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Oil Price Spike Strengthens Business Case for Replacing Polluting Diesel Trucks With Cleaner Alternatives, Especially RNG, Updated Energy Vision Report Finds

The NGO Energy Vision today issued an update of its 2025 report "A Path to a Healthier America: Ditching Old Diesel Trucks" which explores replacing aging, polluting heavy-duty diesel trucks with clean alternatives. The updated version takes into account the 60% rise in diesel prices (currently $6.23/gallon nationwide, $8.15 in California) since the Iran War.

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Sep 14 • 4:19 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Athletic Club forward Williams retires from Ghana duty

Inaki Williams says the time has come to bring his journey with the Black Stars to an end four years after making his international debut.

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Sep 11 • 12:18 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Former employee sues Activision Blizzard, claiming sexual harassment and discrimination

A former employee of Activision Blizzard is suing the Santa Monica-based "Call of Duty" maker, alleging she was sexually harassed and subject to retaliation. In a lawsuit filed in Los

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Sep 11 • 12:04 PM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com
Manchester United handed new boost after shock selection decision confirmed

One of Michael Carrick’s key stars will not be travelling on international duty

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Sep 10 • 5:09 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Xbox Game Pass adds Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War today

Xbox Game Pass is adding Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War today, allowing players on the service to check out another entry in this popular shooter series.

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Sep 8 • 6:12 AM EDT • Technology • trueachievements.com
Seventeen's DK embarks on Army duty after heartfelt message to fans

Seventeen member DK begins his military service Tuesday, becoming the sixth member of the group to enlist. His agency, Pledis Entertainment, announ...

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Sep 8 • 4:36 AM EDT • Entertainment • koreatimes.co.kr
Physician advocacy is a duty, not a political choice

Physician advocacy is collapsing just as public health needs it most. See why administrators clamping down on physician speech turns silence into consent.

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Sep 7 • 3:00 PM EDT • Politics • kevinmd.com
Combat and socially agonised teens impress in Persona 4 Revival, the RPG that series director Kazuhisa Wada feels a "duty" to make

As a newcomer to the series, Persona 4 Revival looks to offer a good entry point. Though the developers are aiming it at their faithful.

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Sep 7 • 9:30 AM EDT • Technology • rockpapershotgun.com
Adrian Dunbar: Home, Irish unity and his new Line of Duty catchphrase

Actor Adrian Dunbar chats about how his heritage has shaped his life, his career and his politics.

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Sep 5 • 1:44 AM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Leandro Paredes may quit Argentina duty after suspension, Messi retirement

Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes has admitted his international career could be over due to his 10-game ban and the retirement of Lionel Messi.

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Sep 3 • 4:48 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Messi to get mid-game tribute by soccer teams across Argentina after international retirement

Soccer teams across Argentina will pay tribute to Lionel Messi with a mid-game minute of applause during their next match following his decision to retire from international duty. Referees will pause play at the 10-minute mark of every match in the upcoming round of the Clausura tournament, as well as in other men's and women's leagues in Argentina, in appreciation of Messi’s career with the national team, the Argentine Football Association said late Wednesday. The 39-year-old Messi, who wore the No. 10 jersey for Argentina, announced on Monday he will no longer play for the national team after 21 years of service.

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Sep 3 • 6:54 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
gamescom 2026’s Steam wishlist winners

