The Last of Usinspired no shortage of takes when it first released back in 2013. The HBO TV adaptation has been no different. Like a massive EpiPen of stimulus for the take economy in middle of winter, it has elicited both over-the-top praise, scornful dismissals, and everything in-between. But what is potentially the worst take of all wasn’t born until today.
“Hi FTC — did you catch last night’s episode of The Last of Us?” tweeted Activision Blizzard’s Executive Vice President of Corporates Affairs and Chief Communications Officer, Lulu Cheng Meservey. “It was incredible.” What followed from the Call of Duty publisher’s recently hired serial poster was a cringey thread about how The Last of Us TV show proves Microsoft should be allowed to acquire the company for $69 billion.
For those who might be living under a rock and don’t know: The Last of Us is a harrowing tale about love, loss, and redemption in a world brought to its knees by pandemic. This week’s especially intimate and emotional episode moved many to tears. It moved Meservey to post about how the largest acquisition in the history of tech raises no red flags.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have been on the offensive ever since the Federal Trade Commission launched an anti-trust lawsuit against them, seemingly with the intent to wriggle loose a few more concessions before eventually letting the deal go through. It is a multi-faceted, omni-directional campaign that has Microsoft repeatedly talking about how much it sucks compared to Sony, both in terms of making games and now in terms of making TV shows. That was certainly the sentiment Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer conveyed last week when asked to compareThe Last of Us TV show to the Halo TV show.
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“Sony’s talent and IP across gaming, TV, movies, and music are formidable and truly impressive,” Meservey tweeted today. “It’s no wonder they also continue to dominate as the market leader for consoles. In gaming, Sony is ‘the first of us’ – and they will be just fine without the FTC’s protection.”
Things haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to remain upbeat and do damage control on each of these points and more in a new interview with IGN.
“Every year is critical,” he said. “I don’t find this year to be more or less critical. I feel good about our momentum. Obviously, we’re going through some adjustments right now that are painful, but I think necessary, but it’s really to set us up and the teams for long-term success.”
This week captured both the peril and promise facing Xbox right now. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a drop in net-income of 12 percent for the most recent fiscal quarter compared to the prior year. Xbox gaming hardware and software were down by similar percentages, and Microsoft said nothing about how many new subscribers its Game Pass service had gained since it crossed the 25 million mark exactly a year ago.
Then on Wednesday Microsoft provided a sleek and streamlined look at its upcoming games in a Developer Direct livestream copied right from the Nintendo playbook. Forza Motorsport was seemingly quietly delayed to the second half of the year, but looked like a beautiful and impressive racing sim showpiece. Arkane’s co-op sandbox vampire shooter Redfall got a May 2 release date. Real-time strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends will hit in April. And to cap things off Tango Gameworks, maker of The Evil Within, shadow-dropped Hi-Fi Rush on Game Pass, a colorful rhythm-action game from left field that’s already become the first undisputed gaming hit of 2023.
Screenshot: Tango Gameworks / Bethesda
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“2022 was too light on games,” Spencer confessed in his IGN interview. 2023 shouldn’t be thanks to Redfall and Starfield, Bethesda’s much-anticipated answer to the question, “What if Skyrim but space?” But both of those games were technically supposed to come out last year. Meanwhile, Hi-Fi Rush, like Obsidian’s Pentiment before it, is shaping up to be a critically acclaimed Game Pass release that still might be too small to move the needle on Xbox’s larger fortunes.
Spencer remained vague when asked how successful these games were or their impact on Game Pass, whose growth has reportedly stalled on console. “I think that the creative diversity expands for us when we have different ways for people to kind of pay for the games that they’re playing, and the subscription definitely helps there,” he said.
Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Starfield, and a new The Elder Scrolls Online expansion due out in June are also all from Bethesda, which Microsoft finished acquiring in 2021. The older Microsoft first-party game studios have either remained relatively quiet in recent years while working on their next big projects, or, in the case of 343 Industries, were recently hit with a surprising number of layoffs.
Following news of the cuts last week, rumors and speculation began to swirl that 343 Industries—which shipped a well-received Halo Infinite single-player campaign in 2021, but struggled with seasonal updates for the multiplayer component in the months since—was being benched. The studio put out a brief statement over the weekend saying Halo was here to stay and that it would continue developing it.
Image: Bethesda / Microsoft
Spencer doubled down on that in his interview with IGN, but provided little insight into the reasoning behind the layoffs or what its plans were for the franchise moving forward. “What we’re doing now is we want to make sure that leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to go build,” he said. “And Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo.”
