Publisher Electronic Arts has announced another round of layoffs and restructuring, as a consequence of which Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars first-person shooter has been canceled. The company is also moving away from games based on licensed IP, choosing instead to focus on its own IP and sports franchises. As part of the restructuring process, Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games is also shutting down.
Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi games are safe
In a press release, EA executive Laura Miele said that Respawn’s Star Wars FPS was in early development, and moving away from the project wasn’t an easy decision to make. However, the publisher determined that the Jedi series and “new projects based on our owned brands,” like Apex Legends, is the “right place to focus.”
As for Ridgeline Games, the recently-established developer was led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. Interestingly, Lehto departed Ridgeline earlier this week but appears to have had no knowledge of EA’s plans. He tweeted that the news of Ridgeline’s closure as EA lays off nearly 700 employees is a “gut punch.”
Gut punched to see EA lay off my team. So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise. https://t.co/N3lYSjeO6z
Ridgeline was working on the next Battlefield’s campaign. The game’s development is “making meaningful progress,” according to EA.
“It’s not lost on me that these changes are more than words on a page; they directly impact the work you do every day and, in some cases, mean we are eliminating roles and saying goodbye to talented colleagues,” Miele wrote. “I will never lose sight of the human impact of these decisions and know that change and disruption aren’t easy.”
Nothing's drip feed of specs and line drawings gets us to this point. At MWC 2024, the company finally revealed its next phone in the flesh during its MWC soiree. Sadly, it was in a glass box — which seems to be the not-great trend of this year's Mobile World Congress.
But, for a phone seemingly pitched as its cheapest device yet, it looks good. Cool, even. The Nothing design DNA is fully there, with an admittedly scaled-back version of its light-up Glyphs on the rear. The phone will seemingly mark the return of a centralized camera unit, gasp! What's next, a headphone socket?
Nothing
Journalists attending the event managed to capture every angle of the new phone, rumored to ring in cheaper than the Nothing Phone 2, which launched at a reasonable $599. (The original Phone 1 cost $299 in the US under a "Beta Membership" program.) Earlier rumors peg the European price around €400 ($430), with savings from using a cheaper MediaTek processor.
Courtesy of Tom's Guide, a perceptible bezel around the display is possibly the biggest sign of a cheaper Nothing device. Still, without handling the Phone 2(a) in person, we'll reserve judgment. The phone goes on sale March 5.
Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!
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President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that aims to limit the mass-sale of Americans’ personal data to “countries of concern,” including Russia and China. The order specifically targets the bulk sale of geolocation, genomic, financial, biometric, health and other personally identifying information.
During a briefing with reporters, a senior administration official said that the sale of such data to these countries poses a national security risk. “Our current policies and laws leave open access to vast amounts of American sensitive personal data,” the official said. “Buying data through data brokers is currently legal in the United States, and that reflects a gap in our national security toolkit that we are working to fill with this program.”
Researchers and privacy advocates have long warned about the national security risks posed by the largely unregulated multibillion-dollar data broker industry. Last fall, researchers at Duke University reported that they were able to easily buy troves of personal and health data about US military personnel while posing as foreign agents.
Biden’s executive order attempts to address such scenarios. It bars data brokers and other companies from selling large troves of Americans’ personal information to countries or entities in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela either directly or indirectly. There are likely to be additional restrictions on companies’ ability to sell data as part of cloud service contracts, investment agreements and employment agreements.
Though the White House described the step as “the most significant executive action any President has ever taken to protect Americans’ data security,” it’s unclear how exactly enforcement of the new policies will be handled within the Justice Department. A DoJ official said the executive order would require due diligence from data brokers to vet who they are dealing with, similar to the way companies are expected to adhere to US sanctions.
As the White House points out, there are currently few regulations for the multibillion-dollar data broker industry. The order will do nothing to slow the bulk sale of Americans’ data to countries or companies not deemed to be a security risk. “President Biden continues to urge Congress to do its part and pass comprehensive bipartisan privacy legislation, especially to protect the safety of our children,” a White House statement says.
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Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the creators of a popular Switch emulator called Yuzu, which gives users a way to play games developed for the platform on their PCs and Android devices. In the lawsuit shared by Game File's Stephen Totilo, the company argued that Yuzu violates the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Nintendo explained that it protects its games with encryption and other security features meant to prevent people from playing pirated copies. Yuzu has the capability to defeat those security measures and to decrypt Nintendo games. "[W]ithout Yuzu's decryption of Nintendo's encryption, unauthorized copies of games could not be played on PCs or Android devices," the company wrote in its complaint.
It's illegal to "circumvent technological measures put into place by copyright owners to protect against unlawful access to and copying of copyrighted works" under the DMCA, Nintendo continued. And distributing "software primarily designed to circumvent technological measures" also constitutes unlawful trafficking. The defendants are, thus, "facilitating piracy at a colossal scale," the lawsuit argued. This case could set a precedent for future lawsuits against emulators, which aren't illegal in and of them themselves. As Ars Technica notes, Nintendo's arguments are calling their very nature unlawful.
To illustrate how much Yuzu has affected its business, Nintendo revealed in its complaint that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was illegally distributed a week and a half before its official release. It was apparently downloaded over a million times from pirated websites, which specifically noted that people can play the game file through Yuzu. The company also mentioned that Yuzu's creators are making money from their emulator. They're getting around $30,000 a month from their Patreon supporters and have earned around $50,000 from the paid version of their software on Google Play, so far.
