NVIDIA Reflex is a must-have in games, reducing system latency so your actions occur quicker, giving you a competitive edge in multiplayer matches, and making single-player titles more responsive and enjoyable. NVIDIA Reflex is now used by over 50 million players each month, is available in 9 of the top 10 competitive shooters, including the Counter-Strike 2 beta, and is activated by 90% of GeForce gamers in 70+ supported titles. Recent recipients of Reflex include Redfall, Returnal, and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Next month, Reflex will be available at launch in Diablo IV, and is coming to Metal: Hellsinger by way of a game update.

NVIDIA Reflex also encompasses optimized mice and monitors, which contribute to your overall system latency. By working with manufacturers we have built reporting capabilities into products, enabling GeForce gamers to measure their end-to-end system latency, seeing where their system may be holding them back. Additionally, four new GIGABYTE AORUS mice have added support for Reflex, along with a new LG UltraGear gaming monitor.

Welcome, adventurer. On June 2, the fiery pits of Hell will rejoice - Diablo Immortal turns one! This milestone could not have been achieved without your continuous support, and to honor you, we have a bloody wave of new additions hitting the shores of Sanctuary over the next two months. It's time to gaze into the flames and provide a bird's-eye view of the upcoming Diablo IV Launch Celebration x Diablo Immortal event and Lilith-themed Cosmetics, new Zone, and new Class.

DIABLO IV LAUNCH CELEBRATION X DIABLO IMMORTAL
The creation of Sanctuary by Inarius and Lilith is a storied tale; its impact can still be felt today. The Merciless Monstrosity event, Children of Lilith Battle Pass, and Hatred's Heritage Phantom Market will be experienceable expressions of Sanctuary's matriarch. Your opportunity to let sin flow freely will arrive in early June.

Years after the events of Diablo III, millions have been slaughtered by the actions of the High Heavens and Burning Hells alike. In the power vacuum, a legendary name resurfaces: Lilith, daughter of Mephisto, the whispered progenitor of humanity. Her grip on Sanctuary cuts deep into the hearts of men and women alike, cultivating the worst in its denizens and leaving the world a dark, hopeless place. Get a glimpse of the terror that awaits (below).

HELL WELCOMES ALL
Diablo IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Embark on the campaign solo or with friends, through beautifully dark settings, or explore a shared world where players can meet in towns to trade, team up to battle world bosses, or descend into PVP zones to test their skills against other players.

On June 6, a new plane of Hell will open, giving way to endless hours of demon-slaying fun in Diablo IV. The team saw this as an opportunity to improve the accessibility offerings within the game, and they took careful steps to ensure that every new feature added would break down barriers that kept players from playing—a flame that guided them all through development.

OUR GUIDING FLAME
"The only limitation to adventuring in Sanctuary should be interest, not capability," said lead accessibility designer Drew McCrory when the team began ideating on the game's potential accessibility features. Starting with the bedrock laid forth in Diablo II: Resurrected, the team began to construct accessibility features that struck a balance between being useful for players with disabilities while being careful not to mar gameplay for others. From there, the team continued to smooth out the rough edges of the features in their incubation tank until they provided additional usability without altering the core gameplay loop. What they were left with were accessibility options that empower as many players as possible.

The Blessed Mother's return is nigh. Soon, you'll assume the mantle of Sanctuary's wanderer, and embark upon a quest to cull the unspeakable monstrosities that blight the land. But, before you begin your fight for the fate of the world, grab a seat beside the campfire and gaze upon the gameplay that Diablo IV has in store.

HELL WELCOMES ALL
Diablo IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Embark on the campaign solo or with friends, through beautifully dark settings, or explore a shared world where players can meet in towns to trade, team up to battle world bosses, or descend into PVP zones to test their skills against other players.

After four years of gathering online-adventuring through Azeroth, teaming up in Overwatch, traversing the fields of Sanctuary, or warming yourself by the fire in the Tavern - it's finally time to gather in person once more. We are happy to announce that BlizzCon will be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on November 3-4!

Our players are at the heart of what makes BlizzCon great-a place where games are the common ground for connection and friendship. Whether you're coming to hang out with friends you only ever get to see online, celebrating epic moments in the games we love, exploring what's on offer in the convention center halls, or eager to learn what's next for our universes, BlizzCon is being created for you. It's the community that has always made this event so special, and we can't wait to see you all again.

Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard has been approved by EU regulators today - rumors emerged late last week that the bloc's executive arm, the European Commission, would give the takeover bid a thumbs up this week, with early indications that May 15 would be the day of declaration. EU antitrust regulators have let the acquisition pass due to commitments/reassurances from Microsoft relating to the cloud gaming sector. This is in sharp contrast to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) organization's judgment, who chose to block the deal in late April and have since added restrictions (as of late last week) via a new interim order.

EU antitrust regulators have found that Microsoft "would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision's games to Sony" and that "even if Microsoft did decide to withdraw Activision's games from the PlayStation, this would not significantly harm competition in the home gaming console market." But the European Union's competition regulators have found points of concern (much like the UK CMA's further investigations) and reckon that the segment could be disrupted in the area of cloud gaming services - on PC and console platforms. The body has received the promise of several remedies from Microsoft - these matters will be resolved through flexible terms - including a free license to consumers in EU countries that will grant stream access to "any cloud game streaming services of their choice" - with the ownership of Activision Blizzard PC and console titles (current and future). Cloud providers operating within EU markets will also be offered a free license to stream the Acti-Blizz library.

Over the last few months, we have communicated details about customization, Endgame offerings, moment-to-moment gameplay, and given players a first-hand taste of Sanctuary through Act I during our Early Access and Open Beta Weekends. But what about the post-launch experience, and how do we plan to increase the heat? We'll answer this question by explaining our approach to Seasons, Season Journeys, Battle Pass, and the Shop, and how they work in unison to enhance and diversify the robust campaign and Endgame offerings available to players at launch. There was also a Diablo IV Developer Update Livestream today (see below) that further expands on the aforementioned areas—give it a watch after reading this blog.

Stoking the Flames of Hell: Seasons
Seasons are quarterly releases that will add additional gameplay features, questlines (with new and old faces alike), Battle Passes, Legendary Items, class balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, and much more. Seasons will introduce fresh concepts and ideas into the world of Sanctuary, for all wanderers to enjoy while simultaneously iterating upon your baseline experience. Above all, we want Seasons to be celebratory moments; something to look forward to and enjoy with your friends and other members of the Diablo community. Season 1 will begin in mid to late July, and to embark on this next chapter, you must first complete the Campaign. Because of this, we recommend you begin your pursuit of Lilith in advance so you can jump into the first Season as soon as it becomes available.

Blizzard and NVIDIA have partnered to bring our game-changing technologies to Diablo IV, giving GeForce gamers the definitive experience. Accelerate frame rates with NVIDIA DLSS 3, and make gameplay even more responsive using NVIDIA Reflex. And if that weren't enough, players can raise Hell with ray tracing in Diablo IV when it becomes available post-launch.

To celebrate Diablo IV coming June 6th, we've launched the Diablo IV GeForce RTX 40 Series Bundle, available now until June 13th. Buyers of eligible GeForce RTX 4070, 4070 Ti, 4080 and 4090 graphics cards and desktop PCs from select retailers and etailers will receive a Battle.net copy of Diablo IV.

Following the recent block of the Activision-Blizzard merger with Microsoft by the UK regulatory body, Microsoft is partnering with cloud gaming services to bring extra assurance to regulators that the merger will not harm any segment. Today, Microsoft's Vice Chain and President, Brad Smith, published a Tweet that highlighted the latest deal with Nware, a Spanish company providing cloud PCs to gamers that can stream games from Steam, EGS, and Ubisoft Connect accounts. The Tweet noted that "Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement to stream PC games built by Xbox on its platform, as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes. While it's still early for the emerging cloud segment in gaming, this new partnership combined with our other recent commitments will make more popular games available on more cloud game streaming services than they are today."

The United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority (UK-CMA) on Wednesday blocked the proposed $68.7 billion merger of Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard. In its press-releasing announcing its final decision into an investigation on the question of how the merger will affect consumer-choice and innovation in the market, the CMA says that the merger would alter the future of cloud gaming, and lead to "reduced innovation and less choice for United Kingdom gamers over the years to come." Cloud gaming in this context would be games rendered on the cloud, and consumed on the edge by gamers. NVIDIA's GeForce NOW is one such service.

Microsoft Azure is one of the big-three cloud computing providers (besides AWS and Google Cloud), and the CMA fears that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard IP (besides its control over the Xbox and Windows PC ecosystems), would "strengthen that advantage giving it the ability to undermine new and innovative competitors." The CMA report continues: "Cloud gaming needs a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice. That is best achieved by allowing the current competitive dynamics in cloud gaming to continue to do their job." Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard are unsurprisingly unhappy with the verdict.

