The developer behind the open-world RPG Crimson Desert has issued an official apology after players discovered several instances of AI-generated art in the game. Pearl Abyss posted on X that it released the game with some 2D visual props that were made with "experimental AI generative tools" and forgot to replace them before launch.
We would like to address questions regarding the use of AI in Crimson Desert.
During development, some 2D visual props were created as part of early-stage iteration using experimental AI generative tools. These assets helped us rapidly explore tone and atmosphere in the earlier…
Just a day after Crimson Desert's launch, players took to social media to post reports of potential generative AI usage. Pearl Abyss said on X that "following reports from our community, we have identified that some of these assets were unintentionally included in the final release." Now, the game's Steam page has an AI generated content disclosure, which says that, "generative AI technology is used in a supplementary capacity during the creation of some 2D prop assets" which are later replaced.
Moving forward, Pearl Abyss said it will conduct a "comprehensive audit of all in-game assets and are taking steps to replace any affected content." The developer said that these updated assets will roll out in upcoming patches, and that the team would internally review how it communicates with its player base to provide more "transparency and consistency."
Pearl Abyss isn't the only developer to fail to disclose the use of AI-generated assets in its games. Late last year, Sandfall Interactive was stripped of its Game of the Year and Debut Game awards from the Indie Game Awards for the use of generative AI in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for placeholder textures that were mistakenly left in the game. Like Pearl Abyss, Arc Raiders' developer Embark Studios is going back and replacing AI-generated material in its game after some backlash from its player base.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/crimson-desert-developer-apologizes-and-promises-to-replace-ai-generated-art-183716439.html?src=rss
Twitter is officially 20 years old. In another reality, that might make me kind of nostalgic. I've been lurking and scrolling and tweeting for 16 years; most of my adult life. There was a time when Twitter was a place where some internet strangers became my IRL friends, when I was excited to "live-tweet". When my infinitely more well-adjusted friends would send me memes, I would smugly say "I saw that on Twitter days ago."
Twitter stopped being that place a long time ago, but I don't have any nostalgia for it. I don't really feel anything at all, actually.
Because I can already hear the comments: Yes, I'm still on X. I don't spend as much time there as I did a decade ago, but it's still quite a lot of time, an unhealthy amount, if I'm being honest. My job is to report on social media companies, so I keep (doom)scrolling. That's what I tell myself anyway.
A few of my favorite posters are still around. Dril's still got it. The memes are still, occasionally, good, even though X's recommendation algorithm seems to prefer pointing me toward endless AI slop, boring hot takes from thirsty mid-tier tech execs and blatant engagement bait. X's algorithm — what little we can learn about it, anyway — now relies on Grok's predictions about what you'll like.The same Holocaust-loving Grok that has spewed racism and referred to itself as MechaHitler and declared Elon Musk "the single greatest person in modern history." The same Grok that allegedly generated thousands of images of child abuse material. Hey @grok is that true?
X is not Twitter but it's also not not-Twitter. Last year, an online marketplace startup bought the 560-pound Twitter bird that once adorned the company's San Francisco office and blew it up in a Nevada desert surrounded by Tesla CyberTrucks as part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Dumb? Yes. But also a somehow fitting adieu for "Larry."
It's been 20 years since Jack Dorsey sent the first-ever tweet, which was never even a good tweet anyway. It's been five years, by the way, since he turned that tweet into an NFT (remember NFTs??) and auctioned it for nearly $3 million. It's now functionally worthless. Another chapter in Dorsey's confusing, complicated legacy.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/twitter-turned-20-and-i-feel-nothing-140000602.html?src=rss
Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. There are a whole bunch of neat new games out this week, as well as updates on some interesting upcoming projects.
In case you missed it, the Steam Spring Sale is under way. There are lots of solid deals here, and my credit card is already screaming at me. I've picked up a bunch of games from my wishlist. For instance, at just $3, I couldn't resist snagging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate.
Meanwhile, over on Bluesky, a prototype from developer Freya Holmér caught my eye. It's for a falling-block game, but instead of filling a container to create straight lines that disappear, it's based around a pivot point. As tetrominos join the mass, it rotates left or right by 90 degrees, adding a new dimension to a well-established format. I'm really hoping Holmér turns this into a full game, as it's a rad concept.
New releases
Given all the bug slaughtering and the jingoistic satire, any Starship Troopers project is going to draw comparisons with Helldivers 2. Fortunately, Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is entirely its own thing.
This is a retro first-person shooter from Auroch Digital (the studio behind Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun) and publisher Dotemu. The framing of the game is quite meta: it's based on the experiences of Major Samantha Dietz, who was on the frontlines against the bugs, and it's effectively being used as a military recruitment tool.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is a blast. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Not that I needed one, but it gave me an excuse to watch Paul Verhoeven's original film again since the game (while having an original story) hits some of the same beats.
The tone is spot on. The writing in the cutscenes, in which Casper Van Dien reprises his role as Johnny Rico from the movies, is funny. You can't tell me that it isn't a thrill to blow up a giant bug with a tactical nuke. Plus, I was tickled by the consequences of "accidentally" shooting a fellow soldier in the training base and all hell breaking loose.
