Latest News - Page 849

UPDATE: Microsoft has made the announcement official. Xbox Game Pass Core will replace Xbox LIVE Gold. Read more here.

After decades of online gaming, Xbox LIVE Gold is reportedly being phased out and replaced with a new Game Pass subscription tier.

New reports indicate that Microsoft is preparing to officially retire its Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. Starting September 14, a new Game Pass tier called Core will replace Xbox LIVE Gold, and offer some extra benefits for no additional cost.

UPDATE: Sony has confirmed the Call of Duty deal is for a 10-year period. Sony has told Axios' Stephen Totilo:

Every Call of Duty game that Microsoft offers on its gaming storefront has been discounted ahead of the incoming merger with Activision.

Today, Sony signed a landmark contract to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. This deal will ensure the mega-hit franchise stays on PlayStation for an undetermined period of time, allaying the Federal Trade Commission's anti-competitive concerns that the franchise could be withheld from Sony's rival platform via partial or total foreclosure.

It's official: Sony has signed a contract with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Given the circumstances involved, was only a matter of time before Sony made a new deal to keep Call of Duty games on PlayStation platforms.

"We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games," Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer said today.

As UK regulators extend their final decision date, Microsoft and Activision are also expected to negotiate a new merger termination date that goes beyond the current July 18 deadline.

Microsoft and Activision are reportedly leaning towards a merger deadline extension, sources tell the Financial Times. The news report was published before yesterday's big loss for the FTC, where the appeals courts denied the Commission's request to prohibit the merger from consummating until after a months-long appeals process was complete. The merger is now clear to close in the United States, but the FTC plans to start its internal administrative case next month.

That just leaves one more potential roadblock for the $68.7 billion merger: the UK regulators at the CMA. It's assumed that Microsoft and Activision will extend their merger deadline as the parties continue negotiating with the UK agency.

The world's largest LED display, called The Sphere, located in Las Vegas, has been spotted changing its exterior to multiple objects within the solar system.

The Sphere began construction in 2018 as part of a collaborative multi-year $2.3 billion project between Sphere Entertainment and Madison Square Garden. The new entertainment venue measures 366-foot-tall by 516-foot-wide and features a staggering 580,000 square-foot exterior LED display, which uses approximately 1.2 million "pucks," each capable of producing 256 million different colors.

On July 4, The Sphere was turned on for the first time, which captured the attention of millions of people on the internet as well as residents located in Las Vegas. Operators changed The Sphere to produce fireworks, an American flag, nature scenes, sci-fi visual effects, and the solar system's most popular objects, such as the Earth, the Moon, and Mars.

In a big win for Xbox, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Federal Trade Commission's injunction request. The merger is now clear to close in the United States, but the tech firms still seek approval from overseas regulators.

The FTC has lost its bid to stop the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger. Moments ago, the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court issued an order denying the Commission's request for an emergency injunction that would have prohibited the two companies from merging until after the FTC's appeal had been adequately ruled upon by the courts.

The FTC sought this order to extend an existing temporary restraining order that remains in effect until tonight at 11:59PM PST. Under this order, Microsoft and Activision cannot merge until the order expires. The FTC appears to have wanted to run out the clock and keep Microsoft and Activision from combining long after the merger's July 18 termination date.

A new collaboration between OWO Haptic Gaming System and Ubisoft has spawned a full-body suit that enables players to feel in-game experiences.

In what seems like its straight out of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, Ubisoft has announced that Assassin's Creed Mirage fans will have the option of picking up a special edition of the coming game that will include an OWO Haptic Gaming Suit. Gamers that pick up this edition of Assassin's Creed Mirage will be able to feel several in-game experiences such as impacts, parkour, attacks, and more.

The "sensations" page located on the OWO Game website states the body suit has more than 30 different possible sensations. Notably, gamers will be able to feel the impact of axes, daggers, gunshots, gunshot exit wounds, light sword attacks, insect bites, recoil, collision, stress, and the wind while the in-game character is freefalling.

Judge Corley accepts that, "for preliminary injunction purposes," Microsoft is likely to make Call of Duty to Xbox Game Pass. This seems contrary to offers that Microsoft has offered to Sony.

Days ago, California District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled in the FTC v Microsoft case, denying the Commission its requested preliminary injunction order. Microsoft all but won its biggest battle in its proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard. Judge Corley's order was issued in a 53-page document outlining her decision-making process.

In this document, Judge Corley said something interesting that the Commission has latched on to in its recent appeals filing: Due to the significant financial incentives involved, Microsoft is likely to make Call of Duty exclusive to the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

The transition to paperless workflows, the need for electronic documents, and the necessity for software that can handle document security and compliance are all driving development in the PDF editor market. The use of PDF editors is increasing as it offers many benefits, such as embedded multimedia content, security features, and cross-platform compatibility.

But some users may just need some features of pdf editing, annotating, signing, convert, rather than all features of Acrobat. So, why would they invest in the expensive Acrobat? This is when UPDF just got them covered. It offers the same range of features and functionality at an unbeatable price - 12% of Acrobat's yearly price to get all features. Moreover, now you can get UPDF at 54% off. Dive in to learn more about this amazing product!

UPDF was developed with the aim to revolutionize PDF editing and offer affordable PDF editing solutions. Sticking to its purpose of creation, this amazing software has come up to expectations, easing PDF handling to be convenient and manageable for everyone out there.

World of Warcraft Classic hardcore witnessed a breathtaking piece of griefing as almost an entire raid party was wiped out by a nefarious player who had gone to considerable - and we mean really extensive - lengths to infiltrate the group.

First, a bit of background with this one. For the uninitiated, hardcore mode means that death is permanent; there's no rezzing, so as you can imagine, the stakes are particularly high when it comes to a raid encounter.

