Technology - Google News

Activision Won't Remove Existing Games from PlayStation After Xbox Acquisition - IGN - IGN
Google Play Games for PC, which brings Android games to Windows, enters beta testing - TechCrunch
Google turning the lights out on free G Suite legacy users by mid-year unless they pay up - ZDNet

Activision Won't Remove Existing Games from PlayStation After Xbox Acquisition - IGN - IGN

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 06:54 AM PST

Activision Blizzard has confirmed that it won't remove existing games from PlayStation after it has been acquired by Xbox - meaning that games such as Call of Duty: Warzone will seemingly remain multiplatform.

The news comes from an employee Q&A filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a question asking how the deal between Activision Blizzard and Xbox will impact existing partner agreements, the company stated, "We will honor all existing commitments post close. As with Microsoft's acquisition of Minecraft, we have no intent to remove any content from platforms where it exists today."

After Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang developer Minecraft, the hugely successful game remained on PlayStation consoles, where it can still be played today. That being said, Minecraft has since been added to Xbox Game Pass on both PC and console, and Microsoft has already stated that it plans to bring as many Activision Blizzard games across to the service as possible following the integration.

Have you played Call of Duty: Warzone?

Microsoft took a similar approach in its acquisition of Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax last year. While games such as Dishonored have remained on PlayStation's digital stores and are still available for purchase, the series has since also moved onto Game Pass, where it acts as another product to add to the service's value.

Although Microsoft is yet to unveil which Activision Blizzard IPs it plans to convert into Xbox exclusives, Bethesda's upcoming release of Starfield – which will debut later this year as an Xbox console exclusive – could signal that PlayStation fans are set to miss out on further content in the years to come.

The 13 Biggest Franchises Microsoft Will Own After the Xbox and Activision Deal

What that means for Activision's hugely lucrative Call of Duty franchise still remains to be seen. Given that Call of Duty: Warzone is currently an existing and ongoing product for the company, the statements made by Activision Blizzard above seem to suggest that the game isn't likely to be removed from PlayStation consoles in the future.

However, that statement doesn't necessarily cover future Call of Duty releases, which theoretically wouldn't be covered as content on platforms that already exists today. It could be that, while the free-to-play Warzone remains on PlayStation, new mainline entries in the Call of Duty series are turned into Xbox exclusives, or are released directly into Game Pass to increase the lure of the Xbox versions.

For more recent news from Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, make sure to check out how Sony stock fell by $20 billion dollars the day after the announcement was made.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

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Google Play Games for PC, which brings Android games to Windows, enters beta testing - TechCrunch

Posted: 19 Jan 2022 04:01 PM PST

Google today will begin rolling out a limited beta test of its newly announced Google Play Games for PC product in three overseas markets: Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. The Google Play Games PC application, which was announced last month during The Game Awards event, allows people to play Google Play games on Windows PCs, in addition to currently supported platforms like mobile, tablet and ChromeOS. The new PC support will include both laptops and desktops, Google said, and players will be able to pick up from where they left off when switching from another device, like their Android phone, over to their computer.

The company had previously announced the first markets to gain access to the PC app, which was expected to arrive in early 2022. However, an exact date had not yet been given.

After gaining access to the beta, testers will be able to try out popular mobile games like "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang," "Summoners War," "State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration," and "Three Kingdoms Tactic," which already reach hundreds of millions of players worldwide each month. In total, beta testers will have access to more than 25 games, Google says.

The new PC app lets users browse through the catalog, then download and play games on a larger screen, while also taking advantage of their mouse and keyboard inputs. Users' gameplay progress, meanwhile, swill sync between devices, and they'll continue to early Play Points when gaming on the PC, Google today noted.

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The PC app's launch follows a recent move from Microsoft to bring Android apps to Windows 11, which included a partnership with Amazon and its own Amazon Appstore, as demand for cross-platform gameplay has heated up. But the Google Play Games for PC app isn't being built in partnership with Microsoft — it's Google's own app, which it built in-house and distributes. It's also not a game streaming service. Players will download the games to their computer in order to play.

As the beta version goes to launch, Google says it will publish more details for Android developers that will help them optimize their existing games to be compatible with Windows PCs, so they'll be able to take advantage of the expanded access the PC app will provide. Google had said last month that, with the launch of a Windows app, Google Play games could reach a gaming ecosystem of 2.5 billion monthly active users, across platforms.

Timed alongside this news at 4 PM PT today, Google will launch a developer website for those interested in participating in the beta where they can express interest and opt-in to receive updates as the beta continues.

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Google turning the lights out on free G Suite legacy users by mid-year unless they pay up - ZDNet

Posted: 19 Jan 2022 06:23 PM PST

It's been a bit under a decade since Google stopped offering its email and online office suite for free to users on their own domain name, but the Grim Reaper has finally arrived for those users grandfathered on what would become known as the "G Suite legacy free edition".

In an email and notice first spotted by 9to5Google, Google is telling its legacy free users to pony up if they want to continue receiving the same service they have become accustomed to.

"If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022," Google said on a support page.

Users will have until May 1 to decide which of Google's Workspace plans they want, and if they do not, the search giant will upgrade users automatically "based on the features you currently use".

If users do not provide billing information by July 1, they will be suspended, and after 60 days of suspension, access to "Google Workspace core services" will be ended.

Google's Workspace pricing tiers begin at $6 per user per month and top out at $18 per user per month for the Business Plus plan. These plans are for a maximum of 300 users, after which those interested need to contact the Google sales machine.

For users that decide to shift from Google and want to keep a copy of their data to the greatest extent possible, that avoids paying, super administrators are able to use the G Suite data export tool while users can use Google Takeout.

For users that are only interested in using Gmail on a custom domain, and are happy to burn any emails left behind, forwarding emails to a regular Gmail account could be an option to continue doing it for free.

Just before Christmas, Google reportedly told purchasers of its OnHub routers that support would end on 19 December 2022, but did give users a 40% discount on Nest Wifi.

Goodbye, cruel Google world

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