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Activision's new financial forecasts suggest something big is happening in 2023, and it could be another mainline Call of Duty game.

Reports say Call of Duty will break its annual release schedule for the first time in 19 years. Sources have told Bloomberg that Call of Duty will skip 2023 and move to a biennial cadence, returning in 2024 with a big new game. Activision is expected to release a standalone zombies live experience in 2023 to fill in the gap. Management says Call of Duty is moving towards an "always-on" structure.

However, new financial data from Activision-Blizzard may indicate otherwise. The company forecasts significant net revenue growth in 2023 to a new all-time record high of $4.688 billion, up nearly 18% over 2022's expected earnings.

No, Blizzard has no plans to create NFTs or play-to-earn blockchain games.

Blizzard recently sent out a poll trying to gauge interest in play-to-earn games and NFTs. This led to speculation Blizzard could be planning NFTs and following in the footsteps of Ubisoft and Konami.

Now Blizzard President Mike Ybarra squashes the rumors with a simple and curt response: "No one is doing NFTs."

What's going on with Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer game? No one knows for sure, and CD Projekt RED won't give more details.

Back in 2017, we predicted Cyberpunk 2077 would have online multiplayer. Then in 2020 CD Projekt RED confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer was coming, describing the game as a big AAA release.

Now these plans are in flux. CD Projekt has cancelled all future multiplayer development in Cyberpunk 2077's RED Engine and made a $4.9 million write-off on the technology. Instead CD Projekt will now use Unreal Engine 5 for its multiplayer ambitions.

Following an incredible box off performance, Sonic Speed Simulator is one of the most-played games on Roblox right now.

A bit ago SEGA launched an official Sonic game on Roblox called the Sonic Speed Simulator, a new open-world 3D adventure that's a lot like the early Sonic Adventure game. It's become a huge hit with Roblox's playerbase, amassing an all-time high of 100,000 concurrent users.

"Our Sonic game on Roblox just hit 100,000 concurrent players on its second day of release with a strategic marketing push combined with the organic digital buzz of the metaverse," Gamefam Chief Executive Officer Joe Ferencz said on LinkedIn.

A team of NASA-led researchers are planning on broadcasting sensitive information about Earth into the cosmos.

The team's project is called "Beacon in the Galaxy" (BITG) and involves operating the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope array in California and China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) to broadcast information about Earth's biology, location, images of humans, solar system pictures, and an invitation for aliens to respond to the message.

The project has been opposed by researchers from the United Kingdom's Oxford University who have warned that it may not be a good idea to send out sensitive information about Earth and the human race as an alien civilizations that may receive the information may not have the best intentions. FHI scientist at Oxford, Toby Ord said that there should be a public discussion before any signals are sent out, adding that there is even dangers involved in listening to incoming messages.

Only days after making an offer to buy Twitter, Elon Musk's space transportation company has taken a classified payload into space.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base located in California, and attached to it was a classified payload from the US National Reconnaissance Office, which is reportedly a US spy satellite with unknown purposes. Videos of the launch were posted to the SpaceX Twitter account that shows the Falcon 9 lifting off from the launch bad in a stunning display of bright flame.

SpaceX also released a video showcasing the first stage booster of the Falcon 9 successfully landing back on the launch pad after separating less than three minutes after it initially launched. While SpaceX would usually conduct a long livestream of the launch, separation, and discuss the payload and its purpose, the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) requested that the livestream be ended given the classified nature of the payload.

A biolab located in Ukraine is involved in unethical human experiments conducted by American scientists, according to Russia's ministry of defense.

Russia's ministry of defense announced last week on Thursday that it has evidence of "American scientists from the lab" conducting a series of experiments on humans between the dates of 2019 and 2021. Russia's military alleges that the American scientists involved in the experimentation used psychiatric patients from a hospital ward in the Kharkiv region as their subjects. The ministry claimed that the experiments and research was "potentially dangerous biological preparations", but didn't actually describe what those "biological preparations" are.

Additionally, Russia's defense ministry said that the subjects were chosen based on their age, nationality, immunity status to disease, and more. Furthermore, the ministry said that there was no documentation for the subjects, and they were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements that stopped them from discussing anything they were involved in or saw. The trials also didn't have any records, but according to the Russian military, it has eyewitness testimonies that account "inhuman experiments".

