Deal News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Sony has revealed their response to Microsoft’s recently closed acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.

In Q3 2023, gaming companies announced 33 M&A transactions worth roughly $5 billion according to Drake Star’s latest report. While announced deal value is up compared to recent quarters, the quarter had the lowest number of transactions since Q1 2021. Compared to the same quarter of last year, the number of announced deals fell 60%.

A new class of competition is disrupting legacy media in the world's most-populous nation, leading to a second change in the ownership of a popular franchise in four years. Rupert Murdoch was the first to see the threat. Now it's Bob Iger's turn.

iBUYPOWER Slate 5 MR 310a | Ryzen 7 7700X | RTX 4080 | 32GB DDR5-5200 | 1TB SSD | 2TB HDD | 800W PSU | $2599.99 $2249.00 at B&H Photo (save $350.99)With Alan Wake 2 nearer release and promising some of the most spectacular visuals seen in gaming, what better time to get yourself a new gaming PC that easily meets all of the game's hardware requirements. The Ryzen 7 7700X is a great all-round CPU and that RTX 4080 is ridiculously powerful. The amount of RAM is decent, though it is a little on the slow side. Alan Wake 2 also needs to be installed on a SSD, so you could always swap out the HDD for a cheap, large capacity solid state drive.

Ukraine-based cloud gaming service Boosteroid was certainly among the happiest parties when Microsoft formally announced the closure of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, as testified by this tweet.

The Halloween and Thanksgiving season is around the corner which rings the bell for the biggest sale of the season, the Black Friday sale 2023. We still have a little time left till the sale kicks off, however, multinational retailer Walmart is now offering an early Black Friday deal on the Apple Watch SE (Gen 1). So if you are someone who's been wanting an Apple smartwatch to keep track of physical activities then check out this huge price cut which might save you a lot of money.

Xbox’s leadership team visited Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine, California today for the first time since Microsoft completed its acquisition of the Diablo developer.

Hasbro and Marvel are teaming up in a multi-year, multi-set deal to release Marvel characters and stories in Magic: The Gathering .

I'm a Windows PC lady, but I do love me some Apple. That's why I'm on the lookout for record low prices on the brand's tech every day - these devices are expensive, so discounts make all the difference. There's no better time to buy an iPad than Black Friday, but the price I was expecting to see on the 9th generation entry level tablet in November has just appeared early. 

Or if you feel like future-proofing your PS5, you can grab a big discount on a 4TB SSD instead.

Microsoft Office remains the default productivity suite for many, and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are practically required skills for professionals and students. Unfortunately, many new Macs and PCs don't come with Office installed. But, you can now get a lifetime license to the entire Microsoft Office suite from Keysfan Happy Halloween Sale for just $27.75 -- over 95% off what you would normally pay for this version. Also, check out the huge discounts on Windows 10 Pro! MS Windows 10 Pro is $8.78 which is almost 90% off the original price! But this is not Keysfan’s floor price yet. The price of the multi-keys package will take your breath away. Buy MS Office 2021 Pro 5PC and you will get each PC for $15.43. It’s the same as Windows 10 Pro. Buy Windows 2 Keys for $15.25 which means $7.63/PC. There are a huge number of software keys here, you can definitely find what you need. Browse below to find more discounted products!

As the festive season is here, Flipkart is offering massive discounts on the top smartphones which can grab buyers' attention. If you are someone who has been planning to buy an iPhone for the longest time then right now Flipkart is offering huge discounts on iPhone 14. Buying an Apple iPhone might be expensive, however, with this great price cut, you will be able to save a lot of money. Check out the discount here.

In today's fast-paced world, having a laptop is essential for everyone, not just working adults but also for students. If you're a college student, you need a powerful yet portable laptop. Good news! At the Amazon Sale 2023, you can get top-quality laptops at up to 50% off. Plus, there's an extra 10 percent discount with an SBI card. You will also enjoy cashback and free delivery during the Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023. Don't miss out on these fantastic deals as the festive season approaches.

