Month: February 2024

The highly anticipated Italian soulslike announces that it is being delayed: “we don’t want to compete with Elden Ring”

“Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree” has been a major announcement that has caused a lot of excitement, so much so that an already announced game has decided to change its release date.

The announcement of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the DLC for the From Software game, has caused a sensation. And with good reason. Elden Ring was the 2022 GOTY, sold like crazy, and is the biggest title From Software has ever made. That doesn’t mean there won’t be people affected by this. Because a release like Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is going to overshadow everything that happens around it.

Jyamma Games are perfectly aware of this. That’s why they have announced that they are going to delay the release of their first game, Enotria: The Last Song. The reason is because the game was going to be released on the same day as the Elden Ring DLC, a move that would be suicidal.

In addition, in this case, the delay is more than justified. Enotria: The Last Song is a soulslike game that draws from Italian folklore and aims to create a Souls-like experience, with an emphasis on character strategy flexibility and the ability to modify the environmental state. The type of game that would undoubtedly be overshadowed by Elden Ring.

However, that doesn’t mean we won’t know about Enotria soon. The studio has announced that they will reveal the game’s release date on March 21st during the Future Game Show. If you’re interested in this interesting twist on souslikes from Italy, Enotria: The Last Song will be available for PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5.

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EA confirms that we have run out of The Mandalorian shooting game

Although it hadn’t been officially announced, everything indicated that there was a game based on The Mandalorian in development, which has now been canceled due to the cuts.

Many players believe that layoffs in the video game industry do not concern them. That it is something that does not affect them. They want to play, forgetting about the people behind making those same games, to disconnect and not have to worry about day-to-day problems. But the world doesn’t work that way. When massive staff cuts are announced, the games also suffer. Some of them not even being announced at all.

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EA announced a few hours ago that they are going to carry out a restructuring that will result in the dismissal of 5% of their workforce. This means the dismissal of 670 employees out of the 13,400 employees they reported having last March. This has resulted in the closure of several offices, the closure of Ridgeline Games studio, as well as the cancellation of several games. Some of them unannounced.

According to Laura Miele in a letter to EA teams, Respawn has suffered the cancellation of one of its projects. An action FPS Star Wars game that everything points to being the rumored game of The Mandalorian. An unannounced game, but which insiders in the industry have been talking about for several months.

This is because EA believes that Respawn should focus on those games that “excite our players the most.” That means continuing with the Jedi saga and Respawn’s “own brand library.” Surprisingly, given the sour reception of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the only library that Respawn is allowed to touch is Apex Legends, the popular fusion of hero shooter and battle royale from the studio that is one of the major pillars of the American multinational.

That’s why it is expected that we won’t see any major news from EA in the near future. Having incorporated part of the Ridgeline Games team into DICE, Ripple, and Criterion to continue working on Battlefield, the only certainty is that we can’t expect any risks from EA. Only continuations of what has already been proven successful.

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Hence, the implications of these massive layoffs are tragic. Even for those who do not care about the dismissal of 670 people overnight, they must understand that this will also affect the type of games that are made and their quality. Leading us to a dark future for the industry, where we cannot expect much from what these companies do.

SkyShowtime: price increase and new tariff with ads

According to the company, the advertising slot will offer “all the box office hits from SkyShowtime, new and exclusive series, and local original programming.”

SkyShowtime, the European streaming joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global, will introduce an ad-supported plan in April. The new Standard plan with advertising will be offered alongside its current ad-free tier, which will be renamed Standard Plus.

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The advertising-supported service plan will be available starting April 23rd and will be implemented in over 20 SkyShowtime markets, including Central and Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

Prices will vary depending on the market. For example, the advertising slot will cost 4.99 euros in Spain, and the price of the ad-free service will increase from 5.99 euros to 7.99 euros; annual subscription prices will be 39.99 euros with ads and 62.99 euros without ads.

In the Netherlands, the ad-supported tier will be available for 5.99 euros and the price of the ad-free service will increase from 6.99 to 8.99 euros.

What do the new rates and prices of SkyShowtime offer?

According to the company, the advertising slot will offer “all the box office hits from SkyShowtime, new and exclusive series, and great local original programming at a great price.” And it adds that the launch “makes SkyShowtime the first major streaming service to launch an ad-supported plan in all its markets.”