Alas, the pacing feels off — there's a bit too much space between objectives in some levels — and it's a little one-note. Still, it only takes around four or five hours to beat, particularly if you don't care about hunting for secrets.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is out now on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. It'll usually cost $25, but there's a 20 percent discount until March 24.
Retro Rewind is a solid name for a video store rental sim. You'll manage a store in the early '90s — the heyday of VHS — by doing everything from decorating the place, filling shelves with tapes and buying bootleg films to hiring staff, making recommendations to customers and collecting late fees.
My first job was behind the counter of a convenience store that had a small movie rental section, so I've got a tiny bit of experience with calling up customers who have overdue films. That part of the job wasn't exactly fun, but like the idea of running an entire rental store, an experience that's sadly almost extinct.
Retro Rewind - Video Store Simulator is available on Steam (normally $20, with a 20 percent discount until March 24). You can try it out by playing a demo.
In Their Shoes looks like an intriguing spin on the visual novel. From We Are Muesli, this is billed as a mumblecore narrative vein, indicating that it's influenced by films from that subgenre (such as the works of the Duplass brothers, Lynn Shelton and, especially in the early part of her career, Greta Gerwig). Through a few dozen interactive scenes, it follows the intertwined lives and intimate moments of seven people in Milan. Each of these dialogue-focused segments lasts around five minutes. There are timed choices and you can arrange the scenes into a timeline.
You can pick up In Their Shoes on Steam now. The full price is $13, but there's a 25 percent discount until March 31.
For this week's dog game, here is World's Goodest Pup. It's another pooch-based roguelike deckbuilder. This time around, you'll be trying to succeed in the realm of competitive dog shows. After selecting a dog from among three breeds, you'll start building a deck of accessories, tricks and poses and combine them in strategic ways to be most effective in competitions and challenges, which are procedurally generated.
This is a cozy game first and foremost, though. You can spoil puppers in a pet resort that you'll build and treat them with a visit to a dog spa. Cute.
World's Goodest Pup — from Pandamander — is out on Steam (normally $7, with 10 percent off until March 26). You can try it out via a demo.
The release trailer for Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime made me chuckle, so I had to include it. The latest project from Bonte Avond (the team behind Once Upon A Jester) is a comedy adventure game.
As Bonnie Bear, a bear in a frog onesie, you set out to defeat a local bully in a tactical frog-battling game called Frogtime. As with many real-life trading card games, you'll buy and collect frogs to build a strong army. Most importantly, it seems to be a game about the power of community, friendship and self-worth.
Gunbrella studio Doinksoft is back with another game that has a fantastic name. It's a roguelite, side-scrolling action platformer with shoot-em'-up elements. And it's called Dark Scrolls. It's such a good title that I'm almost mad I didn't think of it first.
There'll be nine heroes to choose from, including a pup named Biscuit and a rat with a saxophone. The game features procedurally generated runs with branching paths, and there's multiplayer support for two-player online co-op. I'm into the Master System-era art style and the utter chaos shown in the trailer.
The Devolver Digital-published Dark Scrolls (still not over that name) is coming to Steam and Switch later this year.
If you think about it, Scrabble is already a roguelike strategy game. Beyond Words takes that a bit further, with tiles that shift and explode, and boards that change up the rules. Much like in Balatro, you'll be modifying, destroying and duplicating tiles as you seek powerful synergies and massive score multipliers. There are more than 300 modifiers and abilities, along with boss battles and optional time-based challenge boards.
What makes Beyond Words particularly interesting is that it's from Steve Ellis and Dr David Doak — who made their names at Rare and Free Radical Design with the likes of GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark and TimeSplitters — and their small team at MindFuel Games. PQube is the publisher of Beyond Words, which will hit Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on April 9. A demo is available on Steam now.
We've learned about a bunch of upcoming music rhythm games lately, and here's another one from Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DJ Hero veterans. Echo Foundry Interactive seems to be hoping that the community-driven focus will help Sound System stand out.
When it goes into early access on Steam (October 16, $25), Sound System will have local multiplayer support. Echo Foundry Interactive plans to add online multiplayer with co-op and competitive modes. Players will be able to create charts for any song they like too.
We've had a dog game (or two) and a frog game. Now it's time to wrap things up with a cat game. In Cat Me If You Can — great title, again — the Earth has frozen and lost its color. Only cats remain. By time-travelling and taking photos of them, you'll gradually restore color to the world.
It's a hidden cat puzzle game from Cosmic Stag Games that's coming to PC, Switch and Xbox in the summer. You'll be able to check out a demo on Steam on April 8.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-retro-starship-troopers-shooter-a-video-store-sim-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-113000133.html?src=rss
A group of former Twitter investors have prevailed at a federal civil trial over Elon Musk's actions amid his $44 billion acquisition of the social platform in 2022. A jury in San Francisco found Friday that tweets made by Musk about fake accounts on the platform had defrauded investors in the company. The jury sided with Musk on other allegations in the case.
