On the same day the two gaming goliaths announced the deal, the FTC and DOJ launched a joint public inquiry with the goal of better detecting and preventing anti-competitive deals. Shortly after, Bloomberg reported the FTC had assumed responsibility for reviewing the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal. The FTC declined to comment or confirm an existing investigation. Stoller, though, pointed out that the stock market appears to be reacting to the looming specter of this investigation. "Activision is [trading at] $80, and the purchase price is at $95," he said.

The Microsoft Xbox Series X and the Playstation 5. Courtesy Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment hide caption The next generation of video game consoles is now here. Both Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Sony's Playstation 5 hit stores this week -- the newest chapter in an ongoing face-off between Microsoft and Sony. At the start of the 21st century, Sony was in control of the video game market, with fans lining up in packed stores to buy the Playstation 2. But less than a year later, Microsoft would release its first ever video game console. The Xbox was big, ugly and powerful; the commercials advertised a new dimension to console gaming: An emphasis on online multi-player and connectivity. None of this was enough to topple Sony's reign at the time, but the Xbox did announce the arrival of a new competitor.

Sony and Microsoft have joined together to create artificial intelligence-powered (AI) smart camera solutions to make it easier for enterprise customers to perform video analytics, the companies announced. Announced last week, the IMX500 is the world's first image sensor to contain a pixel chip and logic chip. The logic chip, called Sony's digital signal processor, is dedicated to AI signal processing, along with memory for the AI model. "Video analytics and smart cameras can drive better business insights and outcomes across a wide range of scenarios for businesses," said Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president and commercial chief marketing officer at Microsoft. "Through this partnership, we're combining Microsoft's expertise in providing trusted, enterprise-grade AI and analytics solutions with Sony's established leadership in the imaging sensors market to help uncover new opportunities for our mutual customers and partners." Sony and Microsoft also announced that they will create a smart camera managed app powered by Azure Internet of Things (IoT) and cognitive services that it hopes to use alongside the IMX500 sensor to provide new video analytics use cases for enterprise customers.

At the same time as Microsoft and Sony are prepping new video game consoles to go on sale in 2020, games delivered and stored online – in the cloud – are becoming all the rage. Could the rise of cloud gaming mean that the next video game console system you buy may be the last? Even though we reliably stream music, TV and movies, for many reasons it will likely make sense to have a console, which is basically a powerful computer dedicated solely to games and entertainment, in your home. Ten years from now, you may be still setting aside money for the latest PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo system. "It's likely that consoles will still be around, with more of a niche presence (like gaming PCs) for the hard core who wants the fastest and most graphically pure experience," said Michael Pachter, analyst for Wedbush Securities.

Its creators claim it is one of the most powerful gaming consoles on Earth, now the newly launched Xbox One X from Microsoft is after a new accolade - to beat its rival Sony to dominate Christmas wishlists and the hearts of video game players. Microsoft's new console, a substantial upgrade to the original Xbox One released in 2013, comes almost exactly a year after Sony delivered a similar performance boost with its PlayStation 4 Pro. Things didn't used to be this way. Although format wars between gaming platforms have always raged – Commodore versus Spectrum, Sega versus Nintendo, Microsoft versus Sony – the hardware available in each generation was something fixed and immutable. A new games machine would give developers a set platform to create and optimise software on, sometimes for up to a decade, while players would benefit from having a reliable device they knew they wouldn't have to upgrade, as is common in PC gaming.

Its creators claim it is one of the most powerful gaming consoles on Earth. Now the newly launched Xbox One X from Microsoft is after a new accolade – to beat its rival Sony to dominate Christmas wishlists and the hearts of video game players. Microsoft's console, a substantial upgrade of the original Xbox One released in 2013, arrives almost exactly one year after Sony delivered a similar performance boost with its PlayStation 4 Pro. Things didn't used to be this way. Although format wars between gaming platforms have always raged – Commodore versus Spectrum, Sega versus Nintendo, Microsoft versus Sony – the hardware available in each generation would be something immutable.

With three kids and constant travel for work, John Hussey jumped at the chance to play an open-world adventure game like "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" anywhere, anytime. After he heard about the Nintendo Switch, a hybrid game machine that works as both a console at home and a tablet on the go, Hussey ordered one in January even though it wouldn't arrive until Friday, when Nintendo's latest game machine debuts. Nintendo will need lots of traditional gamers like Hussey to redeem itself as a console maker, after being eclipsed by Microsoft and Sony in the game-console wars. But Nintendo will also need lots of casual gamers who are satisfied with playing on a smartphone and would never have dreamed of buying a $300 game machine. And in trying to appeal to many audiences, Nintendo risks not being the best at serving any one.

We now know that Nintendo's next-generation game console will be the Switch, a hybrid device offering portable and home gaming in one. But there's a lot we don't know. What games will it launch with? How much it will cost? Will it play games on a TV at 1080p?

Engadget is re-reviewing the current generation of game consoles, each of which has benefited from firmware updates, price drops and an improved selection of games. We've already revisited the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Now, at last, it's Nintendo's turn. Though we've raised our Wii U score to 74 from 70, you can still find our original review here, if you're curious to read what we said at launch. It's hard to believe that the Wii U is only 4 years old. In the time since Nintendo released its last flagship console, we've seen four iPhones, as many Galaxy S handsets from Samsung, two models of the Xbox One and, of course, the PlayStation 4. All of which is to say, it feels like it's been much longer since the quirky console came out.

Everywhere you look at E3 -- the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming conference -- there seems to be something pitching virtual reality. At the Nintendo booth, there's only calm, traditional video game playing. In fact, there is only Zelda, and it is totally wrapped in fantasy. I asked Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, why Nintendo isn't pursuing the big trend of the moment. He said Nintendo still isn't convinced of the full mainstream potential of virtual reality. The company has experimented with the technology before -- namely in the form of the much-maligned and yet still well-remembered Virtual Boy.