Where Halo Infinite’s previously touted “10-year” plan fits into that, however, remains unclear. “They’ve got some other things, some rumored, some announced, that they’ll be working on,” Spencer said. And on the future of the series as a whole he simply said, “I expect that we’ll be continuing to support and grow Halo for as long as the Xbox is a platform for people to play.” It’s hard to imagine Nintendo talking about Mario with a similar-sounding lack of conviction.
It’s possible Microsoft’s continued struggles with some of its internal projects is partly why it’s so focused on looking outside the company for help. Currently that means trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and fighting off an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal trade Commission in the process. Microsoft had originally promised the deal to get Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush would be wrapped up before the end of summer 2023. That deadline’s coming up quickly, even as the company continues offering compromises, like reportedly giving Sony the option to continue paying to have Activision’s games on its rival Game Pass subscription service, PS Plus.
Spencer told IGN he remains bullish on closing the deal, despite claiming to have known nothing about the logistics of doing so when he started a year ago. “Given a year ago, for me, I didn’t know anything about the process of doing an acquisition like this,” he said. “The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having.”
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer juxtaposed the joys of gaming with the current sense of despair in the world after accepting the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the 12th Annual New York Game Awards on Tuesday night. He also applauded creators who still release “their visions” into the world in the “current culture of criticism and cancellation,” a loaded line at a time when debates are raging about the ethics of boycotting certain games like Hogwarts Legacy.
“As world builders our greatest responsibility is to inspire and invite joy,” Spencer said. The veteran executive who spearheaded many of Microsoft’s gaming acquisitions from Minecraft to Bethesda, spoke about what games meant to him growing up, and about the increasing difficulty of tapping back into that in the modern world. “It feels like today seeking joy is an act of defiance,” he said.
Spencer continued:
We, all of us here today, all of our teams around the globe, we are all a part of creating this echo effect of joy. Our creators who bravely and intentionally release their visions to the world, particularly in the current culture of criticism and cancellation; our players who bravely and intentionally carve out time for our games to invite, rest, and rejuvenate their lives; and business leaders. We are called upon to have the courage to protect and nurture this collective joy.
While the Microsoft Gaming CEO has been an outspoken advocate for making Xbox a more diverse and inclusive force in the world of gaming, the line about our “current culture of criticism and cancellation” could be interpreted as an “anti-woke” dog whistle, and strikes an unusual note at a time when increasing numbers of developers and players expect game companies to be held accountable for their political views and ethical shortcomings.
Just last month, Microsoft was in promotion mode for Justin Roiland and Squanch Games’ comedy shooter High on Life. The company even interviewed Roiland and later hailed the game as the biggest Game Pass launch of the year. Last week, however, it was revealed that the Rick and Morty co-creator was facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020, and that Squanch Games had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit a year prior in 2019.
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The “culture of cancellation” could just as easily apply to the debate currently unfolding among some players and content creators as to whether they can support transgender rights and still buy Hogwarts Legacy. Despite J.K. Rowling, who is currently waging a crusade against trans women, having no involvement in the game, the author still collects royalties off the license and is impossible to disentangle from the larger Harry Potter brand.
One of the game’s voice actors, Sebastian Croft, recently apologized to anyone hurt by the announcement of his involvement in the game. The game’s developers at Avalanche Software have also sought to distance themselves from Rowling, and included a transgender option in the character creator. The studio also parted ways with one developer over his YouTube videos containing support for GamerGate and other controversial views.
It’s not clear if Spencer meant to take issue with people holding game creators guilty by association in some instances, to imply that game creators are sometimes subject to unfair and bad faith criticisms, or if he was referencing how easily developers become targets for harassment by so-called fans and players.
Microsoft also won’t be the only company to indirectly profit off Rowling’s work with Hogwarts Legacy. The game will be available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC as well. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 gives Americans the right to sue companies over anticompetitive behavior, a fact which 10 self-described gamers are using to take Microsoft to court, aiming to halt the company’s acquisition of Activision.
As reported by Bloomberg Law, the complaint, filed today and obtained by Kotaku, states that the plaintiffs, or “video gamers” as they’re described, are concerned that “the [Microsoft and Activision] merger may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly;” this merger, the complaint states, would specifically be in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which states that acquisitions that diminish competition are prohibited under U.S. antitrust law. The complaint not only cites the scale and scope of the Activision and Microsoft merger as problematic, but also that this latest proposed union follows numerous other Microsoft acquisitions ranging from its 2014 purchase of Mojang all the way up to its acquisition of Rare in 2022.
