Thursday news, part two:

Uh oh! Final Fantasy 16's squeeze holes have gamers in a flap
https://www.pcgamer.com/uh-oh-final-fantasy-16s-squeeze-holes-have-gamers-in-a-flap/
We got a brief taste of Final Fantasy 16 today, in the form of a 19-second clip that was meant to show off Torgal, the game's canine companion. But poor Torgal's been overshadowed, and instead, we're all focused on something far more controversial. Rather than concentrating on our furry friend, players are only interested in one thing: That squeeze hole.

Arkane may drop Redfall's always-online requirement
https://www.pcgamer.com/arkane-may-drop-redfalls-always-online-requirement/
Arkane revealed in February that its upcoming vampire shooter Redfall will require a "a persistent online connection," even if you're playing by yourself. The reaction to the news wasn't great, both as a matter of principle and practicality. Believe it or not, there are still people who live in areas with wonky internet connections, and why should we have to be connected to the internet to play a singleplayer game anyway?
In an interview with Eurogamer, director Harvey Smith said Arkane has "a lot of empathy" for people who can't reliably play online, and is looking at making changes to the game so it can be played without a connection.

How to watch the Future Games Show Spring Showcase
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-watch-tomorrows-future-games-show-spring-showcase/
It's that time again, folks. The Future Games Show is back, this time with its 2023 Spring Showcase, hosted by none other than Briana White and Cody Christian: Aerith and Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Clocking in at 85 minutes and showing off 45 games, the Future Games Show Spring Showcase will kick off tomorrow, March 23, at 3 pm PDT / 6 pm EDT / 10 pm GMT / 11 pm CET. You can watch it, well, pretty much anywhere that's capable of displaying video.(...)

Epic will share 40% of Item Shop revenues with Fortnite island creators: 'There's no need to design cunning monetization loops' anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-will-share-40-of-item-shop-revenues-with-fortnite-island-creators-theres-no-need-to-design-cunning-monetization-loops-anymore/
Epic Games announced at today's State of Unreal conference at GDC that it will give 40% of the total net revenues earned from Fortnite's Item Shop and "related real-money purchases" to eligible Fortnite content creators in what it calls "Creator Economy 2.0." The new system will exist alongside the Support-A-Creator program, which is "returning to its roots as an affiliate marketing program for streamers and social media content creators."

Community and esports reaction to Counter-Strike 2: 'Quit Valorant, it's done, it's f***ing over'
https://www.pcgamer.com/community-and-esports-reaction-to-counter-strike-2-quit-valorant-its-done-its-fing-over/
Following weeks of teasing, Valve today announced Counter-Strike 2, the next step for perhaps the greatest and most popular competitive FPS in history. Counter-Strike players are their own breed, both deeply in love with the game and always grousing about its problems, and one thing Counter-Strike 2 did right off the bat is address longstanding complaints and get those fans excited. The reaction is almost universally positive, though naturally, bear in mind very few people have played the game itself at this point.

Atari is buying System Shock remake studio Nightdive for $10M
https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-is-buying-system-shock-remake-studio-nightdive-for-dollar10m/
Atari, the stumbling veteran gaming company, is buying Nightdive Studios, the company responsible for the forthcoming System Shock remake, as well as a raft of other retro renovations including Turok, Shadow Man and PowerSlave. The deal is worth $10 million (half payable in Atari shares), and the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of April.
>> I'd sell those shares as soon as possible.

As EVO Japan fast approaches, Tekken 8 is almost done with its first batch of character reveals
https://www.pcgamer.com/as-evo-japan-fast-approaches-tekken-8-is-almost-done-with-its-first-batch-of-character-reveals/
It's been a good few weeks for Tekken fans. Bandai Namco has been slowly trickling trailers for every announced character coming to Tekken 8 so far. My friend group has been hotly anticipating each Tekken Tuesday, and the last two weeks have even seen trailers arriving on Fridays. With an incredible Kazuya trailer kickstarting the trend then followed by Jin, Law, Paul and King, this week has treated us to a look at Swedish fighter Lars Alexandersson.