gamescom wrapped up last weekend, and it was bloody fantastic. It really felt like the industry had a spring in its step again. The show itself was BUZZING, with 368K attendees (+3% over last year), maxed-out exhibit space, and Opening Night Live pulling over 78M online views (+7.5%). Let’s have a look at the games at the event that brought in the most new Steam wishlists between August 23 and 30. One quick thing before we start, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but wishlists are NOT a barometer for launch sales (they’re bookmarks, not baskets is what we always say over here at Alinea). With that aside, wishlists are a nice gauge of hype, so let’s dive in. Witche(r)s and Warlocks take the top two spots The biggest game of the event (by new wishlists, anyways) wasn’t a game at all. It was an expansion. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, nabbed 451K Steam wishlists by the end of the weekend. It’s a big example of something we bang on about constantly: proven IP with built-in fandom is the most powerful force in this market. But said IP can also ripple into other external success stories (more on that later!). Anyway, Songs of the Past debuted at Opening Night Live, and it’s the first Witcher 3 expansion in over a decade, landing next year after a full Witcher 3 remaster (free for existing owners!) arrives next month. The Witcher 3 has sold around 66M copies, and I’ll be one of those owners jumping back in to refresh myself on the core game (like there isn’t enough to play!), then play the expansion next year. This is all part of CDPR’s plan. The studio is clearly whetting everyone’s appetite for The Witcher 4 in 2028 via a classic bridge strategy. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Releasing a free 4K remaster next month – followed by a proper expansion in 2027 – keeps IP top-of-mind across a huge gap between content (games-wise, anyway). It kind of echoes Capcom’s evergreen catalogue strategy. And outsourcing co-development to Fool’s Theory (a studio led by trusted Witcher 3 veterans) keeps CDPR’s internal headcount focused on The Witcher 4. #2 by wishlists between Aug 23 and 30 went to another giant IP: Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast and developed by Invoke Studios (a team of ex-Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell devs). It’s due to launch in 2027, and it looks brilliant so far. It’s a dark-fantasy open world with third-person spell-slinging. It’s a very Witcher-ish aesthetic. As you might expect, 48% of Warlock’s Steam wishlisters have played Baldur’s Gate 3, and 46% have played The Witcher 3. One to watch. For sure! Mash-ups: Anime GTA (!?) and a city-builder for kids (and adults) Ananta took #3 with 302K new wishlists. It’s an open-world game that looks like GTA and Persona had a baby. It was published by NetEase, developed by Naked Rain, and got a trailer at Opening Night Live. I got hands-on at the show, and it wears its influences openly; there’s literal web-slinging (very Spider-Man) and a LOAD of mini-games (Like a Dragon). It’s free-to-play and out in January. For Ananta, Naked Rain is taking the free-to-play, cosmetics-only route. That’s certainly a choice for a single-player open-world game. Without gacha mechanics driving high ARPU, Ananta is betting purely on top-of-funnel reach and long-term retention. This puts pressure on skin appeal when there’s no multiplayer lobby to flex in (although, co-op is reportedly coming later). Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Then there’s Lego Skylines (273K wishlists between Aug 23 and 30), which does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a cosy Lego twist on the city-builder genre, as shallow or as deep as you fancy (five min quick sesh or ten-hour no-lifer session; latter for me). There’s some family-friendly stuff in there like couch co-op, which is only really viable on console. Iceflake Studios, which Paradox acquired back in 2020 is developing this one. So Paradox is probably looking for a family-friendly onramp to its rad Cities: Skylines games. The overlap there is plain, with 33% of Lego Skylines wishlisters having played Cities: Skylines and 16% Skylines II. There’s no doubt plenty of parents here (and uncles, ahem) planning to indoctrinate the next gen of city-builders. I’ll definitely be playing with my youngest nephew. This one could be big and educational. I’m very curious to see more. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Mature IP, new and old, rounds out the list As for the rest of the list of gamescom games by new wishlists between Aug 23 and 30: Heroes of Might & Magic III Remake got 189K new wishlists. It remakes the iconic 1999 turn-based-strategy classic in full 3D and 4K. It follows this year’s Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (~1.8M copies sold, as per our estimates), and around a quarter of the III Remake wishlisters have played Olden Era, including 7% of them this month. Wardogs – a $40 PvP shooter – added another 146K to an already massive pile (nearly 1.6M total). It’s published by Team17 and made by Bulkhead. It plays somewhere between the tactical squad stuff of … Squad and the all-out-chaos battlefield of … Battlefield. It’s up to 100 players, and it’s out in about 10 days. It’s already pre-sold over 500K copies on Steam ($16.6M), boosted by a pre-order-only beta. It sold another 70K copies during gamescom, too. Afterworld managed 121K new wishlists. It’s a Paradox-made post-apocalyptic grand-strategy game, and it was announced at the show. It’s a departure from Paradox’s usual historical stuff, and the studio’s first new setting in over a decade. The Paradox purists are into it, with over half its wishlisters having played Hearts of Iron IV (19% this month) and 41% Crusader Kings III (17% this month). Metro 2039 got 110K during the show, tunnelling its total past 1.3M. Nearly 40% of wishlisters have played 2020’s Metro Exodus, the previous mainline title in the series. The Metro novels are Russian, dev 4A Games is Ukrainian, and it’s set in Moscow, so it’s unsurprising that – after the US (17.3% of wishlisters) – the next two countries are Russia (12.7%) and Ukraine (10.0%). The Blood of the Dawnwalker drew in (the blood of) 108K new wishlisters, now totalling an impressive 1.7M (at a $70 price point, though). It’s an open-world dark-fantasy action-RPG set in 14th-century Europe (with vampires!), made by some former Witcher devs at Rebel Wolves. Again, it shows. Over half of Blood of the Dawnwalker’s wishlisters have played The Witcher 3, and its #2 market is Poland, home of Rebel Wolves. That’s that hometown-hero effect we keep banging on about again! And Blood of the Dawnwalker plays very well, by the way. While it looks like a Witcher clone on the surface, it actually brings a lot to the table mechanics-wise. I love the whole time-as-a-currency spin on RPG gameplay. It gives the game a different, refreshing pace. Essentially, you start Blood of the Dawnwalker with a pool of 480 action points spread across 30 days and 30 nights. As for how the game performs, we’ll be posting some numbers next week, so hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready. Subscribe The Witcher’s legacy ripples Make no mistake: on a high level, this was The Witcher‘s gamescom. The #1 game by wishlisters was a Witcher 3 DLC. Warlock is clearly Witcher-inspired – as is Blood of the Dawnwalker, which was made by ex-Witcher devs. There was a lot of other cool stuff on the floor that we’ll no doubt be covering in subsequent newsletters, though! As always, wishlists went through the roof for sequels, remakes, DLC, and licensed IP. As always, though, these wishlists will likely convert to about 5% to 10% of launch-day buyers, with the probable exception of The Witcher DLC – the exception that proves the rule. Either way, we’ve got a nice, diverse list here – one that is very Witcher-y, Paradox-y, and – if you’re a fan of great games on Steam – a bloody good list. We even got a bunch of new IP to get excited for. Great gamescom! Even if we are still processing that unfathomable number of mini Kölsch beers! One more thing: GTA 6 broke the internet (again) Move aside, Spider-Man and The Odyssey (I love you both, really). But the decade’s defining entertainment zeitgeist is round the corner. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Rockstar dropped an extended look at GTA 6 last week. It was INSANE, the most impressed I’ve ever been by a showcase like this. You can see the budget seeping through every second of the extended look, and this level of game is unobtainable for any other publisher. Everyone’s going nuts, and rightly so. GTA 6 is out in holiday 2026, and it’ll be the biggest entertainment release ever, full stop. For those without a PS5 or Xbox Series console, a $500-$900 console is a big ask in this economy, but GTA will pull a lot of last-generation-console fence sitters over the current-gen fence either way: The autumn timing puts GTA 6 on (digital) shelves for the holidays, meaning a PS5 or Xbox (let’s be honest, mostly the former) will be on many a Christmas and Hanukkah list. Demand will outweigh the struggling supply, though, and PS5 Pros are already sold out and being sold at a markup via scalpers. Every console that isn’t on a shelf is a sale deferred or lost, and worse, it hands scalpers the margin. GTA has cultural clout that reaches everyone. It’s been a mainstream fixture since 2001’s GTA III and its clout has only grown exponentially since then. There’s a touchpoint for every generation alive. The FOMO-word-of-mouth double punch does the rest. Loading... It’ll reactivate the lockdown cohort, the millions who picked up gaming in 2020-21 and churned. GTA 6 will bring them back. Remember when College Football 25 brought a bunch of US gamers to current-gen consoles? GTA will do that globally. Once they’re back (or upgraded), and all GTA’d out, the fresh current-gen-console folks will check out the rest of the current-gen catalogue they missed. GTA Online, if not free to play, will also lead to a boost for PS+ and Xbox Game Pass, another boost for the ecosystem players. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Even some of the smug PCMR 60FPS crew won’t be able to resist their FOMO and will bite the bullet on a console to play this one early (then double dip). The consoles cost the same as a decent stick of RAM these days anyway lmao… Don’t get me wrong, though. GTA 6 is no silver bullet for the mature console market, but it does prime the current gen for a couple of strong swan-song years. And it’ll also give the consoles more users from which to maximise ARPU. ‘’We are in the latter half of the lifetime cycle of [the PS5],’’ said Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki in a Wall Street Journal interview. ‘’That means we do not need to aggressively sell the console today; rather than that, we are focusing on the current revenue from the current user base.’’ The biggest, best premium games always arrive late in a console cycle, so getting more players aboard now, ahead of that content storm (the new current-gen-only Call of Duty included), is a clear win for the platforms. On the Netflix thing, though: let’s all chill out a bit, like. Half my LinkedIn feed was going bonkers treating the reveal debuting on Netflix like it’s the future of entertainment. It wasn’t. It was a six-hour head start, and Netflix left that detail out of the “first-of-its-kind partnership” press release. The extended look hit Netflix at 3pm ET on 27 August, then went up on YouTube and Rockstar’s site for everyone six hours later. And it was all over social immediately, anyways. This reveal was going to reach an untold number of people whether it debuted on Netflix, YouTube, a Times Square screen, or a group chat. The last trailer did nearly half a billion views in a day with no gatekeeper at all. Netflix just stood next to that audience for six hours, borrowing it. It’s was a tidy deal for Netflix, sure. But every outlet on earth was breaking the thing down frame by frame by the evening anyway. Anyway. I’m hype. And we’ll be covering some GTA numbers on the newsletter soon. So hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready! Subscribe The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]

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Sep 1 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • alineaanalytics.substack.com
Off-duty firefighter helps stop Elkhart County business fire

No injuries were reported after a vehicle fire spread inside a building.

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Aug 31 • 1:36 PM EDT • Business • wndu.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta Steam numbers haven't budged in the second weekend, despite Warzone's arrival and transformative patch

Although many would argue the second beta weekend of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was better in key ways, the numbers seemingly didn't reflect that.

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Aug 31 • 4:35 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Gems, ghosts and GTA VI: the biggest video games for autumn 2026

There are juggernauts and indie gems aplenty for when the nights draw in, from an ingenious puzzle game to blockbusters such as Marvel’s Wolverine and Call of Duty

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Aug 31 • 12:00 AM EDT • Technology • theguardian.com
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (CZR) Investigation: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Encourages Shareholders to Contact the Firm to Learn More About the Investigation

NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / August 30, 2026 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is investigating claims on behalf of investors in Caesars Entertainment, Inc. ("Caesars" or "the Company") (NASDAQ:CZR) for potential breaches of fiduciary duty on the part of its directors and management.

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Aug 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • natlawreview.com
Activision Just Served A Notorious Call Of Duty Cheat Maker

Elocarry's Call of Duty cheats have since been taken down

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Aug 28 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Red Bull hands F1 test to protege as it assesses Racing Bulls driver line-up

Nikola Tsolov has completed his first F1 test, driving for Racing Bulls at Imola, while Liam Lawson was on Pirelli tyre test duty for Red Bull at Mugello

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Aug 28 • 6:04 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jonny Kim’s resume already lists Navy SEAL, astronaut, doctor. He’s now returning to active duty.

After almost a decade of working at NASA, Jonny Kim will return to active duty for the U.S. Navy, where he previously served as a SEAL.

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Aug 27 • 5:42 PM EDT • Technology • navytimes.com
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Switch 2 Estimated File Size Revealed

It's a big one!

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Aug 27 • 1:30 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Healthcare should serve Iowans, not Wall Street

Iowa's healthcare institutions are increasingly becoming targets for private-equity firms whose first duty is to investors, not patients.

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Aug 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • iowacapitaldispatch.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Pushes Unplanned Update to Address Fan Feedback

Infinity Ward has pushed an unplanned update for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta in order to quickly address fan feedback.

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Aug 25 • 12:47 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Blue states should avoid disasters

Back when I was teaching political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy (and amazingly to me, a week from this column’s publication will mark 20 years since my retirement from active duty. Where the heck did that time go?) I used to teach my students about the Constitution, national security policy and little things […]

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Aug 25 • 3:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Is Way Ahead Of Black Ops 7 Already By One Metric

Activision's new Call of Duty game is crushing it so far, it seems.

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Aug 24 • 3:12 PM EDT • Technology • gamespot.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta's first weekend numbers are in, and they're good - just not as high as Modern Warfare 2

The Modern Warfare 4 beta's first weekend numbers may not be record-setting, but they show a positive trend for Call of Duty.

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Aug 24 • 4:24 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Struggles To Impress

With more competition than ever, the once immovable military shooter is going to have to earn its stripes, though some fans feel Infinity Ward's adjustments might be over-corrections

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Aug 23 • 2:15 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Bunny Levine, ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Jury Duty’ actress, dies at 97

‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Shameless’ actress Bunny Levine, who retired early from her career as a school librarian to pursue her Hollywood dreams, has died. She was 97.

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Aug 23 • 12:54 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Can't Wait? How to Get Early Access to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta

Are you ready for the next big Call of Duty release? You don't have to. The early access beta is underway, followed by a five-day open beta. Here's how to join in on the action.

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Aug 23 • 9:25 AM EDT • Technology • pcmag.com
Four Patriots Whose Stock Rose in Saturday Night Win over Eagles

Haskins ran hard in his audition, Morton pulled double duty at QB and punter, and two Day 3 picks made a real case for a roster spot.

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Aug 23 • 8:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Call of Duty Finally Lands on Switch 2 after Microsoft’s 10-year Nintendo Deal, but the Port Disappoints Early Testers

Call of Duty finally lands on Switch 2 after Microsoft's 10-year Nintendo deal, but the port has slightly disappointed early testers.

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Aug 22 • 5:00 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Switch 2 Partner Developer Revealed By Activision

Infinity Ward got support from Digital Legends

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Aug 22 • 12:00 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 – Inside the Maps and Movement of Multiplayer

Call of Duty Season has officially kicked off with Call of Duty: NEXT, along with the first of two beta weekends for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, giving us our first hands-on with the newest maps, combat mechanics, and more.

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Aug 21 • 3:00 PM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com
America’s Gerontocracy Needs a Public Physician

Congress should create an office of physicians that report to the public on American leaders’ medical fitness for duty.

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Aug 21 • 1:04 PM EDT • Health • theatlantic.com
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First gameplay revealed for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on Nintendo Switch 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has received the first ever Nintendo Switch 2 gameplay, plus information about frame rate.

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Aug 21 • 12:21 PM EDT • Technology • nintendoeverything.com
Modern Warfare 4 Beta Starts Today, Plus Early Access Code Giveaway

We're joining Call of Duty: NEXT today before the beta goes live, and we have hundreds of Early Access codes to give away.

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Aug 21 • 11:32 AM EDT • Technology • screenrant.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta: Start Times, How to Get Early Access, and What's Included

All you need to know about the Modern Warfare 4 beta

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Aug 21 • 9:30 AM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com
The Big Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Interview — Infinity Ward on the Beta, Matchmaking, and Much More

IGN interviews Infinity Ward on all things Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 ahead of the beta.

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Aug 20 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta requires GTX 970 or RX 470 at minimum

Activision has published the official PC system requirements for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta. PC players will need at least a GeForce GTX 970, GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 470.

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Aug 20 • 7:40 AM EDT • Technology • videocardz.com
U-20 World Cup roster set after NWSL, college teams grant releases

Since the U-20 World Cup does not fall in an international window, national team duty is not automatically excused for selected players.

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Aug 19 • 10:15 PM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
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Video: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Drops Official Multiplayer Trailer

"Weapons hot"

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Aug 19 • 8:45 PM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Modern Warfare 4 Beta Reveals Multiplayer Matchmaking Plans, Will Continue to Use Divisive New Matchmaking System

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's beta will utilize a divisive new matchmaking system in addition to the open matchmaking introduced last year.

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Aug 19 • 5:47 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’ Closed Beta Start-Times And How To Get Early Access

Here's everything you need to know about the Modern Warfare 4 Early Accessweekend and how to get into the closed beta.

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Aug 19 • 3:32 PM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Will Fix Issues That Have Plagued the Series for the Better Part of a Decade

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta will fix some issues that have plagued the series for the better part of a decade.

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Aug 19 • 1:03 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Woman sought in Massachusetts officer's death co-founded mental health group for cops

Police investigating the death of an off-duty police officer in Massachusetts in what they called a domestic matter are searching for a woman who co-founded a g

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Aug 19 • 10:29 AM EDT • Health • turnto10.com
Founder of group dedicated to officers' mental health sought after Worcester, Massachusetts police officer found dead

The search resumes Wednesday for a woman wanted in connection with the death of an off-duty police officer found dead at a Worcester, Massachusetts home.

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Aug 19 • 5:33 AM EDT • Health • wcvb.com
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Woman sought in Massachusetts officer's death co-founded mental health group for first responders

Police in are still searching for Karen Soloman after off-duty officer Kurt Solomon was found dead at a Worcester home on Tuesday.

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Aug 19 • 5:31 AM EDT • Health • wbur.org
Samsung partners up with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, here's what that means

The company's products and standards are going to be supported by the game. Today, Samsung has announced that it is the official partner of the upcoming...

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Aug 17 • 9:09 AM EDT • Technology • gsmarena.com
Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer reportedly worked on a Halo multiplayer prototype before it got canned

The next Halo game may be developed by an unlikely studio.

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Aug 17 • 6:11 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Open Beta Adds Campaign Mission 'Entrenched'

A series first

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Aug 16 • 2:30 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Bernie-backed California House candidate called DEI a ‘social justice-driven duty,’ embraced activist role

Bernie Sanders-backed California candidate Randy Villegas promoted DEI as a "social justice-driven duty" in his academic writings on community colleges.

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Aug 15 • 3:27 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
DoD changes transitional health care eligibility for reservists following lawsuit

Reservists no longer need to demonstrate that their period of active duty service was connected to a war to qualify for transitional health care coverage.

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Aug 14 • 6:54 PM EDT • Health • federalnewsnetwork.com
Activision Really Wants You To Know Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's Campaign Isn't A Horrible Mess Like BLOPS7

For the first time ever a Call of Duty beta will include access to a singleplayer campaign mission

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Aug 14 • 4:39 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Xbox Confirms Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Will Feature Single-Player Campaign Mission for the First Time

Xbox is trying something new with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta, as the company has announced this month's pre-release tests will include a single-player campaign mission for the first time.

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Aug 14 • 11:52 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
World Humanitarian Day 2026: honouring fallen humanitarians and calling for greater protection of health care

As we mark World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, WHO pays tribute to humanitarian and health workers who put their duty of care above their own safety and, too often, their own lives as they serve communities affected by conflict and crises.World Humanitarian Day was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2008 to commemorate the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad and honour aid workers worldwide.

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Aug 14 • 9:57 AM EDT • Health • who.int
BREAKING: Netflix to shut down two more game studios

Netflix is sticking with video games but once again reducing the number of studios it owns making games. The streaming giant is closing Los Angeles-based Night School studio, which it acquired in 2021 and plans to close Helsinki-based Moonloot, which was founded in 2022. Just six weeks ago, Night School had released Unhinged, a novel 30-minute first-person horror game, streamable on TVs to Netflix users. The game was hailed by Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters in a call with investors. Six weeks later, Night School is closing. Prior to its Netflix tenure, Night School had developed the award-winning supernatural thriller Oxenfree. A second Oxenfree game followed after the purchase, as well as a mobile game designed to tie in to an episode of the Netflix show Black Mirror. Netflix attributed the studio closures to a prioritization around kids gaming, party games, story-driven fare and games with mainstream hooks, such as a recently released FIFA game. “We see an opportunity to be more focused in our execution, so we are making organizational changes to the business to match those priorities,” a Netflix spokesperson told Game File. Netflix is also cutting jobs from its internal games team. A rep declined to say how many jobs were being lost by these cutbacks. “We are incredibly grateful to the talented colleagues we’re saying goodbye to today. We thank them for all their contributions to Netflix, and wish them the best,” the rep said. Netflix started releasing video games, initially on mobile as a free bonus to subscribers, in 2021. By 2023, Mike Verdu, then the head of Netflix’s game operations, was telling me that the company was committed to growing carefully, as it offered more games and built up internal game studios. At the time, it hadn’t made any gaming job cuts. Since then, Netflix has altered its approach. In 2024, it shut down Team Blue, a start-up studio led by ex-Call of Duty and Halo developers that was exploring making a high-end first-person game for the service. Last October, Netflix shut down another studio, Boss Fight, shortly after Peters praised the team’s Squid Game game to investors. (One of Boss Fight’s main developers now works on the Netflix FIFA game for outside studio Delphi.) And in December, Netflix sold cozy game studio Spry Fox back to its founders. Amid all of this, Netflix has shifted from emphasizing mobile games to offering games through TVs and PCs, via streamed connections, with phones used as controllers. That’s how Night School’s Unhinged worked, along with games such as Boggle and Party Crashers that have collectively helped the Netflix game controller app chart well on mobile app stores. The studio cuts leave Netflix with a central gaming team that works with external developers, and a dedicated first party studio in, Helsinki-based Next Games, which produced many of the company’s couch-centric party games. The move away from having a roster of internal game studios aligns with Netflix’s own approach to shows and movies, which are largely produced externally. The company owns few TV/film production studios of its own. The gaming industry overall is seeing large holders of multiple studios cut back, with Sony, Ubisoft, Embracer, Microsoft and other giants closing or selling off studios. Cuts in California-based studios, where costs often run relatively high, have been particularly acute. Netflix has faced skepticism about its gaming plans for years. The moves today are likely to fuel them, and the company has few upcoming projects to counter the narrative. Among the few hinted, acclaimed independent studio Don’t Nod said last year it was working on a game tied to a major Netflix franchise.