Thoroughly laying out console, PC, and AAA gaming, as well as subscription services as “Relevant Product Markets,” the suit calls attention to just how many large franchises will fall under Microsoft’s corporate umbrella should the merger go through. Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo, and The Elder Scrolls are just some of the cited examples. It maintains that currently Microsoft and Activision compete directly through these titles and services like Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Game Pass. The merger would shatter that competitive dynamic.
Should the merger go through, the suit claims, Microsoft would hold “outsized market power and the ability to foreclose key inputs to rivals and further harm competition.” The suit mentions competition both whereas it concerns sales to consumers, as well as the competition in the industry to “hire and retain talent within specialized video game labor,” which would be “lessened” under the merger.
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
The proposed MIcrosoft / Activision merger has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since its initial announcement. Perhaps most worrying for Microsoft is the recently filed lawsuit from the FTC. The feds allege that, should this merger go through, it would pose serious harm to competition in the video game industry, citing past behavior of Microsoft to prioritize Xbox and Windows PCs as platforms for its games. Microsoft has disagreed, stating that the Activision acquisition would “bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before.”
Speaking of Call of Duty, in response to criticisms of its intended merger with Activision, Microsoft has pledged to continue to deliver Call of Duty to other platformsfor at least 10 years. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has categorized Sony’s criticisms of the acquisition as an attempt to “protect its dominant position on console” and that it seeks to grow by “making Xbox smaller.”
Call of Duty might be one of the most popular series on the planet, but it’s not exactly the kind of game you think of when you picture the Nintendo Switch. So in one way it’s very strange to see Microsoft come out tonight and announce a “10-year commitment” to release CoD games on Nintendo platforms, starting with the Switch.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer made the announcement on Twitter, along with an identical pledge to continue bringing CoD games to Steam as well:
Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play.
I‘m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King.
He’s making these pledges, of course, not because there’s much of a market for CoD on the Switch, but because his company (Microsoft) is in the process of trying to close a deal to purchase the company that owns Call of Duty (Activision), a deal that is coming under increasing scrutiny from governments not just in the US, but abroad as well.
The Call of Duty series is a key stumbling block in that deal, with various governments indicating that locking the popular series away behind one platform will create an unfair monopoloy in the video game business.
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That’s why reports surfaced last week suggesting that Microsoft would be looking at doing a 10-year deal with Sony, their primary competitors in the console space, in an attempt to allay those fears. Those reports, however, didn’t mention Nintendo or Valve’s Steam platform, so tonight’s announcement is clearly aimed across Sony’s bow in an attempt to isolate them and force their hand (even if it was also slightly telegraphed last month).
It’s important to note that these are just pledges aimed at greasing some wheels and looking better in the eyes of those sceptical governments; Spencer won’t be in a position to actually do this unless the Activision purchase goes through. And even if it does, there will be questions; as Spencer says in this interview with the Washington Post, promising to bring Call of Duty to the Switch is one thing, getting it running on Nintendo’s hardware is a whole other matter.
Interestingly, while the Nintendo side of the pledge stands out for its odd fit and potential technical woes, the Valve commitment seems far more casual, with Gabe Newell telling Kotaku in a statement:
We’re happy that Microsoft wants to continue using Steam to reach customers with Call of Duty when their Activision acquisition closes. Microsoft has been on Steam for a long time and we take it as a signal that they are happy with gamers reception to that and the work we are doing. Our job is to keep building valuable features for not only Microsoft but all Steam customers and partners.
Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term Call of Duty commitment but it wasn’t necessary for us because a) we’re not believers in requiring any partner to have an agreement that locks them to shipping games on Steam into the distant future b) Phil and the games team at Microsoft have always followed through on what they told us they would do so we trust their intentions and c) we think Microsoft has all the motivation they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be.
(Call of Duty has been on Steam for a long time in total, but the series has only just returned after a five-year hiatus locked away behind Activision’s own launcher, exactly the kind of restriction the various governmental objections to the proposed merger are worried about!)
Starting next year, Microsoft will raise the price of its first-party games from $60 to $70, joining other publishers and video game companies who are doing the same. Welcome to the era of the $70 game, folks.
For a few years now publishers and developers have hinted at game prices increasing as development costs rise and expensive-to-maintain online games become more and more popular. And while some $70 games popped up with the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2020, it wasn’t until this fall that we saw more of the industry move toward this new, higher price with the release of $70 games like Gotham Knights, Modern Warfare II and God of War Ragnarök on PS5. And next year, Microsoft—which has held back on raising prices this holiday season—joins other publishers and developers in this new, pricier era of video games.
