Microsoft has announced its third quarter earnings for the period ending March 31, 2024, noting a 62% revenue increase in Xbox content and services.

As part of the More Personal Computing sector, Microsoft said the increase was driven by 61 points of net impact from the Activision acquisition. Thanks to the latter, revenue for the sector was up 17% to $15.6 billion year-over-year (yoy). However, taking Activision Blizzard King out of the equation, revenue for Xbox content and services was only up by 1%.

Gaming revenue was up 51% yoy to $5.45 billion, but once again, 55 points were from Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, otherwise, the sector would have reported a decline of 4% yoy.

As for hardware, with fewer units sold during the quarter, Xbox console sales declined by 31% yoy.

During the investors call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the firm set third quarter records for game streaming hours, console usage, and monthly active devices. According to Nadella, Game Pass users played over 10 million hours of Diablo 4 within the first ten days, making it one of the company’s biggest first party Game Pass launches ever since its March 28 addition to the service.

The ongoing success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was also highlighted, reiterated Microsoft release four of its fan-favorite titles on PlayStation and Switch, and noted that earlier this month, the company had seven games on the PlayStation Store’s top 25 downloads list – more than any other publisher.

The company also highlighted its product releases for the quarter such as the Minecraft and BBC Earth DLC, Palworld hitting game preview, Season 11 for Sea of Thieves, the launch of Operation: Spirit of Fire in Halo Infinite, the Dune Expansion for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the release of Obsidian’s critically acclaimed Pentiment, and several new accessories.

As a whole, for the quarter the company reported a 17% increase in revenue to $61.9 billion.

Blizzard has announced that after “careful consideration over the last year,” it will not host BlizzCon 2024 this year.

According to the company, the “decision was not made lightly,” as BlizzCon “remains a very special event” for the studio, and it knows that many people look forward to it.

“While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years,” said the firm in a statement.

“Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more details about our launches coming later this year, including World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo 4’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred.

“To celebrate these upcoming releases and to bring our communities together in new and special ways, we will soon share some exciting plans for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom. We can’t wait to tell you more about those plans soon.”

Blizzard said it is also planning multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, which will be held in addition to the in-game celebrations across its Warcraft games throughout 2024.

“While these events are distinct from BlizzCon, we’re harnessing all of our creativity and imagination to ensure that they carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness,” said the studio.

“Our hope is that these experiences – alongside several live-streamed industry events where we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening in our game universes – will capture the essence of what makes the Blizzard community so special.”

An annual event since 2005, BlizzCon is a fan-favorite convention and a venue for Blizzard to promote its major franchises. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blizzard skipped holding an in-person event during 2020-2022.

It returned in 2023 to the Anaheim Convention Center where the studio announced the first expansion for Diablo 4 along with Cataclysm coming to World of Warcraft Classic, three expansions called The Worldsoul Saga for World of Warcraft, a new hero called Mauga for Overwatch 2, and announced Showdown in the Badlands as the next expansion for Hearthstone.

The FX limited series Shogun ended on April 23, and fans of the ten-episode drama are clamoring for a second go-round; however, that’s not likely to happen, according to showrunner Justin Marks and writer Rachel Kondo.

This is because the series was based on the novel of the same name by the late James Clavell, who didn’t write a sequel. Set in 17th-century feudal Japan, it tells the story of shipwrecked English navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) who spends the rest of his days in the country. Blackthorne’s character was based on the real-life William Adams who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan and became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Despite Clavell’s other works having minor ties to Shogun (The Asian Saga), the novel concludes the story of Blackthorne and his relationships with the main players. That said, producer and co-star, Hiroyuki Sanada (John Wick 4, Mortal Kombat, Westworld) who plays the powerful busho Yoshii Toranaga, feels that while there is a history within the book, and “real history models,” a second entry or related series “depends on the audience’s reaction,” which as we know has been very positive.

However, Marks and Kondo are unsure whether there will be a season two, and from what we gleaned from the interview with The Hollywood Reporter, it doesn’t seem likely.

“I think if we had a story – if we could find a story – we would be open to it,” said Marks. “But I don’t think that anyone ever wants to be out over their skis without a roadmap and everything. And it’s also just about, do people want more of it?

“But it’s also about, not even topping the book, but, how do you even equal the roadmap that Clavell laid out? And I don’t know if it’s possible. I don’t know if Clavell could have done it either. That’s probably why he moved on to other books too, right? He knew what he had done. It’s a tough one.”

