Gaming News - Page 130

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hogwarts Legacy players will be glad to know they can now push their graphics to the absolute limit with the Ultra Plus Ultimate Visual mod.

The mod comes from "ElAnalistaDeBits", who has posted a video showcasing an epic side-by-side of the differences between vanilla Hogwarts Legacy and the modded version. The mod clearly provides gamers with massive visual improvements in various aspects of the game, such as increased global illumination, reflections, ray tracing, and ambient occlusion.

Hogwarts Legacy already looks fantastic, as showcased by the vanilla version of the game, but with this new mod from "ElAnalistaDeBits," the game's graphics have been taken to a whole new level. However, gamers should know that these graphical improvements will come at a cost to in-game performance. Judging by the massive improvements, it can be safely assumed you will need a higher-end PC to fully enjoy the mod without suffering from low FPS.