Diablo 4 is reportedly killing some RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-rtx-3080-ti-issue/
Fresh reports suggest some RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are running horribly, or even dying, while playing the Diablo 4 closed beta over the weekend.
In what appears to be an issue closely resembling when Amazon's MMO New World was bricking RTX 3090 GPUs, the Diablo 4 beta appears to expose a potentially fatal flaw in some high-end Nvidia GPUs. Across Reddit and the Blizzard forums, users are reporting that during the beta their monitors go black, GPU fans run full speed, and their system restarts. Sometimes these symptoms are also accompanied by an error code and a dead GPU, though not every time.

Domestic violence charges against High On Life creator Justin Roiland dropped due to 'insufficient evidence'
https://www.pcgamer.com/domestic-violence-charges-against-high-on-life-creator-justin-roiland-dropped-due-to-insufficient-evidence/
The domestic violence lawsuit against Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland has been dropped, Polygon reports. Roiland—who also created 2022 Game Pass hit High On Life—was charged with felony domestic violence and false imprisonment after a criminal complaint in May 2020, but those charges didn't come to light until they were unearthed by NBC News in January this year.

Counter-Strike 2's reveal has sent the game's skins market wild
https://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-2s-reveal-has-sent-the-games-skins-market-wild/
Valve has done a Valve once more. Not only did it announce Counter-Strike 2 out of nowhere but, with one finger raised aloft at all the web3 donkeys, announced that every skin from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would be carrying over.

The funniest thing about Counter-Strike 2 is that Valve won't let cheaters and douchebags in
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-funniest-thing-about-counter-strike-2-is-that-valve-wont-let-cheaters-and-douchebags-in/
Valve has announced Counter-Strike 2, god's in his heaven, and all's right with the world. The game will initially be beta tested by a limited group of players, and these are being selected based on several factors which definitely do not include skill level: I suck, but I play a lot and like to think of myself as a good egg, so I got an invite. Yes folks: I've seen smoke grenades wafted away on banana.
The funniest aspect of this is that, having been watching the CS:GO subreddit and following various Counter-Strikers on social media, lots of people are complaining they haven't got in. Now, some of these people are lovely. But I have noticed in a few cases that they're not lovely, and it made one element of the limited beta really jump out at me. Valve is not letting the assholes in.

Former Grand Theft Auto producer teases his new project, a futuristic game-within-a-game called MindsEye
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-grand-theft-auto-producer-teases-his-new-project-a-futuristic-game-within-a-game-called-mindseye/
Former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies first announced Everywhere back in early 2017, and then nailed down its nature with (barely) more clarity in 2022 as a "multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world." Not exactly a metaverse, we opined at the time, but more of a "grown-up take on Roblox."
Today, Benzies' studio Build a Rocket Boy teased the first game to be set in the world of Everywhere, called MindsEye: "A high-octane, AAA, story-driven action-adventure game, set in a world of futuristic corporations, conspiracy theories, and sinister new technologies."

I posted an article about that, with Epic saying that they've added something to fix it.

If Valve didn't bother with a new engine for HF Alyx, why would they make a new one for CS2?

Yeah, videocardz did an article about it. F*cking scumbags.

Nice. What CPU+GPU will you use with that little thing?

Just the current parts I have. Ryzen 3600 and a 1660 Ti. May upgrade to the 4050 when that dropped.

Before I would have gone for a 4070 or something but these days I'm fine with playing on lower settings and more interested in a quiet, cool pc.

Tbf most people into CS aren't going to have the best rigs anyway. I'd wager people care more for gameplay potential with a good visual update and would prioritize performance over visual flair.

It looks good imo. For someone who plays CS a bit the update is decent. PBR materials, remodelled maps, dynamic smoke and enhanced lighting makes a huge difference. While its not in the same league as other engines. It doesn't need to. Source Engine games runs on nearly every PC. Its a bit like Blizzard and World of Warcraft and WoW Engine. If it ain't broke.. don't fix it.

Not bad. I know you won't get any trouble fitting that GPU in the case, but do you already have a mini ITX motherboard or you'll get a new one? After all, unless you were already planning this change when you bought it, it's usually easier and cheaper to get an ATX or micro ATX board than a mini ITX one.

A 4070 could be a nice, cool card to get into such case but, given Nvidia's pricing, I understand why a 4050 may be more feasible.

Yep, if CS:GO is so popular is not because of its graphics, but because players have fun with it. And since the upgrade won't wipe out anything, it's a win-win situation for them and Valve.

