Gaming - Page 311

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.

Nixxes Software, the PlayStation studio behind ports for previously PlayStation-only games, is behind the upcoming PC release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The PlayStation 5 showcase and excellent action platformer was a notable launch-window release for the console due to its use of stunning ray-traced reflections and detail that made it look like a Pixar animation come to life.

In terms of features, the PC version uses all the cutting-edge tech and expands the ray-tracing in the game to support both ray-traced ambient occlusion and ray-traced shadows. And with that, Nixxes has confirmed NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, and Intel XeSS support on day one, alongside NVIDIA Reflex and even NVIDIA DLAA. On top of this, there's in-depth visual customization and support for multiple resolutions including ultrawide.

Today we've got the hardware requirements for the game covering everything from minimum specs to the 'Ultimate Ray Tracing' experience in 4K that requires either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX with the aid of NVIDIA DLSS or AMD FSR. The good news is that the 'Amazing Ray Tracing' experience at 1440p requires an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT - which should present a PS5-like experience.

The Microsoft-Activision merger has a deadline of July 18, but the termination date can be extended and the parties can renegotiate a deal.

Microsoft gave itself 18 months to close its proposed merger with games publisher Activision Blizzard King in the largest-ever video games acquisition in the history of the industry. The deal sees Microsoft buying out Activision shares at a $95 per share premium, culminating in a deal worth $68.7 billion. The merger has been tested by regulators both foreign and domestic, and now the FTC's aggressive pursuit could keep the tech firms from closing before the merger's July 18 termination date.

The FTC is currently appealing its loss in federal court with the aim of temporarily blocking Microsoft and Activision from merging until the Appeals Court makes a decision of the Commission's appeal request. This could take months. The Federal Trade Commission's tactic is seen as running out the clock and pushing the companies towards one of two outcomes: The merger dissolving, and Microsoft paying Activision a $3 billion termination fee, or both Microsoft and Activision extending the date through new negotiations.

UPDATE: Judge Corley has denied the FTC's request. Now it's up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to make their decision.

Following its defeat in the FTC v Microsoft case, the Federal Trade Commission now asks the judge who denied their preliminary injunction request for another separate injunction that would block Microsoft from joining with Activision until after an appeals decision has been made.

Two days ago, the FTC's preliminary injunction request was denied by district judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, a big win that would effectively allow Microsoft to merge with Activision. The temporary restraining order enjoining the two companies expires on Friday night, and the firms are expected to merge over the weekend.

If Microsoft successfully takes Activision off the market in its $68.7 billion merger deal, then other big tech firms could be spurred to snap up studios and maybe even big publishers like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive.

The outcome of the FTC v Microsoft case caused a stir in the interactive entertainment market, with both EA and Take-Two hitting 52-week highs shortly after the FTC's loss was announced. While the FTC is appealing the federal order in an attempt to stall the Microsoft-Activision merger, the deal could still close as early as this weekend. If it does, then major tech companies could make acquisitions in an attempt to secure a slice of the $200 billion market.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Jefferies managing director Andrew Uerkwitz shares his thoughts on how the merger's completion could spark more consolidation as the pool of available talent continues to shrink.

Former FTC chair and current law professor William Kovacic comments on how Microsoft successfully won over a federal judge and defeated the Federal Trade Commission in the Activision merger case.

Two days ago, federal judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the FTC a preliminary injunction order that the Commission sought to stall the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision deal. The FTC has appealed Judge Corley's order, and pending the appeal, Microsoft and Activision may combine as early as this weekend.

How was Microsoft able to win over Judge Corley? In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, former FTC chair William Kovacic gave key insight into how Microsoft's willingness to make concessions could have persuaded the judge. Microsoft had signed multiple 10-year licensing agreements with major competitors across cloud and console markets in an effort to alleviate anti-competitive concerns. This, combined with ineffective evidence from the FTC, helped secure Microsoft's win.

Following the FTC's big loss in federal court, Microsoft and UK antitrust regulators have paused their ongoing legal battle in appeals court in an effort to find solutions regarding the $68.7 billion Activision merger.

Two days ago, the FTC lost its federal court case against the Microsoft-Activision merger. While the FTC has appealed the decision, Microsoft and Activision may be able to close the deal as early as this weekend. Since UK regulators at the CMA identified similar anti-competitive concerns as the FTC, the CMA is now under intense pressure by opposing the case.

As it looks like Microsoft could close and integrate with Activision in the coming days, UK regulators have agreed to Microsoft's proposal to issue a stay of litigation, or a pause, for their ongoing appeals court battle. The CMA chose to block the Microsoft-Activision merger in April and the tech firms have chosen to appeal the decision in the Competition Appeals Tribunal. Now that appeal has been put on hold.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which is soon to arrive on PC, has had its hardware requirements aired, and we've also discovered that it'll support DirectStorage on PC.

DirectStorage offers speedier load times on SSDs - and better performance in-game with loading assets on-the-fly - so it's unsurprising that there's been a lot of disappointment around how game devs aren't being so quick to adopt it on the PC platform (or even announce the tech for future titles, for that matter).

