Daily Briefing: Thursday 10th February

Microsoft are keeping an eye on Activision Blizzard’s executive leadership

That’s according to Microsoft president Brad Smith who, speaking in a new interview with CNBC, confirmed that the company want to greatly improve the work culture at Activision Blizzard. To do this, Smith says, the right people need to be in charge: “I think if there’s one thing that we’ve learned about addressing issues like sexual harassment or almost any issue of culture for people, it really requires a combination of commitment and humility. You’ve got to be committed to making things better.” He went on to say “you know, we’re looking to the leadership team at Activision Blizzard today to make culture and workplace safety a top priority every single day, until the day when this deal hopefully closes. And then we’ll take over and we need to make that same commitment.”

• When asked whether the phrase “when we take over” means that Microsoft will establish an entirely new leadership team at Activision Blizzard once their acquisition closes, Smith replied “well, what we’ve said is that there will be some aspects that will change, but it will all be one new team that will work together. “Most importantly, we want to see the culture evolve, and we will see how people perform between now and the day this closes, assuming it’s approved, and then we’ll have the opportunity to make sure that we have the right people in the right position.”

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is getting 48 new courses

One of the biggest surprises of last night’s Nintendo Direct presentation - the first of 2022 - was the announcement that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be getting an absolute stack on DLC across 2022 and 2023. The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pack (catchy name, Nintendo) will release in six waves of eight maps each. The course all remastered from previous Mario Kart titles: Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, and Mario Kart Tour. That sure is a lot of times in a row to say Mario.

• The first batch of eight tracks launches on March 18th, and includes Coconut Mall from Mario Kart Wii, Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64, and Shroom Ridge from Mario Kart DS. Players can preorder and purchase the pack for $24.99, though Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers (that’s the fancier, more expensive one) will get access to all 48 eventual courses as part of their subscription. The reason the announcement was such a surprise is because it follows about a month of speculation that a Mario Kart 9 announcement was imminent. Still, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has dominated Switch software sales throughout the console’s entire life span, so Nintendo are likely in no hurry to move on.

Over 100,000 people sign Battlefield 2042 refund petition

We don’t typically report on the various petitions that go on in the world of gaming, they tend to put up every so often in response to whichever controversy is currently dominating the news cycle. This latest one is pretty big, though, as at time of writing over 117K people have signed a petition to say that they feel they deserve a refund for Battlefield 2042. According to the founder of the petition, it attracting 100K signatures should be more than enough to attract the attention of a class-action lawyer to assist signatories with their refund requests.

• While the whole petition thing is essentially just high drama, it’s emblematic of the plethora of issues that Battlefield 2042 has had to deal with since it released last November. Player disappointment has been immeasurable while communication from the development team has been severely lacking. Things do seem to be looking up though, with EA and developers DICE recently re-confirming that they are “fully committed” to improving the overall health of the game. It’ll be interesting to see whether anything really comes out of this petition beyond it being a pretty handing tool for assessing public opinion of the game.