Tbh and this may sound a bit ironic from a guy that owns a 4090 but I am kind of getting sick and tired of companies pushing graphics ahead of other things. Like for me, Guardians of the Galaxy was a game that didn't push the latest and greatest tech but the art design and the story in that game really felt unique along with the chemistry between the characters.

Like I was playing Hogwarts Legacy and there's a lot of pretty graphics in that game but man, the dialog and gameplay just felt meh. So many games just feels meh because they put so much effort into graphics and now charging $70 USD. Like with GotG for example, you actually wanted to talk to people because the chemistry and writing was just that good. Conversations and such actually felt like a person has written the story and not just some random Ai like Hogwarts Legacy. It's why Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is on the top of my list even though it's coming to a console with 0.4 Teraflops while my 4090 can easily do 100 Teraflops. (Granted if the emulation teams are on point, I'll likely play that on my PC but don't worry, I already bought the game digitally on the switch via voucher)

Here are some hardware news for you:

ASUS expects AMD TR5 platform for Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series in the second half of 2023
https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-expects-amd-tr5-platform-for-ryzen-threadripper-7000-series-in-the-second-half-of-2023
>> If a 7950X isn't enough for you, now you know when you'll get the goodies.

MSI launches Spatium M570 HS PCIe Gen5 SSD, up to 10,000 MB/s read and write speeds
https://videocardz.com/press-release/msi-launches-spatium-m570-hs-pcie-gen5-ssd-up-to-10000-mb-s-read-and-write-speeds

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti to offer 22 TFLOPs of compute performance
https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-to-offer-22-tflops-of-compute-performance
TechPowerUP GPU database maintainer “T4C Fantasy” claims that the RTX 4060 Ti should launch with a 2310 MHz base clock and 2535 MHz boost clock. Furthermore, custom models should boost up to 2685 MHz, which is actually not as high as RTX 4070 Ti. That said, the RTX 4060 Ti would have the same base clock as the RTX 4070 Ti, but around 75MHz lower boost.

GPU Pricing Update, March 2023: Back to MSRP
https://www.techspot.com/article/2647-gpu-pricing-update/

>> Check the article for the prices of Nvidia's 3000 and AMD's 6000 series cards.

Growth in Gaming PCs and Gaming Monitors to Lag in 2023, According to IDC
https://www.techpowerup.com/306268/growth-in-gaming-pcs-and-gaming-monitors-to-lag-in-2023-according-to-idc
A three-year growth streak for gaming PCs and gaming monitors came to an end in 2022 as worldwide gaming PC shipments declined 6.4% while gaming monitors declined 7.1% compared to 2021, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Gaming Tracker. A total of 44.9 million gaming PCs and 17.3 million gaming monitors were shipped during the year, which was well above pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Looking ahead, IDC expects 2024 to be a year of recovery as 2023 will be marred with macroeconomic challenges, inventory issues, and lack of meaningful upgrades.

I've reached that point in my life now where the majority of games try to catch your eye in some way, and it's mostly down to style or just pure graphics whoring, and the one thing that I've seen over time that's gotten neglected in evolution has to be the damn AI.

Like when was the last time you saw a gaming article where journos praise the AI?. Last time for me was the Nemesis system, but that wasn't really AI being smart, it was just devs telling AI to remember who you are, and to get revenge against you or side by you.

I guess the last one for me personally was FEAR, because liker the title, that's what I legit felt when I was in an office building (I think it was the first game), and the soldiers talking over their comes from multiple sides, slowly moving in by file to try and find me, instead of doing what literally every other game does and copy Halo/DOOM with screaming enemies who just straight up get in your face all the time.

I want what FEAR had, a good imitation of intelligent AI opponents, not AI that's dumb as bricks and has to have the most insane handicaps known to man to pose a semblance of a challenge (For real, I fucking hate Heroes of the Storm Elite AI, they always pool together to take down one Hero and use all their abilities at the same time, and they are also coded to imitate human greed, which gets them killed most of the time, which I see as a negative human trait, and AI shouldn't be imitating that, no matter how being greedy in a game might net you a win). 

Some people on here and the net are all like "gameplay over graffix", but nah, they get part of that mantra wrong as well, because if you just want gameplay with AI from the 90's, you're not wanting to see the medium grow and evolve, you just want that dopamine rush. I want good gameplay, but I've waited so long for better AI, I think it's time ppl pushed for that, instead of falling back on the dope rush they constantly want.