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Aug 13 • 2:47 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Octavia Spencer Talks Giving 'Visibility' to Missing Indigenous Women

The narrator and executive producer of the ID series talks about the "duty" she feels to amplify the stories of missing and murdered native women and the current efforts toward seeking justice.

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Aug 13 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • hollywoodreporter.com
The next year Call of Duty will introduce a new sub-series to replace Black Ops and Modern Warfare

Publisher Activision is officially preparing the shooter for release. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, which is scheduled to launch on October 23 of this year....

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Aug 9 • 6:50 PM EDT • Technology • en.gamegpu.com
Halo remake isn't doing so hot on PS5 compared to Black Ops ports

Two old Call of Duty games are outselling the new Halo remake at more than 30:1.

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Aug 5 • 2:53 PM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
14 Years After Its Release, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Is One of 2026's Best Selling Games, According to Analysts

The recent PS4 and PS5 ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are already some of the best-selling games of the year, according to analysts.

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Aug 5 • 1:39 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Bangladesh’s Ousted Leader Says She’ll Return Despite Threats

Bangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina vowed to return to her country despite facing a death sentence, calling it her “duty” to help rescue a country she described as sliding into economic distress and democratic decline.

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Aug 5 • 4:54 AM EDT • Politics • bloomberg.com
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson healthy and looking to regain Pro Bowl level

After a 2025 when two-time Bears Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson suffered through groin surgery and returned to play at less than 100%, the start to this training camp has been viewed as a chance to prove he is fully recovered.

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Aug 1 • 4:03 PM EDT • Health • newsday.com
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10 Military Spouse Benefits That Have Nothing to Do With Health Care

Military spouses are entitled to a range of benefits that follow them from duty station to duty station.

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Jul 28 • 5:06 PM EDT • Health • military.com
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Why use rare earths in rubber production? China is engineering stronger tyres

A new facility leverages decades of research to produce high-strength rubber designed to meet requirements of EVs and heavy-duty transport.

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Jul 27 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com
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New Jersey behavioral health company acquires independent medical examination provider

Red Bank, N.J.-based PAX Health acquired Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.-based Makraf IME, a statewide psychology and neuropsychology independent medical examination (IME) provider group operating across 17 counties. Makraf IME provides independent medical examination opinions on causality, need for treatment, maximum medical improvement, permanency and fitness for duty. The practice also provides psychology and neuropsychology IMEs, disability evaluations, […]

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Jul 21 • 10:04 AM EDT • Health • beckersbehavioralhealth.com
Modern Warfare 4 open and closed beta dates announced, including for Switch 2, alongside the return of Call of Duty: Next

Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Call of Duty in recent memory to host a beta on Nintendo Switch 2.

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Jul 21 • 4:37 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Nintendo says it has no legal duty to pass its U.S. tariff refunds on to consumers

Nintendo is asking a court to dismiss a proposed class action suit that was filed this past spring by gamers who say the Mario maker is breaking the law if it doesn’t pass on its U.S. tariff refunds to consumers. Those consumers “received exactly what they bargained and paid for” when buying price-hiked Nintendo goods last year, the company said in a filing on Monday in the case of Hoffert et al v. Nintendo. “Plaintiffs are not entitled to a rebate simply because of intervening legal developments related to tariffs.” Nintendo increased the price of Switch 2 controllers and the original Switch last year, following the imposition of globe-spanning U.S. tariffs (tariffs described by Nintendo’s lawyers on Monday as “sweeping” and “constantly changing”). This past February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs were illegal. A month later, Nintendo sued the U.S. government to get a refund. And in April, gamers filed the class action claim against Nintendo in Washington, saying it would be illegally double-dipping if it made money from tariff-hiked sales and then from a refund. The gamers sought relief for anyone in the U.S. who bought price-hiked Nintendo items between February 2025 and February 2026. “The common thread among Plaintiffs’ claims is that it is somehow ‘unfair; that Nintendo has not retroactively adjusted its prices for completed sales in response to the outcome of the tariff litigation,” the company’s lawyers wrote in today’s motion to dismiss. “But that is now how commercial transactions work.

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Jul 21 • 12:07 AM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Beta Dates Confirmed

Activision and Infinity Ward have confirmed dates for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta tests across PC, Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox devices.