As far as Clavell’s The Asian Saga is concerned, a series based on the novels would be “hard” due to being “all over the place for good reason.” One of the books, Tai-Pan, takes place in the early period of Hong Kong for instance, and is “completely different” from Shogun.

“[Clavell’s] conjuring new vivid characters that stand 75,000 feet tall all at once, and I think when you look at Shogun, that’s part of what Clavell did,” Marks added. “We were given these characters who were really so colorful and accessible, it’s a hard magic to conjure as a novelist and as a writer.

“The Asian Saga goes all over the place for good reason. So it’s hard. You’re not actually building off that same language in the same way.”

We agree with Marks. A follow-up to Shogun would be a “hard magic to conjure.” In our opinion, it doesn’t need one. The ending was perfect and aligned with how the novel and its story ended – what more needs to be added? Sure, there is plenty of fodder for more stories to be told, especially if centered around the secondary characters. Sure, Shogun isn’t a three-part epic like The Lord of the Rings (four if you include The Hobbit), with side novels, an appendix, etc. full of enough characters and lore to base many a series on. Yes, Shogun is based on the real-life Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the Great Unifiers who ushered in the Edo period and was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate that would rule Japan for 260 years.

So yes, there are plenty of stories to tell, but not when it comes to the one between Blackthorne and Toranaga. The end of the novel and the series conclude that tale and that’s how it needs to stay. Sometimes, it’s best to leave a story untangled and respect the narrative lest it diminish the impact of a satisfying end.

You can watch Shogun on Hulu.

Consensys filed a lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 25 over allegations that the watchdog has overstepped in its authority in trying to regulate Ethereum (ETH).

The lawsuit alleges that the SEC aims to unlawfully regulate Ethereum through enforcement actions against various companies, including Consensys, constituting “aggressive and unlawful” overreach.

Consensys intends to prove that the SEC does not have legal authority to regulate ETH, user-controlled software interfaces, or the Ethereum blockchain more broadly.

Consensys wants the court to declare that Ethereum is not a security and that the firm neither acts as a broker nor sells securities by operating MetaMask. It also wants the court to declare that legal action or investigations based on those grounds would exceed the SEC’s authority.

Furthermore, Consensys is seeking an injunction that prevents a continued SEC investigation of, or future enforcement action against, its MetaMask wallet and related ETH sales. The SEC warned Consensys of potential legal action through a Wells notice and phone conference on April 10. Metamask’s staking and swap features are areas of concern.

Three-prong argument

The lawsuit has three prongs. Consensys first asserted that the SEC only has jurisdiction over securities and has previously agreed ETH is not a security.

Consensys secondly asserted that the SEC’s approach wrongly classifies non-financial platforms as financial applications. It argued that ETH supports applications on Ethereum and, therefore, has non-financial utility separate from its role as a commodity. The firm also said the SEC has no authority to regulate the internet’s technological development in such a way.

Finally, Consensys asserted that MetaMask and other applications are not securities brokers but rather allow users to buy, sell, and transfer ETH through broader access.

The case, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, names the SEC and its chair, Gary Gensler, as defendants.

Broader implications

Whether the SEC considers Ethereum a security is a long-standing issue, and the matter is relevant to the compliance efforts of any company or project that handles ETH.

Fortune reported on March 20 that the SEC had subpoenaed numerous crypto companies that have engaged with the Ethereum Foundation. The Ethereum Foundation itself seemingly received a subpoena from an unknown state authority at the time of the report.

One company in the Ethereum ecosystem, Uniswap, received a Wells notice on April 10, warning of potential charges. However, it is unclear if the SEC’s potential charges against Uniswap are directly related to ETH.

Whether the SEC treats ETH as a security could also impact the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs. SEC chair Gary Gensler identified Bitcoin as a non-security commodity upon the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January and emphasized that the current decision only applied to the asset.

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Helldivers 2‘s latest Major Order had looked to be proving a tough one over the past few days, with the task of defending ten planets before time ran out seeming like it might be beyond the collective abilities of a community with varying priorites. Though, it now seems we might have been a bit hasty to rule out the galaxy’s premier bug-slaying force – since they’re now on the verge of potentially prying victory from the jaws of defeat.

Yup, after plenty of arguing about the difficulty hardcore players were having in trying to convince all of their casual pals that they needed to pitch in and help out with the complex plans being drawn up to execute this order, it looks like a win could well be on the way. That is, if the ongoing mass assault of Ustotu proves successful.

