Sony has more exclusive games than Xbox does, according to Microsoft, which claims that many of its rival's first-party titles "are better quality." Lest you believe Microsoft is dunking on its own game studios for no reason, the company made the assertion in a filing with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is conducting an in-depth review of the planned Activision Blizzard acquisition. Although the filing is dated October 31st, Eurogamer notes that the document has just been made publicly available.

"In addition to being the dominant console provider, Sony is also a powerful game publisher," Microsoft wrote in its response to the CMA. "Sony is roughly equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft's game publishing business." The company added that "there were over 280 exclusive first- and third-party titles on PlayStation in 2021, nearly five times as many as on Xbox."

Along with Sony's own franchises — such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War and Spider-Man — the company signs deals with third-party publishers for exclusive rights to games. Microsoft cites Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Bloodborne, as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI and Silent Hill 2 remake as major titles that aren't or won't be available on Xbox.

Console exclusives account for a higher percentage of global game sales for Sony than Microsoft, the latter claimed (Sony just revealed that it sold 5.1 million copies of God of War Ragnarok in the game's launch week). However, many Xbox players opt to access Microsoft's exclusives through Game Pass instead of buying them outright — a point that Microsoft doesn't touch on while discussing the companies' sales proportions for their exclusive games.

In addition, Microsoft pointed to review scores for PlayStation and Xbox games. "The average Metacritic score for Sony’s top 20 exclusive games in 2021 was 87/100, against 80/100 for Xbox," Microsoft claimed.

Microsoft is spotlighting these factors because game exclusivity and competition concerns are important considerations that regulators reviewing the proposed Activision buyout are exploring. From Sony's perspective, one of the key sticking points of the Activision merger is the possibility that Microsoft will make the Call of Duty franchise (said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year to PlayStation) exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft said it offered Sony a 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation earlier this month. Nevertheless, Microsoft claimed in the filing "it is implausible that Sony, the leading console with a more than 2-to-1 lead, would be foreclosed as a result of not having access to a single franchise."

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer suggested on The Verge's Decoder podcast last week that the Activision deal was largely about scooping up mobile gaming giant King. Mobile "is a place where if we don’t gain relevancy as a gaming brand, over time the business will become untenable," Spencer said. (Xbox Cloud Gaming runs on phones and tablets as well.)

Microsoft doubled down on the mobile side of the deal in its CMA filing. "As it stands, Xbox has no material presence in mobile and its ability to reach gamers on mobile is impeded by Apple and Google’s effective duopoly in the provision of mobile app stores. The acquisition of Activision provides Xbox with capabilities and content on mobile, which it currently lacks, while creating new distribution options for game developers outside of the mobile app stores." Of note, the CMA said this week it's investigating Apple and Google's "stranglehold over operating systems, app stores and web browsers on mobile devices."

This isn't the first time Microsoft has tried to downplay the significance of the proposed $68.7 billion Activision deal. It claimed over the summer that Activision Blizzard has no "must-have" games, despite being behind the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (which raked in $1 billion in sales in 10 days), Overwatch 2 (35 million players in its first month), World of Warcraft and Candy Crush Saga (3 billion downloads since launch). Activision Blizzard's games had 368 million monthly active users last quarter. However, Blizzard stands to lose millions of players in China when many of its games go offline there in January.

Ticketmaster's chaotic handling of Taylor Swift's tour ticket sales has brought the company under increased scrutiny, including from lawmakers. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, have announced a hearing to gather evidence on competition in the ticketing industry. They have yet to confirm when the hearing will take place or the witnesses that the committee will call upon.

Swift's fans overwhelmed Ticketmaster's systems in the gold rush for tickets to her first tour in five years. Ticketmaster says presale codes went out to 1.5 million people, but 14 million (including "a staggering number" of bots) tried to buy tickets. The company said it was slammed with 3.5 billion total system requests, four times its previous peak. When fans were able to make it to the seat selection screen, many effectively had tickets snatched out of their hands as tried to put them in their carts.

There was supposed to be a general sale for the remaining tickets last Friday, but Ticketmaster canceled that, citing "extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand." Even though the level of interest in Swift's stadium shows was evidently through the roof, Ticketmaster's management of the process has raised a lot of questions. Swift said Ticketmaster assured her and her team that it could handle the demand. However, she said the mayhem “pissed me off.”

