Forza Motorsport Preloading Is Live, And The File Size Is Gigantic

Much like a Call of Duty player inching up the stairs behind a wily sniper, Microsoft are closing in on final, final approval of their multi-billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, having more-or-less won over the UK's competition and markets authority. The company expect to bring it home by 13th October.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has inadvertently shared his opinion on the issues modern AAA games are dealing with - revealing he thinks publishers are "milking" their successful IPs and "struggling" to find new ones. 

A whole lot of interesting (and occasionally awkward) secrets were revealed by the big Microsoft document leak that occurred last week. One of the most notable bits was a brutally frank analysis by Xbox boss Phil Spencer on the current state of major videogame publishers like Activision and Electronic Arts, who Spencer said are struggling to find relevance in an industry that just doesn't need them like it used to.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently claimed players could expect more Microsoft-published games coming from Japanese developers.

Key staff at Microsoft and Activision have responded to the news of CMA’s approval of their merger acquisition, amended to include Ubisoft.

From leaked court documents we now know that Microsoft dreamed up a «cloud hybrid» games console. One that would harness both the power of a local AMD Zen 6 or ARM CPU, a Navi 5 semi-custom GPU, and a cloud gaming platform to deliver «new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone.»

Over the weekend, over 120 documents were published to the United States District Court Northern District of California’s files website pertaining to the Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft Corporation case regarding Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

By Tom Warrenand Jay Peters

It looks like The Elder Scrolls 6 won't be releasing until 2026 at the very earliest, and our PlayStation pals are likely going to be missing out entirely.

Microsoft and Xbox representatives appeared in court earlier this year to get its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard legally greenlit. Per usual court proceedings, various emails, documents, and more were sealed away from the public and press, but many unseen documents leaked this morning. It's how we learned Xbox head Phil Spencer considered acquiring Nintendo and Warner Bros. Games at one point, and that Microsoft is planning an Xbox Series X/S refresh with a new controller for next year. Other documents point to potential remasters of Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, alongside other games. 

Xbox has made significant acquisitions this generation, like its $7.5 billion purchase of ZeniMax Media and its colossal $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Xbox and Microsoft spent a lot of time this year in courts working to get its purchase of Activision Blizzard legally approved, and many documents were sealed away from the public and press during these proceedings. However, various unseen documents from those court proceedings have leaked. One email reveals Xbox head Phil Spencer was considering an acquisition of Mario maker Nintendo and Mortal Kombat 1 publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (now known as Warner Bros. Games) at one point. 

Xbox boss Phil Spencer says the gap between AAA releases back in 2022 was a "disaster situation" for the team.