It's not yet clear how much Musk will owe in damages as a result of the case but, as the Associated Press reports, it could amount to billions of dollars. Jurors calculated that shareholders should get "between about $3 and $8 per stock per day."
The class action lawsuit, one of several brought against Musk in the months following his takeover of the company, cited Musk’s tweets about fake accounts on the platform. Facing a sinking Tesla share price in the days after announcing he would buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, the suit said Musk made tweets and statements that were intentionally meant to drive down Twitter's share price in an attempt to renegotiate or exit the deal.
The suit called out Musk's May 13, 2022, tweet that claimed the Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold" due to the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform, as well as one a few days later that suggested fake accounts might account for more than 20 percent of users. Twitter's stock dropped significantly following the May 13 tweet.
During the trial, Musk said the tweets were him "speaking his mind" and maintained that Twitter executives had "lied" about the number of bots on the platform, according toKQED. Former Twitter shareholders, on the other hand, said "they sold shares at deflated prices amid Musk’s public waffling."
Musk faced several lawsuits during and after his $44 billion takeover of the company. That includes other shareholder lawsuits related to his delay in disclosing his stake in the company, as well as one from former executives related to unpaid severance benefits (Musk later settled those claims). He also narrowly avoided a trial over his attempts to back out of the deal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/elon-musk-misled-investors-during-his-twitter-takeover-jury-finds-232033028.html?src=rss
Pinterest's CEO has thrown his support behind an Australia measure banning social media for younger teens and is calling for governments around the world to implement similar bans. "Social media, as it’s configured today, is not safe for young people under 16," Ready writes in a piece published byTime. "We need a clear standard: no social media for teens under 16, backed by real enforcement, and accountability for mobile phone operating systems and the apps that run on them."
Ready is one of the highest-profile tech CEOs to come out in favor of a broad ban on social media for teens. That may also seem like a bold stance for someone who runs a platform with a user base that's more than 50 percent Gen Z, but Ready doesn't think that ban should apply to Pinterest. Pinterest, as he notes, already bars teens under 16 from accessing messaging features and other social features. It also makes teen accounts private by default.
A spokesperson for Pinterest confirmed the company has no plans to change its own policies regarding users under 16, and said Pinterest considers itself a "visual search platform" not social media. Pinterest, like most social media and social media-adjacent companies, doesn't allow users under 13 to sign up.
Social media or not, Pinterest has encountered child safety-related issues in the past. In 2023, NBC Newsreported that Pinterest's recommendation algorithm was surfacing photos and videos of young girls to adults who were "seeking" such content. Some of those users had created Pinterest boards featuring images of young girls with titles like "sexy little girls," their investigation found. The company made profiles for teens under 16 private and "not discoverable" six months later.
According to Ready, Pinterest's popularity with younger users is proof its policies are also good for the company's business. "Our experience shows that prioritizing safety and well-being doesn’t push young people away; it builds trust," he writes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pinterest-ceo-says-teens-under-16-should-be-banned-from-social-media-but-not-pinterest-211630443.html?src=rss
Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed show has entered production and will officially be set in Rome in the year 64AD, confirming previous reports.
The upcoming adaptation, then, will return to the setting of 2010’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, although the latter’s story took place more than 1,000 years after the events we'll see in Netflix's show. Ubisoft confirmed in a press release that the Netflix series will tell an original story centered on a war between the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood, who each have very different ideas on how the future of mankind should look.
The full ensemble cast has also now been announced. Sandra Guldberg-Kampp (Foundation), Youssef Kerkour (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Mirren Mack (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple), and Louis McCartney (Broadway production Stranger Things: The First Shadow) have all been cast as recurring characters. Netflix previously announced Lola Pettigrew (Trespasses) and Toby Wallace (Babyteeth) as possible leads, along with a number of other series regulars.
Roberto Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, The Killing) are serving as creators, showrunners and executive producers on the show, which is primarily filming at Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios. No release date has been announced.
Assassin’s Creed won’t represent the first time that Netflix has adapted a Ubisoft property. 2023’s Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remixwas based on a Far Cry 3 expansion, and last year Sam Fisher made his TV debut in the broadly well received Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflixs-assassins-creed-is-officially-set-in-ancient-rome-171533234.html?src=rss
It's hard not to find the premise of Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary instantly compelling: Something is slowly killing the sun and threatening life on Earth. That same mysterious force, dubbed the Astrophage, also destroyed every nearby star — except one. Our only hope is to visit that solar system and figure out what helped it survive. And there's just one middle school science teacher who can do it.
At its core is Weir's love of technical problem solving, along with a tremendous performance by Ryan Gosling in full nerd hero mode as the aforementioned science teacher (and former molecular biologist). It's the sort of sweeping sci-fi epic that will make a whole generation of kids ready to science the shit out of humanity's future problems. And maybe it'll remind clueless adults that we gain much more by working together to solve global issues, instead of being purely self-interested.