After the presale mess, Klobuchar (who wrote to Ticketmaster to ask if the company is taking appropriate measures to provide the best service it can) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal said they were concerned about "the state of competition in the ticketing industry." Others, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for Ticketmaster's parent, Live Nation, to be broken up.

Along with selling event tickets, the company owns and operates many venues and manages several major artists. Last week, it was reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been conducting an antitrust investigation into Live Nation for several months.

“Last week, the competition problem in ticketing markets was made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase concert tickets. The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “That’s why we will hold a hearing on how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industry harms customers and artists alike. When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”

Ticketmaster has said it's adhering to a 2010 consent decree it has with the DOJ that allowed its merger with Live Nation to go ahead. “Ticketmaster has a significant share of the primary ticketing services market because of the large gap that exists between the quality of the Ticketmaster system and the next best primary ticketing system,” it added in a statement to Deadline.

Nintendo Switch Sports is a fun package that modernizes the world-conquering Wii Sports, but it was missing a few of the 2006 classic's game modes at the jump. One of those will arrive very soon as a November 28th update will add golf to the game.

You'll have access to 21 holes from the Wii Sports series. Along with casual modes that you can enjoy with family and friends, you can check out a survival golf mode. Nintendo hasn't revealed too many details about the latter yet, other than the fact you'll need to "swing to avoid elimination." It may be similar to the 16-player bowling survival mode. 

No matter which modes you try, be sure to strap the Joy-Con to your wrist before you start swinging your hand around. You won't want the controller to fly out of your hand and smash your TV or monitor.

Nintendo previously said golf would be available in Switch Sports this fall, so it's showing up right on schedule. The company hasn't confirmed whether the likes of boxing or baseball are on the way, but fingers crossed that Nintendo will add those as surprise updates at some point down the line.

The president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has confirmed there are multiple ongoing investigations into TikTok. The probes concern the transfer of EU citizens' data to China and targeted advertising aimed at minors. Investigators are seeking to ensure that TikTok meets General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.

“The data practices of TikTok, including with respect to international data transfers, are the object of several ongoing proceedings,” Ursula von der Leyden wrote in a letter shared by Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. “This includes an investigation by the Irish [Data Protection Commission] about TikTok’s compliance with several GDPR requirements, including as regards data transfers to China and the processing of data of minors, and litigation before the Dutch courts (in particular concerning targeted advertising regarding minors and data transfers to China)."

Von der Leyden was responding to concerns raised by members of the European Parliament regarding Chinese public authorities potentially gaining access to EU citizens' TikTok data, following a report by BuzzFeed News. The app's data practices have been under the EU's spotlight for a while. Earlier this year, TikTok agreed to enforce certain policies concerning ads and branded content following a complaint that accused the app of breaching EU consumer rules.

Of course, TikTok has been in hot water on the other side of the Atlantic over its privacy and security practices. Last month, TikTok denied reports that China-based workers for its parent company ByteDance planned to track the location of some US citizens through the app.

TikTok has been moving the data it holds on US users to Oracle data centers in the country in an attempt to placate officials who have been concerned about China potentially using the app against American citizens. In August, it emerged that Oracle was reviewing TikTok's content moderation systems and algorithms to make sure they're not subject to Chinese interference.

Carr, the FCC's senior Republican commissioner, said this month that TikTok should be banned in the US. He previously urged Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores.

Serious home pizza chefs who are looking to up their game may want to consider Ooni's offerings. The pizza oven company is running a sitewide Black Friday sale with 20 percent off all its products. At the lower end, the Ooni Fyra 12 is down to $279, nearly $70 off the regular price. At the other end of the scale is the Ooni Karu 16, which is nearly $160 off at $639.

We've frequently recommended Ooni's pizza ovens in our outdoor guides. They're relatively easy to use and deliver fairly consistent results, so if you're eager to make pizza at home and don't mind paying for a dedicated oven, it's worth considering these.

The Fyra 12 seems like a solid option for folks who often host family and friends and are into pizza parties. It bakes 12-inch pies in as little as one minute, and it uses wood pellets to heat up to 950 degrees in just 15 minutes. If you're well-organized, you'll be able to crank out a bunch of pizzas quickly with the right toppings to keep everyone happy. Since it has foldable legs and a detachable chimney (and weighs a relatively slight 22 pounds), the Fyra 12 is reasonably portable too, so it may even be an option for camping trips.