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Jul 20 • 5:23 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Give Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 a Go in Its PS5 Beta Next Month

Full open beta runs 28th Aug - 1st Sep

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Jul 20 • 2:30 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 announces open beta for Nintendo Switch 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is getting an open beta on Nintendo Switch 2, it’s been announced. This will be happening during the weekend of August 28. You’ll have until September 1 to participate. Here’s the rundown on what’s included in the beta: Get ready to drop into multiple Multiplayer maps and modes, choosing from a wide selection of...

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Jul 20 • 1:10 PM EDT • Technology • nintendoeverything.com
Modern Warfare 4: Open Beta, NEXT, Fanatics Fest, & Serialized Camo

Relive Modern Warfare® 4 at Fanatics Fest, get Open Beta and Call of Duty®: NEXT intel, plus Nintendo® Switch 2 pre-order details and a first-of-its-kind Serialized Weapon Camo pre-order challenge.

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Jul 20 • 12:52 PM EDT • Technology • news.blizzard.com
Modern Warfare 4 gameplay debut reignites community debate about how fast Call of Duty movement should be

Though many would argue it wasn't the best format, Infinity Ward finally showed off Modern Warfare 4 gameplay, and it's clear not everyone is on board.

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Jul 20 • 10:36 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Doctors question evidence behind Pentagon plan for testosterone screening

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ordered annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, which he says will help to maintain military readiness.

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Jul 18 • 6:03 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
Cody Bellinger says Call of Duty brings athletes together as sports and gaming collide at Fanatics Fest

NEW YORK — Cody Bellinger has played for baseball's biggest brands over his career.

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Jul 17 • 10:57 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Aston Martin Dreadnought designed exclusively for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 4 Supercar performance,...

Aston Martin Dreadnought designed exclusively for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 4 Supercar performance, combat ready: Dreadnought dominates every in-game environment while delivering an unmistakable Aston Martin experience Dramatic SUV design is paired with an equally dramatic V12 engine roar 16 July 2026, New York, USA: Aston Martin today unveils Dreadnought,…

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Jul 16 • 10:14 AM EDT • Technology • media.astonmartin.com
PS5's Call of Duty: Black Ops Port Reportedly Riddled with Hackers

Blooper

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Jul 13 • 6:00 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 Support Crossplay Between PS4 and PS5, Activision Confirms

Activision has clarified that its recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 ports do in fact support crossplay between PS4 and PS5, following confusion from players online.

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Jul 12 • 3:09 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Xbox just released a PlayStation console "exclusive" and it's beating GTA 6 on the charts — here's why it actually sucks for fans

Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are already available on Xbox One and above via Xbox 360 back compat ... but there's a problem. Well, several problems.

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Jul 12 • 5:55 AM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com
The New Call of Duty Black Ops Port Charges $40/£35 for a Basic 1080p Upgrade

And doesn't even include the DLC.

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Jul 10 • 6:51 AM EDT • Technology • digitalfoundry.net
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 Out Now on PS5, PS Plus Members Get 50% Discount

They're £35 / $40 without PS Plus

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Jul 9 • 1:15 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com
Sapp’s Diesel & Truck Center builds business on family, faith, and ‘Quality Without Compromise’

Sapps Diesel & Truck Center is not the kind of place owner Brock Sapp wants people to find only after they have been everywhere else. Located at 1955 Old Register Way in Statesboro, the family-owned truck repair shop specializes in light-duty diesel

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Jul 4 • 12:26 PM EDT • Business • griceconnect.com
America’s next 250? A revival of civic virtues might hold the key.

Democracy requires civic engagement – and it can sometimes seem to be falling short. But the seeds of renewal are visible, from potluck dinners to youth programs.

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Jul 3 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • csmonitor.com
Free Play Days – Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Diablo IV, Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure, and More

Free Play Days – XBOX players can jump into Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Diablo IV, Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure, and more, this weekend and beyond!

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Jul 2 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com
Is yet another Microsoft studio, Obsidian, negotiating with Xbox to avoid closure? Conflicting reports emerge

There's "a real sense amongst some teams that they're being punished for the poor performance of Call of Duty".

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Jul 2 • 10:51 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
PlayStation Plus July 2026 free games lineup announced, including Modern Warfare 3

Play a recent Call of Duty for free before Modern Warfare 4 drops this fall

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Jul 1 • 12:04 PM EDT • Technology • polygon.com
July’s three PlayStation Plus ‘free’ Essential monthly games include Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

There are three games available for subscribers to claim this month…

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Jul 1 • 11:41 AM EDT • Technology • videogameschronicle.com
Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028

New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?

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Jul 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Samsung Music Studio 7 review: A great speaker on its own, and even better in a pair

The Music Studio 7 is an excellent Sonos alternative that can pull double duty in the living room.

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Jun 30 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Pre-Order Ad Reminds Everyone It's 'Not On Xbox Game Pass This Year'

The messaging mess is in full swing

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Jun 29 • 1:59 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Alleged Modern Warfare 4 ad uses ‘not on Xbox Game Pass’ as a selling point

This year’s Call of Duty will be the first to skip Game Pass since 2023…

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Jun 29 • 12:03 PM EDT • Technology • videogameschronicle.com
Online violence against women in politics: what shapes political party responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence?