As reported by IGN earlier today, Xbox has confirmed that its future first-party games developed for its next-gen Xbox consoles will cost $70 starting next year. This includes titles like Bethesda’s highly-anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield as well as Arkane’s vampire shooter Redfall and the next Forza Motorsport.
Xbox / Arkane
“This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch.”
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft about the price increase.
This increase isn’t too surprising as the entire industry seems to be shifting to $70 games and subscriptions. Even Xbox boss Phil Spencer hinted toward the increase in October, suggesting that the company couldn’t and wouldn’t hold its prices forever, adding that the cost of games, Game Pass, or Xbox consoles would likely increase after the 2022 holiday season. And now, as the year winds down, here we are, and here come the $70 Xbox games.
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Some may be quick to point out that this price increase won’t matter to many as Xbox Game Pass will continue to provide access to all future Xbox first-party releases across console and PC. In 2020, Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg wondered if the price of a game even matters with Game Pass. But for folks who prefer to buy just one or two games a year or who like owning their games and don’t want a monthly subscription, things are about to get a bit more expensive.
It’s also interesting to wonder what price point Starfield or Redfall would have launched at had they made their originally planned 2022 release dates instead of being delayed into 2023. Would Microsoft have made the $70 shift this year, or would it have let Starfield and/or the vampire shooter release as its last first-party $60 games before making this change?
Video game consoles are very expensive pieces of computer hardware crammed into relatively small boxes and packaged with pricey controllers. So it’s not surprising to hear that Microsoft isn’t making money selling Xbox consoles. In fact, these days it loses up to $200 for every console sold.
Previously, Xbox boss and Microsoft head of gaming Phil Spencer had explained that the company may still raise prices on “some things,” though not during this holiday season. While many guessed he was talking about Game Pass or Xbox Live, it’s also possible Microsoft could raise the price of its budget console, the next-gen Xbox Series S. This seems even more possible now that Spencer’s confirmed the company loses money on every console sold.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Spencer talked about how video games and the Xbox brand in specific are doing during the ongoing economic downturn. Rising prices and record inflation are putting a pinch on many, as dollars don’t go as far as they used to. During the interview, Spencer confirmed that Microsoft loses around $100 every time it sells the $500 Xbox Series X. And it loses even more, up to $200, whenever it sells the smaller, $300 Xbox Series S.
Spencer told CNBC that the expectation Microsoft has is that customers will buy the subsidized consoles and then buy accessories and games, helping to offset the losses. While Spencer didn’t say anything about raising the prices on either next-gen Xbox, he did tell CNBC that he doesn’t think Microsoft will be able to keep game prices constant forever. We’ve already seen the rise of the $70 game since the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Microsoft has yet to release a $70 game, but it seems that future releases like Redfall or Starfield might make the leap.
Of course, selling consoles for a loss isn’t a new practice. Microsoft itself told the court during the Epic v. Apple case that it had never turned a profit selling any of its Xbox consoles. Sony reportedly also sold the PS3 at a $240 loss. The one real exception to all this is Nintendo, as the company behind the Switch and Wii tends to make money on its consoles. Even if Nintendo’s profit is only $6 per Wii, that’s a lot better than losing hundreds of dollars per unit sold. Meanwhile, Sony has raised the price of the PS5 in some parts of the world.
Anyone playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, which got released today,on Xbox or PC is finding themselves in the shallow video game trenches, but not the kind they had hoped for. Infinity Ward’s first-person shooter seems to have a console preference, with Xbox players unable toswitch offcrossplay, a function that allows people on different platforms to play together, through the actual game. Meanwhile, PlayStation users can toggle the function with cheerful abandon thanks to a built-in option.
Disgruntled Xbox players want to avoid PC cheaters and precise mice and keyboards, while PC users would rather avoid consoles’ smooth aim assist. PlayStation users, meanwhile, are dealing with audio dropouts and being required to delete their files if they tried stealthily starting a game in a different region for early access.
But they aren’t, at least, worried about crossplay. And Sony sweetened their deal further—shortly ahead of release, the Call of Duty website listed a few PS4 and PS5-specific benefits, including monthly double XP events, +25% weapon XP when playing with other PS users in a party, and two extra loadout slots after reaching Level 4.
Console wars are an expectation for Call of Duty games at this point. While Microsoft is slowly working on buying billion-dollar-baby Activision, on October 26, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said he was more interested in mobile and planning on “[treating] CoD like Minecraft,” The Verge editor Tom Warren reported.
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Activision’s current partner Sony is, instead, treating the franchise like a precious child prodigy. And, perhaps to Xbox players dismay, even after Microsoft’s deal goes through, Sony will commandeer Call of Dutyfor “several more years” after its contract with Activision expires.