The news of the advertising plan launch comes almost a year after the streaming service finished its releases in European markets and at a time when advertising plans have become a popular way to offer consumers more pricing options. In the industry, they are also considered a way to generate more revenue per user than ad-free services.

“SkyShowtime has always been committed to offering great entertainment at a great price,” said Monty Sarhan, CEO of SkyShowtime. “We continue to invest in bringing the best of Hollywood and compelling local content to consumers in our markets. And with the launch of our new ad-supported plan, SkyShowtime continues to lead in value by offering consumers an even more affordable entertainment option for the whole family.”

SkyShowtime offers subscribers content from its partners’ brands, such as: Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks Animation, Paramount+, Showtime, Sky Studios, and Peacock.

Among the original series coming to SkyShowtime in 2024, highlights include A Gentleman in Moscow, The Apples Never Fall, Halo season 2, Ted, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz. SkyShowtime is also continuing to invest in its own original and local programming.

This Star Wars game is the only one that is saved from Electronic Arts’ cancellations

Fortunately for fans of the Star Wars Jedi saga, Cal Kestis’ franchise will continue, even though EA is focusing on its intellectual properties…

EA has announced today a major company reorganization that will result in the loss of approximately 670 jobs, which is 5% of its workforce. As part of the same reorganization, the Star Wars FPS that Respawn was developing will be canceled.

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Following the announcement of the cuts made today by CEO Andrew Wilson, EA Entertainment President Laura Miele shared a note with the staff explaining in more detail what EA’s business priorities will be in the future.

This includes their announcement that EA is shutting down an early-stage Star Wars FPS action game as part of a continued focus on their own brands and supporting their existing games. It seems that using expensive licensed IPs will no longer be EA’s business strategy.

Goodbye to future Star Wars games, but not to Cal Kestis’ current saga

“It is always difficult to abandon a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team’s talent, their tenacity, or the passion they feel for the game,” wrote Miele. “Giving fans the next installments of the iconic franchises they want is the definition of box office success and the right place to focus on.”

Not much is known about the Star Wars FPS, but it was rumored to feature a Mandalorian protagonist in some way. The fate of the EA Star Wars strategy game is also unclear.

EA is carrying out the movement in part due to what it perceives as a rapid shift towards large open-world games, massive communities, and live service games.

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Fortunately for Star Wars Jedi saga fans, Cal Kestis’ franchise will continue, even though EA focuses on its intellectual properties, and it is said that EA will continue to focus on its long-standing relationship with Disney/Marvel.

Electronic Arts announces that it is joining the trend of massive layoffs

EA states that the layoffs are part of a broader restructuring aimed at supporting “the company’s strategic priorities.”

There is no week of this year that does not start with a string of technological layoffs. No company is safe, no matter how big it is. There are layoffs at Microsoft, at Sony, at Embracer Group, and now at Electronic Arts.

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Electronic Arts, creator of successful sagas such as FIFA, Battlefield or The Sims, has announced today that it plans to lay off 5% of its employees and stop working on several games.

The announcement is a continuation of the staff reduction that is taking place in the technology and video game sector, where thousands of jobs have been lost.

Justifying layoffs, as always

EA states that the layoffs are part of a broader restructuring aimed at supporting “strategic priorities and growth initiatives,” according to a statement of values ​​filed on Tuesday. In that document, EA also states that it plans to downsize its offices.

Last year, EA laid off 800 employees, while Epic Games cut 830 jobs in September. In January, Tencent’s Riot Games announced it would lay off 11% of its workforce and Microsoft said it would eliminate 1,900 jobs from its Activision Blizzard and Xbox gaming divisions.

On Tuesday, Sony announced it would cut 8% of its global workforce, which amounts to about 900 jobs.

According to EA’s annual report, published in May of last year, the company had 13,400 employees. This means that the current layoffs could result in the loss of about 600 jobs.

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Goodbye to secret projects that were already underway

Along with the staff cuts, CEO Andrew Wilson has sent a letter to the entire company informing them of the publisher’s restructuring. This means the disappearance of some live service titles and the cessation of development for certain projects.

In his letter, Wilson states that EA is restructuring to be more agile in order to offer “deeper and connected experiences for fans around the world that build community, shape culture, and grow fandom”. The company will move away from licensed IPs and close some titles to reallocate their development resources.

