Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
Over the past year and a bit, there have been many discussions regarding Microsoft Xbox’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard King.
First announced in January 2022, the acquisition has been at the forefront of many gamers minds and become the talk across the gaming industry. King owns Candy Crush, while Activision owns the Call of Duty franchise and there are fears that Microsoft will make it exclusive to the Xbox family of consoles.
This is such a big deal that the Federal Trade Commission announced it would challenge the merger and opened court proceedings, while the European Commission also gave Microsoft an Antitrust Warning. On our island, the Competition and Markets Authority denied the deal, asking for Microsoft to sell the Call of Duty part of the company, which the tech giant do not see as viable.
There was a meeting in Europe between Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Nvidia last Tuesday –Nintendo and Nvidia all signed deals with Microsoft, to bring Xbox games to the Switch and PCs, however Sony refused to sign any deal leading the buyout in question.
The CMA have set a deadline for the deal to be finalised by Wednesday 26th April.
Crazy News
A solution has been found to help those we miss when in a long-distance relationship.
A device made in China allows you to share a kiss with a significant other using 3D technology. The 3D silicone gadget has a mouth-shaped module which is triggered through a kiss, which then gets transferred to the “mouth” on the other side.
Movement, temperature and pressure are then mimicked using sensors and is linked to phones via Bluetooth and an app.
The device was created by university students in China, and has since been criticised online, being called “weird” and others confirming that “having a long-distance relationship is a pretty bad idea”.
Happy News
Following the devastating news about the earthquakes to have hit Turkey in the recent weeks, during a match in Istanbul between Besiktas and Antalyaspor, thousands of toys and teddy bears were thrown onto the pitch in donation.
Many children lost not just their belongings and toys, but also family members so this is only a small token of support in reaction to the earthquakes that have killed more than 50,000.
The event was organised by Besiktas fans as part of a relief effort, and the match was paused after 4 minutes and 17 seconds – the time that the first earthquake struck, 4:17am.
