A flurry of DMCA take down notices, on Activision's part, have brought even more attention to an alleged Call of Duty internal alpha test. Leakers have been talking about Modern Warfare III being the likely candidate for a new CoD release this year, following a planned premium expansion for MW II morphing into a full-fledged sequel. Activision has been busy scrubbing the internet clean of screenshots sourced from the alleged "Hailström" test build, but issued copyright strike messages contain references to the next entry in the series. Targeted tipsters have been warned about activity that has resulted in: "leaked content from unreleased video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" appearing on social media and other gaming community hubs.

The publisher has semi-acknowledged that the cat is out of the bag, and yesterday addressed the fan base with a simple query: "Let's get this out of the way...Should MW II Operators, Weapons and Bundles carry forward into Call of Duty 2023?" This official tweet was shared by the Sledgehammer Games account—this Activision-owned studio is rumored to be the primary development house working on Modern Warfare III, with other Call of Duty-oriented outfits providing additional support. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) was Sledgehammer's third fully developed entry in the blockbuster (and highly contested) series.

The Sky UK news network has gathered intel from industry and government sources about an industry event that is due to take place next week at a very famous location - 10 Downing Street - the residence of the UK's Prime Minister. Sky News has been informed that Microsoft has been invited to attend the showcase by the UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) industry organization - best described as the main trade body for the nation's games and interactive entertainment sector. The American technology behemoth is expected to display and demonstrate their Xbox gaming product range in front of top politicians and key entertainment industry figures. There is no mention of representatives from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) being invited to attend in a similar capacity. The timing of this UKIE organized event (to take place on April 26) is highly controversial as it will coincide with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority's statutory deadline to deliver a Phase-2 verdict on Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulatory body has already delivered a provisional approval of the aforementioned deal, but stated that it required more time to investigate the potential for irregularities in competition within the cloud gaming sector. The Phase-2 verdict, due to be delivered next week, is anticipated to include the antitrust watchdog's finalized judgement on cloud gaming market affairs. Sky's insider sources in the city of London have speculated that Microsoft could face a humiliating situation at the 10 Downing-hosted party, if by coincidence the CMA changes its opinion on the Activision Blizzard takeover bid. If the competition regulator stays consistent with its (earlier) provisional decision, Microsoft could be criticized for its extensive courting of government organizations - not only in the UK, but around the world.

The Call of Duty RICOCHET Anti-Cheat team announced earlier this month that their newly updated system was capable of detecting "third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience" - this makes reference to a plethora of gaming input modification devices including the Cronus Zen/Max, XIM Apex and FPS Boost Strike Pack. All readily available from direct stores, Amazon and various e-tailers. These hardware modules are hooked up to a gamepad or mouse plus keyboard combination, and allow the user to bypass the legitimate control input detection on the host hardware, be it a games console or PC. Stock scripts and macros can be utilized - for example - to boost in-game aim assist to unprecedented levels, mitigate weapon recoil, and add support for mouse and keyboard in otherwise non-compatible games. Anti-cheat software suites have been unable to detect the extra layer of code, since it runs on an external device - until now.

CoD's security team elaborates on their cheat spotter: "Since our previous progress report, TeamRICOCHET has developed and tested a detection for third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience. These devices act as a passthrough for controllers on PC and console and, when used improperly or maliciously, can provide a player with the ability to gain an unfair gameplay advantage, such as reducing or eliminating recoil. Testing is complete: This detection is deployed globally on all platforms. Users across PC or console who are detected to be using third-party hardware devices to impact the Modern Warfare II or Warzone 2.0 gameplay experience will first see a warning about the improper use of these devices..."

Summon your power, stop the Everwar, save the realms. Immortals of Aveum is a groundbreaking new single-player, first-person magic shooter, created by Ascendant Studios and released by EA Originals. Experience the story of Jak as he joins an elite order of battlemages to save a world on the edge of abyss. Made by the creators of Call of Duty and Dead Space, Immortals of Aveum is set in an original fantasy universe engulfed in magic, rife with conflict, and on the verge of oblivion. Ascendant Studios is an independent team of veteran developers with BAFTA and Game of the Year award-winning experience, and EA Originals will release the studio's debut title.