It is expected that the restructuring will be completed at the beginning of the next quarter. Video Games Chronicle has reported that the upcoming first-person shooter Stars Wars from Respawn is one of the titles that will not move forward.

In a statement to VGC, EA Entertainment President Laura Miele said in part: “It is always difficult to leave a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team’s talent, tenacity, or passion for the game. Offering fans the next installments of the iconic franchises they desire is the definition of box office success and the right place to focus on.”

Good news for the Vision Pro, according to Kuo: international launch, sales success, and future updates

The prospects for the Vision Pro are encouraging. With plans for international expansion, sales performance exceeding expectations, and the development of upcoming versions, Apple is positioning the Vision Pro as a benchmark.

The Apple Vision Pro has generated considerable attention since its launch in the United States earlier this month. According to renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the prospects for this innovative device are promising, with expectations of an international release in the near future, notable sales success, and future updates, although these are somewhat distant, already beginning to take shape in Cupertino’s laboratories.

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A device that is laying the foundations for success

As he stated in the past, Kuo has reiterated that he expects the Vision Pro to be launched in more countries before the annual developers conference, WWDC, in June. This rollout is expected to include mainly English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. However, Apple doesn’t stop there; they are also localizing visionOS to prepare for the device’s launch in countries like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Sales expectations for the Vision Pro in the United States alone are between 200,000 and 250,000 units for this year. A figure that exceeds Apple’s original estimates of between 150,000 and 200,000 units, highlighting the appeal of the device and confirming its success in a niche market.

Contrary to the initial information we had about the returns of the Vision Pro, Kuo estimates that the current return rate is “less than 1%”. This low rate suggests widespread satisfaction among users, debunking speculations about impulse purchases intended only for testing during the 14-day return period.

Regarding future updates, Kuo predicts that it could take several years before the Vision Pro receives significant hardware improvements. The analyst estimates that new models with major changes in the specifications of the Vision Pro may not go into production until 2027. Meanwhile, Apple could launch a modified version of the device between late 2025 and early 2026, focused on improving costs and production without significantly altering the user experience.

This is the same strategy, with some nuances, that Apple has used to consolidate its presence in new markets, optimizing the current offering before embarking on the next generation of innovations, as we have seen in other products such as the Apple Watch or the AirPods. Although we don’t know anything about a more affordable model in the immediate future, there are several rumors suggesting this possibility.

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Overall, the prospects for the Vision Pro are encouraging. With plans for international expansion, sales performance exceeding expectations, and the development of future versions, Apple is positioning the Vision Pro as a benchmark in the emerging market of augmented reality devices. In the coming months, we should learn more about all of this.

Tumblr and WordPress will sell user data to AI companies

Tumblr and WordPress are about to close agreements to sell user data to artificial intelligence companies OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Midjourney. The parent company of the platforms, Automattic, is about to close a deal to provide data that helps train the models of AI companies, as reported by 404 Media.

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It is not yet clear what data will be included, but the article suggests that Automattic may have initially overstepped. A supposed internal post by Tumblr’s product manager, Cyle Gage, suggests that Automattic was prepared to send private or partner-related data that supposedly was not going to be included in the agreement.

Among the sensitive data found were, apparently, private entries in public blogs, deleted or suspended blogs, unanswered questions (therefore, not published), private answers, entries marked as explicit, and content from premium partner blogs.

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The internal post suggests that Automattic engineers are preparing a list of post IDs that should have been excluded. “Our partners will respect all opt-out choices,” reads the end of the post. “We also plan to go a step further and regularly update any partner on individuals who have recently opted out and requested their content to be removed from past and future compilations.” It is not clear if the data has already been sent to AI companies.

The craziest devices of MWC 2024: smart contact lenses, a satellite smartphone, and more

The Mobile World Congress 2024, or MWC 2024, is one of the most anticipated technological events of the year worldwide, and it always showcases gadgets and devices that leave technology enthusiasts in awe who gather at this fair held every year in Barcelona. In fact, this year very striking innovations have been seen in various areas of technology application.

