On the menu of the Daily this August 11, we start by honoring Tower of Fantasy, which is already a hit! We continue with the new clash between Playstation and Xbox, before ending with the “war” of SVOD, where Disney has just overtaken Netflix. The Daily, let’s go!
New clash between Xbox and PlayStation
Announced a few months ago, the takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft has been talked about. This mind-blowing $69 billion transaction is a true industry record and will allow Xbox to greatly expand its catalog of games with pillars such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty. This takeover soon to be finalized is not to the liking of Playstation, Xbox’s eternal competitor. Before validating the transaction, the authorities wanted to question companies in the sector to understand the consequences of this takeover. Sony then declared that the acquisition of Activision, and therefore of Call of Duty, would practically be unfair competition, the license being sufficiently important to encourage players to change consoles. In the midst of these statements, we learned that Sony would pay “blocking fees” to prevent developers from adding their games to Xbox Game Pass. If that turns out to be true, it won’t be too surprising, knowing that it wouldn’t be the first time that Sony has blocked developers, having already prevented crossplay on PS4 for years.
Genshin Impact has found its competitor!
It is from today that it is possible to try out Tower of Fantasy on PC and mobile. The MMRPG published by the giant Tencent has a good chance of becoming the number 1 competitor of Genshin Impact. Tower of Fantasy takes up the main lines of the MiHoYo game, but stands out by adding what it lacked, Genshin Impact not having an MMO dimension. It is therefore possible to live the adventure in a group on Tower of Fantasy. This new open-world game has other advantages in hand, such as a rather complete character creation system, and a world rich in activities, beyond the traditional dungeons. Tower of Fantasy is off to a great start: it is already number 1 for free games on the App Store, for example.
Netflix is overtaken by Disney+
Netflix remained the number 1 SVOD giant for quite a while. And then the competition arrived, in particular the Disney group which has three streaming platforms in the world. Combining the number of subscribers from Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+, Mickey overtook Netflix with 221.1 million subscribers. At the moment, that’s barely more than Netflix and its 220 million followers, although the service tends to lose subscribers at the moment. However, Disney’s picture is not all rosy: if its streaming services are gaining subscribers, its profits do not necessarily follow. Disney+ will therefore have a new subscription with advertisements from December in the United States, and a price increase to maintain an uninterrupted experience.