Immortals of Aveum is a new single-player shooter with magic-based combat, set in a world ravaged by war. Rich lore meets intense combat in this narrative-driven FPS game, crafted for players who wish to immerse themselves in a daring adventure. Players will take control of the protagonist, Jak (played by Darren Barnett), who unexpectedly manifests magical abilities and is reluctantly thrust into mankind's endless war for the control of magic. Under the tutelage of Grand Magnus Kirkan (Gina Torres), Jak joins the elite battlemages of the Order of the Immortals, and fights to end the Everwar—a world-spanning conflict between the nations of Lucium and Rasharn, each seeking to control access to the magic flowing across the land.

Grab a friend and prepare to battle against another Duo when Gunfight returns in Season 03 of Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II, launching on April 12. In this round-based match, players must use randomly assigned Loadouts to overcome the opposition and secure the round win. And with just one life per round, every move counts. Whether you need to brush up on the returning mode or this is your first 2v2 duel, read on for the rules of engagement and tips for achieving victory. The world of Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II is in chaos with a global power struggle playing out in plain sight.

Gunfight 101
In Gunfight, two teams of two compete in a round-based match. There are no respawns and no health regeneration, and all players are assigned the same randomized Loadout at the start of each round. The assigned Loadout changes every two rounds, and you never know what you're going to get; you may be trading shots from afar with Sniper Rifles one round, then rushing in with Shotguns the next. Each Loadout includes a lethal and tactical equipment.

Sony is not happy about the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recent provisional approval of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and has highlighted the apparent removal of a Microsoft-owned game from being developed on the PlayStation 5. According to legal documents submitted to the UK government, Sony has taken issue with the watchdog's sudden change in opinion - the CMA's position was highly critical at the start of the year - and suspects that Microsoft's expensive PR campaign and submitting of "new evidence" to international competition regulators have influenced a change in direction of rulings. Sony's statement bears down on the unfair nature of the bid's approval: "The CMA's reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational."

Japan's Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) was the latest anti-trust governing body to give the takeover a thumbs-up, almost two weeks ago - a dramatic turn of events given that it happened on Sony's home turf. The embattled electronics corporation has taken notice of fresh developments in the press, and proceeded to mention controversy surrounding the Redfall platform war. Harvey Smith, the game's creative director, let slip too many details during a promotion tour and seemingly admitted that the higher-ups at Microsoft's Xbox division had decided to can the PlayStation 5 version of Redfall in favor of keeping it exclusive to Xbox, Game Pass and PC. Arkane Studios, as part of the ZeniMax Media Group, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021 - and certain games, already in development, were later released on the PlayStation 5 as timed exclusives, Deathloop being a prime example of this.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulatory body has today delivered its provisional approval of Microsoft's proposed purchase of the Activision Blizzard group, but has added that it will conduct further reviews into the topic of whether the buyout will have any detrimental effect on competition in the area of cloud gaming services: "where the CMA is continuing to carefully consider the responses provided in relation to the original provisional findings. The CMA's merger investigation continues, and it remains due to issue its final report by 26 April 2023."

The antitrust watchdog's stance looks to have changed in a significant way since February, when it declared that Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard had the potential to "harm U.K. gamers". New evidence has been presented to the CMA in recent weeks, and its members have moved to provisionally conclude that: "overall, the transaction will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK."

Microsoft is still deep into its negotiations with several international regulatory bodies regarding the buyout of Activision Blizzard, with a deadline looming it seems that tensions are rising. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) needs a lot of convincing since it regards the proposed takeover as a serious threat to Sony's ability to compete with Microsoft, with the ownership of the Call of Duty series being a main focus. Sony has expressed concern about the blockbuster franchise becoming a potential Xbox console exclusive in the future - Microsoft has pledged to continue development on PlayStation platforms for a proposed 10-year period, with no technological compromises and a promise to release all versions simultaneously on launch days.

In its latest testimony given to the UK's CMA, Microsoft has made a (slightly odd) suggestion that Sony should figure out a way to make its own answer to the Call of Duty series: "Microsoft considers that a period of 10 years is sufficient for Sony, as a leading publisher and console platform, to develop alternatives to Call of Duty.…The 10-year term will extend into the next console generation.… Moreover, the practical effect of the remedy will go beyond the 10-year period, since games downloaded in the final year of the remedy can continue to be played for the lifetime of that console (and beyond, with backwards compatibility)."