At the upper end, the Karu 16 also has a mounted digital thermometer and a glass door. You can opt to cook pizzas in the Karu 16 using wood, charcoal or gas, though you'll need an attachment for the latter. Speaking of accessories, those are 20 percent off as part of Ooni's sale as well. Depending on where you are, you might want to wait a few months before cooking outside is a more practical option again. But, hey, if you snap up one of Ooni's pizza ovens now, you'll be ready to roll by the time spring comes back around.

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Ubisoft will start bringing its games to Steam again, nearly four years after it turned its attention to the Epic Games Store and its own Connect launcher. First up is one of the publisher's biggest games of the last few years, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which will be available on Steam on December 6th. City builder Anno 1800 and the free-to-play Roller Champions will hit Steam at a later date.

"We're constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect," a Ubisoft spokesperson told Eurogamer. "Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800 and Roller Champions are among the Ubisoft titles that will be releasing on Steam."

Assassin's Creed Valhalla will land on Steam just as Ubisoft releases the game's last content update. The Last Chapter, which will also arrive on December 6th, will bring about the conclusion of Eivor’s story and tie up some storylines. However, Ubisoft confirmed that it will not add a New Game+ mode, as it "realized that the depth of the game gave us limited options to make replayability unique and rewarding."

Ubisoft previously said that abandoning Steam was a business decision. It was one that led to pre-orders for The Division 2 increasing by six times on Ubisoft's own PC storefront (where it doesn't have to pay Valve a 30 percent cut of sales). However, it appears the extensive reach and popularity of Steam was ultimately too hard to ignore. Perhaps Ubisoft sees the value of making its games more readily available on Steam Deck too.

Meanwhile, Valve is preparing for Steam's autumn sale, which starts on Tuesday at 1PM ET and runs through November 29th. The event will be live during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it will include discounts on tens of thousands of games. In a trailer, Valve suggested that you'll be able to score deals on the likes of Hitman 3, Stray, Hades, Deathloop, Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, Disco Elysium,Yakuza: Like a Dragon and many, many more.

NASA's Orion spacecraft has successfully completed one of the key maneuvers of its maiden journey: a flyby of the Moon during which it got as close as 81 miles to the lunar surface. This was important for a few reasons, not least because it marked a critical test for the propulsion system.

Orion carried out four trajectory correction burns on its way to the Moon, but this time around, the orbital maneuvering system engine fired for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This accelerated Orion at a rate of more than 580MPH. At the time the burn started, the uncrewed spacecraft was traveling at 5,023MPH, 238 miles above the Moon. Shortly after the burn, it was 81 miles above the lunar surface and it was traveling at 5,102MPH.

The flyby burn was one of two necessary maneuvers for Orion to enter its retrograde orbit around the Moon. Next up is the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn, which is slated to take place on Friday at 4:52PM ET. Orion will remain in this orbit for around a week to test various systems, including guidance, navigation, communication, power and thermal control. Of note, the distant retrograde orbit will take Orion 40,000 miles past the Moon. The spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth on December 11th.

NASA will reveal more details about the flyby burn and offer updates on post-launch assessments for the Space Launch System rocket and Exploration Ground Systems (including the launch tower) at a press conference on Monday at 5PM ET. Meanwhile, engineers have been looking into RAM faults in the star tracker system, which have been resolved with power cycles. Another team examined an issue that has caused one of the eight service mobile units suppling solar array power to the crew module to open on a few occasions without a command. NASA says there have been no mission impacts as a result of these hiccups.

If Samsung's foldable smartphones have caught your eye, perhaps for yourself or as a gift for someone else, now might be the right time to take the plunge. The 256GB model of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has dropped to $760 at Amazon, which is an all-time low. That's a considerable $300 (or 28 percent) off the regular price. What's more, this variant is currently cheaper than the 128GB model. That's also on sale at the moment, but it's $800.

We gave the Galaxy Z Flip 4 a score of 86 in our review. We liked the improved battery life compared with older generations (it generally lasted for a full day) and the hands-free applications. The matte finish makes it less slippery than previous models, which is a definite plus. It also has a smaller and seemingly sturdier hinge, while the shell is scratch resistant. However, we did have some reservations when it came to the durability prospects in terms of how well the device will hold up after years of use, as well as the quality of low-light photos.

