Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) ("Microsoft") and Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) ("Activision Blizzard") today announced that, in connection with the previously announced merger of Activision Blizzard with and into a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft (the "Merger"), with Activision Blizzard surviving the Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, Microsoft has commenced offers to Eligible Holders (as defined herein) to exchange (each an "Exchange Offer" and collectively, the "Exchange Offers") any and all outstanding notes issued by Activision Blizzard as set forth in the table below (the "Existing Activision Blizzard Notes") for up to $3,650,000,000 aggregate principal amount of new notes issued by Microsoft (the "New Microsoft Notes") and cash.

Concurrently with the Exchange Offers being made by Microsoft, Activision Blizzard is, upon Microsoft's request, soliciting consents from Eligible Holders (each, a "Consent Solicitation" and, collectively, the "Consent Solicitations") to adopt certain proposed amendments to each of the corresponding indentures governing the Existing Activision Blizzard Notes to eliminate certain of the covenants, restrictive provisions and events of default from such indentures (with respect to the corresponding indenture for such Existing Activision Blizzard Notes, the "Proposed Amendments"). Eligible Holders may deliver their consent to the Proposed Amendments only by tendering Existing Activision Blizzard Notes of the applicable series in the Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations. Eligible Holders may not deliver a consent in a Consent Solicitation without tendering Existing Activision Blizzard Notes in the applicable Exchange Offer and Eligible Holders may not tender Existing Activision Blizzard Notes without also having been deemed to deliver a consent.

Blizzard has released the release notes for Diablo IV 1.2 Patch that will be launching on October 17th, alongside Season of Blood. According to Blizzard, some updates come as a result of the community feedback, and include fixes for specific platforms and some that are general updates for all platforms.

The biggest update is that new Unique Items, that can only be acquired by playing on World Tier IV in either the Eternal or Seasonal Realms, are now much more powerful, something that has been requested by community. Blizzard has also updated Elemental Resistances, that will now be much more important, and includes extensive class overhauls, updating pretty much all classes and their abilities. The new Diablo IV 1.2 Patch also includes a bunch of gameplay, experience, balance, and Battle Pass updates, as well as comes with an extensive list of bug fixes.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected a previous draft of Microsoft's proposed deal to merge with Activision Blizzard (to the tune of $69 billion). The expected summer completion date was missed due to this sole case of opposition—all of the other international regulatory bodies had approved a conglomeration of Xbox and Activision portfolios. Ubisoft later emerged as an unlikely knight in shining armor, since the UK CMA has provisionally approved freshly revamped conditions—it turns out that Microsoft had agreed to sell its cloud streaming rights to the French video game publisher. The Financial Times sat down with one of the company's co-founders—CEO Yves Guillemot—and discussed how cloud gaming will revolutionize the industry.

Guillemot was not asked to comment on how much his firm has agreed to spend—allegedly a one-off fee—on purchasing Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming rights (from Microsoft). He did discuss the inherent risk of embracing a relatively immature market technology: "When Netflix first said it was going to go into streaming, their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticized. Today, we see what they have become. It's going to be the same with video games, but it will take time. But when it takes off, it will happen very quickly...We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud. That's what pushed us to go forward with the Microsoft deal." This looks to be an unusual move for Ubisoft, considering the rumors of a recent strategy shift in reaction to downturns in sales.

Rod Fergusson, general franchise manager of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo IP, has confirmed that IV's post-release content release model is set for some adjustments—in an interview, conducted by Dextero, he said: "When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future. So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we're really focused on for our live service." Several media outlets have jumped on Fergusson's statement—comparisons have been made to Bungie's approach to keeping online multiplayer franchises alive for a long time. Paul Tassi (via Forbes) pointed out that Diablo IV's leadership is pushing for the: "exact same model as Destiny 2."

Sections of the fan base have not yet warmed to this more live service-heavy content model, when compared to previous entries in the long-running ARPG series. Past reports have cited Blizzard's continued recruitment drive to bolster these efforts, albeit only for seasonal DLC. The annual release model is very much a fresh announcement, and Fergusson stopped short of revealing pricing and exact launch windows: "We've got plans, we have storylines that go well into the future. When you look back and realize that there were 11 years between Diablo III and Diablo IV, that feels like we didn't live up to our players, our community, and what they deserve. That's something we are rectifying in D4 with our seasons and our expansions."