On Tuesday, Microsoft and NVIDIA announced the companies have agreed to a 10-year partnership to bring Xbox PC games to the NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud gaming service, which has more than 25 million members in over 100 countries. The agreement will enable gamers to stream Xbox PC titles from GeForce NOW to PCs, macOS, Chromebooks, smartphones and other devices. It will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles, such as Call of Duty, to be streamed on GeForce NOW after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision closes.

"Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand how people play," said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. "This partnership will help grow NVIDIA's catalog of titles to include games like Call of Duty, while giving developers more ways to offer streaming games. We are excited to offer gamers more ways to play the games they love."

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block technology giant Microsoft Corp. from acquiring leading video game developer Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its blockbuster gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, alleging that the $69 billion deal, Microsoft's largest ever and the largest ever in the video gaming industry, would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.

In a complaint issued today, the FTC pointed to Microsoft's record of acquiring and using valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles, including its acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (a well-known game developer). Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda's titles including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.

So you live in Randomville in the middle of nowhere, with a slow ADSL that's barely a few Mbps fast, and thought you could enjoy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on PlayStation 5 with its disc version? Think again. It turns out that the disc version of this game doesn't actually have the game on the disc. That's right, those unlucky enough to buy the disc version found that it only contained 72 MB of data, which when autorun, gets the console to fetch the up to 151 GB of the game's payload over the Internet. The disc only acts like a hardware DRM, in the same way as certain expensive software ship with USB flash drives that need to be plugged in for you to use the software.

After enduring the massive download, you're required to keep the disc inserted to play the game. It is possible to ship the entire game in two 50 GB Blu-ray discs with the best available compression tech. The problem with CoD off-late has been that the developers either forgot how to distribute game patches, or are using the sheer file-size of patches as an anti-piracy measure; with most of them spanning several dozen gigabytes, and major updates even fetching the entire game's triple-figure GB payload all over again. This 72 MB disc-based distribution is below the belt.

The sequel to the record-setting Call of Duty : Modern Warfare is almost here. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II will kick off a new era for the franchise when it releases worldwide on Friday, October 28. Witness and experience what made Task Force 141 become the iconic and legendary squad that it is as the action picks up following the harrowing and breathtaking action from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). Developer Infinity Ward has left no stone unturned to create a new heart-pounding experience for players.

Task Force 141's next global Campaign. Immersive, world-class Multiplayer. An evolved Special Ops experience. All carefully crafted with gameplay and technical innovations that will introduce fans to the new era of Call of Duty. Call of Duty is taking a generational leap forward, ushering in a new era — and it all begins with Modern Warfare II, which leads the most ambitious rollout ever across the franchise. This state-of-the-art experience is set to reshape the famed series and appeal to Call of Duty players everywhere.

The upcoming "Battlefield 6" would mark a "soft-reboot" of the franchise in a modern-era setting; much like "Battlefield 3" was, according to Tom Henderson, a reliable source with leaks related to the franchise. He predicts that the game could even be titled simply "Battlefield" (not to be confused with "Battlefield 1"). The game (if it includes a campaign), could have a modern mechanized warfare setting, and be a marked departure from the historic (or pseudo-historic) plots of "Battlefield 1" and "Battlefield V."

Much like how Activision is handling various game modes with its latest releases of "Call of Duty," the next Battlefield could include a dedicated Battle Royale mode that's more evolved than simply being a gameplay mode within its Multiplayer. The main Multiplayer could build on the modes Battlefield perfected, including large PvP conquests with up to 128 players on the PC platform (fewer players on consoles).

NVIDIA has decided to extend the availability of their bundle offer for the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 graphics cards. The company announced last October that gamers who purchase those particular graphics cards would receive a code for the latest entry in the blockbuster Call of Duty franchise. In hindsight, this wasn't much of a big deal for the company; considering general availability for the RTX 30-series, it stands to reason that not many codes were activated, anyway. However, and probably in relation to the continuing shortages on NVIDIA's latest GPUs, the company has extended the bundle's offer through January 11th 2021 - the same day CES is happening. Codes must be redeemed via the GeForce Experience application on a system with a qualifying graphics card installed.