You might raise your eyebrow at me posting about tabletop RPG bundles two days in a row, and I wouldn't blame you. But I'm afraid I can't just ignore a deal this good on not one but three great Warhammer RPGs. 

Dell is technically offering some free cash with a purchase of Sony's premium DualSense Edge controller.

Want to gift yourself an iPhone? If yes, then this might be the right time to spend your money on a premium purchase. Because of the ongoing Festive season, various e-commerce platforms are offering amazing deals on iPhones. Currently, Flipkart is providing an exciting deal on iPhone 14 Plus. Apart from the massive price cut, Flipkart has also rolled out an exchange deal and bank offers that too can reduce the price by a large amount. Check to know more about the offer:

Google pays as much as $10 billion per year to ensure that users access the internet through its search engine — payments that have blocked startups and fellow tech giants Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. from competing, according to the US Justice Department.

Ahead of TwitchCon Las Vegas, creator Nicholas “Nickmercs” Kolcheff has announced he will expand on to competitor Kick.com. The exact details were not disclosed, but the one year non-exclusive deal was for eight figures. Nickmercs will continue to stream on Twitch, but the majority of his broadcast hours will shift to Kick.

Embracer's scythe continues to swing in the wake of a collapsed $2 billion deal, and the latest victim, reportedly, is Zen Studios. According to Videogamelayoffs, one of its sources at the Hungarian studio told it that 32 staffers at the Pinball FX studio were laid off last Friday.

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is finally done, and so we can finally stop talking about it! Or, well, at least we can stop talking about the annoying will-they-or-won't-they regulatory side of it. Now it's time to talk about the games! We discuss Activision-Blizzard games in the back catalog that we'd like to see lightly refreshed for the Xbox Series X|S (similar to the recent Quake 2 remaster), before taking turns talking about which of their IPs we'd like to see Microsoft bring back as a brand-new game. Plus: Starfield tops the sales charts, Bethesda's "Uncle Pete" Hines says goodbye, and more!

For gamers, one of the most alluring possibilities created by Microsoft's finally-completed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the prospect of games like Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch on Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service is already a hell of a deal, and adding annualized iterations of Call of Duty plus everything Blizzard does makes it even more attractive. And it will no doubt happen eventually, but not anytime soon: Activision said last week that its games won't arrive on Game Pass until 2024 at the earliest, and in a recent interview with the Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that timeline is «accurate.»

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is currently available to pre-order for £37.50 at UK retailer Currys.

US publishing giant Activision reportedly made a deal to feature a gun made by Remington in 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Sony Interactive Entertainment could respond to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard with a major deal of its own.

Content warning: This article discusses violence towards children.

Finding a good Black Friday gaming laptop deal isn't as clear cut and straightforward as it should be. The portable gaming market constantly changes in prices and specs, and retailers have a tendency to artificially inflate the price of something they want to get rid of every now and then. So it's difficult to know how much is too much for a gaming laptop. Well, fear not, as here's the perfect crib sheet for you to use, with rough prices that I think you should expect to pay for a gaming laptop over the deals season.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has teamed up with ChatGPT owner OpenAI to offer clients advice generated by artificial intelligence as the Big Four audit firms look to cut costs and boost productivity.

US tech giant Microsoft has completed its acquisition of games giant Activision Blizzard.

Since the Activision merger was announced in January last year, it’s been all we’ve talked about. No gaming news has quite lived up to this giant behemoth, edging ever more closely to the finish line. And it probably never will again.

Xbox maker Microsoft closed its $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,75,620 crore) deal for Activision Blizzard on Friday, swelling its heft in the video-gaming market with best-selling titles including Call of Duty to better compete with industry leader Sony.

Update: It's the second day of the Big Deal Days sale, which means new deals are live and ready to be snapped up. Check out the best PlayStation offerings below!