During last week's Gamescom presentation of Diablo IV's upcoming Season of Blood (due October 17), Rod Fergusson—general manager of the franchise—announced that the game's user base had surpassed 12 million. He also proudly declared that the active population has spent around 1.3 billion hours playing the extremely popular, and evidently highly addictive, action RPG. Number crunchers estimate that this works out as 100+ hours (on average) per player. Blizzard Entertainment and Activision have chosen to not release official sales figures for Diablo IV, but Fergusson's disclosure provides us with a rough picture of how well the game has sold since launching on June 5 across multiple platforms. It should be noted that the fourth entry in the long-running series has not been released via game subscription platforms.

Blizzard Entertainment has started teasing the second season of new content: "At the behest of their dark master, a newly turned army of ravenous vampires has set their sights on Sanctuary. The master's sinister plot remains a shrouded mystery but their pursuit for the blood of innocents has caused an uproar. You must learn to hunt the hunter—your fate depends on it. Season of Blood will introduce a new Questline for you to uncover, Vampiric Powers to wield against their originators, 5 additional endgame bosses with the ability to target specific Unique and Uber Unique items as a drop, and more."

Blizzard has officially announced the second season for Diablo IV, called Season of Blood. The Season of Blood will launch on October 17 and bring several updates, including a new questline, five additional endgame bosses, as well as some comunity-requested quality-of-life updates.

The announcement came at the Gamescom Opening Night Live, together with the new announce trailer, showing some of the updates. The trailer also introduces Erys, a vampire hunter that will be voiced by Gemma Chan.

Overwatch 2 is Blizzard's always-on and ever-evolving free-to-play, team-based action game that's set in an optimistic future, where every match is the ultimate 5v5 battlefield brawl. To unlock the ultimate graphics experience in each battle, upgrade to a GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics card, desktop PC, or laptop for class-leading performance, and unbeatable responsiveness courtesy of NVIDIA Reflex.

The invasion has begun in Overwatch 2's biggest season to date! Fight back in three co-op Player vs. Enemy Story Missions, play PvP as a new Support hero, and tier up the new Invasion Battle Pass to unlock new skins and cosmetics. And you can get the GeForce Overwatch 2 Invasion Ultimate Bundle with the purchase of select GeForce RTX 40 Series products at participating stores, starting today.

Overwatch 2: Invasion is here, and packed with a new hero, a new seasonal Battle Pass, and a new core PvP game mode. We're also bringing new Invasion Story Missions, a limited-time Co-op Event, and new ways to practice and celebrate your achievements with your favorite heroes. Let's check out everything that you can expect in the new update!

Illari is the newest Support Hero to join the ranks in Overwatch 2. What sets Illari apart from other Support heroes is that she has a very damage-focused kit, so that you can heal your team while dominating the opposition. Her Solar Rifle fires a beam of sunlight that can do powerful burst damage at long-range, or use it to heal allies around you. She also can support her team with a deployable Healing Pylon granting bursts of health to allies around it. Her Outburst ability will knock enemies back and propel herself out of danger. When you need to turn up the heat, use Captive Sun and fire a massive ball of solar energy. Opponents hit by this ultimate ability will be Sun Struck, making them vulnerable to lethal explosions if they take too much damage. Unlock Illari immediately when you get the Premium Battle Pass, or wait to unlock her on tier 45 for free. You can also unlock Illari—and all the heroes in Overwatch—with the new Overwatch 2 Complete Hero Collection, now available in the In-Game Shop.

Blizzard has revealed full Diablo VI Patch 1.1.1 details although it won't be available until August 8th. The new patch mostly focuses on class balance changes and other various gameplay updates, but it does also bring some bug fixes as well.