Let's go with the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Humble Store has a new Square Enix Sale featuring up to 90% discounts during the next 10 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/square-enix-publisher-sale/.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc & Iris Graphics 31.0.101.4255
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-iris-graphics-31-0-101-4255
Highlights

• Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:
  • Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Performance optimizations on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:
  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
  • D5 Render
  • Blender in Material Preview viewport mode
  • Counter Strike Global Offensive on Intel® Arc™ Graphics for Laptops

Fixed Issues

• Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:
  • Conqueror’s Blade (DX11) may exhibit corruption in benchmark mode.
  • Portal with RTX (Vulkan) may experience application crash when loading to gameplay.
• Intel® Core™ Processor Products:
  • Overwatch 2 (DX12) may see lag or freeze while launching the game.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (DX12) may experience application crash during gameplay
• INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL FIXED ISSUES:
  • Using Arc Control Studio capture with AVC codec selected may incorrectly use the HEVC codec.
  • Modifying performance sliders may fail to apply back to their default values. A workaround is to use the “Reset to Defaults” button.

>> Not only that, but they've also halved the size of the driver package.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Resident Evil 4 Remake Mods add DLSS 2 and RPG-like Health Bars
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/resident-evil-4-remake-mods-add-dlss-2-and-rpg-like-health-bars/
Resident Evil 4 Remake has just been released, and two new must-have mods have surfaced online. The first mod adds support for NVIDIA’s DLSS 2 tech, whereas the second mod adds RPG-like Health Bars to enemies.
>> There's a video showcasing the DLSS2 mod.

GAMING NEWS

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will release on May 25th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-will-release-on-may-25th/
Daedalic Entertainment and NACON have announced that their highly anticipated adventure game, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, will release on May 25th.

Here are 9 minutes of gameplay footage from Remnant 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-9-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-remnant-2/
Gearbox Publishing and Gunfire Games have shared a new video, showcasing nine minutes of gameplay footage from Remnant 2. This video features pre-alpha Gameplay of Yaesha, one of many environments you’ll encounter in the game.

Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test Beta Build has been leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/counter-strike-2-limited-test-beta-build-has-been-leaked-online/
A couple of days ago, Valve announced Counter-Strike 2, an overhauled version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in Source2 Engine. Alongside that announcement, Valve launched a Limited Test beta phase for it. And, as you may have guessed, this Limited Test Build has been leaked online.

Friday news, the long part two:

Elden Ring just got ray tracing, but you might not want to use it
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-just-got-ray-tracing-but-you-might-not-want-to-use-it/
Elden Ring got an update today, and things are getting downright illuminated in The Lands Between. The 1.09 patch brings a slate of bug fixes and makes all sorts of tweaks to Elden Ring's weapons and combat, but the headline item here is that the game is finally getting ray tracing support. There's just one problem: You probably won't want to actually use it.
You can go switch ray tracing on in Elden Ring's graphics menu, but what you won't find there is a toggle for Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR support, the miraculous frame generation tech that lets you maintain a playable framerate even with taxing graphical gewgaws turned on. That means actually activating ray tracing has the potential to slow your game to a slideshow, especially at high resolutions.

Your RTX 40-series GPU will face its biggest challenge yet next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/your-rtx-40-series-gpu-will-face-its-biggest-challenge-yet-next-month/
At GDC, CD Projekt Red is showing off the future of ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077, one bouncing neon light at a time. It's set to arrive with a new graphics preset, Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode, which will come to the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 on April 11. This gives you enough time to track down an RTX 4080 and its powerful frame-generating magic. You're going to need it.
>> Probably only Yuri and TallSilhouette will be able to experience this at ok frame rates. Unless there's someone else here with a 4090.

You can try out this CoD Zombies-like co-op shooter for free in a limited-time demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/you-can-try-out-this-cod-zombies-like-co-op-shooter-for-free-in-a-limited-time-demo/
Upcoming co-op horde mode shooter Hellbreach: Vegas just got its first public demo alongside a physical presence at this year's PAX East. Hellbreach: Vegas' alpha demo runs from today until the 26th and offers a small slice of the full game releasing later this year.

The Diablo 4 open beta will have long queue times at launch too, Blizzard warns
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-diablo-4-open-beta-will-have-long-queue-times-at-launch-too-blizzard-warns/
Last weekend's Diablo 4 early access beta got off to a rough start. Servers were immediately slammed, which meant long waits for anyone trying to get in, and unstable connections for everyone who did. We were all shocked.
(...)
But with the open beta set to kick off tomorrow, Blizzard is warning that eager players can expect more of the same. The early access beta was limited to people who had preordered Diablo 4, along with some promotional invitations; the open beta is, well, open, and it's fair to assume that a lot more people will be crashing through the door.
>> While you wait, you can check this overpowered frost Sorceror build.

Blizzard and Nvidia investigating reports Diablo 4 is killing RTX 3080 Ti GPUs
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-rtx-3080-ti-issue/
Fresh reports suggest some RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are running horribly, or even dying, while playing the Diablo 4 closed beta over the weekend.
Update: The Diablo 4 team are investigating reports of RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards crashing or dying while playing the game's closed beta. Customer support says Blizzard is "working closely with Nvidia to identify affected hardware configurations and gather as many data points as possible to assist in the investigation."

Anime dating sim that can prepare your taxes was removed from Steam but its developers say they want to disrupt corporations, not steal your social security number
https://www.pcgamer.com/anime-dating-sim-that-can-prepare-your-taxes-was-removed-from-steam-but-its-developers-say-they-want-to-disrupt-corporations-not-steal-your-social-security-number/
Tax Heaven 3000 is one of the more unusual genre mashups I've run into. It's a visual novel dating game, and it will also do your taxes—if you're a US citizen, anyway. Weird, right? Also weird is its extremely brief history on Steam: It appeared on the storefront earlier this week, but just a day later it was taken offline.

CD Projekt has financially written off and seemingly rebooted development on its Witcher spinoff game
https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-has-financially-written-off-and-seemingly-rebooted-development-on-its-witcher-spinoff-game/
First reported by TechPowerUp, CD Projekt revealed in a March 20 announcement to investors that it is writing off expenses related to the development of Project Sirius, one of its three Witcher games currently in the oven, and seemingly rebooting the project. "The aforementioned decision is based on results of evaluation of the scope and commercial potential of the original concept of Project Sirius," the investor report reads, "and ongoing work on formulating a new framework for this project."

Witchfire reveals a surprisingly deep magic system at the Future Games Show
https://www.pcgamer.com/witchfire-reveals-a-surprisingly-deep-magic-system-at-the-future-games-show/
I've been anticipating Witchfire ever since it was announced in 2017. At first, it was all about the pedigree: It's a "dark fantasy shooter" being developed by The Astronauts, a studio founded by former members of Painkiller developer People Can Fly. (...)
Witchfire will square off against hordes of demonic enemies using both guns and magic, and while most of what we've seen of the game so far has focused on conventional firepower, a new trailer unveiled today at the Future Games Show is all about the spells. They deal impressive damage on their own, and also work in conjunction with the game's weapons to amplify their destructive capabilities.

This mythological hunting game from an ex-Skyrim dev is coming sooner than I thought
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-mythological-hunting-game-from-an-ex-skyrim-dev-is-coming-sooner-than-i-thought/
The Axis Unseen, a heavy metal bowhunting game from longtime Bethesda dev Nate Purkeypile (head and sole member of Just Purkey Games), got a fresh trailer at the Future Game Show: Spring Showcase. The trailer revealed some new biomes coming to the game, as well as a release window of some time in 2024.

Creative Assembly's extraction shooter Hyenas gets a playable alpha tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/creative-assemblys-extraction-shooter-hyenas-gets-a-playable-alpha-tomorrow/
Total War and Alien Isolation studio Creative Assembly has been working away at Hyenas for some time now. It's a PvPvE extraction shooter set on a planet where the wealthy have decamped to Mars (hooray) and left everyone else to fight to the death on a hostile planet (goddamnit). At the Future Games Show today, a new playable character was revealed: Hero-Ki, who is a cosplayer. More importantly, he can transform himself to resemble his foes.
He'll be one of the playable characters available during the next Hyenas alpha test, which is apparently its biggest so far. It offers a meaty ten days to put the game through its paces, and you can sign up here. It kicks off tomorrow, and given Creative Assembly's pedigree, it's probably worth a shot.
>> I'm not sure if the tomorrow of the article means today, Friday, or is actually tomorrow, Saturday.

Go-Go Town is a cozy mix of life and management sim: 'Instead of conveyor belts like Factorio, we've got people belts'
https://www.pcgamer.com/go-go-town-is-a-cozy-mix-of-life-and-management-sim-instead-of-conveyor-belts-like-factorio-weve-got-people-belts/
This boom period for life sims and management games shows no signs of recession. Here's another cozy-looking town building game which endeavors to steal away our nighttime hours with the thrill of friendship and logistics: Go-Go Town puts you in charge of a struggling tourist destination, and got a new trailer at the Future Games Show today, embedded above.

Team Fortress 2 players forlornly gaze at Counter-Strike 2 reveal: 'Maybe our day will come in another decade'
https://www.pcgamer.com/team-fortress-2-players-forlornly-gaze-at-counter-strike-2-reveal-maybe-our-day-will-come-in-another-decade/
Valve has announced Counter-Strike 2 is on the way and all the world is smiling. Well, nearly all. While plenty of people are happy to see Steam's perennial most-played game getting a much-deserved update, at least one other Valve game community feels, uh, a little neglected by the attention lavished on CS2.

Pioneering MMO designer details the hard lessons learned about griefing, skinning pets, and 'time to penis'
https://www.pcgamer.com/pioneering-mmo-designer-details-the-hard-lessons-learned-about-griefing-skinning-pets-and-time-to-penis/
At this year's GDC Richard Vogel gave a talk about, essentially, how hard it is to develop systems driven multiplayer games. And if anyone should know, it's this guy. Vogel worked on the groundbreaking Meridian 59, the first 3D MMO, before being headhunted to join Origin Systems as a senior producer on Ultima Online (UO), one of the most important and interesting MMOs ever made. 26 years on from release UO is still going strong, still producing great stories, and still has lessons for those looking to build the virtual worlds of tomorrow.

UK regulator U-turns on Activision acquisition, takes Microsoft's side on Call of Duty
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk-regulator-u-turns-on-activision-acquisition-takes-microsofts-side-on-call-of-duty/
If you can cast your mind as far back as last month, you might recall the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) suggested that if Microsoft was truly serious about acquiring Activision Blizzard, it should consider breaking up Activision Blizzard. (...)
Well, clear that from your mind. The CMA now says it's received "a significant amount of new evidence" in response to its findings last month, and has now reached a new provisional conclusion that the Activision acquisition "will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK," particularly insofar as COD is concerned.

And now, let's look at the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

• There's a new GIVEAWAY: Neurodeck: Psychological Deckbuilder. Available during the next 69 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/neurodeck_psychological_deckbuilder
• These are the 9 new Deals of the Day, that will last the whole weekend:
  • PositronX is 20% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/positronx
  • Archvale gets a 30% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/archvale
  • Meat Puppet is also 30% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/meat_puppet
  • Power of Ten gets a 50% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/power_of_ten
  • Superliminal also gets a 50% deal: https://www.gog.com/en/game/superliminal
  • Axis & Allies 1942 Online is 57% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/axis_allies_1942_online
  • Avernum 3: Ruined World gets a 60% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/avernum_3_ruined_world
  • AMID EVIL is 66% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/amid_evil
  • And the last one is The Smurfs - Mission Vileaf, with a 70% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_smurfs_mission_vileaf

+Steam

• Square Enix puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts until March 27: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/squareenix_publishersale23
• The Digital Tabletop Fest 3: Blood & Dice! brings up to 90% discounts. The sale should last until the 27th, but some deals will last much longer: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tabletopfest
• The Digging the Earth Bundle, featuring the games The Longing and Mutropolis, will be 52% off until March 30, same as the individual games: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/18084/Digging_the_Earth_Bundle/
• Rakuen gets a 70% discount until next Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/559210/Rakuen/
• Celeste gets a 75% discount until Thursday, 30: https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/
• Dovetail Games's March Madness Sale puts its trains up to 80% off until the 30th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/dovetailgames/sale/marchmadness2023
• STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order sports a 90% discount until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172380/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Fallen_Order/
• Curve Games' Buddy Up Sale features up to 74% discounts until the 6th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/curvedigital/sale/curvebuddyupsale
• And while it's not a discount, Men of War II runs another Tech Test this weekend. If you want to join, check here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128860/Men_of_War_II/

And that's it. Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.