The Department of Justice has announced its charged three individuals for acting as an illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States.

Russian business man Aleksandr Mikhaylovich and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The news was announced via a press release found on the Department of Justice website and states that a Russian legislator Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Babakov and two staff members, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, have been charged for running a multi-year propaganda network designed to "influence and gain access to U.S. elected officials" and "advance Russia's malevolent political designs against Ukraine and other countries, including the United States", said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

Microsoft is starting to warn people who store their passwords in plain-text form. Some people store their passwords in Notepad and save them as .txt files, which is very insecure. With Sun Valley 2, Microsoft plans to provide network protection at the operating system level. A new security feature in Windows 11 uses Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which is integrated into the operating system and provides protection against malicious applications or browser extensions. In 22H2 or later, Microsoft Defender will provide protection against phishing using its AI-powered detection technology.

The purpose of the new phishing feature is to protect users from phishing attacks by recognizing when users enter credentials in applications such as Notepad and malicious programs and alerting them with a pop-up window displayed on the screen above the open application or tab. So how does this work? In theory, Windows 11's Smart Screen Saver works at the kernel level and can determine when you have entered your password into any application. It also detects passwords entered in forms on websites that try to copy the original password.

If you want to save some money when buying a genuine Windows operating system or Office, GoDeal24 can help. Currently, the company is offering users special discounts on Windows operating systems and Office activation keys. With this Special Deal, you can get Windows 10 Professional for just $7.42. And with Microsoft announcing that Windows 11 will be a free upgrade for all Windows 10 users, now is the perfect time to activate Windows 10. And Office Professional 2021, officially priced at $439.99, is now just $30.98! Full savings of $410! The problem with software is that it usually doesn't expire.

Square Enix has expressed interest in using blockchain to facilitate user-generated content and to pay creators with cryptocurrency for their in-game creations.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy-maker Square Enix has always hyped up emerging technologies. Company President Yosuke Matsuda has a penchant for over-promising on industry trends like VR, smartphone gaming, and streaming, but more recently has embraced nascent tech like blockchain, play-to-earn, and NFTs.

However ambitious, Matsuda's latest affirmations could help pave the way for a new era of user-generated content through blockchain. In a recent interview with Yahoo Japan, Matsuda outlined his nebulous vision to use blockchain as a way to distribute user-generated content to gamers and remunerate content creators with cryptocurrency payouts. In practice, Square Enix essentially wants to mimic Roblox, who pays out billions every year to its content creators. It's also similar in theory to Bethesda's paid mods Creation Club platform.

Hideo Kojima has officially debunked rumors saying that PlayStation will acquire his game development studio.

Kojima Productions is not being purchased by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Studio founder Hideo Kojima confirmed the news on Twitter by essentially saying he has no interest to sell the company: "Kojipro has been, and will continue to be, an independent production studio."

The rumors were started from a new PlayStation Studios banner that added Death Stranding among the image slices of first-party games.

CD Projekt RED is far from finished with Cyberpunk 2077 and has devoted considerable development manpower for the game's upcoming expansions.

In a recent earnings report, CD Projekt erroneously reported that most of its teams are working on new games including the next Witcher title. The company has now clarified that the bulk of its dev teams are actually still working on Cyberpunk 2077's upcoming expansion, which is due out sometime in 2023.

"Right now, the bulk of our team is working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion that is targeted to be released in 2023," CD Projekt Group President and Joint CEO Adam Kicinski said in the FY2021 earnings call.

New details on Halo Infinite's innovative battle royale mode have surfaced, hinting at huge 100-player chaos.

According to new reports, Halo Infinite's battle royale gametype will be a combination of many existing modes and battle royale mechanics. For example, Infinite's ambitious new mode incorporates elements of multi-team and free-for-all with up to 100 players alongside traditional BR elements like shrinking map zones.

The mode, codenamed "Tatanka", is so big that it could be a separate client or perhaps a whole separate section within the Infinite server, separated from traditional multiplayer.

A huge 'Warzone-scale' battle royale type of mode is coming to Halo Infinite in an effort to revitalize the playerbase.