It's only tomorrow that reviewers will take the lids off AMD's latest and greatest Navi-powered graphics cards, but it's hard to keep a secret such as this... well... secret. Case in point: Videocardz has accessed some leaked slides from the presentation AMD has given to its partners, and these shed some light on what raytracing performance users can expect from AMD's RX 6800 XT, the card that's meant to bring the fight to NVIDIA's RTX 3080 graphics card. AMD's RDNA2 features support for hardware-accelerated raytracing from the get go, with every CU receiving on additional hardware piece: a Ray Accelerator. As such, the RX 6800 XT, with its 72 enabled CUs, features 72 Ray Accelerators; the RX 6800, with its 60 CUs, features 60 of these Ray Accelerators.

The RX 6800 XT was tested in five titles: Battlefield V, Call of Duty MW, Crysis Remastered, Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At 1440p resolution with Ultra Settings and DXR options enabled according to the game, AMD claims an RX 6800 XT paired with their Ryzen 9 5900X can deliver an average of 70 FPS on Battlefield V; 95 FPS on Call of Duty MW; 90 FPS in Crysis Remastered; 67 FPS in Metro Exodus; and 82 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. These results are, obviously, not comparable to our own results in previous NVIDIA RTX reviews; there's just too many variables in the system to make that a worthwhile comparison. You'll just have to wait for our own review in our normalized test bench so you can see where exactly does AMD's latest stand against NVIDIA.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, is pleased to announce it has acquired Gamer Sensei, the world's biggest esports coaching platform. Founded in 2016, Gamer Sensei connects gamers of all skill levels, from rookies to aspiring professionals, with experienced coaches who are more than just top gamers - they're great teachers.

Ranging from professional gamers, both past, and present, to gamers who have climbed the ranks to the very top of their games, Gamer Sensei coaches combine the skills to succeed at the highest level of games, with a patient, tailored and flexible approach to help you improve your in-game performance. Whether you're learning the ropes, climbing the ranks, or polishing your skills to the highest level, Gamer Sensei coaches provide personalized assessments and 1-on-1 coaching for more than 20 of today's most popular games, from League of Legends and DOTA 2 to Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone.

NVIDIA's add-in-board partners announced bundling Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War with the latest inventories of their GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 graphics cards. The bundle includes not just the Standard Edition of the game, but also the Woods Operator Pack (a jungle operator pack), and the Confrontation Weapons Pack.

NVIDIA also revealed that in addition to its RTX real-time raytracing technology, Black Ops: Cold War will support the DLSS performance enhancement feature; and NVIDIA Reflex, a whole-system latency reduction feature that should help with the game's competitive online multiplayer. The bundle will be limited to select markets, and through participating retailers.

AMD in its October 8 online launch event for the Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" processors, provided a teaser of the company's next flagship graphics card slotted in the Radeon RX 6000 series. This particular SKU has been referred to by company CEO Lisa Su as "Big Navi," meaning it could be the top part from AMD's upcoming client GPU lineup. As part of the teaser, Su held up the reference design card, and provided three performance numbers of the card as tested on a machine powered by a Ryzen 9 5900X "Zen 3" processor. We compared these performance numbers, obtained at 4K UHD, with our own testing data for the games, to see how the card compares to other current-gen cards in its class. Our testing data for one of the games is from the latest RTX 30-series reviews, find details of our test bed here. We obviously have a different CPU since the 5900X is unreleased, but use the highest presets in our testing.

With "Borderlands 3" at 4K, with "badass" performance preset and DirectX 12 renderer, AMD claims a frame-rate of 61 FPS. We tested the game with its DirectX 12 renderer in our dedicated performance review (test bed details here). AMD's claimed performance ends up 45.9 percent higher than that of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti as tested by us, which yields 41.8 FPS on our test bed. The RTX 3080 ends up 15.24 percent faster than Big Navi, with 70.3 FPS. It's important to note here that AMD may be using a different/lighter test scene than us, since we don't use internal benchmark tools of games, and design our own test scenes. It's also important to note that we tested Borderlands 3 with DirectX 12 only in the game's launch-day review, and use the DirectX 11 renderer in our regular VGA reviews.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce software. Version 456.71 WHQL comes game-ready for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PC Beta, which includes not just optimization for the game, but also support for NVIDIA Reflex, a technology that works to reduce whole system latency. In addition, the drivers correct a handful of issues, including hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling resulting in lower performance for Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition, a bug with G-SYNC enabled games triggering a black-screen in fullscreen mode, on certain Adaptive Sync displays; and Fortnite crashing on certain notebooks with RTX reflections and shadows enabled. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 456.71 WHQL

