FTC attacks Microsoft’s post-merger Game Pass price increases

FTC attacks Microsoft’s post-merger Game Pass price increases

Enlarge / Access to first-party games on launch day remains a major selling point for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier. Microsoft The FTC says the across-the-board price increases that Microsoft recently announced for its Xbox Game Pass subscription service tiers represent “exactly the sort of consumer harm from the merger the FTC has alleged”…

Switch 2 is around the corner, but Nintendo announces a new Switch accessory anyway

Switch 2 is around the corner, but Nintendo announces a new Switch accessory anyway

Nintendo’s Joy-Con Charging Stand (Two-Way) seems useful, but it’s coming out at a strange time in the console’s lifecycle. Nintendo The stand can charge the Switch Online NES controllers, something that Nintendo’s charging grip can’t do because the handles get in the way. Nintendo The charging stand can be removed from the stand part to…

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition gave me new respect for gaming speedrunners

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition gave me new respect for gaming speedrunners

Enlarge / Get ready to repeat this ~25-second slice of Mario over and over… and over… and over. If you’ve ever seen a record-breaking video game speedrun or watched a Games Done Quick marathon, you may have entertained fantasies that you, too, could put up some decent times on your favorite old games. Sure, it…

Valve runs its massive PC gaming ecosystem with only about 350 employees

Valve runs its massive PC gaming ecosystem with only about 350 employees

Enlarge / Artist’s conception of Valve’s micro-employees hard at work inside your Steam installation. Getty Images As a private and generally secretive company, Valve doesn’t offer much outside visibility into its inner workings. So when years’ worth of data on the company’s employee and aggregate payroll numbers leaked recently, we were eager to take a…