After purchasing Bungie for $3.6 billion in February, Sony Interactive Entertainment is aiming to grow its live gaming services from one to 12 by the end of 2025. SIE president and CEO Jim Ryan detailed a plan to funnel 49 percent of the company’s PlayStation Studios development budget into live games this year, increasing the number to 55 percent by 2025. Sony wants to move to a model of launching and continually updating online franchises, much like Epic Games has done with “Fortnite” or Bungie with “Destiny.” SIE didn’t specify which titles would be part of its new live game network. Read more

Broadcom announced it will acquire VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction that values VMware at $61 billion. The deal, which expands semiconductor supplier Broadcom into enterprise software, is among the top technology transactions of all time, right behind Microsoft’s pending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard and Dell’s 2016 acquisition of EMC for $67 billion. Broadcom will also assume $8 billion of VMware debt. The news sent shares of Broadcom up 2 percent and VMware more than 1 percent early Thursday. VMware enterprise products optimize client-side servers as well as cloud servers. Read more

Microsoft is previewing its express design in Power Apps, which can instantly generate low-code apps directly from design files and images. In a few clicks, anyone can now create web and mobile apps from inputs including paper forms, PDFs, sketches on the whiteboard or even assets designed in professional programs like Figma. As part of the Microsoft Power Platform, Power Apps uses advanced AI to accelerate design. “We’re particularly excited about our integration with Figma, the collaborative design platform, where so much software is designed today,” said Microsoft vice president of Power Apps Ryan Cunningham. Read more

Samsung’s groundbreaking Odyssey Neo G8 gaming monitor will be released in the U.S. in June priced at $1,499. With a 240Hz refresh rate, the monitor is well above the usual 144Hz standard. Samsung announced the Odyssey Neo G8 at CES 2022, revealing that the gaming monitor would offer 4K picture quality on a 31.5-inch Quantum Mini LED panel arced at a 1000R curve. New details have emerged for the DisplayHDR 1000 certified monitor, including 1,196 individual backlight zones resulting in a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and 4,096 steps for brightness control. Read more

Production in the cloud, virtual workflows and remote work solutions were hot topics at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas last month. Erik Weaver, director of adaptive production at the Entertainment Technology Center@USC, discussed new tools and techniques implemented during the production of ETC’s “Fathead,” a short film that experimented with in-camera real-time VFX and LED stages. Weaver joined “Fathead” virtual production producer Tom Thudiyanplackal, the short’s post-production supervisor James Blevins, and the global lead for Film/TV production partners at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Jack Wenzinger for a compelling NAB panel discussion, “ICVFX and the Cloud.” Read more