So Call of Duty’s background console wars aren’t ending soon. In the meantime, Xbox players can go into their settings and block crossplay from within the “Online safety & family” tab. From there, you select Communication & multiplayer, and then you block people from outside Xbox Live. Doing this to play Modern Warfare II, however, will probably increase your queue times, since you’ll only be able to match a more limited group of players with the same safety settings. You just can’t win.
Update 11:33 a.m:We’ve updated the headline to reflect the workaround mentioned in the article.
Activision’s latest Call of Duty game arrives this week, and while there’s no Nintendo release, there has been some conversation from the Xbox boss Phil Spencer about bringing the popular first-person shooter series to the Switch.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal recently, Spencer mentioned how Microsoft’s plan for the series when the Activision Blizzard deal goes through could be to treat it like Minecraft and make it available on as “many different screens” as possible – including Switch (via The Verge senior editor, Tom Warren).
“Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I’d love to see it on the Switch, I’d love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat CoD like Minecraft”
Phil’s comments follow on from CNBC’s interview with Microsoft president Brad Smith earlier this year, who also mentioned how the American tech giant would like to bring the Call of Duty series to Switch if the acquisition went through.
“One of the things we’re being very clear about as we move forward with the regulatory review of this acquisition is that great titles like Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard today, will continue to be available on the Sony PlayStation.
“We’d like to bring it to Nintendo devices. We’d like to bring the other popular titles that Activision has, and ensure that they continue to be available on PlayStation, [and] that they become available on Nintendo.”
At the time, Smith also used Minecraft as an example of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to other platforms.
Of course, for Microsoft to follow through with this, it first needs to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It’s currently in the process of finalising the deal. If Call of Duty does return to Nintendo systems, at this rate it’ll likely be on the next-gen system.
Call of Duty last appearance on a Nintendo platform was during the Wii U generation with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in 2012 and Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013.
Xbox fans have been waiting for a glimpse of a new, standalone Game Pass streaming device called “Keystone” since it was first teased at E3 2021. Now Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer may have just given it to them in his latest shelfie. It looks like a micro-Xbox Series S.
Microsoft has slowly been bringing Xbox Game Pass to more and more devices through cloud streaming. First it was phones. More recently it was certain brands of Smart TVs like Samsung’s. Earlier this year, the company confirmed it was working on a smaller add-on that people could buy to stream games to any display. It’s called Keystone, and so far Microsoft hasn’t shown what it looks like, possibly until today.
“Vault Boy left the shelter and stopped by my office to celebrate the #Fallout25 Anniversary,” Spencer tweeted along with a photo of a bunch of Xbox swag on a shelf. “Congratulations to the @Fallout @Bethesda teams on this major milestone for an iconic franchise.” The Microsoft executive has made a habit out of teasing upcoming reveals in the background of his pictures, however, and it didn’t take fans long to spot a strange-looking white device near the top:
It looks exactly like an Xbox Series S, only much smaller. A mark on the left could be an Xbox symbol while one on the right seems like a USB port. It seems similar in proportion to a Google Chromecast or Valve’s now defunct Steam Link, though it’s hard to tell based on the photo alone. It certainly looks a shade smaller than the Xbox controller just to its left. Notably, the Series S was first revealed on Spencer’s shelf as well. A response to Spencer’s tweet by the official Xbox account seems to imply it may be an older prototype.
While previous speculation was that Xbox’s Game Pass streaming device would be a smaller stick-sized dongle, the company told Windows Central in May that it had pivoted to a new “approach” for Keystone. “We have made the decision to pivot away from the current iteration of the Keystone device,” a spokesperson for the company said at the time. “We will take our learnings and refocus our efforts on a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players around the world in the future.”
It’s still not clear exactly what the company meant by that, and it’s always possible that Spencer’s photo today was 1.) not meant to tease anything or 2.) was teasing something completely different from Keystone. Microsoft has also reportedly been working on a standalone optical drive attachment for the all-digital versions of its Xbox Series X/S. Both seem unlikely.
“It’s probably a mistake on my part,” Spencer said in a Kinda Funny Games appearance in July when describing the easter eggsfans look for on his shelf. He claimed there was no thought behind what appears on it during his video calls and other photos, and that it was simply a collection of gaming industry gifts and signifiers. The hosts were less than convinced.
Update: 10/10/22 2:58 p.m. ET: A spokesperson for Microsoft re-iterated that the device on Spencer’s shelf is an older prototype and that the company’s early statement that it had pivoted “away” from the current iteration.