As of writing, the forces of Super Earth have successfully managed to defend of nine of the ten planets involved in this latest chapter of the Galactic War – having previously been stuck below five for a good while. With just under twelve hours left on the clock, there’s only one planet standing between them and victory – the Automaton-infested Ustotu.

According to Helldivers.io, around 22,000 players are currently battling to secure this world – with some no doubt having been buoyed into action by a number of recent calls to arms on the the game’s subreddit, which popped up as folks started to realise they might actually be able to do this thing. Right now, the Ustotu’s libration percentage is on the rise pretty rapidly – sitting at around 43% and growing a rate that could see the defense be completed in something like four or five hours’ time.

Naturally, that’s assuming the current rate of progress can be maintained – something that might well get tougher and tougher to do the closer folks get to earning what would be a very sweet victory. That said, if there’s one thing Helldivers 2 players have shown so far, aside from some killer parkour skills, it’s the ability to be tenacious.

No matter how this last ditch effort to defend democracy plays out, hopefully Helldivers 2’s plucky troopers won’t have to deal with any more Galactic War tracking outages any time soon, though Arrowhead did deal with the recent one pretty rapidly.

The US SEC is expected to reject several applications for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Reuters reported on April 25, citing industry insiders.

The decision, anticipated in May, follows recent discouraging interactions between ETF issuers and the SEC.

Firms such as VanEck and ARK Investment Management, among others, have submitted applications to the SEC for ETFs that would directly track the spot price of ether.

The agency’s decisions on these applications, with VanEck and ARK being the first in line, are due by May 23 and May 24, respectively.

Cold shoulder

Participants in recent meetings with the SEC described the talks as one-sided, with agency staff withholding substantive comments on the proposals. This marks a stark contrast to the detailed discussions that preceded the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.

Under the leadership of Gary Gensler, a noted crypto skeptic, the SEC has historically been cautious, citing concerns over market manipulation. However, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year, which followed a court victory by Grayscale Investments against the SEC, had raised hopes among crypto proponents.

ETF issuers have argued that the approval of both spot Bitcoin ETFs and Ether futures-based ETFs should logically extend to spot ether products.

Despite their efforts to address regulatory concerns, the SEC’s non-committal stance in recent meetings has led many to anticipate a rejection, the report said.

Regulatory uncertainty

Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF analysis at VettaFi, told the newswire that approval might be deferred to later in 2024 or beyond due to ongoing regulatory uncertainties. Meanwhile, issuers like VanEck remain engaged, planning further disclosures to maintain dialogue with the SEC.

The potential rejection is already impacting the cryptocurrency market. Hong Fang, president of crypto exchange OKX, noted that while Etheruem’s price has risen this year, it lags behind Bitcoin’s gains — a disparity likely influenced by market anticipation of the SEC’s decision.

The SEC’s hesitancy may stem from a perceived need for more comprehensive market data on Ether. Recent speculation claims the regulator has initiated an inquiry into the Ethereum Foundation through Swiss authorities.

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The marketing campaign for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which looks pretty damn cool, is now going full steam ahead before its May 10 release, and Disney and 20th Century Studios seem to be fully aware that people love apes riding horses.

Following up on the decision to shoot as much of the movie as possible in real locations, the powers that be have unleashed a bunch of evolved apes who are now roaming around Venice Beach and an iconic San Francisco location while riding horses. Movies are back!

As far as over-the-top marketing moments go, it’s not as ballsy as debuting the first-ever Transformers One trailer in outer space, but we dig the energy. Just imagine walking around, er, ‘under the influence’ and coming across a bunch of ape jockeys. Those suits (sorry to break the illusion) aren’t half-bad either and, as stunning as the technology on the new movies is, remind us of the pre-digital era of the long-running sci-fi franchise.

These movies have grown increasingly fascinated with the idea of apes riding horses and going full medieval on the humans, and we can’t blame the filmmakers. For example, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ most memorable scene was arguably the bit in which the evil ape (the others are just conflicted!) dual-wielded two machine guns while charging against a human fortress; some of the rawest stuff ever put to film. I just know the Lumière brothers would’ve loved that s**t.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place quite a while after the previous three movies, and apes seemingly haven’t figured out modern tech advancements (or maybe they outright reject them because they led mankind to ruin), so that sadly means no Mad Max-esque chase sequences with apes in cars. However, they are replicating the feudal system and allowing tyrants to be a thing, which seems a bit worrying.

Institutional investors increasingly sought exposure to crypto during the first quarter of the year following the launch of several US-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January.

