Activision Blizzard, Inc. today announced second-quarter 2018 results.

"This was another strong quarter for Activision Blizzard. Our portfolio of global franchises enabled us to deliver record first half revenues and earnings per share," said Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard. "This past weekend we held the Overwatch League TM Grand Finals. We had a very successful first season as we enhanced our leadership position in esports. And, today we announced two additional Overwatch League franchise sales at record prices, adding Atlanta, Georgia and Guangzhou, China to our league. We plan to announce additional franchises over the next few months."

For a limited time and while supplies last, buy an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 and above from a participating authorized reseller and get Destiny 2: Base Game + Expansion Pass Bundle.

Get Game Ready with GeForce GTX 10 Series and experience Destiny 2 on PC. For a limited time, buy an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 and above from a participating authorized reseller, and get the Destiny 2: Base Game + Expansion Pass Bundle, which includes both Expansion I: Curse of Osiris & Expansion II: Warmind.

Lionel Rainaud, Executive Vice President of Creative for Ubisoft's Canadian studios, shared via a blog post an interesting, albeit not novel idea, for games. The aim is to end the disparaging of resources that is the finite game experience: as in, the game that you experience once or twice, but that once you've seen the campaign's completion and finished all the end content, goes back on the shelf never to see the light of your interest again: all the development time (measured in years) and effort (and dollars) for what amounts to an 8-hour experience (or less). The goal, then, seems to be to take online experiences to a whole new level, where a game's content can be constantly updated so as to keep the credits from rolling.

"(...) the will to not give finite experiences. The idea was that you have this conflict, and the resolution, and then it's finished - you've killed the bad guy, for instance. We build a strong nemesis, and the goal of the game is to kill him or free the country, we've done that a few times in our games. But when you succeed, you have to leave the game, because there is nothing else to do. So the goal was to break this, and say that you will be the hero of a region or population many times, not just once. And if you get rid of a dictator or an oppressor, something else is going to happen in the world, and you will have a new goal.

A lot of controversy has hit Bungies' Destiny 2. If some concerns regarding the first game have been (somewhat) answered with the new systems and story integration of the latest Bungie release, the fact is that Destiny 2 has been, time and again, in the crosshairs of gamers for some reason or other. From weapons shipping with game-breaking bugs, to controversies regarding hidden experience scaling systems, it seems Bungie is moving from one trap to another in Destiny 2. And for the second time in a month, the company has vowed to start being more transparent, and listening more to the community they serve - and need.

The controversy now stems from Bungie's decision to lock players out of the late game content following the launch of Curse of Osiris. The idea was solid - increase the level of endgame activities, such as Raids and the Trials of the Nine multiplayer, to keep them relevant in the wake of new, higher-level equipment. However, this effectively locked players with only the base game from virtually all chances of succeeding in these activities, since only Curse of Osiris equipment could give players the Light level they'd need to have a chance at completing those activities. IN a blog post, Bungie has vowed to do better for gamers next time, and is moving to reset all base game activities to their base level - keeping base-game only players in the loop, and able to experience Destiny 2's systems.

Bungie and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), announced the introduction of the Destiny 2 Ghost Skill for Alexa, giving players of one of the best-selling video games of 2017 to date the first-ever Alexa voice integration in a live game experience. Revealed on stage by Tom Taylor, senior vice president, Amazon Alexa and Byron Beede, Activision's senior vice president of Product Management for Destiny at the AWS re:Invent 2017 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Destiny 2 Ghost Skill, voiced by the in-game Ghost's voice actor Nolan North, is available now for Alexa customers to enable, free of charge, through the Alexa app.

The Destiny 2 Ghost Skill serves as a premier companion for Destiny 2 players, creating brand-new ways to interact with the game, players can say, "Alexa, ask Ghost to…" with a variety of utterances - from "…tell me which friends are online," to asking "…what should I do next?" giving recommendations for what to play next based on players' real-time current progress, to "…call for back up," which offers an easy way to interact with friends in their clan to enhance the social experience of Destiny 2, to "… equip my Raid loadout," equipping players' favorite weapons and armor for a number of different gameplay activities, to learning more about the world and characters of Destiny 2 with a request like, "…tell me who are the Red Legion?"

Bungie's Destiny 2 was one of the hottest PC releases of the year - and in most regards, it has delivered a tight, rewarding FPS experience. It has brought to the PC space the same satisfying FPS experience its developers have been honing ever since Halo. However, if there's one facet Bungie still has a lot to work on is its relationship to its player base, the way it chooses to communicate, and basically, how not to do things in order to increase attractiveness of its microtransactions, as some players have been putting it.