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5 of the most eye-catching devices from MWC 2024

The MWC 2024 is causing a lot of buzz, and inside it all kinds of products have been showcased. Therefore, below you can take a look at some of the most eye-catching ones:

  • Rings as wearables. In Samsung’s past Unpacked event, the South Korean company already showed its interest in the market of wearable rings, and at MWC 2024 many of them have been showcased, aiming to be one of the most relevant devices in the wearable sector in the short and medium term.
  • Smart contact lenses with AR. These contact lenses, although they are not expected to be ready until 2026, are one of the most striking areas to implement a technology like Augmented Reality. Thanks to their integrated components, the user will be able to directly see certain data and information about what they see around them. Xpanceo, the company behind this concept, wants these contact lenses to have the necessary functional features that justify their release to the market.

  • Satellite smartphone. This is a device designed for a very specific niche, but a phone with direct satellite connection can be very useful for those who frequent remote areas and need access to emergency calls. It is expected that this device, the Thuraya Skyphone, will be released in the summer of 2024.
  • Smart bike with 5G. This eBike designed by Orbic, with wider than usual wheels, also features a 7-inch screen in the center of the handlebar and, thanks to its 5G connectivity and Android system, you can carry out all kinds of GPS routes through Google Maps without the risk of getting lost. In addition, it also has other services such as Spotify to listen to music. It also has front and rear cameras, and a motor capable of reaching 45 kilometers per hour.
  • Laptop with transparent screen. We previously talked about this device developed by Lenovo with a very striking concept, as its display is capable of reproducing images on a transparent screen while the rest of the screen remains fully visible through it. For now, it is only a concept and will not be released to the market, but it is still a testament to how impressive technology can be.
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Amazon is accused of using Artificial Intelligence in one of its latest movies

The debate surrounding Artificial Intelligence applied in art is becoming increasingly intense. Artists deny its ethics and accuse it of taking jobs and even stealing their own art. Even screenwriters are at war against it, going so far as to form a union to limit its use by American producers.

However, it is a tool that platforms will obviously take advantage of, and the latest one to have a controversy with it has been Amazon. The controversy arises from accusations that the company has used Artificial Intelligence to write the script for its upcoming movie: Road House. But what exactly happened?

Has Amazon used Artificial Intelligence for its scripts?

Road House is the remake of the successful 1989 film starring Patrick Swayze, this time with Jake Gyllenhaal as the protagonist. The film aims to be a new version of the classic, adapting to the modern times, and everything seemed to be going well… until the writer of the original script went to war.

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R. Lance Hill, writer of the original Road House, has sued Amazon claiming that they violated the writers’ strike laws that took place last year. He has alleged that the company used an AI algorithm to generate the movie script instead of waiting for human writers to return to finish the job.

According to Hill, this action constitutes a violation of copyright and attacks the creative and artistic contribution of film professionals. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but everything seems to indicate that Hill has reasons to confirm his argument, so Amazon could soon find itself in a predicament.

Google Genie arrives: the first AI capable of generating video games from text or images

DeepMind, Google‘s artificial intelligence company, has just unveiled Genie, a new model capable of generating interactive video games from a simple text or image, without the need for any prior training on game mechanics.

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According to the official blog post by Google DeepMind, Genie is a “foundational world model” that is trained with internet videos. The model can “generate an infinite variety of playable worlds (controllable through actions) from synthetic images, photographs, and even sketches“.

The paper “Genie: Generative Interactive Environments” states that Genie is the first generative interactive environment that has been trained in an unsupervised manner using unlabeled Internet videos. In terms of size, Genie has 11B parameters and consists of a spatiotemporal video tokenizer, a self-regressive dynamics model, and a simple and scalable latent action model.

These technical specifications allow Genie to operate in frame-by-frame generated environments even in the absence of training, labels, or any other specific domain requirements.

According to the paper, Genie is a new type of generative AI that allows anyone (even the smallest ones) to dream and immerse themselves in worlds generated similar to simulated environments designed by humans. Genie can be asked to generate a series of interactive and controllable environments, although it is trained only with video data.

Genie can receive images it has never seen before, according to Google DeepMind. This includes photographs from the real world and sketches, allowing people to interact with their imagined virtual worlds. It is what is known as a foundational world model.

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Regarding training, the paper highlights that the company has focused more on 2D platform and robotic video games. Genie is trained with a general method, which allows it to function in any type of domain, and is scalable to even larger Internet datasets.