The CoinShares Digital Fund Manager survey revealed that these institutional investors have significantly increased their digital asset allocations, reaching 3% in their portfolios. This marks the highest level since the survey’s inception in 2021.

Many of these investors attributed their increased exposure to digital asset investments to distributed ledger technology.

Additionally, they now perceive digital assets as offering good value and an increased demand for investing in BTC as a diversifier.

Bitcoin shows the most compelling growth outlook.

Institutional investors’ portfolios predominantly feature Bitcoin, the premier digital asset in demand among this cohort. According to James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, over a quarter of these respondents said their portfolios had exposure to BTC via the spot ETFs.

Following Bitcoin, Ethereum holds the second position, although investor interest has declined since the previous survey.

According to investors, BTC and ETH remain the digital assets with the most compelling growth outlook.

Nevertheless, Solana has seen a surge in investor enthusiasm, evidenced by an uptick in its allocation to 14%. This increase is primarily driven by a select group of significant investors expanding their holdings in the fast-rising blockchain network, which has enjoyed rapid growth in price and adoption over the past year.

While other alternative digital assets have struggled, XRP stands out for its considerable decline. None of the surveyed investors mentioned holding it.

Investment barriers

Despite the growing exposure to digital assets and the advent of Bitcoin ETFs, many investors still struggle to access this asset class.

The CoinShares survey showed that regulatory concerns remain the foremost barrier for most investors. The emerging industry faces regulatory scrutiny, particularly in the US, where financial regulators like the SEC have filed several legal actions against major players like Binance and Coinbase.

Meanwhile, the inherent volatility of the emerging sector continues to be a significant concern for some investors. However, custody issues, reputation risk, and the absence of a fundamental investment case are becoming less problematic.

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Playing an F1 game is all about pretending to be an F1 driver – and usually realising how terrible you’d likely be if that dream somehow came true. In the realm of Career Mode, however, you can always be the uber-skilled lovechild of Ayton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Lewis Hamilton that you like to think of yourself as.

As part of a hands-off preview that saw us learn about the handling changes coming with EA Sports F1 24, we also got a rundown of the freshly revamped Career Mode it’ll feature. The big news? You’re no longer limited just to creating your own F1 legacy.

During the preview, Codemasters’ senior creative director Lee Mather and Casey Ringley – the latter of whom serves as both a senior game designer and vehicle handling lead on the game – outlined what’s gone into this year’s Career – which is the biggest overhaul of how the mode works in a good number of years.

As I alluded to earlier, the biggest new draw is that – in addition to being able to kick off a career using your own unique driver avatar, as you’ve done in previous years – you’ll be able to take over the career of an existing driver in F1, F2, or from the game’s roster of icons for F1 history. Which of these options you go for will affect things like where you start things off and what your goals are at any time – with the latter being emphasised as a big focus this year thanks to a new accolades system.

Mather explained that this new system for measuring your progression up the F1 ranks is more focused this time around either building a unique legacy for your drivatar, or building upon the established legacy of whichever real driver you’ve picked. If you’ve gone for the latter, the objectives you’ll be given along the way will be specifically tailored to where the driver you’ve picked is at in their actual career and what they’ve already achieved.

“Driving as myself, the first of the accolades may be ‘attend your first practice session’ or ‘complete your first race weekend’. For Lewis Hamilton, a very established [driver], a very achievable accolade would obviously be ‘take that eighth world championship’, for a driver like Nico Hulkenberg, ‘take your first win’ [could be one],” Mather explained. “Those accolades are very real-world, they’re attatched to what the driver has achieved in their career or you’re building upon [that legacy even further] yourselves.”

As you achieve those goals, you’ll also be trying to grow your recognition and influence within the F1 paddock – asserting youself as the number one driver at your team so that you can steer which paths your car’s development takes and land the contract you want from a squad at the front of the grid. When it comes to the latter, you’ll even be able to have secret contract meetings with other teams – which can cause your paddock rep to take a hit or seemingly lead to some fun questions being asked if they end up leaking to the press.

Whether there’s anything you can do as you become a Fernando Alonso-level paddock manipulator to help make things less likely to leak was left a bit up in the air by Mather – so it seems like this might well just be a risk you’ll always have to be aware of. Aside from that off-track stuff, when you’re in the car you’ll be given plenty of scenario-specific on-track objectives by your engineer as weekends progress – as well as being given a range of different rivals to try and outperform.

