for something closer to what they expected.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Nintendo has been reticent to let its properties play outside of video games. A successful Mario movie could change that, opening the door to other adaptations like The Legend of Zelda or Metroid. Combined with Illumination's great track record at the box office, the Super Mario Bros. Movie could be a big hit.
Superhero Watch: Blade Pauses and Marvel Studios Delays
Two weeks ago, Marvel Studios' Blade lost its director, Bassam Tariq. For a film that was supposed to begin shooting in Atlanta, Georgia in November, that was obviously a problem. This week, Marvel Studios made the decision to pause production while it searches for a new director and rewrites the script. According to a report by THR, the studio really wants to get this right.
With the pause in production, Blade's planned November 3, 2023 release date was not going to work. So Marvel Studios has shuffled a number of release dates.
Blade - November 3, 2023 to September 6, 2024
Deadpool 3 - September 6, 2024 to November 8, 2024
Fantastic Four - November 8, 2024 to February 14, 2025
Avengers: Secret Wars - November 7, 2025 to May 1, 2026.
Notably, Fantastic Four is now a Valentine's Day film and Avengers: Secret Wars is now a full year after Avengers: Kang Dynasty. The original gap was only six months, which honestly felt like rushing things. The year gap will allow the blockbuster tentpoles to breathe a bit.
Comics and Manga 💭
DC Introduces DC Universe Infinite Ultra
The subscription business model is quickly growing in a number of markets, including comics. Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite offer access to either publisher's extensive catalog of comics for a low monthly fee. The catch is there's a lag time for the latest comics—presumably because to have day-and-date offerings would anger direct market stores. That release delay was originally six months for both services, but Marvel shifted to three months in 2020.
During NYCC 2022, DC Comics announced a new tier of DC Universe Infinite. This tier, Ultra, will offer DC's comic lineup with only a one-month delay. Ultra sports an introductory price of $99.99 USD per year until November 28, but the company has yet to report what the pricing will look like after that or if there will be a monthly option.
Why It's Worth Knowing: The window on digital comics subscriptions shrinks once again. Much like streaming services narrowing the theatrical window, it seems like the same is happening to comics. The issue for Marvel and DC is that the direct markets drive a lot of monthly comic sales, but that's reliant on physical locations, limiting the potential audience. Digital sales are a smaller chunk of the comics market at the moment, but the segment continues to grow year-over-year.
Marvel has also found that its subscription service also gives the publishing side room to tell smaller, more interesting stories that can potentially reach new audiences. The Infinity Comics initiative, with vertical-scrolling comics similar to Naver's Webtoon, has been seen as a boon to Marvel and the program is being expanded this year. (DC went right to the source and licensed out its characters for comics on Webtoon, specifically. Wayne Family Adventures is great!)
On The Calendar 📅
Here's the interesting stuff that's coming over the next week or so.
Gamescom Asia 2022 - October 20-23
Steam Halloween Sales - October 28-November 1