Case in point: the Destiny community has erupted over the past few days in regards to a (visually and mathematically proven) reduction in received XP as reward for some in-game actions (such as shooting bad moon wizards, completing public events, and so on). It was proven by users that earned XP during activities could be reduced by up to 95% (through activity repetition) over the base experience for that action. Yet nothing in the game ever pointed toward reduced experience in these scenarios. In fact, the XP numbers added to the XP bar with each action really didn't change at all - the XP scaler was working behind the scenes and oblivious to the player. Bungie confirmed the findings, saying it was "not performing the way we'd like it to" since the games' inception, and were "working on a fix".

The holiday season is almost here-get ready to spread some epic cheer! From now through November 27, 2017, we're offering some big savings around Black Friday on the following digital purchases for World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Destiny 2-plus some Blizzard Gear Store goodies. Snag a little something for yourself, or send a gift to a friend.

Overwatch
Whether you're a soldier, scientist, adventurer, or oddity, you can jump into the fight for the future with savings of 50% on the digital versions of Overwatch and Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition for Windows PC.

• Overwatch includes 26 heroes, 21 different maps, and endless fun for just $19.99 (reg. $39.99).
• Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition includes all the excitement of Overwatch along with 10 Loot Boxes, five special hero skins, plus in-game goodies for Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II for $29.99 (reg. $59.99).

Today at Paris Games Week, Bungie revealed Destiny 2 - Expansion I: Curse of Osiris. This is the first expansion to the Destiny 2 universe, which will be released on December 5, 2017 for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. Destiny 2 - Expansion I: Curse of Osiris, takes place after the conclusion of the Destiny 2 campaign where you are dispatched to Mercury on a quest to find Osiris, the most powerful Warlock to have ever lived, to discover the answers humanity needs to fight back against the Vex.

Curse of Osiris adds a new chapter to the world of Destiny 2, expanding the universe by adding an all-new cinematic story with new and returning characters, a new destination to explore, Mercury and its Infinite Forest, a new social space to visit called the Lighthouse, new missions, new strikes, new raid content, new free roam activities. a world quest to complete, and more.

AMD released the latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition drivers. Version 17.10.3. fixes two major issues that are affecting RX Vega graphics card owners in particular. The problem with The Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus game client crashing or hanging upon launch has been fixed. So does the other issue involving the Destiny 2 client's instability when the user is playing the sixth mission on the single player campaign.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.10.3

Urgent message to all would-be Destiny 2 PC players: Bungie has enabled an extremely strict, no holds-barred permanent account-banning system with Destiny 2, which activates so long as you have any kind of application with process hooks / overlay features. This is true for Twitch, Discord, MSI Afterburner, OBS, XSplit, Skype, TeamSpeak, HWMon, AIDA, as well as some hardware vendor overlays such as ASUS Tweak and Corsair Link software, GeForce Experience's FPS counter... The message screen, "Not so Fast", indicates that players have been banned, without forewarning or any further explanation.

There's a meltdown going on in Bungie's official PC Support forums, where most of the threads have been started - and then added to - by banned users. In some cases, users are banned even before entering the character creation screen; some more fortunate ones can even get to thew first three minutes of the intro video. A post from a Bungie Forum moderator didn't do much to instill confidence: "In Destiny there are account restriction and bans,", Bungie moderator "Kellogs" writes. "Restrictions are only temporary but must be waiting out while bans are permanent. Please note that Bungie will not discuss or overturn account restrictions or bans."

Today is the day, we've all been waiting for. Destiny 2 is finally available. Unfortunately, there are a few issues with the PC version. Game errors are inevitable, and they are part of every game launch. Some game developers just prefer to keep them hidden from the public. So kudos to Bungie for being honest and releasing a list of the known issues to the public.

For a start, Bungie is recommending all Destiny 2 PC players to install the latest Windows updates and display driver for their PCs before playing the game. NVIDIA users should be using the latest GeForce Game Ready 388.00 WHQL driver that was released yesterday, while AMD users can grab the Crimson ReLive Edition 17.10.2 driver. The company has also suggested restarting the Destiny 2 client and Blizzard application as a temporary workaround. If you continue to experience issues, then a deletion of the existing CVARS.xml file is required. The file is located in \Users\USER_NAME\Appdata\Roaming\Bungie\DestinyPC\prefs\.

AMD released the latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition drivers. Version 17.10.2 beta fixes a number of bugs, while building on the feature set of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update-exclusive driver update the company put out last week. To begin with, the drivers come with optimization for "Destiny 2," "Assassin's Creed: Origins," and "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus." One can expect performance improvements of a massive 43-50 percent on "Destiny 2," a significant 13-16 percent on "Assassin's Creed: Origins," and 4-8 percent on "Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus."