So far only Forspoken sports DirectStorage, but both Diablo IV and Hunt: Showdown will get it at some point in the future. Now at least we have another game to add to that very brief list.

Microsoft's key management and leadership give official comments on the recent win in federal courts, and also remark on the FTC's recent appeal to the preliminary injunction decision.

Two days ago, Microsoft won a big victory in federal courts. A district judge denied the Federal Trade Commission's request for a specific court order that would have prohibited Microsoft and Activision from merging for many months. The decision effectively saw the FTC losing, and Microsoft winning its bid to acquire Activision for $68.7 billion. The FTC isn't ready to give up yet, though, and has filed an appeal to contest the decision in appeals courts. For the FTC, the race is on--the temporary restraining order that's currently blocking Xbox and Activision from joining together expires on Friday. If the appeals courts do not grant the FTC's emergency order request, then the two tech companies will combine over the weekend.

Over the course of the last two days, we've seen multiple high-profile Microsoft figures speak out on Judge Corley's decision.

Elden Ring just got a clever new mod on PC which forces the casting of dynamic shadows as an upgrade to the visuals.

As you can see from the two grabs above, which show the same in-game scene, but with the mod enabled (directly above) and without, the differences are pretty clear. Although if you're struggling to see them, check out the shadow cast by the player's legs - that's the most obvious change.

The mod, created by Chainfailure and uploaded by Vswarte, can be grabbed from Nexus Mods, but there are some caveats you should be aware of.

A Diablo IV Barbarian player has recorded a 35 undecillion damage Critical Hit, a number with 36 zeroes, taking the idea of insane damage to a whole new level. The exact damage recorded was 35,248,198,783,801,730,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, and overpowered doesn't even begin to cut it, as most high-end damage numbers in the game sit at around a few hundred-thousand points of damage compared to this silliness.

If you're rocking a Barbarian in Diablo IV, you're undoubtedly sitting there waiting for a full list of the gear and skills used so you can give it a shot before this specific Barbarian build gets nerfed by Blizzard. It all comes down to the interaction between key Legendary Aspects - the Aspect of Berserk Ripping, Skullbreaker's Aspect, and the Aspect of Anemia.

And it's all about Bleed damage, with Rob2628 recording the insane damage number, the first player in the world to hit Level 100. He outlines the build and what it's doing in the following video.

Valve's Team Fortress 2 is still going strong, with the free-to-play multiplayer shooter being a Steam staple since it first launched in 2007. The team-based shooter where players take on various roles is iconic and one of the main inspiration points for games like Overwatch from Blizzard.

And Team Fortress 2 just got one of its most significant updates in years, with the Summer 2023 update bringing 14 new community maps to the game, 25 new community-contributed cosmetic items, and a bunch of general fixes.

Valve noted that Team Fortress 2 was set to receive a major update in February, though a lot of the credit here definitely goes to the community that helped create all the new content. And if you're wondering just how popular a multiplayer game from 2007 can be, right now (as of writing), 192,249 people are playing Team Fortress 2 - with the all-time peak concurrent player count of 207,533 recorded in the past 24 hours, too, per SteamDB.

UPDATE: Shortly after publication, FTC lawyer James Weingarten has filed a notice to appeal Judge Corley's decision in the Microsoft-Activision merger case.

Original article below:

The race is on as the FTC weighs decision on whether or not to file an appeal that could thwart the Microsoft-Activision merger from closing, sources tell Bloomberg.

An FTC spokesperson gives a statement on a recent federal decision that effectively greenlit the Microsoft-Activision merger in the U.S.

Yesterday, a federal judge denied the FTC's preliminary injunction request on the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger. Citing anti-competitive effects in multiple markets, the FTC sought the injunction to prohibit the two gaming firms from combining until after its Phase III administrative proceedings had concluded. If the FTC got its way, both Microsoft legal counsel and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick indicated that the order would have effectively killed the merger--the FTC's administrative case could last multiple years, and it was likely that Microsoft and Activision would walk away from the deal.

Judge Corley denied the FTC's preliminary injunction request on the grounds that the Commission was unable to properly or substantially prove that the anti-competitive effects of the merger would outweigh its benefits to consumers. Absent the merger, Activision would not have immediately brought its games to Xbox Game Pass or the cloud; with the merger, games like Call of Duty will be brought to the service.

After analyzing Activision's business in the context of Xbox's post-merger growth, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and her team of financial experts found "five different mobile and PC gaming opportunities" with the proposed $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King.

The FTC v Microsoft case has revealed quite a bit about Xbox, PlayStation, and the games industry as a whole. The secretive curtain that shrouds the world's most lucrative entertainment medium has been pulled back, showing things like $200 million+ game budgets, the sheer size of mobile gaming, and how tough it is for a platform-holder to compete without a strong presence in relevant markets--console, mobile, and PC.

While Xbox is behind on many of these fronts, the buyout of Activision-Blizzard is a three-pronged approach to give the division more long-term growth potential, provide mid-term stability, and boost overall profits. The exact plans remain unclear, but we do know that Xbox leadership sees Game Pass as the core of the business, and intends to spin the subscription service upward and outward in all possible ways. Activision's 8x separate billion-dollar franchises will give Xbox a competitive edge, especially the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise.