Washington, D.C. The highly anticipated action role-playing video game “Diablo IV” launched its early access on Thursday night. However, there were some delays, particularly for PlayStation players.

While many players who pre-purchased eligible “Diablo IV” editions experienced no problems with the early access launch, some PS5 users reported getting an invalid licensing error message. After initially stating that a server-side balance update had been implemented, Blizzard acknowledged the problem.

A software upgrade known as a hotfix focuses on a single problem and normally does not cause service interruptions.

The most recent game in the Blizzard “Diablo” series, which debuted in 1996, is titled “Diablo IV” and was released in May 2012. This is more than ten years after “Diablo III”‘s debut. Although the game’s early access began on Thursday, the launch is set for the following week.

Diablo’s general manager, Rod Fergusson, referred to “Diablo IV” as “our most brutal vision of Sanctuary,” the make-believe setting for the game. He continued, saying that it incorporates “the darkness of the original game” and expands on significant elements from other games in the franchise.

Activision Blizzard, the parent business of Blizzard Entertainment, announced in April that its net sales for the first quarter of 2023 increased to $2.38 billion from $1.77 billion. Activision reported that “Diablo IV” presales were robust, indicating that the game had undergone successful public testing.

What you need to know about “Diablo IV’s” upcoming official release and early access launch on Thursday is provided here.

WHEN DOES DIABLO IV COMMENCE?

Depending on your local time zone, “Diablo IV” will be formally published on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. The game will begin in the United States on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT).

Although “Diablo IV” is set to be on sale next week, early access started a few days earlier, on either Thursday or Friday, depending on where you are. Players who pre-purchased the game’s digital deluxe or ultimate edition were expected to have early access.

Additionally, some devices allow players who have previously purchased “Diablo IV” to pre-load the game. According to Blizzard, pre-loading is possible for Windows PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.

DIABLO IV “UNABLE TO FIND LICENCE”?

Although early access appeared to open without incident for the majority of gamers, some PS5 users reported receiving an error message that stated, “unable to find a valid licence for Diablo IV,” according to posts on Blizzard’s community forums and social media. Players on the PS5 appeared to be the ones most affected by the problem, but some other users said they also received the notice on Xbox and other platforms.

In a forum post late Thursday night, Blizzard recognized the PlayStation customers’ complaints. Adam Fletcher, director of global community development, later claimed that “Diablo IV” had received a server-side balance update implemented across all platforms.

How many early access players were affected by the problem is unknown. On Blizzard’s forum, some angry customers reported that they were still having access issues as of Friday morning.

The Associated Press requested statements from Blizzard and PlayStation on Friday morning.

WHAT CLASSES DO DIABLO IV CHARACTERS FALL INTO?

“Diablo IV” reportedly takes place decades after the events of “Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.” The angel Inarius and the demon Lilith have started a battle and are at odds.

In “Diablo IV,” players can choose from one of five classes: Druids, Rogues, Sorceresses, Barbarians, or Necromancers.

At launch, “Diablo IV” will support couch co-op and cross-platform play on Windows PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4, among other platforms.

Financial results for Activation for 2022, Microsoft Deal

In 2022, Activision, the company behind “Call of Duty,” “Candy Crush,” and “World of Warcraft,” recorded net revenues of $7.53 billion, a decrease from the $8.8 billion reported in 2021.

Microsoft revealed plans to buy Activision in January 2022, but the historic transaction is doubtful more than a year later. Last month, the European Union authorized the $69 billion purchase, but British regulators halted it due to concerns about competition. Authorities in the US are also attempting to block the merger.

Regulators worldwide have scrutinized the agreement because of concern that it will give Microsoft and its Xbox platform control of popular s. PlayStation maker rival Sony has led a ferocious opposition.

Activision and Microsoft have appealed to a tribunal about the U.K. ruling. Liam Deane, a gaming industry analyst at digital research and consultancy firm Omdia, previously told The Associated Press that if the appeal is unsuccessful, Microsoft would be compelled to either cancel the arrangement or carve out the U.K. as a distinct market, which appeared to be an impractical choice.

SOURCE – (AP)

NEW YORK – Heather Armstrong, a pioneering mommy blogger who shared her problems as a mother and her battles with depression and alcoholism on her website Dooce.com and on social media, died at age 47.

According to her boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, Armstrong committed herself, who discovered her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home.

According to Ashdown, Armstrong had been sober for almost 18 months but relapsed lately. He didn’t go into any greater detail.

Armstrong founded Dooce in 2001 with her ex-husband and business partner, Jon Armstrong, and has grown into a wealthy career. She was one of the first and most prominent mother bloggers, openly discussing her children, relationships, and other issues.

She turned her blog, Instagram, and other accomplishments into book sales, releasing a memoir in 2009 called “It Sucked, and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita.”

Armstrong was on Oprah and was named one of Forbes’ most powerful women in media.

The Armstrongs announced their divorce in 2012. Later that year, they divorced. She started dating Ashdown, a former U.S. senator, approximately six years ago. They shared a home with Armstrong’s children, Leta, 19, and Marlo, 13. He has three children from a previous marriage who spent time with them.

Armstrong didn’t hold back on Instagram or Dooce, a moniker inspired by her inability to quickly spell “dude” during online talks. Her candid, unapologetic tweets on topics ranging from pregnancy and breastfeeding to homework and carpooling were frequently laced with profanity. As her fame grew, so did the criticism, which accused her of poor parenting.

One of her Dooce postings mentioned a past success against drinking.

Armstrong was on Oprah and was named one of Forbes’ most powerful women in media.

“On October 8th, 2021, I celebrated six months of sobriety by myself on the floor next to my bed, feeling as if I were a wounded animal who wanted to be left alone to die,” Armstrong wrote. “No one in my life could comprehend how symbolic a victory it was for me, albeit… one fraught with tears and sobbing so violent that I thought my body would split in two at one point.” The anguish engulfed me in tidal waves of agony. It was difficult for me to breathe for a few hours.”

“Sobriety was not some mystery I had to solve,” she continued. It was simply examining my wounds and figuring out how to live with them.”

In her memoir, she detailed how her blog began as a method to share her pop culture opinions with distant pals. She wrote that her audience increased from a few acquaintances to thousands of strangers worldwide in a year.

Armstrong explained that she began writing about her personal life and, subsequently, an office job, and “how much I wanted to strangle my boss, often using words and phrases that would embarrass a sailor.”

Her boss discovered the website and fired her, she wrote. She pulled it down and restarted it six months later, writing about her new husband, Armstrong, and how unemployment caused them to relocate from Los Angeles to her mother’s basement in Utah.

She became pregnant very quickly. She said the pregnancy provided “an endless trove” of information, “but I truly believed that I would give it all up once I had the baby.”

She didn’t, but she did document her ups and downs as a new mother.

“I don’t think I would have survived it had I not offered up my story and reached out to bridge the loneliness,” she wrote.

Armstrong was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but later renounced the faith. Her memoir states she suffered from persistent depression for much of her life. After her marriage fell apart in 2017, the online celebrity called “the queen of the mommy bloggers” by The New York Times Magazine saw her popularity plummet.

According to an interview she gave Vox, her depression worsened, prompting her to register for a clinical trial at the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. She was placed in a chemically induced coma for ten sessions for 15 minutes.

“I felt like life was not meant to be lived,” Armstrong told Vox. “When you’re desperate enough, you’ll try anything.” I believed my children deserved a happy, healthy mother, and I needed to know that I had exhausted all possibilities to provide it for them.”

SOURCE – (AP)

LONDON, England – British antitrust officials halted Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard on Wednesday, delaying the largest technology transaction in history due to concerns that it will hinder competition for popular titles like Call of Duty in the fast-growing cloud gaming industry.

In its final report, the Competition and Markets Authority stated that “the only effective remedy” for the significant loss of competition “is to prohibit the Merger.” The firms have promised to file an appeal.

The all-cash deal announced 15 months ago faced stiff opposition from rival Sony, which manufactures the PlayStation gaming system and was also under scrutiny by regulators in the United States and Europe over concerns that it would give Microsoft and its Xbox console control of hit franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

According to Liam Deane, a game industry analyst for research firm Omdia, the UK watchdog’s decision “surprised most people” and adds to global doubt over the arrangement.

“It’s a big enough market to throw a serious spanner in the works for Microsoft and Activision, but things will get a lot worse if the European Commission makes the wrong decision in a few weeks,” he warned.

The UK watchdog was concerned about the deal’s impact on cloud gaming, which streams to tablets, phones, and other devices and saves gamers money on expensive consoles and gaming computers. Gamers can continue to play popular Activision products, including mobile games like Candy Crush, on their preferred platforms.

Microsoft secured deals with Nintendo and some cloud gaming companies to license Activision properties, such as Call of Duty.

According to Martin Colman, chair of the Competition and Markets Authority’s independent expert panel reviewing the acquisition, cloud gaming can transform the industry by offering gamers more choices over how and where they play.

“This means we must protect competition in this emerging and exciting market,” he explained.

The ruling reinforces Europe’s position as a global leader in attempts to limit the dominance of Big Tech firms. A day earlier, the government of the United Kingdom proposed draught legislation that would give regulators more authority to safeguard consumers from online fraud and phony reviews while also increasing digital competition.

The verdict in the United Kingdom undermines Microsoft’s hopes that a favorable conclusion would help it resolve a lawsuit filed by the United States Federal Trade Commission. The trial before the FTC’s in-house judge is scheduled to begin on August 2. Meanwhile, the European Union’s decision is scheduled on May 22.

Activision reacted angrily, claiming that the watchdog’s decision sends a negative signal to international investors in the United Kingdom when the British economy faces serious issues.

The California-based game developer said it would “work aggressively” with Microsoft to appeal, claiming that the action “contradicts the ambitions of the United Kingdom” to be a desirable location for tech firms.

“We will reconsider our growth plans for the United Kingdom.” “Global innovators of all sizes will note that, despite its rhetoric, the United Kingdom is closed for business,” Activision stated.

Based in Redmond, Washington, Activision Microsoft indicated it was not ready to quit.

“We remain fully committed to this acquisition and will file an appeal,” said President Brad Smith. He says the decision “rejects a pragmatic path to address competition concerns” and hinders tech innovation and investment in the UK.

“We’re especially disappointed that this decision reflects a flawed understanding of this market and how the relevant cloud technology works,” Smith added.

In a blog post, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stated that both businesses had begun working on an appeal to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal.

This isn’t the first time British regulators have stretched their antitrust muscles over a Big Tech transaction. They had earlier banned Facebook parent Meta’s acquisition of Giphy because of concerns that it would hinder innovation and competition. The social media behemoth appealed the ruling to the tribunal but was unsuccessful and was obliged to sell the GIF-sharing platform.

Microsoft already has a significant foothold in the broader cloud computing business, and regulators judged that the transaction would strengthen the company’s position by giving it control of key gaming titles.

To assuage fears, Microsoft secured deals with Nintendo and some cloud gaming companies to license Activision properties, such as Call of Duty, for ten years while giving the same to Sony.

A request for comment from Sony’s European press office still needs to be returned.

The watchdog evaluated Microsoft’s remedies “in considerable depth” but determined that they would necessitate its control, whereas stopping the merger would allow cloud gaming to flourish without intervention.

Cloud gaming accounts for a minor portion of the £5 billion ($6.2 billion) video game market in the United Kingdom. However, experts predict that it will grow rapidly in the next years, with user numbers tripling from the beginning of 2021 to the end of 2022. According to authorities, the cloud game market is likely to reach £1 billion by 2026.

They dismissed worries that the arrangement would harm console gaming last month, claiming that making Call of Duty exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox system would be counterproductive.

SOURCE. – (AP)