Toyota has struck a deal with fellow Japanese company Idemitsu Kosan to mass produce ultra-high-range EVs with solid-state batteries.

With Microsoft's $69bn Activision Blizzard acquisition now officially a done deal as of today, Ubisoft has been discussing its new ownership of all Activision Blizzard streaming rights, which also kick in today — and as part of the conversation, it's talked a little about physical media, saying that while interesting might decline as streaming rises, it doesn't think it's «going away».

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

MSI Vector GP68HX | Nvidia RTX 4080 | Intel Core i9 12900H | 16-inch | 1080p | 144Hz | 16GB | 1TB NVMe SSD | $2,099$1,699 at Newegg (save $400)A 175W RTX 4080 laptop for $1,699? Where do we sign up? This MSI 16 incher has a last-gen Intel CPU. But it's still a monster chip. The rest of the specs are decent, too, including 144Hz refresh, Thunderbolt 4, 90Whr battery and a per-key RGB SteelSeries keyboard.

The fact that Xbox even made a trailer celebrating the closure of its Activision Blizzard acquisition, like it's the last big hitter of an E3 showcase, is bizarre enough, if unsurprising. But the sheer, goggle-eyed, 'Let's hear it for capitalism' chest-beating of the thing is, well, I wish I could say otherworldly, but absolutely strange to say the least. 

The Communications Workers of America (CWA), one of America's largest unions, believes Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard will «transform» the video game and technology labour market.

The decision in Microsoft's legal case against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a historic one, but for those who don't have a law degree, it can be hard to understand. The case surrounds the Microsoft Corporation's attempt to purchase the game developing and publishing powerhouse Activision Blizzard, Inc., an enormous conglomerate that counts,, and among its flagship properties. Microsoft first announced its plans to buy Activision Blizzard in January 2022, and the FTC's review began shortly thereafter. The legal battle began in earnest by June 2023, when the FTC filed its first documentation in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Following the news that Microsoft has finally closed the Activision deal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed that he will not be leaving the company until next year - as per Xbox boss Phil Spencer's request. 

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has given players on rival consoles, most notably PS5, some reassuring words about future exclusivity, or lack thereof. 

Following the final stamp of approval from UK regulator CMA and respecting last week's rumor, Microsoft has just announced the closure of its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, ending an odyssey that lasted nearly 21 months (639 days, to be exact).

After one year, eight months, and 26 days, Xbox has finally completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, meaning it now owns premium video game franchises including Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo.

And just like that, our shared 21-month slog is over. Long live our new, possibly lifelong slog. In a press release today, titled «Microsoft concession a gamechanger that will promote competition,» the UK's Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has announced that it's approving Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, reversing its April decision to block the deal and clearing the way for the deal to close in the very near future.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has finally given the nod to Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The UK’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has given its official approval of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, more than five months after it initially blocked the deal. 

Microsoft and Activision leadership have now chimed in with their responses to CMA’s approval of their merger acquisition deal.

The CMA has approved the amended Microsoft – Activision – Ubisoft deal and cleared the path for Microsoft to finalize their acquisition of Activision Blizzard King.

The UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has given Microsoft its consent to acquire Activision Blizzard following a restructuring of the deal and major concession made by Microsoft.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved Microsoft's revised deal to purchase Activision Blizzard.

It has been a long time coming, but Microsoft’s near-two year attempt to buy gaming giant Activision is finally happening, after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) accepted a restructured proposal that addresses the CMA’s concerns about Microsoft dominating the cloud gaming market.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

Microsoft’s long-running pursuit of Activision Blizzard looks set to come to an end today after the UK finally cleared the deal and stock in the Call of Duty maker was halted.

It was previously discovered that Google enticed Apple with a $20 billion deal that allows the search engine to remain the default on its millions of devices. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella even spoke of this partnership at a testimonial, believing that it gives the technology giant an unfair advantage in the market, but it is possible that this alliance might be coming to an end, assuming that an antitrust trial ends up going against Google’s favor.