The film starts with Gosling's character, Ryland Grace, waking up from an induced coma with no memory. He's shocked to find that he's light years away from Earth, and that the other two members of his crew are already dead. As he gets his bearings, he recalls that he was sent on a last-ditch mission, Project Hail Mary, to save the sun and everyone on Earth. No pressure! These early moments make it clear that screenwriter Drew Goddard (who also adapted The Martian), as well as directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, can deftly juggle comedy alongside the inherent drama in the story.
There's something genuinely moving about the mission. With about 30 years before the planet is faced with a global cooling event likely ending in mass starvation, Earth's major political powers put aside their differences and deliver their finest scientific minds to come up with a solution. You can really take your pick with real-world parallels, like the impending climate crisis, or the increasing threat of nuclear war. Simply seeing the world work together feels meaningful in these bleak times. And unlike other space disaster films like Armageddon and Interstellar, cooperation, rather than NASA alone, is the only way forward.
Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary.
Jonathan Olley for Amazon
Sure, humanity's hope for survival ultimately falls on the shoulders of one of the most attractive white men on (or in this case, off) the planet, but you know, movies. It's also not a spoiler to say that Grace isn't entirely alone on his journey. As already revealed by the film's trailers and a ton of social media clips, he's also joined by a crab-like being made of rock, which he simply calls Rocky. They eventually learn to communicate, and it's revealed that Rocky is also on a mission to save their own home planet.
While we get brief glimpses of life on Earth, and the planning of Project Hail Mary, for the vast majority of the film we're just left with Grace figuring things together with a rock alien. And yet, the film never drags. It's a testament to Gosling's inherent charm, but he also demonstrates an incredible ability to shift from joy and goofiness, to sheer terror, to leading-man heroics on a dime. It's also hard to take your eyes off of Rocky, who is rendered with a loving mixture of practical puppetry and CG. We've never seen a creature like them before – one that, despite having no eyes or mouth, manages to connect with viewers mostly through their very expressive arms.
Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary.
Jonathan Olley for Amazon
Project Hail Mary is ultimately a work of pulp sci-fi as told by an author who loves deeply nerdy technical solutions, as well as a writer and directors who know precisely what makes a great blockbuster tick. But the notion that humanity can collectively come together to do the impossible always tugs at my heartstrings a bit. And yes, there’s the power of friendship, too. In this moment, when things seem particularly bleak, these ideas seem especially meaningful.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/project-hail-mary-could-teach-humanity-a-thing-or-two-154327806.html?src=rss
A little more than a year after ditching third-party fact checkers and rolling back much of its proactive content moderation, the company says it will further "transform" its approach by drastically reducing the number of human moderators in favor of AI-based systems. The company says the change will happen "over the next few years," and will allow the company to catch more issues faster than its current approach.
Meta didn't say how much of its contract workforce might be cut as it makes this transition. The company employs thousands of contractors around the world to review content flagged by its AI systems and user reports among other tasks. The company said that as it shifts its approach humans will "play a key role" in "critical decisions" and aid in training and other tasks.
"Experts will design, train, oversee, and evaluate our AI systems, measuring performance and making the most complex, high‑impact decisions," Meta said in an update. "For example, people will continue to play a key role in how we make the highest risk and most critical decisions, such as appeals of account disablement or reports to law enforcement."
The company has been testing LLM-based systems for content moderation for a while and says that early tests have had "promising" results. Another advantage is that its AI can handle languages used by "98% of people online," compared with the 80 languages currently supported by its moderation capabilities.
While Meta says its underlying rules aren't changing, the new approach could dramatically change users' perception of how Meta enforces its policies. The company already relies heavily on AI for certain rules, and many users believe that these systems make too many mistakes and make it difficult for their appeals to reach a set of human eyes. On the other hand, Meta, which stands to save a lot of money if it significantly downsizes its contract workforce, says its new systems make "fewer over-enforcement mistakes" and catch more of the most "severe" violations.
In the nearer term, Meta is introducing an AI powered "support assistant" that will help users with certain types of account issues. The chatbot, which is rolling out now in the Facebook and Instagram app, will be able to help users report content and manage appeals, reset passwords and manage other account settings. It will also be able to help people who get locked out of their accounts "starting with select cases in the US and Canada."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-move-away-from-human-content-moderators-in-favor-of-more-ai-183000435.html?src=rss
Stranger Things fans will soon have permanent access to the Upside Down, as a full DVD set is now available to preorder. Stranger Things: The Complete Series comes in Blu-Ray and 4K UHD editions.
This collection includes all five seasons of the hit show, which totals 25 discs. It'll be available at brick-and-mortar and online retailers beginning on July 28. Prices range from $200 to $260, depending on the media type and edition.
Return to Hawkins this July with STRANGER THINGS: THE COMPLETE SERIES, available in Special and Deluxe Editions on Blu-ray and 4K UHD.
To that end, there's a deluxe edition available for true diehards. This includes the complete series, of course, but also bonus content like bloopers, interviews with the cast and crew and various behind-the-scenes featurettes. It also comes with a bunch of doodads, like a self-adhesive Hellfire Club patch, five posters, 25 smaller art cards, a fold-out map of Hawkins and a branded twenty-sided die.