The 1.9-inch cover display gained more functionality, including ways to control smart home products and a quick reply option for messages. Flex Mode, which comes into play when the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is half-opened, is handier too — you'll be able to use the lower half as a touchpad while looking through photos on the top side of the screen. You can prop the device up without a stand as well, which is useful for hands-free video calls.

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A few weeks after he took over Twitter, Elon Musk has fulfilled one of his early promises for the platform by reinstating Donald Trump’s account. The former president, who is running for the White House for a third time, will once again be allowed to tweet. On Friday night, Musk tweeted a poll asking people to vote on whether Twitter should reinstate the former President, who recently just revealed that he's running for the country's highest office again in 2024. "Vox Populi, Vox Dei," the website's new owner said in a follow-up tweet. Twenty-four later, Musk has closed the poll and has announced that Trump will indeed be reinstated based on the results.

The option to reinstate the former President won with 51.8 percent of the 15,085,458 votes. While the poll was ongoing, Musk said that it was getting one million votes per hour.

Soon after Musk assumed control, he pledged to form a moderation council before reversing any permanent Twitter account bans. On November 18th, Musk reinstated a few accounts, including those belonging to Kathy Griffin and Jordan Peterson. At the time, he said no decision had been made about Trump.

Twitter booted Trump off the platform in early 2021 after he broke rules against inciting violence. He violated Twitter's civic integrity policy by expressing support for the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th last year. His account was initially suspendedfor 12 hours. A couple of days later, in his final days in office, Twitter permanently suspended Trump's personal account. Trump has been unable to use the platform since, despite his attempts to skirt the ban and a failed lawsuit that sought to have his access restored. It took Elon Musk to buy Twitter for Trump to get his account back.

Trump's return may be as much of a business decision on Musk's part as much as anything. Earlier this week, a Reuters report suggested that many of Twitter's heaviest users have moved away from the platform to the likes of Instagram and TikTok. Musk himself has noted that many of the most-followed Twitter accounts don't tweet often.

For better or worse, Trump is a prominent figure and his tweets commanded attention. Whether advertisers will be glad to see Trump back remains to be seen. Just ahead of officially assuming control of Twitter, Musk sought to soothe any concerns by stating that "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

In the wake of his actions surrounding January 6th, Meta blocked Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts. As things stand, that suspension is set to expire on January 7th, 2023 — just as the 2024 election cycle gets into full swing. 

Since being deplatformed from major services, Trump has turned his attention to smaller social networks, including his own app, Truth Social. Trump had pledged that he wouldn't return to Twitter, but with 88 million followers there, he commanded an audience almost 22 times the size of the one he has on Truth Social (a platform that, for what it's worth, Musk has described as "essentially a right-wing echo chamber").

Twitter has gone through enormous changes since Musk took over the company. He has slashed the headcount by turfing out thousands of employees and contractors, as well as some dissenters. Several top executives are among those who've departed. Around 1,200 more are said to have left after refusing to commit to Musk's vision of a "hardcore" Twitter 2.0 that would require working "long hours at high intensity." Trump's return won't exactly help to steady the ship.

Mariella Moon contributed to this post.

When it comes to smart locks, August's 4th-gen WiFi model is one of our favorites. The device typically costs $230, but you can snag it for a solid discount ahead of Black Friday. Use the code ENGLOCK when you check out at Wellbots, and you'll get $55 off. That means you'll get the August WiFi smart lock for $174. While that's not the best deal we've seen for the product, it's still a good price.

We gave the smart lock, which is available in black or silver, a score of 80 in our review. We liked the fact that it's easy to install (it should fit over most existing deadbolts) and that it won't take up too much real estate on your door. It's slimmer than previous versions. Another big plus is that it's WiFi-connected and doesn't require a bridge to operate it. On the downside, the smart lock only works with 2.4GHz WiFi networks, so you'll need to make sure your router is set up for that.

You'll be able to lock and unlock the door remotely, which could come in handy if a friend is stopping by to check on your home and water the plants while you're on vacation. There's the option to provide folks with timed-entry keys, meaning that they'll be able to enter a home on their own without having to wait for the resident to unlock the door manually. Because the August smart lock fits over an existing deadbolt, you'll still be able to use your same physical keys to open your door — so don't worry too much about the power going out when you're away from home.

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