Political parties have a primary role to play in tackling online violence against women and gender diverse politicians. While the prevalence and impact of TFGBV, such as coordinated disinformation campaigns, deepfake image-based sexual abuse or trolling are well documented, many parties are still building their knowledge on how to respond effectively and have not put in place internal practices and policies that respond to the rapidly evolving, poorly regulated digital ecosystem. About the ReportIn order to promote and protect fair and democratic participation in politics, this ALIGN Report explores what political parties are doing in response to TFGBV and what factors shape their action. The findings, based on existing literature and interviews with gender and politics professionals, indicate there are three sets of factors which donors, civil society and practitioners should consider when designing action to support political parties to respond to TFGBV internally. These are: (1) gender norms; (2) socio-political environment; and (3) internal party factors.Key messagesUnequal gender norms are ubiquitous across politics, shaping expectations of leaders to be strong and assertive, and practices of political parties to uphold masculinist values and sustain cultures of silence. These often lead to weak response to TFGBV against women politicians.The socio-political context can incentivise or disincentivise action, depending on the salience of gender issues, which are increasingly weaponised. Electoral competitiveness, domestic laws (i.e. quota requirements), and even the political system or global normative frameworks influence political will to act.Internal party factors that shape responses will vary across countries and contexts, but include: structures to enforce codes of conduct, policies and reporting mechanisms on (TF)GBV, political ideology, extent of centralisation of leadership, and crucially the meaningful participation of women in decision-making positions, not least through internal women’s wings.Party responses can be seen as a spectrum, with actions falling between active discouragement to address TFGBV to commitment to transform unequal norms and practices within the party.About the ToolkitTogether with the report, this ALIGN toolkit offers gender professionals and others working on democratic strengthening a set of guiding questions and reflection prompts to identify which responses could be most effective and suitable in different contexts. These actions can complement other solutions to TFGBV, such as regulations promoting safety by design. The assessment spans a broad range of factors including: (1) different manifestations of gender norms, (2) the socio-political environment and (3) internal party structures.Key messagesPolitical parties are duty-bound to take action internally to respond to the significant threats posed to women members and candidates, including from their own party colleagues, affiliates and political peers.Existing party approaches to TFGBV can be assessed along a spectrum which ranges from active discouragement and passive acceptance to minimal response and transformative change.To generate effective and context-appropriate solutions to TFGBV, it is important to consider how gender norms shape leadership expectations and internal party practices, while also analysing the impact of the socio-political environment. While actions to support women to stay safe online are very common, codes of conduct and measures to strengthen women’s voice and power in the parties are proposed as most transformative solutions.

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Jun 24 • 2:08 PM EDT • Politics • odi.org
Politics: What Donald Trump’s Defense Policy Means For Black Service Members

Black Americans serving in the U.S. military have long lived with a great contradiction. The country they’re fighting to protect is the same one that’s failed to serve and protect them.Despite this, Black Americans continue to enlist. There are over 350,000 Black active duty and select reserve members and more than 2.4 million Black veterans. That’s according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.This year, Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has blocked or delayed the promotions of more than a dozen Black and female senior officers. He’s also dismissed several high-ranking Black and female officers, according to The Atlantic. This comes amid the second Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of programs and policies connected to diversity, equity and inclusion.Black military members have always battled discrimination. But for some, this is a step too far in the wrong direction. So, what does their future hold? And what does it mean for the U.S. military?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

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Jun 24 • 2:02 PM EDT • Politics • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Call Of Duty's Persona 5 Skins Are The Stuff Of Crossover Nightmares

‘Lookin’ (not so) cool, Joker!’

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Jun 23 • 2:46 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
It’s Finally Happened — You Can Play As Nicolas Cage in Call of Duty

It’s finally happened — you can play as Nicolas Cage in Call of Duty.

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Jun 22 • 1:44 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 Listings Have Fans Fearing Pricey PlayStation Ports

PlayStation fans are fearing the worst after Microsoft set the price of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 at $40 without DLC.

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Jun 21 • 4:01 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Activision Confirms Call of Duty: Black Ops Ports to PS5/PS4 Are Not Remasters

Does that mean 120Hz support on PS5 is off the table?

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Jun 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • digitalfoundry.net
Xbox is porting two classic Call of Duty games to PlayStation — and they're coming very, very soon

Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 will soon finally be playable on modern PlayStation systems.

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Jun 17 • 4:14 PM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS5 Ports Now Official, Launching in July

All thanks to Iron Galaxy

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Jun 17 • 4:00 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com
Steve Harvey: God’s blessings come with a duty to give back

Steve Harvey believes his success as an entertainer and author is a blessing from God, tied to his philanthropy. He told The Associated Press that giving back is essential, as

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Jun 16 • 9:11 AM EDT • Entertainment • lancasteronline.com
Call Of Duty Studio Treyarch Is Losing Its Studio Head Of Nearly A Decade

Mark Gordon had been with the studio since 2005, and served as studio head since 2016

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Jun 15 • 3:40 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Call Of Duty Is Xbox's Biggest Blessing And Its Curse

The mega franchise seemingly had one of its worst years in recent history

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Jun 12 • 1:42 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com