There's a collector's box and each season comes in reversible sleeves with new artwork. Finally, this edition ships with a large artbook that includes original design sketches, concept art, storyboards and more. This is a pretty cool and comprehensive package.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-complete-stranger-things-dvd-set-includes-25-discs-and-costs-around-200-172222577.html?src=rss
Microsoft is rolling out a number of Xbox Series X|S updates to those on its Xbox Insiders program, and one of them has been requested by the community for years. You’ll soon be able to disable the Quick Resume feature for specific games, meaning they'll boot up fresh each time you launch them.
As a reminder, Quick Resume is a feature that Microsoft introduced with its current generation of consoles. It lets you suspend a number of games simultaneously so they’re running in the background even when the console is turned off. When you want to return to a game that supports Quick Resume, it'll drop you back in exactly where you left it within a few seconds, often even when it’s been months since you last played that game. It’s a pretty neat feature, and still impressive more than five years since the Series X|S launched.
But over the years, players have discovered that Quick Resume isn’t ideal for every title, particularly always-online games. When you take these out of their suspended state, they’ll often shout at you for letting them disconnect, forcing you to manually close the game down properly and then relaunch it. Other games just don't seem to get on with it for a variety of other reasons. You can manually close any game you want at any time, but it takes a few more button presses than Quick Resume, so it’s easy to forget.
The latest Xbox update finally addresses this, letting you turn off the feature on a game-by-game basis by selecting "More Options" and then "Manage Quick Resume" on a game tile. That way you can ensure it’s only enabled for single-player titles in which the ability to instantly pick up where you left off is very appealing. It’s a change that has gone down well with ex-Xbox icon Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, who said on X that he first requested it five years ago when still employed by Microsoft.
Love this. I filed a feature request to make Quick Resume per title in 2021. Great to finally see it happen. https://t.co/eDn56MIMSu
— Larry Hryb, Gamer Emeritus 📱⌨️🖱️🎮 (@majornelson) March 18, 2026
Microsoft is also adding more customization options to the Xbox dashboard in the upcoming update. You’ll be able to create custom background colors, rather than having to select one of the existing color options, while the amount of Groups you can add to your Home screen has been increased from two to 10. These can be reordered in the same way you reorder individual game tiles.
Select Xbox Insiders can start using the new features now, before they’re eventually made available to everyone.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-will-finally-let-you-turn-off-quick-resume-for-individual-games-174639730.html?src=rss
We just got our first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the next big Marvel film. This is the fourth installment led by Tom Holland and follows the multiversal shenanigans of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
I'm about to get into some spoilers, for those still working through the MCU catalog. No Way Home ended with the entire world forgetting about the existence of Peter Parker, so this new movie will deal with the fallout from that. His whole support system is gone, though it looks like he still checks in on besties MJ and Ned from time to time.
Peter Parker may be lonely, but he's not alone in the film. He's teaming up with the Punisher, who is still played by Jon Bernthal after returning to the role in Daredevil: Born Again. In the comics, Spider-Man and the Punisher are long-time work buddies and occasional sparring partners. As a matter of fact, Frank Castle made his introduction in a Spider-Man comic that was published in 1974.
Bruce Banner also shows up in the trailer, potentially as Parker's professor. Mark Ruffalo is returning to the role, but we don't have any confirmation that he'll turn into the Hulk. It's worth pointing out that this is the regular human Banner, and not the hybrid version that's been popping up in recent MCU projects.
The trailer even highlights an iconic Spider-Man villain. Michael Mando is playing Scorpion, which is a pretty deep MCU cut. The character was teased all the way back in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The footage also shows Spidey battling ninjas that look suspiciously like the Hand, who were last seen in The Defenders on Netflix. This lends credence to rumors that Daredevil could be appearing in the film.
We don't have all that long to wait. Spider-Man: Brand New Day premieres in theaters on July 31. This is the final MCU film before the long-awaited Avengers: Doomsday, which hits cinemas in December.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-spider-man-brand-new-day-trailer-is-filled-with-mcu-cameos-170215452.html?src=rss
Stop me if you've heard this before: Meta has a new program to lure top creator talent to Facebook and it comes with hefty bonus payments. The company is launching a new initiative aimed at popular creators who already have large followings on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram and offering them bonuses up to $3,000 a month just for posting on Facebook.
Meta's goal is to draw more top talent to its Content Monetization program, which pays creators based on views and other engagement metrics across Stories, Reels and posts. The new bonuses will be part of an initiative Meta has dubbed "Creator Fast Track," which is meant to make the onboarding process easier — and more enticing — to Facebook newcomers.
Under the new "Fast Track" program, Meta is offering monthly bonuses of $1,000 to creators who have at least 100,000 followers on another platform and $3,000 for those that have a million or more. Creators who join will need to post a minimum number of Reels per month to earn the bonuses, but aren't required to meet engagement targets or post exclusive content to earn. They also aren't limited to video content as Facebook also rewards text and photo posts, as well as Stories.