NVIDIA has today released the latest iteration of its Game Ready driver with the version number 456.55. Marked as a WHQL release, the driver is supposedly going to bring new advancements to the stability of the latest GeForce RTX 3000 series Ampere graphics cards. While the release notes don't officially mention anything on how it improves, it is already confirmed by a few Redditors that the new driver removes crashed experienced with the past version 456.38. In the latest revision, the support has been added for NVIDIA Reflex in Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, as well as support for Star Wars: Squadrons game. Below is the link to the driver download page redirecting to NVIDIA's site, and in no time the TechPowerUp download page will be updated as well.DOWNLOAD:NVIDIA GeForce 456.55 WHQL Game Ready Drivers

The change-log follows:

ASTRO Gaming, the leader in premium video gaming equipment, today introduced the ASTRO Gaming Call of Duty : Black Ops: Cold War A10 Headset. ASTRO Gaming is the Official Headset licensee of Call of Duty and has been a long time official collaborator of Call of Duty, bringing licensed headsets and accessories to gamers around the world. The new ASTRO Gaming Call of Duty : Black Ops Cold War A10 Headset joins the ASTRO A40 TR, Speakers tags, and A40 TR Mod Kits already on the market today.

"ASTRO has been a key collaborator of Call of Duty esports such as Call of Duty Champs, and the Call of Duty League," said Daniel Siegel, VP of Licensing for Activision. "We're excited to continue our partnership with ASTRO as the Official Headset licensee of Call of Duty. With this latest headset, our fans are sure to get the best audio experience while playing Call of Duty : Black Ops Cold War."

Shortly after a Doritos-sourced leak on the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Activision has now officially confirmed the future of the Call of duty franchise. The next installment, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, is being hailed as inspired by historical events. And if the title is anything to go by, players can apparently expect to take part in a web of black ops hat are, at the very least, placed somewhere alongside the historical years between 1947 (the beginning of the Truman doctrine) and the USSR's dissolution in 1991 (quick historical fact: the USSR's ultimate dissolution occurred with as much pomp and circumstance as pen to paper, with the signing of the Commonwealth of Independent States at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in Belarus).

It remains to be seen what - if any - changes to the Call of Duty formula this title will bring. It's being developed by Treyarch, one of Activision's three development studios tasked with bringing the Call of Duty franchise to market yearly, with a three-year development cycle. Raven Software is collaborating with the studio, and we know the title will see integration with Call of Duty Warzone: it's likely Warzone will become a Battle Royale companion to all future Call of Duty titles, added to and updated with the latest installments. Watch the announcement video after the break.

The end cannot be nigh as long as Activision is able to put out a Call of Duty title for the year, come war, famine, pestilence, or death. The 2020 release of CoD will be reportedly titled "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War," signaling a game set in the era of the original Black Ops. The name first appeared on Tuesday when a an anonymous tipster tweeted it, and Eurogamer later corroborated it. If 2019's Modern Warfare is any indication, Black Ops Cold War could be a retelling of the original Black Ops storyline, away from the future-warfare theme picked up by the two most recent Black Ops titles. Activision has reportedly dropped many hints of the Cold War setting in recent content additions to Warzone.

Cheating in the online portions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone is a well-identified issue by now. It has led to a considerable fall in the number of players actually engaging in the crossplay mechanic between console and PC gamers, with the PC platform naturally being the one most open to cheating efforts. Besides heavy-handed bans already conducted by Infinity Ward, which saw some seventy thousand players being banned, the developer in a Twitter post clarified some more ways in which it will be tackling the cheating issue: with specific matchmaking between players suspected of cheating in online play, thus populating servers with those players and leaving non-suspect players to their - expectedly - cleaner gaming environment.

Of course, it might be difficult to completely populate servers or matches with cheating players, but that isn't the question; in fact, it might serve the effort better if those servers were left sparser, so as to further intensify cheaters' notion of what the consequences can be of their anti-competitive behavior.

Activision today announced the reincarnation of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, called Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered. "Originally developed by Infinity Ward, and now remastered by Beenox, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered delivers the full story experience with stunning high-definition visuals and the latest audio advancements. Whether you lived it back in 2009 or have yet to play this iconic blockbuster campaign, this is an experience hailed by critics as one of the most memorable and incredible single-player story campaigns ever." - said Activision in their announcement blog post.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is now available on the PlayStation 4, while support for the rest of the platforms will come on April 30th. Below you can check out the game trailer.