According to a recent news article released by Chinese news group Sina Technology, NetEase has filed a lawsuit against its former publishing partner Blizzard Entertainment, to the tune of (around) $43.5 Million. The Chinese Internet technology company is seeking compensation, in the form of a very large refund, following Blizzard's total exit from the nation's online gaming sector - its server infrastructure in China was shut down in January of this year. The closing of Blizzard-related services represented a very abrupt end to a 14-year long relationship between the two online gaming specialists - press coverage at the time presented a tense situation involving many major disagreements - the partnership was broken because of unfavorable terms on Blizzard's part.

NetEase posits that it had to compensate its customer base through refunds from its own reserves, after the sudden shutdown of Blizzard's hugely popular MMO - World of Warcraft, and other online multiplayer game series including Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo and Starcraft. A significant chunk of the $43.5 million settlement is said to cover the company's cost in refunding part of its customer base - somewhere in the range of 1.12 million players - for discontinued games and services. NetEase is also reported to be seeking damages for broken license agreements, unsold merchandise inventory and the loss of access to future Blizzard intellectual properties.

Update Apr 25th: According to an article from PC Gamer, published today, NetEase is not taking Blizzard to court. It turns out that a serial litigator, Yang Jun, has included NetEase as an appellant in his filed legal documents - under another company name, The9, an apparently defunct former licensing partner. PC Gamer has been informed that Yang Jun has sued NetEase in the past, and that his latest batch of legal documents have been amended to reflect that he is the lone party in demanding a financial settlement from Blizzard.

Blizzard has released a new post outlining some of the key elements of the Diablo 4 game, an all new game developer video, as well as the final and launch system requirements for the game. The latest post talks about the character build like skill tree nodes and passives, cosmetics and character creation like transmogs and mounts, and gear.

There is also a whole new game developer video, which is a part of the Inside the Game video series, talking about choices that come with character creation, character builds, gear. Hosted by Rod Fergusson, general manager, Adam Jackson, lead class designer, Melissa Corning, lead game producer, and Joe Shely, game director, this latest developer video gives a bit more insight about the gameplay experience.

Customization is a cornerstone of Diablo IV. From how your character looks, to the Skills they wield, to the appearance of their Gear and Mount, Diablo IV empowers players with a level of agency never previously offered in a Diablo game. The decision of what type of wanderer you want to play in the world of Sanctuary begins at the Class selection screen and follows you into the Endgame. It's up to YOU to decide how your character will grow and evolve as they pursue Lilith.

Watch the latest Inside the Game developer video on player choice and continue reading for more insight into the customization available to players. Plus, learn how you can play Diablo IV from May 12-14 during Server Slam. Over the course of our Inside the Game video series, we'll sit down with our resident Diablo IV experts -members of the development team - to walk you through elements of the game.

HELP US GEAR UP FOR LAUNCH DURING THE DIABLO IV SERVER SLAM - Calling all wanderers! In preparation for the launch of Diablo IV on June 6, we must enlist your demon-cleansing services for one final task: Server Slam. From May 12, 12 p.m.-May 14, 12 p.m. PDT, everyone can come to Sanctuary's defense on Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4—along with couch co-op for consoles and cross-play and cross-progression for all platforms—against the armies of the Burning Hells to help us test the durability of our servers.

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING SERVER SLAM
Server Slam will give players one final weekend in Hell to experience a fraction of what Diablo IV has to offer, while simultaneously testing the capabilities of our servers prior to launch. The Prologue and entirety of Act I will be your canvas to paint with the remains of slain demons. Fractured Peaks, the first Zone, is yours to navigate as you please. Traverse its rugged landscape as Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Rogue, or Sorcerer, unleashing devastating power upon foes, and honing your unique skillset in the process.

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.

Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that Diablo IV is feature complete and has reached a development milestone of being software version 1.0. The official Diablo Twitter account posted a not so cryptic tweet boasting the news: "Diablo IV has gone gold. Can you feel her presence now? See you in Sanctuary. 6.6.23 🔥." The general gaming public will gain access to the fully finished game on June 6, but a select lucky few have been toying with early preview builds over the past months. The last Diablo IV closed beta program attracted plenty of gaming news attention for a technical snafu, wherein owners of a particular NVIDIA GPU model found out the hard way, during D4 playtest sessions, about underlying faults in their chosen silicon - Blizzard is leading an investigation into the matter, with assistance from Team Green.

It is hoped that Blizzard's Diablo team will have all of these hardware melting issues resolved in time for Diablo IV's finalized launch date. In the meantime hardcore fans of the series are encouraged to absorb plenty of preview/marketing material, and go about swatting up on trainer material. Blizzard has uploaded several gameplay guide videos to the official Diablo YouTube channel - the company has enlisted the helpful services of Wudijo, a veteran Diablo streamer, to chaperone viewers through the game's systems.