That may sound like a pretty good deal (it is), but it's also a limited one. The fast track bonuses will only last for three months. Creators should think of the bonuses as payment "for the hassle of starting on a new platform," not the central part of the program, Meta's VP of Product for Creators, Yair Livne, tells Engadget. "Our hope is that within a few months … the earnings that you see from Facebook Content Monetization will become the more important thing." He also notes that Meta will boost the reach of creators it fast-tracks, which should help them speed up their earning potential.
Creators can apply for the new program in Facebook's app.
Meta
It's far from the first time Facebook has sought to lure big names with big checks. It promised publishers big payouts when it launched Facebook Watch nearly a decade ago. It once courted game streamers for its (now defunct) Twitch competitor. A year after launching Reels to take on TikTok, it invested $1 billion in a bonus program that offered creators as much as $35,000 a month only to pull the plug in 2023.
Livne acknowledged that it "took us a long time to find our path" to a more sustainable creator program. "We don't have a pool structure so you're not competing with other creators for dollars. It really is based on your performance."
There are already signs that the Facebook Content Monetization program, which it introduced in the fall of 2024, is working — at least for some. Meta says it paid Facebook creators nearly $3 billion in 2025, a new high for the social network. Creators have also reported that the new streamlined program is paying off.
One political news creator told the newsletter Chaotic Era that they made $250,000 from Facebook in January alone. Publishers told Digiday last year that they expected to make "between six and seven figures" in 2025 thanks to the program. There are numerous recent posts in Reddit's r/passiveincome forum where users report making five figures a month from the program, which is still invitation only.
Livne agrees that Facebook's monetization program has been something of a "well kept secret" in the creator community. "We're trying to make it less well kept and less of a secret."
Are you in Facebook's Content Monetization Program, Creator Fast Track or another creator program at Meta? You can reach Karissa by email, on X, Bluesky, Threads, or send a message to @karissabe.51 to chat confidentially on Signal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-latest-creator-push-comes-with-3000-bonuses-for-posting-on-facebook-160000283.html?src=rss
It's only been two years since Dune: Part Twotook over multiplexes, but we already have a trailer for the third installment. The appropriately-named Dune: Part Three is an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah book from 1969.
Just like the book, the latest film takes place a number of years after Dune: Part Two. "If the first movie was contemplation, a boy exploring a new world, and the second one is a war movie, this one is a thriller," according to The Hollywood Reporter. "It is action-packed and tense. More muscular.”
Despite the time jump, most primary actors are returning. This includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Javier Bardem. Anya Taylor-Joy, who briefly appeared in the second film, is also coming back. The same goes for Jason Momoa, despite his Duncan Idaho character dying in the first film. Book readers will likely understand what that means.
The trailer also highlights the antagonist Scytale, as portrayed by Robert Pattinson. He should be a more nuanced villain than Baron Harkonnen, though that's not exactly a high bar.
The release date is coming up fast. Dune: Part Three hits theaters on December 18. That's this year. Villeneuve had intended to take a break after making the second one to focus on a smaller and more personal film, but said that he kept "waking in the middle of the night" with potential images from the third installment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-dune-part-three-trailer-introduces-robert-pattinsons-villainous-new-character-173758393.html?src=rss
You can sum up the gamer response to NVIDIA's DLSS 5 announcement with the ever-relevant Fallout 4 meme: "Everyone disliked that." Across social media and Reddit last night, I couldn't find anyone who's genuinely positive about the potential for DLSS 5, which uses AI to add "photorealistic" lighting and materials to in-game models and environments. Instead, it's mostly complaints about the feature being another avenue for AI slop. And you know what? I agree.
It's not unusual to see gamers being reflexively angry about new technology on the internet, especially when it's being pitched by NVIDIA as the “biggest breakthrough in computer graphics” since its RTX 20-series GPUs arrived in 2018 with real-time ray tracing. There was plenty of suspicion around DLSS's original AI upscaling model, as well as the "fake" frames generated by later iterations. But the few demos we've seen of DLSS 5 basically look like "yassified" AI filters for popular games.
Leon and Grace from Resident Evil: Requiem have more distinct facial and hair detail, but they look a bit too slick. There are more wrinkles on an old woman in Hogwarts Legacy. And the face, hair and clothing from a Starfield character gain an uncanny sheen.
None of the demos have the immediate impact of the Star Wars real-time ray tracing short ILMxLab produced with NVIDIA seven years ago. That demonstration showed us glorious reflections and lighting effects we'd never seen before in real-time. The DLSS 5 demos, on the other hand, don't look much different from the AI filters that make you look more presentable for Zoom calls. There's no genuine excitement for DLSS 5, just NVIDIA telling us that it's groundbreaking.
There's also plenty of concern about DLSS 5 straying from an artist's original intent, as well as a potential homogenization of game visuals if every developer starts using the feature. NVIDIA claims developers will have "detailed controls for intensity, color grading and masking," which will help DLSS 5 stay in line with a game's aesthetic. But we don't have any direct developer experience with the feature yet — some artists may want far more control than NVIDIA wants to give.