The biggest improvements come to Sorcerers and Barbarians classes, with improved survivability for Sorcerers class and increased Fury generation on Basic Skills and increased power of Unique items for Barbarians. The patch also diversify the use cases for Legendary items and strengthen builds that aren't reaching a high power level. The full patch notes also include detailed adjustments for Rogue, Druid, and Necromancer classes as well. There is also an extensive list of gameplay updates which brings better rewards, but also higher health levels of bosses. There are plenty of other bug fixes and this patch comes to all platforms.

As Blizzard evolves as a studio, inside and out, one of the ideas pushing us forward is meeting players around the world where they are and making our games as easy as possible to access and play. We want to give everyone a chance to experience our universes with old friends while making new ones, no matter how they choose to play.

Battle.net is the home of all our PC players, and over the years, we've evolved our platform to support updated technologies, capabilities, and our communities' expectations. But as we've evolved, the industry has evolved too-gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago, gaming is for everyone-and though we remain committed to continually investing in and supporting Battle.net, we want to break down the barriers to make it easier for players everywhere to find and enjoy our games. Which is why we're trying something new...

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have announced the postponement of their agreed merger deadline—from July 18 (yesterday) to mid-October. This will grant them more time to deal with a sticky issue presented by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocking of the proposed $75 billion acquisition—on the grounds of potential deleterious effects within the cloud gaming market. Xbox boss, Phil Spencer made a short statement on the matter earlier today: "Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended the merger agreement deadline to 10/18. We're optimistic about getting this done, and excited about bringing more games to more players everywhere."

Lulu Cheng Meservey, CCO and EVP Corporate Affairs at Activision Blizzard, stated: "The recent decision in the U.S. and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming. Given global regulatory approvals and the companies' confidence that CMA now recognizes there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorized the companies not to terminate the deal until after October 18. We're confident in our next steps and that our deal will quickly close."

Season of the Malignant is upon us, wanderer! The first Season of Diablo IV begins on July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT. Keep Sanctuary safe from a growing infestation by harnessing the potency of Malignant Hearts and unleashing the power within. To prepare you for the noxious threats that await, we've dredged up more details on Season of the Malignant below.

INVESTIGATE THE MALIGNANCE WITH CORMOND IN A NEW QUEST
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range. Distraught and in panic without the Church of Light's guidance, the denizens of Sanctuary have turned to new sources for hope. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes subject to its corruption. To embark on the new Burning from Within questline, you'll need to have already completed the campaign on the Eternal Realm, or do so during the Season on the Seasonal Realm with at least one character. Once you're ready to take on Sanctuary's newest threat, head over to Kyovashad to begin your journey with Cormond.

Nasdaq, the American stock exchange, has revealed that an unnamed company will be replacing Activision Blizzard within its top 100 index. The timing of this development is raising some eyebrows—it is set to occur mere days after the announcement of Microsoft's victory over the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The giant American technology corporation is closing in on its proposed acquisition of a games publishing group comprised of Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King Digital Entertainment.

Prior to the market opening next week (Monday 17th July) Activision Blizzard will be removed from the Nasdaq-100 ESG Index, although the company will remain tradable. An upcoming exit from the US stock exchange could signal that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have become increasingly confident about the finalization of their merger before a July 18 deadline. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reported to be engaging in discussions with involved parties, and has paused its legal proceedings. The FTC yesterday filed for an appeal against the California court's verdict, thus immediately annoying the top brass at Microsoft/Xbox—president Brad Smith commented on the situation: "The District Court's ruling makes crystal clear that this acquisition is good for both competition and consumers...We're disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case, and we will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward."

Well met, wanderer...corruption has befallen Sanctuary in Season of the Malignant, the first Season of Diablo IV. On July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT, a new Season Journey, Questline, Boss, Dungeons, Battle Pass, and more will go live—we'll give you a preview below. On July 18, we'll release another article shedding even more light on what's coming with the new Season, including 6 new Unique Items and 7 Legendary Aspects.

SEASON OF THE MALIGNANT THEME
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range without hesitation. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who also trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold of the Burning Hells' armies cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes its thrall.

Every week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. This week, Jagged Alliance 3 and Testament: The Order of High Human launch with support for DLSS 2; SlavicPunk: Oldtimer and DESORDRE: A Puzzle Game Adventure are available now with DLSS 2, and Dying Light 2 Stay Human's Good Night, Good Luck update is available with DLSS 3. To cap it all off, Blizzard has announced the details of Diablo IV's Season of the Malignant! Read on to learn more.

