Now, the Activision Blizzard deal has finally been approved. Why is that so important? 65 billion is quite a price.  

It is, but we're really excited about it. For us, there are a few things that go all the way back for us as a company. Gaming is one, right? When I think about Microsoft, I think of perhaps developer tools, proprietary software, and gaming. Those are three things that we've done from the very beginning. And so, to us, gaming is the one place where we think we have a real contribution to make in consumer markets. If I look at it, the amount of time people allocate to gaming is going up and Gen Z is going to do more of that. The way games are made, the way the games are delivered, is changing radically. Whether it's mobile, or consoles, or PCs, or even the cloud. So, we're looking forward to really doubling down both as a game producer and a publisher. Now we'll be one of the largest game publishers and also as a company that's building platforms for it. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Talks AI, Closing the Activision Blizzard Deal, and His Best Business Decision So Far

Xbox Partner Preview: See What’s Next From Our Incredible Third-Party Publishing Partners

Please Note: Xbox Partner Preview will not feature any additional news, game reveals, or Game Pass information related to the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.

We are delighted to announce our next broadcast event: Xbox Partner Preview! This new show format will deliver a fresh mix of indie games and familiar favorites from our third-party partners like Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Remedy Entertainment, Studio Wildcard, and others with more than 20 minutes of trailers and new gameplay footage.

This event will be digitally broadcast on Wednesday, October 25, at 10am PT (1pm ET / 6pm BST) across our Xbox owned channels, showcasing updates and new looks at games coming to Xbox and Windows as well as new info on some upcoming Game Pass titles from our incredibly talented creative third-party partners from around the world.

You can expect to see the latest information on in-game activities for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, a launch trailer for Alan Wake 2, the first gameplay for Ark: Survival Ascended, a dive into the social world of Dungeons of Hinterberg, and more!

Q&A

What time does Xbox Partner Preview begin? Wednesday, October 25, at 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time / 6pm UK time.

How do I watch? Xbox Partner Preview will be available to be seen through a variety of outlets, and in over 30 languages, and American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and English Audio Descriptions here:

• YouTube.com/Xbox
• Regional Xbox channels around the world
• Twitch.tv/Xbox
• Twitch.tv/XboxASL

Please note the YouTube streams will be in 4K at 60fps, while all other channels will be 1080p / 60fps.

Is the event available in languages other than English?  We will be providing subtitle support in the following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Norwegian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. While we expect to have all languages available with the show’s live broadcast, it is possible that select languages may need to be added in the days following the broadcast if they have not finished translating.

Aside from going directly to a regional Xbox channel, you can find support for all languages, as well as American Sign Language (ASL) and Audio Descriptions (AD), at YouTube.com/Xbox. ASL and AD video will be listed separately, but just click the gear icon in the lower righthand corner of our primary stream to choose the language of your choice. Oftentimes YouTube will default to a random language when you join the stream so you may also want to switch over to English if needed.

Is the show going to be Accessible to those with low/no hearing or low/no vision? There will be a version of the show with Audio Descriptions (AD) in English on the Xbox YouTube channel, and American Sign Language (ASL) on Xbox’s YouTube channel and the /XboxASL Twitch channel.

I’m not going to be able to watch, where can I find out what was announced? As announcements roll out during the broadcast, the Xbox Wire team will be publishing detailed blog posts containing key announcements right here on Xbox Wire (including localized versions in Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, LATAM Spanish, and Japanese). A full show recap will go live immediately following the end of Xbox Partner Preview.

Co-streamer and content creator notes for the Xbox Partner Preview: We at Xbox greatly appreciate any co-stream efforts and aim to ensure you have a smooth experience if you choose to do so. However, due to forces beyond our control, we cannot guarantee that glitches or disruptions by bots and other automated software won’t interfere with your co-stream. For those planning to create post-show breakdowns of Xbox Partner Preview in the form of Video on Demand (VOD) coverage, we recommend you do not use any audio containing copyrighted music to avoid any action by automated bots, and to also consult the terms of service for your service provider.

Co-streamer and content creator notes for Xbox Partner Preview: Xbox Partner Preview contains no licensed music tracks and is co-streaming friendly! We invite you and your audience to tune in for watch parties, and we can’t wait to see the VOD content you create with the Xbox Partner Preview footage afterwards, too.

We can’t wait for you to join us on Wednesday, October 25 at 10am PT (1pm ET / 6pm BST) for the Xbox Partner Preview! See you soon.

Xbox Partner Preview: See What's Next From Our Incredible Third-Party Publishing Partners - Xbox Wire

I like the name, Partner Preview, it basically avoids any confusion about what to expect, which I think is a problem State of Play's sometimes have.

So we have Partner Preview for 3rd Parties and Developer Direct for 1st Parties now.

And IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase as well.

Is Kojima Productions a third party partner?

Kojima would be considered second party since it's an Xbox ecosystem exclusive and published by Xbox. 

Third party partners are for multiplat games. That's why we see Like A Dragon and Alan Wake 2 named. I wonder if Baldur's Gate 3 might be here.  

Now this is my kind of show format. Games, games, and more games. 

Anything published by Xbox is considered 1st party.