The difference between DLSS 5 and earlier versions NVIDIA's upscaling is like the difference between generative AI and more traditional machine learning models. NVIDIA relied on the latter to make low-resolution textures and models appear sharper, and later to insert generated frames to smooth out gameplay and raise your fps count. As Wirecutter and former Polygon editor Arthur Gies points out, you could argue those features were in service of delivering what developers originally intended. But DLSS 5's neural model applies its concept of "photorealism" on top of what games are rendering -- it's like watching a Pixar movie that let OpenAI's Sora do a final visual pass.
Part of the negative response towards DLSS 5 may stem from a widespread anti-gen AI sentiment, but that doesn’t devalue the criticisms either. Similar to AI generated text, images and video, there’s a dehumanizing aspect about DLSS 5. It can erase the work of human artists (despite how much control NVIDIA claims they have), and it also feels like a calculated attempt to appeal to gamers who just want shinier graphics. NVIDIA showed off how generative AI could be used to create dialog and voices for NPCs last year at CES, but that was also widely disliked (and I called it a genuine nightmare).
Of course, I can’t fully judge DLSS 5 until I see it in action beyond a short demo. But I think the visceral disgust is an important indicator that many gamers aren’t onboard with the AI-powered future NVIDIA is trying to sell us. And perhaps the idea of chasing “photorealism” may be a bit of a fool’s errand. It may be appropriate for some games, but as Nintendo and indie PC devs have shown, you can also make some of the best games of all time without striving for realism. Tears of the Kingdom could use a better framerate and higher resolution textures, but it certainly doesn’t need DLSS 5.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/gamers-are-right-to-be-disgusted-by-nvidias-dlss-5-151105593.html?src=rss
Just months after announcing DLSS 4.5 at CES, NVIDIA has unveiled its next major upscaling technology, DLSS 5. The company is doubling-down on AI for this next iteration, claiming DLSS 5 “infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials” using a real-time neural rendering model when it arrives this fall.
So what does this mean in practice? In an on-stage demo at NVIDIA’s GTC 2026 keynote, CEO Jensen Huang showed off the technology with Resident Evil: Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield. DLSS 5 adds a noticeable amount of detail to character’s hair and skin tone, but it also appears it’s being compared to those games without any DLSS features turned on. It’s unclear how much of a difference it makes compared to DLSS 4.5 with path tracing and all of its features turned on.
“DLSS 5 takes a game’s color and motion vectors for each frame as input, and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame,” NVIDIA said in a blog post. The company also notes that the technology runs in real time, and it works at up to 4K.
Huang showed off DLSS 5 while running a system with two RTX 5090 GPUs. Eventually, it will be able to run on a single video card (though I’d imagine it would have to be almost as powerful as two 5090s). Huang also paints DLSS 5 as a step towards offering Hollywood-like quality for real-time rendering, without the need for the GPU horsepower required by studios. It sounds a bit like a generative AI video model that can be directly controlled by developers, instead of just AI prompts.
NVIDIA, never shy from self-aggrandizing, claims DLSS 5 is also the “biggest breakthrough in computer graphics” since real-time ray tracing arrived in 2018. But given that ray tracing itself hasn’t been mainstream for many gamers, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any interest in NVIDIA’s AI-produced pixels.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-claims-dlss-5-will-deliver-photoreal-image-quality-with-ai-this-fall-193452088.html?src=rss
Firefly aired for just one season in 2002 before Fox canceled it. In the 24 years since, the sci-fi show has skyrocketed in popularity and now fans are finally getting more. Nathan Fillion has announced that an animated Firefly series is currently in advanced development, Deadline first reported.
Fillion shared the news at AwesomeCon during a live taping of his podcast Once We Were Spacemen with his Firefly co-stars Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk. Tudyk co-hosts the podcast, in which the duo look back at their careers and interview past coworkers. Each of the actors present at AwesomeCon are expected to voice the animated versions of their characters.
This isn't one of those maybe one day it will happen announcements, with many steps already being taken. The animated reboot is under the direction of showrunners Tara Butters (Agent Carter, Reaper) and Marc Guggenheim (DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow) — original creator Joss Whedon is not involved, but has given his blessing. It has early concept art from ShadowMachine, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning animation studio. Fillion is producing the show through Collision33, his production company, and with 20th Television Animation. There's even already a script in place.
According to Fillion, the one thing left is a home for the series. He and his co-stars took to Once We Were Spacemen's Instagram to provide more details and implore FireFly fans to show demand for the reboot.
Firefly took place in 2517, centuries after a universal civil war. It followed a group of people living aboard a transport ship, Serenity, flying through the galaxy. In 2005, the show got a sequel in the form of a movie, Serenity.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/firefly-is-getting-rebooted-as-an-animated-series-120604649.html?src=rss
Ahead of its acquisition by Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. dominated the 2026 Oscars with 11 wins primarily for Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. Netflix also put in a strong showing with seven Academy Awards, including two for KPop Demon Hunters and three for Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein.
All told, dedicated streaming services chalked up eight awards, but were shut out of the major prizes. Frankenstein took the trophies for for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, while KPop Demon Hunters took Best Animated Feature and Best original Song. Netflix also took prizes for All The Empty Rooms (Best Documentary Short Film) and The Singers (Best Live Action Short Film). Apple TV garnered the other streaming service Oscar for F1 (Best Sound).