Diablo IV: Season of the Malignant Starts July 20th
Get ready to continue your journey through Sanctuary in Diablo IV with Season of the Malignant on July 20th. A new form of Lilith's corruption has spread throughout Sanctuary, creating Malignant Monsters and opportunities for players to create powerful new builds. Partner with Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, in a new questline to stop the spread of these Malignant Monsters, collect new items and earn rewards.

Microsoft is closing in on its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard—the company is celebrating another victory, following the conclusion of a crucial court case against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Both parties were recently engaged in five days of arguments and deliberation—yesterday Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley's final ruling stated: Microsoft's acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision's content to several cloud gaming services."

The lady justice continued: "This Court's responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED."

Blizzard Entertainment has once again refuted claims that their blockbuster (online only) action role-playing game, Diablo IV, is coming to Xbox Game Pass at some point in the future. PicPay, a Brazilian payment app, has been displaying adverts presenting Blizzard's latest ARPG as a current prospect on the Microsoft game subscription service. Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra was quick to shoot down this rumor as it hit news site—in a reply to Game Pass Tracker (on Twitter) he succinctly stated: "This is not happening." A couple of media outlets are now reporting that the Diablo IV advertising banners have been removed from the PicPay app.

Ybarra's career includes a twenty year stint at Microsoft—he was Corporate Vice President of Gaming prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment back in 2021. His former colleague—Xbox boss Phil Spencer—made clear (last September) his company's ambitions for several Acti-Blizz franchises, under conditions of a successful acquisition of the publishing group: "We intend to make Activision Blizzard's much-loved library of games - including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty - available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities." Microsoft is inching closer to finalizing the proposed merger, so it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard will break with tradition when the new management steps in.

After four years away, BlizzCon is returning to Anaheim, California on November 3-4! We're so excited to get everyone together again, celebrate our communities, and share what we've been working on. This year, the goal is to make BlizzCon feel more experiential than ever before. It will be a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, bringing attendees into the universes of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch with massive installations, art, and thematic spaces where friends can connect.

Whether you're kicking back in Azeroth, exploring the mysteries of a dark cathedral of Sanctuary, playing alongside the heroes of Overwatch, or tuning in from home, we want you to feel you are entering universes alongside your friends as you celebrate and experience what we're building next, and hear from developers all across Blizzard about their vision for our games, their craft, and more. This is the first time we are building BlizzCon this way, and our vision is that building a giant playground for our communities will allow everyone to create memories, share stories, and celebrate what unites us. Here's what you need to know!

Blizzard has released the Patch 1.0.3 for Diablo IV fixing various bugs and issues as well as brings balance tweaks for all classes and other game improvements. As expected, Battlenet will automatically download the 200 MB update next time you launch the client.

According to the rather extensive changelog, the Patch 1.0.3 fixes various dungeons, events, activities, gameplay, local co-op, quests, UI, and other miscellaneous issues. When it comes to specific and important fixes, Blizzard has boosted XP award after completing Nightmare Dungeons, as well as Helltide events. Bosses in Helltide also drop higher quality loot, and The Tree of Whispers also gives higher XP rewards. Blizzard has also increased skill boosts for each of classes, and some balance tweaks.

Diablo IV had the best-selling opening in Blizzard's history, crossing an auspicious $666 million in global sell-through in the first five days following its June 6 launch. The latest installment for the Diablo series, and Blizzard's fastest-selling game ever, is the box-office equivalent of the biggest opening week of the year. The heroes of Sanctuary, the world in which Diablo is set, have already played more than 276 million hours, or more than 30,000 years.

"On behalf of Blizzard, we want to thank the millions of players around the world who are immersing themselves in Diablo IV," said Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment. "Diablo IV is a result of our incredible teams working together to craft and support genre-defining games, build legendary worlds, and inspire memories that will last a lifetime. We're humbled by the response, proud of the team, and remain committed to listening to our players and ensuring Diablo continues to exceed expectations for years to come."