Halo Infinite's often-rumored battle royale mode could arrive sometime in season 3 alongside Forge, sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden.

Halo 2 multiplayer developer Certain Affinity is making the mode, a massive undertaking that's been in development for two years with a scale that may rival Call of Duty Warzone--in fact, it's so big that it's "almost like another game."

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own ad tech platform that would serve up advertisements in free-to-play Xbox games.

Reports from Business Insider say that Microsoft wants to facilitate a platform to bring in-game ads to F2P Xbox games. Sources say Microsoft is currently in talks with ad tech specialists to build a new advertisement platform that will inject ads into specific games, namely free-to-play titles that may include the likes of Fortnite, Warzone, and Rocket League.

Although ad tech is one of the most lucrative aspects of mobile gaming, Microsoft's goal may be to boost visibility and engagement rather than make money. Sources say that Microsoft may not take a cut of the revenues generated from ads. Instead, game developers/publishers and advertisement agencies would share the proceeds.

NVIDIA has launched a silent global campaign for its GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs, where it has announced that supplies have been "Restocked & Reloaded".

You should see that multiple AIB partners and retailers have received new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 GPU shipments, with some cards available at MSRP... while other have received discounts. This feels weird though, as the GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs have been out for 18 months now... and in stock... just super-expensive and harder to find. Now, a new launch campaign months before Ada Lovelace...

NVIDIA explains: "GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards are now available! Get the ultimate play with immersive ray tracing, a huge AI performance boost with NVIDIA DLSS, game-winning responsiveness with NVIDIA Reflex, and AI-powered voice & video with NVIDIA Broadcast. Check back here, or directly with our partners, for great new options".

Activision-Blizzard's latest SEC filing gives clues on what's on the horizon for the publisher, including possible release timings for its biggest games.

Blizzard's latest revenue earnings forecast suggests something big is coming in 2023. The company has forecasted a huge 90% year-over-year revenues spike that sees earnings jumping from $2 billion in 2022 to a whopping $3.75 billion in 2023.

Blizzard segment revenues have a forecasted 22% CAGR rate over the four-year period, and this particular rise represents the largest jump in year-over-year revenues across all of the company's segments.

Cyberpunk 2077's controversy has significantly impacted sales to the point where other digital-only games are beating CD Projekt's latest release.

Today Blizzard confirmed that Diablo II Resurrected has sold more than 5 million copies across PC and consoles. This is a stellar debut for a AAA project, especially a remaster/re-release. The game did so well that it actually beat Cyberpunk 2077, which moved about 4.3 million sales through 2021-2022. It's worth noting that CP2077 was discounted to just $5 multiple times during this period, and D2R was a digital-only release that had no physical in-store launch.

While the figure is certainly triumphant for Blizzard and Vicarious Visions, it's also a stark reminder of how devastating controversy can be for game sales. Cyberpunk 2077 launched to extreme hype that quickly switched to controversy due to terrible performance on PS4 and Xbox One. Sony actually pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store for six months and Microsoft branded the game with a warning message on the Xbox store.

Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion won't release this year, CD Projekt RED has confirmed.

Cyberpunk 2077 is far by CD Projekt RED's fastest-selling game of all time. The sci-fi FPS launched into extreme hype and subsequent controversy with a massive 13.7 million copies sold within a month's time, and helped CD Projekt make more money than it ever has before. The trade-off was that CD Projekt essentially sold its reputation for upfront cash: The game performed so badly on PS4 and Xbox One that CDPR was vilified for months on end, with Sony even removing Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store for 6 months.

Ever since then, CDPR has been on a redemption arc and trying to make a big comeback. The recent Cyberpunk 2077 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S helped things along but the absence of substantial content has contributed to a dramatic drops in game sales.

Years after controversy, Sean Murray is once again hyping up his next game...which is said to be so ambitious it might be impossible.

Sean Murray has been talking up his new project for a while now. The game, which isn't No Man's Sky 2, has yet to be announced, but we first reported on it back in 2019.

Back then Murray used similar vernacular to describe the game, too: "We've got something else going on at the studio. It's exciting, and it's unfortunately going to be ambitious," said at the time.