Warner Bros. dominated the more prestigious awards. The studio took its first Oscar for Best Picture (One Battle After Another) since Argo won in 2012, while also winning Anderson the prizes for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and giving Sean Penn the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Sinners, meanwhile, won for Best Cinematography, giving Autumn Durald Arkapaw the first ever win for a woman and woman of color in that category. Michael B. Jordan took the Best Actor prize for that film, while Director Ryan Coogler won for Best Original Screenplay.
Other notable acting prizes were won by Jessie Buckley (Best Actress, Hamnet) and Amy Madigan (Best Support Actress, Weapons).
Host Conan O'Brien joked that it was the "first time in a theater" for Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos. It remains to be seen, however, whether Netflix losing out to Paramount Skydance on the Warner Bros. acquisition will be to the film industry's benefit or detriment. One clear loser of late is broadcast television as the 2026 Oscars will be the third-to-last aired by Walt Disney's ABC, with YouTube set to stream the ceremony exclusively starting in 2029.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/warner-bros-dominates-oscars-with-11-wins-ahead-of-its-acquisition-by-paramount-093916527.html?src=rss
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 15: Lynette Howell Taylor onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Richard Harbaugh/Bill Barnes/The Academy/Getty Images)
A month after Seedance 2.0's launch in China sparked cease-and-desist letters from Disneyand Paramount Skydance over its use of copyrighted materials, its developer ByteDance has reportedly hit pause on the release of the AI video tool in other regions. According to The Information, which spoke to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, ByteDance has suspended Seedance 2.0's global rollout. Engadget has reached out to ByteDance for comment and will update this story if we hear back with more information.
Seedance 2.0 caught heat from Hollywood studios almost immediately upon its release, after user-generated videos including a viral AI clip of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise sparked concerns that copyrighted works were used in training the model. In February, ByteDance told the BBC that it is "taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users." It's unclear when exactly ByteDance planned to release the tool more widely.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/bytedance-has-reportedly-suspended-the-global-rollout-of-its-new-ai-video-generator-212326112.html?src=rss
You're responsible for your own Spotify algorithm now. On stage at SXSW, Spotify's co-CEO, Gustav Söderström, announced the Taste Profile feature, which allows users to personally customize exactly what they want to listen to, whether it's music, audiobooks or podcasts. This AI-powered feature is still in beta, and it will be available to Premium users in New Zealand in the coming weeks.
From its short video demo, Spotify's Taste Profile feature will show you a summary of your listening habits and offer a "Tell us more" prompt at the bottom. With the new prompt, users can inform the AI what they want to see more of or if they want to get rid of a genre that keeps popping up in their algorithm. Spotify said that the Taste Profile will take into consideration more ambiguous prompts, too, like if you're training for a marathon and want upbeat music or want to listen to news podcasts during your commute to work. Spotify added that Taste Profile is an optional feature, and unwilling users can "leave it and enjoy Spotify as usual."
With Taste Profile, Spotify is continuing its momentum of offering AI features, like the Prompted Playlist feature that was made available last month. Unlike the existing AI Playlist feature, Prompted Playlist lets you put in specific requests to generate a playlist, like only including songs from a specific TV show. Like Taste Profile, the Prompted Playlist feature saw beta testing in New Zealand first, before expanding to US and Canadian users a month later.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotifys-new-taste-profile-feature-lets-users-fine-tune-their-algorithms-recommendations-191104626.html?src=rss
Josh Wardle had a hell of a tough act to follow. His last game, Wordle, became incredibly popular thanks to its blend of simplicity, clarity and shareability. Over four years (and a seven-figure sale of Wordle to The New York Times) later, Wardle has released his follow-up game.
Like Wordle and its myriad clones, Parseword offers up one puzzle per day. It taps into the mechanics of cryptic crossword clues. So it might ask you to replace one of the words with a synonym, reverse it or find a homophone. You may need to remove letters from a word or combine it with another one to find the answer. There’s a tutorial to help you get to grips with things and hints are available.
Wardle told The New Yorker he was inspired by The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin, who he heard discuss the logic behind cryptics on a podcast. Wardle brought in two friends, Chris Dary and Matt Lee, whom he worked with at Reddit to collaborate on the new game. They received permission to use clues from long-time cryptic constructors Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon.
After playing the tutorial and today's puzzle, it seems you may need to be wired in a certain way to play Parseword. It’s certainly less approachable than Wordle. At first glance, it’s hard to see this reaching the same kind of mass appeal as Wardle’s previous game. (Fittingly enough, Parseword feels like a game geared toward New Yorker readers.)
Of course, countless other casual daily games that aim to replicate the success of Wordle have popped up over the last few years, from Quordle, Bracket City and Framed to the Times’ own Connections, Strands and Pips. Catfishing, which asks you to guess Wikipedia article subjects based on their categories, is a new favorite of mine. I still miss the original Heardle, though.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/wordles-creator-is-back-with-a-new-game-and-its-a-real-chin-scratcher-182639801.html?src=rss
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