Nintendo is asking the court to stop Yuzu's creators from promoting and distributing the software. It's also asking for an unspecified amount in "equitable relief and damages."
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Starting on March 5, GeForce Now users enjoying the service for free will find themselves faced with ads while they're waiting for their turn to play. NVIDIA has sent out an email to free users, telling them that they'll experience "up to two minutes of video sponsorship messages before each gaming session while in queue." It will provide support for the free service, the company said. NVIDIA also believes that the ads will lead to shorter wait times for free users. Company spokesperson Stephanie Ngo has confirmed the change to The Verge.
GeForce Now gamers in the free tier can enjoy one hour of gaming at no cost, but they get cut off and have to wait in queue every time their hour-long gaming session is done. The most avid gamers who don't want to pay for GeForce Now's $10 Priority or $20 Ultimate subscription tiers will have to sit through ads multiple times. That said, the ads only show up in queue and not in the middle of a user's playtime, so they're not intrusive in the way Netflix's or Amazon Prime Videos' ads are.
NVIDIA recently became the third most valuable company in the United States, overtaking Alphabet, and the fourth overall worldwide. The company is now valued at $1.83 trillion and has an 80 percent share in the high-end chip market, thanks to the AI boom over the past year.
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Lenovo’s Project Crystal is definitely sci-fi tech come to life. Currently, there are no plans to turn the concept laptop into a retail product. Yet. Instead, its ThinkPad division commissioned an exploration into the potential of transparent microLED panels and, sigh, AI integration.
The most obvious use for the transparent laptop display would be sharing info at a doctor’s office or hotel desk. Instead of needing to flip a screen around, you could simply reverse the device’s output via software. According to Sam Rutherford, the transparency effect is bewildering. When closed or turned off, Project Crystal’s screen almost looks like an ordinary piece of glass with a brownish tint. But at a moment’s notice, the whole thing lights up like a battleship. It’s definitely the most intriguing thing so far at MWC 2024. Catch all the announcements right here. No tricorders, though.
If you’ve been paying through Apple, you will now have to pay directly.
If you’ve been paying Netflix through iTunes, you’ll soon have to say goodbye to your discounted rates. The company has confirmed to The Verge that it’s started removing users’ access to their iTunes billing plan for the streaming service. Members on the basic plan paying through iTunes will now have to pay the company directly using a credit or a debit card. Netflix stopped letting new customers sign up for in-app subscriptions on Apple devices way back in 2018 to avoid giving the latter a commission.
NVIDIA unveiled its latest laptop GPUs and, what a surprise, they’re largely to assist AI processing. The RTX 500 and 1000 Ada Generation graphics cards are primarily for thin and light laptops. While they won’t offer as much TOPS AI performance as current higher-end mobile GPUs, they could be handy for on-the-go AI processing for researchers, content creators and video editors. These are workstation GPUs, so they’re not for your gaming demands. The company says the GPUs, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, offer up to twice the ray-tracing performance of previous-gen GPUs (they employ third-gen ray-tracing cores). Fourth-gen Tensor Cores, meanwhile, deliver up to twice the throughput of previous GPUs.
Landscaping technology company Husqvarna just announced the game will run on some of its robot lawnmowers. So you can mow down hellspawn and… grass. You play the game using the lawnmower’s onboard display. Rotating the control knob turns your character left and right and pressing the knob makes you shoot. Holding down the start button initiates forward movement.
The US military has ramped up its use of artificial intelligence tools after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, based on a new report by Bloomberg. Schuyler Moore, US Central Command's chief technology officer, told the news organization that machine learning algorithms helped the Pentagon identify targets for more than 85 air strikes in the Middle East this month.
US bombers and fighter aircraft carried out those air strikes against seven facilities in Iraq and Syria on February 2, fully destroying or at least damaging rockets, missiles, drone storage facilities and militia operations centers. The Pentagon had also used AI systems to find rocket launchers in Yemen and surface combatants in the Red Sea, which it had then destroyed through multiple air strikes in the same month.
The machine learning algorithms used to narrow down targets were developed under Project Maven, Google's now-defunct partnership the Pentagon. To be precise, the project entailed the use of Google's artificial intelligence technology by the US military to analyze drone footage and flag images for further human review. It caused an uproar among Google employees: Thousands had petitioned the company to end its partnership with Pentagon, and some even quit over its involvement altogether. A few months after that employee protest, Google decided not to renew its contract, which had ended in 2019.
Moore told Bloomberg that US forces in the Middle East haven't stopped experimenting with the use of algorithms to identify potential targets using drone or satellite imagery even after Google ended its involvement. The military has been testing out their use over the past year in digital exercises, she said, but it started using targeting algorithms in actual operations after the October 7 Hamas attacks. She clarified, however, that human workers constantly checked and verified the AI systems' target recommendations. Human personnel were also the ones who proposed how to stage the attacks and which weapons to use. "There is never an algorithm that’s just running, coming to a conclusion and then pushing onto the next step," she said. "Every step that involves AI has a human checking in at the end."
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FromSoftware‘s Hidetaka Miyazaki has said that he wants other developers to direct the studio’s future Souls type games. In a recent interview with IGN Nordic, Miyazaki said that there’s a “high possibility” he will delegate his traditional role of director to someone else going forward.
Why Miyazaki wants fresh faces to direct future FromSoftware Souls games
Miyazaki told IGN Nordic that not only does he want to delegate responsibilities of a director in the future, he also wants to step away from a supervisory role. He’s of the view that this is the best way forward for fresh talent to “flourish” when it comes to “Souls-ish” games.
“I think it’s very likely that we’ll see new directors going forward,” Miyazaki said. “And I think if we do that, I’d like to step away from that supervisory role and give them full direction and full control over those projects. I think really this is the best way and the easiest way for them to flourish within that environment and with those new projects.”
Elsewhere, Miyazaki said that FromSoftware is able to release massive, successful AAA games like Elden Ring relatively quickly because the studio is “blessed with great staff” that’s “efficient at creating games.”
A known insider has revealed that Sony Interactive Entertainment recently began sharing PS5 Pro specs more widely within the industry. One “midsize third-party publisher” claims to have recently received a presentation on the upgraded hardware, indicating that Sony might be gearing up for a public reveal in the near future.
Analysts expect PS5 Pro to launch later in 2024
The aforementioned report came from PlayStation insider and Sacred Symbols host Colin Moriarty. In a recent episode of his YouTube show, Moriarty said that he was “explicitly” told by a contact at a midsize third-party publisher that the company is in possession of PS5 Pro specs.
Moriarty also corroborated reports that first-party and second-party devs already have access to PS5 Pro details. However, he stopped short of commenting on the dev kits. Back in December 2022, another known insider Tom Henderson claimed that dev kits had begun making their way to publishers — presumably major third-party partners.
Moriarty’s comments, which can be heard in the video below around the 54:29 mark (via Reddit), came in response to a CNBC report in which analysts expressed confidence that the PS5 Pro will launch later in 2024, in time for the release of highly-anticipated GTA 6.
Thanksgiving is killing it on Netflix—it’s currently ranked among the streamer’s top flicks. When one horror filmdoes well, that’s great news for the genre at large, so if you head to the streamer for John Carver’s merry Massachusetts massacre, why not stick around and feast on these other titles, too?
We’re about to get our first real look at Samsung’s Galaxy Ring. In a blog post this weekend ahead of Mobile World Congress, the company revealed it’ll have the Galaxy Ring on display at its booth at the Barcelona convention, which starts tomorrow. Samsung hasn’t said much yet about what the Galaxy Ring will be capable of since teasing it at the end of its Unpacked event in January, but we do know it’s a wellness-oriented wearable positioned to rival the likes of Oura.
Samsung today described the Galaxy Ring as “a new health form factor that simplifies everyday wellness, supporting smarter and healthier living via a more connected digital wellness platform.” All we’ve really seen of it so far is a rendering, though.
Aside from the Galaxy Ring, Samsung’s booth will heavily promote its Galaxy AI, with a hands-on interactive experience. The company also says it’s expanding Galaxy AI to more of its products, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and Tab S9 series, plus the Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy S23 series and S23 FE. It's also got plans for Galaxy AI applications in its new Galaxy Book 4 series and, of course, the Galaxy Ring we still know next to nothing about.
Catch up on all of the news from MWC 2024 right here!
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is almost here, and while we still have to wait a few more days for the game itself, we can now start talking about how its excellent card game, Queen’s Blood, rivals even FF8's beloved Triple Triad, and how turning the original 1997 RPG into a trilogy may be messing with the story’s pacing…
No one is suggesting that Microsoft should stop making video game hardware. What we've been considering, here in the dark and twisted Engadget Slack channels, is whether Microsoft should keep making generationally distinct consoles in the traditional hardware cycle. Basically, does Xbox need a box? Microsoft has been busy building the foundation of a platform-agnostic, cloud-first future for video games, and it consistently falls behind both Sony and Nintendo in the console race. So why are executives trying to get us excited about a superpowered 10th-gen Xbox?
Maybe Microsoft is hesitant to reveal a drastic ecosystem change after the chaos around the Xbox One and its always-on DRM features in 2013. After an outpouring of negative feedback at the idea of a persistently online console, Xbox had to rapidly reverse its launch plans, while Sony took the PlayStation 4 on an early victory lap. This fumble set the stage for the next decade of console sales, and it's a lesson that would stick with any studio — especially one that's trying to make streaming and cloud gaming the norm.
That's understandable, but it doesn't change the fact that accessible, affordable (and probably handheld) hardware makes a lot of sense for Microsoft's current vision and investments. More than an expensive console, at least.
This week's stories
A delicious Elden Ring entrée
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will come to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on June 21. This one has been a long time coming: FromSoftware announced the DLC in February 2023, leaving plenty of time for players to get super psyched for more masochism. A new, three-minute trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree shows off sprawling locations and epic bosses inspired by chaotic combinations of animals, insects and elements. The expansion costs $40 and pre-orders are live now.
Borderlands by Cate Blanchett
I’m just gonna come out and say it: I think Cate Blanchett makes a great Lilith. The first trailer for this summer’s Borderlands movie is out and it looks like Mad Max meets Guardians of the Galaxy — which is Borderlands in a nutshell anyway. The film stars Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Ariana Greenblatt, it’s directed by Eli Roth, and it’s due to hit theaters on August 9.
Xbox should exit the console business
Last Thursday, Xbox executives made it clear that they weren’t about to abandon the traditional hardware market, and they teased a next-generation console that will represent “the largest technical leap you will have ever seen.” That’s cool, but considering Microsoft’s position in the industry, it doesn’t feel like Xbox needs to be making consoles any more.
After acquiring half of the industry, Microsoft is now a mega-publisher of games, with over 30 in-house studios. Many of these development teams are world-renowned, with rich, multi-platform histories. It’s also the operator of one of the largest game subscription services in the world, Game Pass.
Game Pass grew wildly during the pandemic, but subscriptions have stagnated. In court documents from April 2022, Microsoft revealed it had 21.9 million Game Pass subscribers and 11.7 million Xbox Live Gold members across its consoles, for a total user base of 33.6 million. Last week, Microsoft revealed Game Pass has 34 million subscribers, which includes PC Game Pass and Game Pass Core, the new name for Xbox Live Gold. Even assuming PC Game Pass had zero subscribers in 2022, this means Game Pass subscriptions grew just 1 percent over the past 22 months. The more likely scenario is that the total number of subscriptions actually shrank over this period — though it’s at least possible that more people are paying for the full-price service than before.
Microsoft’s plan for this console generation was clear for all to see: Sell hardware and upsell a subscription service populated by its own games. Turns out, it’s tough to sell Game Pass to someone without an Xbox, and not enough people are buying Xboxes. Microsoft stopped reporting hardware numbers during the Xbox One era, but analysts peg the combined sales of the Xbox Series consoles at around 25 million. Meanwhile, Sony has sold more than 50 million PS5s, and Nintendo has sold around 140 million Switches. This gap appears to be growing every day, and it’s far more pronounced in Japan and Europe than in the United States. If Microsoft wants to grow Game Pass, it seems like it’ll have to be on platforms outside of Xbox.
This week, Xbox confirmed plans to bring four formerly exclusive games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, and for years executives have been pitching an ecosystem where Xbox — and Game Pass — is playable on anything with a screen. Microsoft has a powerful cloud network that even Sony uses for game streaming, plus it owns more than 30 studios. Long-term, Microsoft is positioning Xbox to be a platform-agnostic, software-publishing powerhouse with the industry’s most stable streaming network at its back.
In this landscape, it’s surprising to hear Xbox talk about building a hyper-powered console for the next generation. I’m not advocating for Microsoft to ditch the hardware market — it makes sense for the company to focus on handheld devices and affordable streaming boxes that support Game Pass and cloud play. Xbox is working toward a future where its games and Game Pass are available everywhere, which raises a clear question about its current plans: Why bring an expensive next-gen console to a war that is actually about software, subscriptions and streaming?
Bonus Content
Sony president Hiroki Totoki told investors last week that the company would be more aggressive in bringing its PlayStation titles to PC.
Xbox has confirmed which of its games are coming to other consoles: Grounded and Pentiment will come to PlayStation and Switch, while Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush will only arrive on PS5. Both Sea of Thieves and Grounded will support crossplay across all platforms.
Now for a totally different port: The Pokémon Company has scheduled an anniversary stream for next Tuesday at 9AM ET. It might be a bit early for a gen-10 reveal, but a Switch remake of Black & White seems like a safe bet.
Now Playing
If you’re a Switch or PlayStation player curious about all of these Xbox games coming to your consoles, I have one easy and clear recommendation: play Pentiment. Obsidian’s narrative-driven, tapestry-looking game is a surprise and a delight, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it on Game Pass recently. It's out now on PS4, PS5 and Switch, and I’m sure it’s just as great on those platforms.
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X is slowly rolling out audio and video calling to users that don't pay for its premium subscription service that's formerly known as Twitter Blue. Enrique Barragan, an engineer for the company, has shared the news on the platform. The company initially launched the feature for iOS users last year, giving paying subscribers the option to call other people through the app, and was a step towards making X the "everything" application Elon Musk wants it to be. Earlier this year, the capability made its way to Android devices, but the ability to make calls remained limited to Premium subscribers only.
By the end of January, Musk said that X will make audio-video calling available to everyone as soon as the company is confident that it's robust. We're still being asked to subscribe to X Premium to be able to make calls when we hit the phone icon in DMs, but those who get the update will be able to make calls even if they're not a paying subscriber. The official X support page for the feature now says that all accounts are able to make and receive calls, though both parties must have been in contact via Direct Messaging at least once. In the past, it said only "Premium subscribers have the ability to make audio and video calls."
In addition to announcing the capability's rollout, Barragan revealed that users will now also be able to receive calls from everyone on the app if they want to. Audio and video calls were automatically switched on for us when we checked our DMs' Settings menu, configured so that we can (thankfully) only receive calls from people we follow. We're already seeing the "Everyone" option in there, though, ready to be picked by the most intrepid X users.
As yet another week passes, we get more proof that 2024 is shaping up to be a very busy year in gaming—if not for game releases, then certainly for big stories around game exclusivity, adaptions, and, as always, streamers. This week we got our first look at the highly anticipated Borderlands movie (lol), learned about…
After promising to fix Gemini's image generation feature and then pausing it altogether, Google has published a blog post offering an explanation for why its technology overcorrected for diversity. Prabhakar Raghavan, the company's Senior Vice President for Knowledge & Information, explained that Google's efforts to ensure that the chatbot would generate images showing a wide range of people "failed to account for cases that should clearly not show a range." Further, its AI model grew to become "way more cautious" over time and refused to answer prompts that weren't inherently offensive. "These two things led the model to overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others, leading to images that were embarrassing and wrong," Raghavan wrote.
Google made sure that Gemini's image generation couldn't create violent or sexually explicit images of real persons and that the photos it whips up would feature people of various ethnicities and with different characteristics. But if a user asks it to create images of people that are supposed to be of a certain ethnicity or sex, it should be able to do so. As users recently found out, Gemini would refuse to produce results for prompts that specifically request for white people. The prompt "Generate a glamour shot of a [ethnicity or nationality] couple," for instance, worked for "Chinese," "Jewish" and "South African" requests but not for ones requesting an image of white people.
Gemini also has issues producing historically accurate images. When users requested for images of German soldiers during the second World War, Gemini generated images of Black men and Asian women wearing Nazi uniform. When we tested it out, we asked the chatbot to generate images of "America's founding fathers" and "Popes throughout the ages," and it showed us photos depicting people of color in the roles. Upon asking it to make its images of the Pope historically accurate, it refused to generate any result.
Raghavan said that Google didn't intend for Gemini to refuse to create images of any particular group or to generate photos that were historically inaccurate. He also reiterated Google's promise that it will work on improving Gemini's image generation. That entails "extensive testing," though, so it may take some time before the company switches the feature back on. At the moment, if a user tries to get Gemini to create an image, the chatbot responds with: "We are working to improve Gemini’s ability to generate images of people. We expect this feature to return soon and will notify you in release updates when it does."
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NetherRealm Studios has announced the release date for Mortal Kombat 1 DLC character Peacemaker as well as the cross-play feature. Portrayed by John Cena, Peacemaker will be available for Kombat Pack owners on Wednesday, February 28, and on March 6 for everyone else. The much-awaited cross-play feature will go live next week and will be included in the Peacemaker patch.
Mortal Kombat 1 Peacemaker DLC and cross-play details
Accompanying the announcement above was a trailer for Peacemaker that also provided a first look at Janet Cage — a new Kameo fighter described as the “alternate reality version” of Johnny Cage. Janet Cage will be available as part of Kombat Pack. Those who don’t own the Kombat Pack will be able to make a standalone purchase sometime in March.
“Peacemaker, featuring the voice and likeness of actor John Cena, is based on DC’s The Suicide Squad film and Peacemaker series on Max,” reads an official description. “Peacemaker, also known as Christopher Smith, cherishes peace with all his heart and will kill anyone and everyone necessary to get it.”
As far as cross-play between PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC is concerned, NetherRealm said that it’ll provide more details ahead of next week’s patch.
Google Pay was largely replaced by Google Wallet back in 2022, but it has still been operating in several countries, including the US. Now, the search giant has announced that Pay will be discontinued stateside on June 4, 2024 in a push to simplify its payment apps. After that, it will only be available in Singapore and India due to the "unique needs in those countries," Google wrote in a blog.
As part of the deprecation, Google will be removing peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, managing your balance and "find offers and deals." For the latter, it recommends using the new deals destination on Search. Users will still be able to transfer their Google Pay (GPay) balance to a bank account after June 4, 2024 using the Google Pay website.
Google Wallet has now largely replaced GPay, with five times as many users in 180 countries, the company said. That's because it can handle more than just payments — on top of credit and debit cards, it stores transport passes, state IDs, driver's licenses, virtual car keys and more.
Google's payment system has been a mess over the years. It started off as Google Wallet, which was launched in 2011. At the time, it was a tap-to-pay system that came out years ahead of Apple Pay (2014), supported by Mastercard and retailers like Macy's.
Meanwhile, Android Pay came out in 2015, then that was integrated with Google Wallet in 2018 and rebranded as Google Pay. In addition, the company originally had a Google Wallet card (killed in 2016) that was effectively a prepaid debit card usable with any retailers that accepted Mastercard. Now everything is back under the Google Wallet umbrella — unless the company changes its mind again.
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Arrowhead Game Studios has rolled out a new Helldivers 2 update for both the PS5 and PC, addressing a common complaint. In the midst of the game’s server load issues, a considerable number of players resorted to idling to stay logged in and avoid queues, denying other players the opportunity to log in. The latest patch boots players who remain idle for 15 minutes.
Helldivers 2 update 1.000.11 patch notes and known issues list (February 22, 2024)
Patch notes and an updated list of known issues are as follows:
Fixes
Fixed multiple crashes triggered when joining other players’ ships.
Fixed crash triggered when exiting ADS.
Fixed crash triggered when players leave a session while bombardments are active.
Fixed issue where online missions in Galactic War Map were unselectable.
Fixed issue with GameGuard and Steam’s “verify integrity” step.
Fixed issue with GameGuard and the Windows firewall.
Fixed issue preventing access to Ship Management panel.
Fixed issue causing players to get stuck in the defrosting or in the ship intro cinematic
Fixed crash triggered when the process of buying Super Credits fails.
Fixed crash triggered after consecutive quickplay attempts.
Implemented a functionality that will kick players who remain idle for 15 minutes back to the title screen.
Known issues
No text is present for the Requisitions and Social Menu on the Player HUD
Crash may occur when trying to Match Make on Galactic War Map
PS5 players may encounter error code 10003001 on the login screen.
Login rate limiting when many are logging in at the same time.
Players can become disconnected during play.
Rewards and other progress may be delayed or not attributed.
Various UI issues may appear when the game interacts with servers.
Pick-up of certain objects in-game may cause characters to freeze in place for an extended period of time.
Other unknown behaviors may occur.
Japanese VO is missing from intro cutscene and Ship TV.
Armor values for light/medium/heavy armor do not currently function as intended.
X, formerly Twitter, is once again restricting content in India. The company's Global Government Affairs account announced that the Indian government had issued an executive order mandating that X withhold specific accounts and posts or face penalties such as "significant fines and imprisonment." X further stated that it doesn't agree with the order and is challenging it.
The designated posts and accounts will only be blocked within India, however, there's no clear list of those affected. "Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency," the Global Government Affairs post stated. "This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making." X claims to have notified all affected parties.
The posts likely center around the ongoing farmers' protest, which, since February 13, has seen multiple farmers' unions on strike in a bid to get floor pricing, or a minimum support price, for crops sold. Violent clashes between protesters and police have already resulted in at least one death, AP News reports. Mohammed Zubair, an Indian journalist and co-founder of Alt News, shared purported screenshots of suspended accounts belonging to individuals critical of the current government, on-the-ground reporters, prominent farm unionists, and more.
This forced blocking is far from the first incident between X and India. In 2022, X sued the Indian government for "arbitrarily and disproportionately" applying its IT laws passed the year prior. The law required the company to hire a point of contact for the local authorities and a domestic compliance officer. Prior to this concession, in early 2021, the Indian government had threatened to jail X's employees if posts about the then occurring farmers' protest stayed live on the site. Shortly after, the country mandated that X remove content criticizing its COVID-19 response.
India dismissed X's suit in June 2023, claiming the company didn't properly explain why it had ever delayed complying with the country's IT laws. The court also fined X 5 million rupees ($60,300), stating, "You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company." The order followed shortly after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey claimed that India had threatened to raid employees' homes and shut down the site if the company hadn't taken down posts during the farmers' protest.
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After teasing it for the past couple of weeks, Google is rolling out a new sign-in page with a slightly cleaner design. The changes are small and don't affect functionality, but it's something that users encounter often, and Google has been using the previous version since it changed its logo, as far as I can see.
The refresh puts the sign-in (and sign-up) page more in line with the company's Material Design ethic introduced back in 2014. To that end, it's now aligned left (instead of centered) and features an orientation that automatically adjusts to your screen's size — so it's wider on PC screens and narrower on smartphones. It shows up on all types of devices, but may not appear on older browsers, the company said.
The biggest previous change Google made to its sign-in page was putting password entry onto a second page back in 2015. That update was made "in preparation for future authentication solutions that complement passwords," and to reduce confusion among people who have multiple Google accounts, it said at the time.
Google emphasized that the change will be permanent, much like the switch to Gmail's integrated view. The rollout will be fairly gradual, starting on February 21 and set for completion by March 4, 2024.
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You don't have to type in your password every time you log into your PlayStation account anymore. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has launched passkey support for PlayStation accounts, which means you can simply sign in through your mobile device or computer and use its screen unlocking method to log in. If you use a PIN, your fingerprint or your face to unlock your phone, for instance, that's also how you'll be able to get into your PlayStation account. On desktop, we were easily able to link our account with 1Password and use its passkey capability.
In its official page for the update, the company touches on the benefits of using passkeys, such as reducing account vulnerability. Passkeys can't be reused or given away, whether it's inadvertently or on purpose as SIE explains, making them resistant to phishing and data breaches.
To set up a passkey, you simply have to go to Security under Account Management. There, you can activate the option and create a passkey by following the on-screen instructions. The company warns that some hardware security keys could cause issues, and it might be better to use synced passkeys on mobile devices instead. It also cautions against the use of mobile PIN codes as passkeys on Android and recommends iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, 1Password and Dashlane as a passkey provider. After setting up the option, you'll be prompted to use your passkey whenever you need to sign in on a PlayStation 5 or a PlayStation 4 console. You can deactivate the option anytime, though, if you want to go back to signing in with a password.
Login to your PlayStation account hassle-free with passkeys arriving later today! Keep an eye out for updates. pic.twitter.com/BAmh64EwHR
Fujifilm’s X100V was, for some reason, a huge hit on TikTok. This made it hard to buy, despite its tiny form factor and retro Fuji appeal. Fortunately, the company is here to make money offer an improved update, the 40.2-megapixel X100 VI. While keeping the same retro form, it has much faster shooting speeds, in-body stabilization, 6.2K 30p video and more. Video-wise, it can also capture at 4K at 60 fps and 1080p at 240fps.
Fujifilm’s X100VI is now on pre-order for $1,600 in silver or black, with shipping slated for early March 2024. Money to burn? Desperate for the TikTok cachet? The company is also offering a special edition version “engraved with the corporate brand logo from Fujifilm’s founding in 1934” for $2,000.
A project in the UK has explored if a Garmin Venu 2 wearable (and dedicated companion app) could free up doctors and nurses, six minutes at a time. The six-minute walk test (6MWT) can diagnose and monitor a number of cardiovascular maladies. This includes conditions, like pulmonary hypertension, which, if untreated, are eventually fatal. This project, however, crunches the test down to a simpler one minute.
Because the research was funded by a charity, the British Heart Foundation, the watch had to offer good value for money, and Garmin, with its established health research division, gave the team “confidence in the accuracy of the sensors.” The study suggests cutting the test to one minute has no detrimental effect on its outcome or accuracy, and patients are far more likely to run the test regularly if they can do so at home.
The retailer plans to boost its ad business with Vizio’s TV systems.
Walmart is buying Smart TV manufacturer Vizio for $2.3 billion, the retail giant announced as part of its latest earnings report. While Walmart has long been one of the major sellers of Vizio TVs, the company says the acquisition “enables a profitable advertising business that is rapidly scaling” via the company’s SmartCast OS. The companies plan to combine their ad businesses, with Vizio increasing Walmart’s access to more consumer info, like viewing data. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Apple announced on Tuesday that its latest iPhones can retain 80 percent of their original charging capacity after 1,000 cycles — double the company’s previous estimate — without new hardware or software updates. And because timing is everything, the change will arrive in time for upcoming EU regulations that will assign an energy grade for phones’ battery longevity.
Some tiers will soon be more expensive in the UK, Canada, Australia and Turkey.
After laying off around 500 workers and reducing how much streamers make from Prime subscriptions, Twitch is increasing the price of its subscriptions for the first time. The service says it’s “updating prices in several countries to help streamer revenue keep pace with rising costs and reflect local currency fluctuations.” The first markets to feel the impact of those changes are the UK, Canada, Australia and Turkey. On the plus side, streamers will have the same revenue share, so they’ll earn more from subscriptions in those regions.
Just as FromSoftware announced that it’s dropping a new trailer for Elden Ring DLCShadow of the Erdtree, a known insider leaked its potential release date alongside special editions. The developer surprised fans by tweeting out of nowhere that Shadow of the Erdtree will be revealed today, February 21, at 3 p.m. GMT / 7 a.m. PT / 10 a.m. ET.
What we know about Elden Ring DLC’s potential release date and special editions
The insider in question is none other than billbil-kun, who has an impeccable track record when it comes to leaks. According to them, a GOTY edition and a Collector’s Edition of Elden Ring with DLC included are scheduled for release on June 21, 2024.
Billbil-kun can’t say for sure if this is the exact date that Shadow of the Erdtree will release but we can finally narrow down the release window to anytime between now and June. Given the lack of news and official statements saying that FromSoftware is still working on the content, fans were worried that it wouldn’t see the light of day anyime soon.
As for the GOTY and Collector’s editions, billbil-kun states that their physical copies will be available on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The PC will only receive Collector’s Edition in physical form. In Europe, both editions will cost 79.99 euro and 259.99 euro, respectively.
Following its autonomous food delivery launch in Miami and Fairfax, Virginia, Uber Eats will soon be offering the same robotic service in Japan — its first outside the US. It is once again collaborating with Google alum startup Cartken, with local compliance help from Mitsubishi Electric, to bring a fleet of Model C sidewalk delivery robots to select areas in Tokyo in March. Uber Eats Japan CEO Shintaro Nakagawa says the autonomous delivery service will solve the local labor shortage issue, while complementing the existing human delivery methods "by bicycle, motorbike, light cargo, and on foot."
Cartken's six-wheeled Model C uses six cameras and advanced AI models for autonomous driving plus obstacle detection, and remote control mode is available when needed. With guidance from Mitsubishi, the robot has been modified to suit local needs in Japan. For one, its speed is capped at 5.4 km/h or about 3.36 mph as per local regulation, which is a lot slower than the 6 mph top speed it's actually capable of. The loading capacity has also been reduced from 1.5 cubic feet to about 0.95 cubic feet (27 liters), likely due to the extra thermal insulation in the compartment. Uber Eats adds that for the sake of privacy, people's faces are automatically masked in footage captured by the robots.
While this is Uber Eats' robotic delivery debut in Japan, Cartken already has a presence there thanks to Mitsubishi. Since early 2022, the duo has worked with Starbucks, local e-commerce giant Rakuten and supermarket chain Seiyu in some parts of Japan. In the US, Cartken also has a partnership with Grubhub to provide autonomous food delivery service on college campuses, including the Ohio State University and the University of Arizona.
Even though Uber Eats has yet to share which Tokyo restaurants will be tapping into its robotic delivery service, it should have no problem seeking partnership given Cartken's prior local experience. That said, I highly doubt that the pair would risk trialing their robots through a crowd of drunkards in Shibuya just yet.
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Nintendo’s Switch 2 (not its official name) was widely expected to arrive sometime this year, but that may not happen. Now, the company is reportedly telling publishers the next-gen console is slated for release in the first quarter of 2025.
If that did happen, it would mimic the release of the original Switch, which was announced in October 2016 and came out in March 2017.
What can you expect from Nintendo’s next console? We don’t know much yet, including the name. Rumors suggest it’ll have backward compatibility with Switch, along with 4K capabilities and visual quality similar to that of the PS5 and Series X. It could use NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling tech to ramp up the graphics of older games, too.
In the interim, there’s a Nintendo Direct tomorrow that will focus on new third-party games.
It’s looking into addictive algorithms, harmful content, privacy and more.
TikTok is in the EU’s crosshairs over potential Digital Services Act (DSA) breaches around the safety of minors and other matters. The formal proceedings will focus on addictive algorithms, the rabbit-hole effect, age verification issues and default privacy settings. It’s getting into it: The European Commission will also probe ad transparency and data access for researchers.
The safety of young users seems to be a major driver: It will force the social media site to ensure high levels of privacy, safety and security for minors with default privacy settings — like it did for Meta’s Instagram and Facebook.
Sony laid down a gauntlet with the 24.6-megapixel A9 III. It’s the world’s first mirrorless camera with a global shutter, a much-awaited holy grail feature. It completely eliminates rolling shutter distortion found on CMOS cameras by reading the entire sensor at once. It also boosts speed and removes the need for a mechanical shutter. However, as the first of its kind for Sony cameras, it’s expensive ($6,000) and has a reduction in still image quality, due to the nature of a global shutter. But the benefits far outweigh those — this is one fast, accurate camera. Check out the full review.
France and Italy already restrict phones during class.
Experts and regulators have expressed concerns about children’s wellbeing and distraction due to their phones while at school. The UK government has become the latest to announce guidance for banning the use of phones during school. It follows other European countries, like France and Italy, which prohibit phones in classrooms.
Some schools in the UK already have no-phone policies in place, but these guidelines could bring widespread adoption and uniformity. “This is about achieving clarity and consistency in practice, backing headteachers and leaders and giving staff confidence to act,” Gillian Keegan, the UK’s secretary of state for education, said in a press release.
Fujifilm's X100V was the toy to have over the last couple of years (thanks, TikTok) and the company has now released its successor, the 40.2-megapixel X100 VI, with large improvements across the board. While keeping the same retro form, it offers much faster shooting speeds, in-body stabilization, 6.2K 30p video and more.
The X100VI looks identical to the previous model, with the same styling and control positions. The series was conceived as a street photography camera, borrowing a lot of styling cues from Leica's famous rangefinder cameras. As such, it doesn't have the world's great ergonomics, but is light at 521 grams, discreet for shooting and can slide into a jacket pocket.
Fujifilm
Fujifilm elected to go with the same 40.2-megapixel (MP) APS-C sensor as the much bigger X-H2, significantly boosting resolution over the X100V. I think that's a wise choice as it gives the camera — which has a wide-angle fixed 23mmm f/2.0 lens (35mm full-frame equivalent) — more cropping options. The price for that is likely a small drop in low-light sensitivity.
Another big new feature on the X100VI is built-in 5-axis stabilization with up to 6 stops of shake reduction. Given the X100VI's small body, it's an unexpected but welcome feature, and will be a big help to street photographers taking candid shots on the fly.
The X100V keeps the same 3.69-million dot hybrid optical viewfinder and 1.62-million dot LCD display, but the latter now tilts downward an extra 15 degrees to make shooting from above easier. It retains the same battery as before (CIPA rated for 300 shots), and unfortunately, the same slow UHS-I card slot.
Fujifilm
The X100VI still shoots at 11fps with the mechanical shutter and 20fps in electronic mode, but autofocus is quicker and more capable, according to Fujifilm. It now offers the company's latest tracking and face/eye detection, along with animal/vehicle and other types of subject detection.
Image quality should be improved as well with the extra resolution and a lower native 125 ISO. And since a lot of the newfound social media popularity of this camera is based on the film simulation modes, the camera comes with 20 built-in, including a new one called Reala Ace, designed to offer "faithful color reproduction and contrast tonality."
Fujifilm
Finally, one usually doesn't think of video when it comes to this series, but the X100VI is surprisingly capable for a tiny compact. It can shoot 6.2K video at up to 30fps, 4K at 60 fps and 1080p at 240fps. You also get 10-bit F-log and F-Log2 recording, shockingly good for a small, photo-centric camera with a fixed lens. The only downside is relatively low data rates (200Mbps max) due to the slow cards, but you can capture ProRes to an external recorder.
Fujifilm's X100VI is now on pre-order for $1,600 in silver or black, with shipping slated for early March 2024. The company is also offering a special edition version "engraved with the corporate brand logo from Fujifilm's founding in 1934" for $2,000. It has vowed to reduce the long lead times of the previous model by manufacturing it in China like other recent models.
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Helldivers 2 has broken GTA V‘s concurrent player record on Steam, and such is the game’s unexpected popularity that developer Arrowhead Game Studios has been forced to introduce a player cap to manager server load. The good news is that this concurrent player limit is temporary and Arrowhead is working with Sony to increase capacity.
Arrowhead “working around the clock” to resolve Helldivers 2 server issues
In a message on its official Discord channel, Arrowhead said that it’s “working around the clock” with partners (i.e. Sony) to resolve the ongoing issues. Much of the game’s problems stem from servers buckling under increasing load on both the PS5 and PC.
“While we’ve been able to mitigte some of the causes, we are still struggling to keep up with the scaling that is needed to accommodate all our Helldivers,” part of the message reads. “Therefore, we’ve had to cap our concurrent players to around 450,000 to further improve server stability. We will continue to work with our partners to get the ceiling raised. If you have progression-related issues, please restart the game in order for things to sync back up.”
Helldivers 2 has also broken concurrent player records set by Starfield, Counter-Strike, and Destiny.