Loongson has shared two major developments this week which include the launch of its 3A6000 CPUs in the Chinese domestic market and a Russian deal for its 3A5000 CPUs.

The European Union is not going to be looking into the new deal Microsoft has proposed in acquiring Activision Blizzard.

After the WGA writers' strike finally came to an end after over 100 days, you might have been anticipating the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike following suit as the union and studios headed back to the negotiating table. 

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Amid the sensational US Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust case against Google, where the legality of the company's deal with Apple is under contention, through which it has become the default search engine on iPhones, a new report has made a major revelation on just how much is being paid. The antitrust case intends to find whether anti-competition practices were used by Google to keep itself as the default search engine on iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and other models. Recently Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in the case and called it a ‘problematic' behavior of tech companies to strike exclusive deals with platforms to keep competition away.

Expanding your Xbox Series X|S is as simple as plugging in this slick expansion card from WD Black.

It's looking increasingly likely Microsoft's proposed $69bn USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard will have cleared its final hurdle if — as is widely expected — UK regulators approve the revised deal later this week; it's being reported EU regulators won't require an investigation into the revised terms, clearing the way for the acquisition to conclude.

I'm looking around at today's Prime Day gaming PC deals, and I keep coming back to this $330 discount on the Yeyian Yumi prebuilt. Newegg has the RTX 4060 rig down to just $869.99 (was $1,199.99) in the retailer's competing sale, a price that's embarrassing other offers right now. 

Microsoft has released a new version of its $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Per Bloomberg, the adjusted deal has been made to appease the European Commission (EU) and ensure the Xbox maker doesn't get investigated a second time. 

Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days are a great time to pick up a tablet for gifting to someone else or yourself, as the company's affordable line of Fire tablets get even less expensive, and its other devices like Kindles get cheaper as well. But we also see a lot of other manufacturers getting into the mix to earn that “add to cart” click as well, which means right now is a great time to lock in triple-digit savings on iPads, Galaxy tablets, and more. Here are the best deals available right now for tablets during Prime Big Deal Days:

It may seem a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but today's Prime Day Lego sale - and some copycat offers - clearly like to be organized. And honestly, looking at them with their minifigures in Christmas jumpers is too sweet. My heart can't take it. Actually, I may now have diabetes from sweetness overload.

The LG OLED C2 is one of my favorite gaming screens, and I'm thrilled to say that a Prime Day TV deal has brought it back down to its lowest price. For just over a grand, you can currently grab a display that'll let your PS5 and Xbox Series X strut its 4K 120Hz stuff, not to mention it'll transform games and movies with its exceptional contrast capabilities. You'll need to be quick, though, as this is a proper 'Big Deal Days' offer that'll likely vanish come midnight. Over at Amazon right now, the 55-inch LG OLED C2 is down from $1,499.99 to just $1,096.99, thanks to the hearty Prime Day gaming deal mentioned above. While the best gaming TV contender has popped up for a similar amount before, it's still the lowest price on record for the premium panel. Naturally, that means there's never been a better time to pick one up, especially if you'd rather upgrade your living room setup sooner than later.

Breaking open boxes of Warhammer 40K, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, and the rest on Christmas morning is a fond memory for lots of us - including me. And if you were toying with the idea of getting back into the hobby over the next few months or trying it for the first time (perhaps even during the Christmas holidays), it seems as if someone heard you. I spotted a Prime Day discount that brings the brand-new Warhammer 40,000 Starter Set to its lowest price... except the deal isn't actually at Amazon at all.

I've got to talk about the fantastic Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, too. It's the best gaming laptop I've tested from this generation and, while it wasn't a bad price at launch compared to the competition, it's now a stonking deal. Technical term, that. The GPU is powerful, there's a ton of DDR5 memory, and the CPU is a serious bit of silicon, too.

