Daily Briefing: Friday 30th April

Bobby Kotick slashes salary and bonus potential

Kotick will remain the CEO of Activision Blizzard until at least the end of March 2023 but he is also voluntarily slashing his base salary by 50% to $875K. His maximum potential bonus will also be halved to $1.75m. It will still be performance-based but cannot exceed 200% of his reduced salary.

• Kotick's Transformation Transaction Award and Shareholder Value Creation Incentive have also been scrapped. The latter was the $200m stock option that caused so much uproar last year. Kotick will still hardly be hurting for cash, though the reason for these cuts is still unconfirmed. Are they a response to the criticism? Or are Activision worried about something? Their earnings call is scheduled for May 4th, so we'll hear any bad news then.

Microsoft reduce revenue cut on PC

The company announced yesterday that, beginning August 1st, the developer share of Microsoft Store revenue will rise from 70% to 88%. Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty says Microsoft hope this "clear, no-strings-attached" revenue share system will make Microsoft's marketplace more appealing to both devs and players.

• This reduced revenue cut is a clear attempt by Microsoft to firm up their position in the PC gaming space, which has never been great. The cut not only makes them competitive with Steam, but also matches the Epic Store's infamous revenue share system. Between this and promised overhauls, we'll see how the Microsoft Store is looking in a few months.

Halo Infinite has cross-play and cross-progression on Xbox and PC

Halo Infinite will have full cross-play and cross-progression when it launches later on this year, meaning that players can play together across PC and Xbox Series X|S. Multiplayer customisation and in-game progress will also follow you across platforms. Many had predicted this already, but it's nice to have confirmation.

• This seems to be another facet of Microsoft's attempts to re-establish themselves in PC gaming. They definitely have the audience - the Halo Master Chief Collection brought in over 10m players on PC - so Microsoft working to offer a "premier PC experience" with Halo Infinite is bound to go over well.

Returnal studio thank Sony for support

PlayStation 5 exclusive rogue-lite shooter releases today and developers Housemarque have thanked Sony for supporting the game "in the age when games publishers are taking less and less creative risks." Despite having worked with Housemarque on nine games since 2007, funding Returnal was reportedly "very risky" for Sony.

• Reviews for Returnal have been trickling out over the last few days and everything is looking fairly positive, so it'll be interesting to see whether Sony feel their investment has paid off. Returnal will likely sell well enough by virtue of it being the first PS5 exclusive in a while, but something about praising Sony for taking creative risks just doesn't feel right...