So, the group of 40 set out to tackle the Four Horsemen encounter, all of them max level (60), with one tank being a certain 'Tinyviolin69' who's the griefer in question.

People who already own an Apple Watch Ultra seem to be really big fans of them and those who haven't yet picked one up might be better waiting a little while before they do. That's because a new report appears to confirm that there will be an Apple Watch Ultra 2 later this year.

That's according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuop who posted to his Medium blog to say that Apple is working on the updated Apple Watch Ultra. What's more, it's apparently going to use 3D printing for some of its components. Those components, Kuo's supply chain sources claim, are titanium mechanical parts.

Those components could be any manner of things including the Digital Crown and Action Button, and they're all currently CNC machined. 3D printing could make a big difference for Apple, likely reducing costs and possibly making these parts quicker to produce.

Antstream, the game streaming subscription service that offers over 1400 classic games, is coming to Xbox.

In a timely move, Microsoft has teamed up with a third-party cloud gaming subscription service provider to bring classic games to Xbox. The service is called Antstream, and it offers over a total of 1,470 games across a variety of retro platforms, the bulk of which are from the old-school floppy disc and cassette era of the early 80s. Antstream offers an interesting time capsule for Xbox gamers to explore.

Antstream is coming to Xbox on July 20, and will cost $29.99 per year, or gamers can subscribe for lifetime access for $79.99. The games will be streamed directly to Xbox consoles.

Windows 11 should soon get a handy new way of fixing the OS via Windows Update when things go wrong.

As discovered by XenoPanther on Twitter, this new in-place repair feature is present in build 25905 (in the Canary channel), and the functionality is fully working.

Testers can find it under Recovery options (Settings, System), where there's an option to 'Fix problems using Windows Update.'

UK regulators have extended the deadline for their final report on the Activision merger as they weigh concessions from Microsoft.

Following the FTC's loss in federal court, Microsoft and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have paused their ongoing appeals battle in an effort to find a common solution to get the Microsoft-Activision merger approved.

Microsoft is reportedly doing its part to address antitrust concerns by offering a "small and discreet divestiture" around its cloud gaming business. The CMA is currently weighing the offer, and has said that it may need to conduct a new merger investigation should Microsoft and Activision restructure the deal. The parties will not have an opportunity to submit remedies once the CMA issues its final report.

We know Cortana is on its way out, to make way for Microsoft's new AI assistant Copilot in Windows 11, but we've just seen a welcome new option in the OS to make it easy to get rid of Cortana.

As XenoPanther highlighted on Twitter (spotted by Neowin), the new preview build 25905 has an option to uninstall Cortana.

In other words, the ailing digital assistant can be removed just as with any other app in Windows 11.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has taken to his personal blog to warn that the emergence of artificial intelligence is expected to change the world, and it might not necessarily be for the better.

Gates took to his blog on Tuesday to pen a new post titled "The risk of AI are real but manageable", where he details the upcoming dangers of artificial intelligence and how society will need to manage it. Gates discusses the "Age of AI" and compares the technology to the creation of the first automobile.

The Microsoft founder wrote that not too long after the first automobile, there was the first crash, and as a society, we didn't ban the use of cars, we instead implemented road rules and regulations. The same will have to happen for AI.

It was only last week that I reported on GIGABYTE announcing three new curved gaming monitors, and now the company is preparing to release its flat-screen versions.

GIGABYTE has unveiled the GS27Q and the GS32Q, which are the flat-screen version of the two recently unveiled GS27QC and the GS32QC. These new models feature the same Super Speed IPS displays, but are flat QHD instead of curved VA panels. Notably, the 27-inch model features a 1000:1 static contrast ratio, and the 31.5-inch has a 1200:1 contrast ratio.

Each of GIGABYTE's newly unveiled displays have a maximum brightness of 300 nits and can achieve a refresh rate of 170Hz when overclocked up from their out-of-the-box 165Hz. Additionally, both gaming monitors come with AMD FreeSync Premium certification, Aim Stabilizer, Black Equalizer, Crosshair, GameAssist, Overscan, Super Resolution, PiP, and more. As for connectivity, each display features two HDMI 2.09 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 input, and a headphone jack.

A new study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests the universe could be much older than we think it is.

Previous estimations of the universe's age were 13.7 billion years, but according to a new study from researchers, who created a new model to measure the age of reality as we know it, suggest that the true age of the universe is 26.7 billion years old. Notably, astronomers for years have calculated the age of the universe by measuring the light from distant stars and rewinding time all the way back to the moment of the Big Bang.

However, stars such as Methuselah break this theory as the star is older than the universe itself. Observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope revealed galaxies existed just 300 million years after the Big Bang, but these galaxies appear to have a level of maturity the same as galaxies with billions of years of cosmic evolution. This doesn't quite make sense with the traditional model of the universe's age.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken to its website to share an image of a "cosmic monster" lurking out in deep space.

NASA and the ESA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a galaxy cluster called eMACS J1353.7+4329, which is located eight billion light years away from Earth within the constellation Canes Venatici.

According to the ESA blog post highlighting the photograph, eMACS J1353.7+4329 is a "cosmic monster in the making" as it consists of two elliptical galaxy clusters that are on the verge of colliding together to form one super galaxy cluster.

Creators are receiving thousands of dollars from Twitter as the platform moves to clap back at the recent launch of Threads.

Twitter has announced and has already begun paying creators a portion of the advertising revenue generated in the replies to users' posts. The money is nothing to shake your head at, as thousands of creators are taking to the platform to thank Twitter and share a screenshot of what the platform has paid them.

For example, Brian Krassenstein, a Twitter user with more than 750,000 followers, shared a screenshot that states he's receiving $24,305. The funds will be deposited into the user's Stripe-connected account within the next 72 hours.