The Sims 4 base game is great on its own, but everyone knows the real content is in the expansion packs. If there’s one you’ve had your eye on getting for a while, you’ll want to get it now during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days.

Google's Sundar Pichai raised concerns years before he became the company's chief executive officer that its deal with Apple Inc. had bad “optics” because there was no choice of which search engine to use in the company's web browser.

Prime Day. Prime Early Access.Prime Big Deal Days. I don’t care what they call it, Amazon always finds a way to hand out some awesome tech deals throughout the year. This go-around, Prime Big Deal Days 2023 is giving us two days to pick up some great tech before the gauntlet of holiday shopping begins. The Prime Big Deal Days 2023 has already started and ends Wednesday at midnight, so we’ve gathered some of our favorite deals to give you a head start on your search.

A top notch television looks fantastic when you're watching your favorite show or movie. Nothing beats a giant 4K screen with glorious HDR. But Samsung's The Frame TV might be the only one that looks great on your wall even when turned off. It becomes a canvas for your favorite artwork rather than an ugly black rectangle on your wall. And right now, you can get a massive discount with Amazon's Prime Day deals.

Yeyian Yumi | Core i5 12400F | Nvidia RTX 4060 | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 1TB SSD | $1,199.99$869.99 at Newegg (save $330)This is a good deal for a mid-tier gaming PC, especially when many rigs around this price are delivering you an RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti. The Core i5 is still a solid CPU today, and RTX 4060 is probably the mainstream GPU of Nvidia's current generation of cards you'd expect in a budget build, comfortably beating both those RTX 30-series mainstays, and with the added panacea of DLSS 3.5 and Frame Generation. You also get a full 16GB RAM and a full 1TB NVMe SSD.

I've been covering sales events for quite a while now, and frankly, this might be the best Prime Day Lego deal I've seen in a long time.

Alienware 34 AW3423DWF | 34-inch | 165Hz | QD-OLED | $1,099.99$849.99 at Best Buy (save $250) Alienware's fancy QD-OLED panel just got that little bit cheaper. It's still not exactly entry-level at $850, but it was $1,000 very recently. And think of it as a long term investment that will make every single gaming session pop. Once you've experienced per-pixel OLED-style lighting, you won't want to go back to LCD tech. You can read our Alienware QD-OLED review for more.

Amazon's Big Deal Days event is upon us. Two days during which Prime subscribers are subjected to a deluge of deals on just about everything imaginable. Video games, controllers, plushes, and more. That more includes Funko Pops, and there are a lot of them available for less right now. Perhaps most notably Pokemon Pops with three of them having their prices cut to just $5.

I've played 32 games this year, and I own three of them. That's the reality of our Game Pass world, and to be honest it's one I'm pretty happy with. Having the luxury of a wad of gaming phones by my side certainly helps with the streamable titles, but nothing comes in quite so handy as the Backbone One. It's not just Game Pass, though. I find myself linking up to my PS5 with the PlayStation Edition just as often, running through the PS Plus catalog from the lazy comfort of bed. 

We've seen PS5 deals revving their engines for the first time this year, but nothing has come close to the value on offer this Prime Day at Dell. You can grab a free $100 gift card with the new generation console right now, essentially bringing the $499.99 MSRP down to $399.99. 

Prime Big Deal Days are here, and it's time to knock out your holiday shopping early with some major price drops on some of the biggest names in electronics. If you're an Apple fan, you know discounts are sometimes hard to come by, but Amazon is offering price drops on some of Apple's top sellers.

Razer is synonymous with premium gaming laptops, and the prices it sets are a clear indication of the quality you’re getting. This means whenever you have the chance to jump on one of its products for a fraction of the price, it’s a worthwhile investment. This Razer Blade 15 Prime Day deal will save you over $1,300 and give you your ideal gaming laptop for the next five years.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.