MSI, a leading gaming hardware brand, and Blizzard Entertainment, a renowned game developer and publisher, are thrilled to announce a partnership for the highly anticipated game, Diablo 4. This collaboration aims to bring an unparalleled gaming experience to passionate players worldwide.

The partnership between MSI and Blizzard, combining the expertise of two industry giants to enhance the Diablo 4 gaming ecosystem. This joint venture is driven by a shared commitment to pushing boundaries, delivering cutting-edge technology, and immersing players in a world of unparalleled adventure.

Diablo IV, the highly anticipated new installment of the iconic Diablo series, is now live. Already, it is Blizzard Entertainment's fastest-selling game of all time, with Blizzard's highest pre-launch unit sales ever on both console and PC. In the four days since early access started on June 1, Diablo IV has been played for 93 million hours, or over 10,000 years - the equivalent playing 24 hours a day since the beginning of human civilization. Diablo IV features cross-platform play and cross-progression on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, plus up to four player co-op, including two player couch co-op on consoles.

"This is a moment years in the making for the Diablo IV team," said Rod Fergusson, general manager of Diablo. "We're extremely proud to offer players the richest story ever told in a Diablo game. Players have a range of choices, including personal character customization, equipping personalized skills for battling horrific demons, or collecting Legendary loot to support your playstyle while discovering new ones. Since the game was first announced in 2019, the support from millions of players around the world drove us toward this release of our dark vision of Sanctuary. Hail Lilith, Blessed Mother."

The Diablo franchise's general manager Rod Fergusson appeared on the Kinda Funny Xcast last week, only a few days before the fourth game's full launch - episode 140's interview segment focused on Blizzard's final preparations and post-game content (seasonal and possible DLC) calendar. Fergusson indicated that his team was very busy and will have more work to do: "As I sit here we're about to launch the main game, we're finishing up season one, we're working on season two, we're working on expansion one, we're kicking off expansion two…we're working on that now and we haven't even launched the game."

Blizzard Entertainment received much criticism for its slow and sparse trickle out of seasonal material for Diablo III, and Fergusson is keen to not repeat similar post-launch patterns with the latest entry in a very long running series (the first game debuted back in January 1997!). Diablo IV has been built with a live-service format in mind - thus allowing for greater and more substantial content to be delivered over seasonal time periods. Blizzard is likely aiming to compete with the likes of Bungie (Destiny 2) in terms of keeping an online game alive for a while - Fergusson outlines a key goal for his team: "We're going to be supporting Diablo 4 for years to come - (with) very rich seasons, much richer than we had in Diablo 3."

Each week, we're bringing you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launched with DLSS 3 and ray tracing, and more DLSS 2 games were released. This week, at COMPUTEX 2023, we've announced that Ash Echoes, Honor of Kings: World, and Legend of Ymir will all launch with DLSS 3, and Party Animals with DLSS 2. And we're celebrating the release of Diablo IV with DLSS 3, and System Shock with DLSS 2.

NVIDIA DLSS Now Available In Over 300 Released Games and Apps
NVIDIA DLSS uses AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores to boost frame rates while maintaining great image quality. With DLSS 3, AI-powered frame generation creates new, high-quality frames for smoother gameplay. Combined with our Super Resolution technology, DLSS 3 can render seven out of every eight pixels in a scene with AI. Adoption continues to accelerate and NVIDIA DLSS is now delivering AI-accelerated performance in over 300 games and applications.

Our newest driver is Game Ready for the long awaited, much anticipated Diablo IV, which launches June 6th with day-1 support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and NVIDIA Reflex. And we're also Game Ready for the DLSS 2-enhanced remake of System Shock. To download and install, head to the Drivers tab of GeForce Experience or GeForce.com, and read on for further details.

Game Ready For Diablo IV
The demon Lilith and the angel Inarius united to create the world of Sanctuary in their desire to escape the Eternal Conflict between the High Heavens and Burning Hells. But now, decades after the events of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, they are bitter enemies who have resorted to war against each other with their respective followers. The lands of Sanctuary have become plagued with ceaseless demons, and only the most steadfast of heroes will be able to hold strong in the face of darkness in Diablo IV.