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.

Overwatch 2 Season 4 launches April 11! Blossom onto the battlefield with our newest Support Hero Lifeweaver, progress through the Battle Pass to earn rewards including Mythic Galactic Emperor Sigma, and fight for your faction when The Watchers and The Infinite Empire clash in the Starwatch event! Explore Talantis, the first-ever map made in collaboration with the community. Enjoy major quality-of-life updates with a revamped Competitive experience.

Watch the trailer to see what to expect with this upcoming season, which brings the new Support Hero Lifeweaver, a new Battle Pass, the community-made map called Talantis, and more. Progress through the Battle Pass to earn rewards including Mythic Galactic Emperor Sigma, and fight for your faction when The Watchers and The Infinite Empire clash in the Starwatch event.

Diablo IV Inside the Game: Into the Endgame. Join members of the Diablo IV development team as they pull back the curtain on the experiences waiting for you in the endgame. Welcome, wanderer! Over the course of our new Inside the Game video series, we'll sit down with our resident Diablo IV experts—members of the development team—to walk you through elements of the game.

Our second video in this series, Into the Endgame, is an exploration of the many endgame systems players can continue to grow their character's legend through once the Main Quest has been completed. The endless battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells rages on as hatred threatens to consume Sanctuary. With ceaseless demons to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish Dungeons and Legendary loot, this vast world brings the promise of adventure and devastation.

Blizzard has released a new trailer showing its latest playable hero, Lifeweaver. It will launch alongside Season 4 on April 11th. Overwatch 2's latest support Hero is Lifeweaver, an intelligent and curious adventurer who plans to use his biolight technology to make the world a better place.

Lifeweaver will shift the dynamic of every fight by providing cover, leveraging his mobility, and impacting positioning in ways we've never seen before. Get acquainted with Lifeweaver's ability kit in his Gameplay Trailer and get ready for his debut in Season 4 on April 11.

According to dataminers over at Reddit, it appears that Blizzard's Diablo IV might support Microsoft's DirectStorage API, although the developer did not officially announce it. This would make Diablo IV the second AAA title to support this API that should significantly lower loading times on SSD storage. The first title that used DirectStorage was Forspoken. The two files, named dstorage.dll and dstoragecore.dll, suggest that Diablo IV already has support for DirectStorage, or Blizzard is still working on it and it could be available only in the final version of the game.

According to Microsoft, DirectStorage API could reduce the CPU overhead in a game by 20 to 40 percent, when used with an NVMe SSD on Windows 11. Unfortunately, it appears that Diablo IV is also using DirectStorage 1.0 (v1.0.2), just as Forspoken, rather than DirectStorage 1.1 which adds GPU decompression to further speed up the loading process. Diablo IV beta stage is over and the game will officially launch on June 6th on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox S/X. Blizzard already announced that the support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 will be available in the final version, and that ray tracing will be added at a later date as well, so the DirectStorage API could also be on that list.

A combination of the Diablo IV Closed Beta and NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti graphics card is proving lethal for the latter - community feedback has alerted Blizzard to take action, and they will be investigating the issue in the coming days, with assistance from NVIDIA. It is speculated that the game is exposing underlying hardware faults within an affected card, but it is odd that a specific model is generating the largest number of issues. Unlucky 3080 Ti owners participating in the closed beta are said to be experiencing unpleasant or inconsistent in-game performance at best, and BSODs followed by non-functional GPUs at worst.

A Blizzard forumite, ForANge, chimed in with their experience: "My graphics card also burned out. While playing, the fans of my Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti suddenly started running at maximum speed. At the same time, the signal from the monitor disappeared. After turning off the power and trying to turn it back on, I couldn't get it to work anymore. The card is just under a year old. It happened during a cutscene with flowers when they showed a snowy landscape."

Blizzard has released a new gameplay footage from Diablo IV beta as a part of its "adventure with a dev", hosted by Lead Game Designer, Zaven Haroutunian. In the meantime, and as it was expected, another 36 minutes long video from a Chinese player has also leaked online, showing a lot more gameplay.

Blizzard's own video shows the Lead Game Designer, Zaven Haroutunian, slashing his way through a dungeon and talking about what players can expect to see in the beta phase. It is a rather short video from Kor Dragan Barracks, but gives you a nice idea on what went into designing this game and what to generally expect from it.