There are three different types of rivalry, with some being shorter and more circumstantial, while others can get a lot more heated – lasting for multiple seasons and potentially helping define your career legacy as a whole. Oh and if you’re after a taste of these mechanics with your friends there are Challenge Career and Two-player Career modes that include them, but with the twist of either having set scenarios that’re constantly rotating or just the chance to feud with your mate Bob.

Overall, I’d say all of that sounds like it might be more up my alley than Braking Point was at times, but we’ll have to see how it comes together in practice.

EA Sports F1 24 is set to be released on May 31 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation.

Layer-1 blockchains are foundational networks supporting various applications directly on their protocol, while Layer-2 blockchains operate atop these foundational layers, enhancing scalability and efficiency. Comparing the usage and efficiency of EVM-compatible L1 and L2 blockchains and side chains helps us better understand the market values and where most of the DeFi activity comes from.

Dune Analytics data analyzed by CryptoSlate showed Polygon, a Layer-2 sidechain, was the leading figure in the DeFi ecosystem, closely followed by BNB Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain.

One of the most important metrics when analyzing L1s and L2s is the daily gas usage—the computational effort required to execute operations on the blockchain. Gas fees are paid in native blockchain currencies, and high gas usage typically indicates robust network activity. Notably, when L2 solutions maintain high gas usage at low USD costs, it reflects an efficient scaling solution that makes transactions affordable without sacrificing blockchain activity.

Polygon utilizes an average of 579.97 billion units of native gas daily, with associated costs amounting to just $65.48k. This translates to a meager average of $0.76 in USD per second despite processing a high volume of 48.37 transactions per second. Each transaction on Polygon costs about 138,782 gas units. BNB Mainnet, while also high in transaction volume, shows a different cost structure with 454.89 billion units of native gas used daily and $1.02 million in daily USD fees; the cost per second soars to $11.81, far surpassing Polygon’s. The higher cost per transaction, which averages 108,513 gas units, reflects BNB’s heavier computational demand per transaction, suggesting a more resource-intensive operation than Polygon.

Arbitrum uses 273.96 billion units of gas daily, costing users $250.05k, which breaks down to $2.89 per second and 241,207 gas units per transaction, indicating a higher cost efficiency than BNB but less so than Polygon. Base Mainnet records similar trends with 222.37 billion units and daily fees of $378.72k, resulting in a slightly higher per-second cost of $4.38 and 174,229 units per transaction.

Ethereum operates with the highest cost impact, using 108.14 billion gas units daily, translating into a hefty $12.63 million in fees. With costs skyrocketing to $146.20 per second, despite having an average of 90,758 gas units per transaction, it illustrates Ethereum’s robust security and computational breadth and highlights its scalability challenges that L2 networks aim to address.

Looking at transaction metrics, data from April 23 shows that Polygon led with 4.02 million transactions, followed by BNB Chain with 3.9 million. These figures show strong user engagement and network utility, representing a respective 25.8% and 25.1% share of total transactions (excluding known system transactions).

However, when examining transaction fees, a different narrative emerges. Despite a lower transaction count, Ethereum amassed $7.46 million in fees, representing a staggering 83.9% of total fees collected. This discrepancy suggests that while Ethereum processes fewer transactions, its higher transaction costs reflect its primary layer status and the intensive computational resources required for operations.

When it comes to DeFi apps, Polygon again leads the transaction numbers, with 3.3 million app transactions, showing it’s a go-to platform for DeFi activities.

BNB Chain saw 1.22 million transacting addresses, with Polygon slightly behind at 1.18 million. These figures, contrasted with Ethereum’s 402.77k, suggest that other EVM-compatible networks are becoming preferred platforms for regular DeFi users due to their lower cost structures.

Analyzing the performance of these blockchains side-by-side shows a battle between foundational security and enhanced scalability. While L1 blockchains like Ethereum continue to secure high-value transactions with substantial fees, scaling solutions like Polygon capture the bulk of daily transactions and application interactions, signifying a shift towards more efficient and user-friendly blockchain infrastructures in DeFi.

It’s important to note that despite being labeled as a Layer-2 blockchain by many, Polygon operates as an L2 sidechain for Ethereum, as it relies on its own set of validators and doesn’t depend on Ethereum for security. This allows Polygon to support more experimental activity than “true” L2 blockchains without impacting Ethereum. Another fact worth mentioning is that BNB Chain is an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain but has positioned itself on the market not as a competitor to Ethereum, another L1, but to other L2s. 

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