The drivers also introduce an interesting new feature called "GPU Workload," found in Radeon Settings, which lets you instantly switch between two GPU optimization modes: "gaming" and "compute." The drivers can now simultaneously run up to 12 AMD Radeon GPUs on a single machine, making it economical for crypto-coin miners to install more GPUs into fewer machines, saving power and platform costs. The drivers also fix display corruption bugs related to "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds," and a rare game crash with "Hearts of Iron IV." Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.10.2

The change-log follows.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 388.00 WHQL software suite. These drivers are "game-ready" for the week's hottest two game releases, "Destiny 2," and "Assassin's Creed: Origins." This includes optimization, and GeForce Experience optimal settings. The drivers also address stuttering issues with G-Sync on certain displays plugged into gaming notebooks, while running "The Witcher 3," "Doom" or "CS: GO." Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 388.00 WHQL

NVIDIA is giving away copies of "Destiny 2" with new purchases of GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards. The "New Legends will Rise" game bundle sees NVIDIA add-in card (AIC) partners give away coupons that can be redeemed on the NVIDIA website for game keys to the season's hottest online multiplayer first-person shooter. The offer covers both reference-design and custom-design GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards sold in the retail channel; and gaming notebooks and desktops based on the two graphics cards. In addition to the game itself, you get early-access to the PC betas.

Bungie's space-opera extraordinaire (well, let's hope it is so) Destiny 2 will apparently offer a great level of support for us PC enthusiasts. It has been confirmed through the hands-on portion after yesterday's live-stream that the game will offer some PC-centric features, including support for up to 4K resolutions, ultra-widescreen support, an adjustable FOV, and uncapped frame-rates for those of you who like to live on the edge. These features, however, make it likely that cross-play between PC, XBOX and PlayStation versions of the game won't be possible, if the added speed and precision of the mice and keyboard options over their gamepad counterparts wasn't enough already. Additionally, it has been confirmed that the game will be distributed through Blizzard (formerly Battle.net), which makes a resounding business sense. Why would Activision distribute its game through Steam, having its profits capped by 30%, when they already have the infrastructure to support a game of this magnitude? Sadly, it has been confirmed that the PC version will be delayed, not being launched on September 8th like the console versions.

There was already some hands-on time with Destiny 2's PC version yesterday. While the PC requirements for the game have not yet been released, I think we can interpret the systems on offer at the stage as an overkill approach to it: the systems featured an Intel Core i7-7700K, 16 GB of Ram, an NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, a 500 GB SSD, and Windows 10, which powered an Acer Predator XB271HK monitor (4K, IPS, G-Sync screen.) Though the fact the game was running at over 60 FPS on 4K with the above configuration does speak to relatively mild performance requirements.

Mass Effect: Andromeda was met with a lukewarm reception from reviewers and users alike (even if there was just a smidge of overblown issues,) and it would seem this has made EA cautious regarding this IP. Make no mistake: Mass Effect still lines up alongside EA's biggest franchises, and it's almost guaranteed the publisher will want to return to it at some point in time. It just so happens that its less than stellar reception has seemingly put further plans on the IP on hold. Bioware Montreal, the studio behind Andromeda's push, as apparently been relegated to a "support studio" role, with staff being channeled towards the new Star Wars Battlefront 2 game and other projects. Part of the staff will still be working on Mass Effect: Andromeda, looking to work through patches and multiplayer support, though it would seem that there are now no plans for eventual Andromeda DLC. This is a sad development, all in all, as Mass Effect counts one of the most interesting settings - and the most potential - among game franchises

On to Bioware's new original intellectual property, codenamed "Dylan", Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson revealed during a recent call with investors that its launch has been postponed. Originally scheduled to launch by the end of March 2018, the not-yet-named title has been pushed back to EA's 2019 fiscal year (April 2018 through March 2019.) This game looks to be EA's take on the kind of "live" game that is Bungie's Destiny and upcoming Destiny 2 (under Activision's supervision), and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's The Division, being built around a live service and a "disruptive" new social design which was, according to Andrew Wilson, the reason for the delay.

Destiny. The game where you play as an intergalactic zombie animated by a pulsing light. The game where you listen to Nolan North's voice over the remains of Peter Dinklage's forays into such powerful wording as "That wizard came from the moon!" and "We've woken the Hive!". A universe worth at least a promise of $500 million dollars in investment. A Universe that has constantly evolved through updates to loot and some drastic gameplay alters throughout its overly long lifetime, married with carefully crafted gameplay and gunplay, satisfying powers, and the promise of an epic tale which ultimately falls flat (though your mileage may vary.) Difficulties with the game engine - probably holdouts from it Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 support - made the workflow for creating new content a reported nightmare for the developers, which impeded their ability to deliver their vision of content for a game that looked much more ambitious than it actually turned out to be.