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There's good news if you felt thrown by the $50 price tag for 13-year-old Red Dead Redemption's Nintendo Switch and PS4 release: Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the cost is right. Seriously, IGN reports that Zelnick had his reasons, which he clearly laid out after the company's Q2 earnings report, "That's just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it." Satisfied now? 

Points of frustration around Red Dead Redemption's sticker price are extensive, including the lack of a multiplayer option and a complete lack of a quality update since its 2010 release (no 4K visuals in sight). There's also the small matter that the game is already available on Xbox Series X in 4K for $40. 

Take-Two is leaning on the inclusion of Undead Nightmare, a Red Dead Redemption expansion, in the port as a rationale for the higher price. Zelnick called Undead Nightmare "a great standalone game in its own right when it was originally released, so we feel like it's a great bundle for the first time, and certainly a great value for consumers." 

If the words of a CEO have convinced you to pay $50 for Red Dead Redemption, you can buy the digital version for the Nintendo Switch or PS4 starting August 17th, with a physical release to follow on October 13th. 

On August 4th, Northrop Grumman's 19th resupply mission for the ISS arrived on the orbiting lab, carrying not just necessities for its inhabitants, but also an experiment that could greatly benefit future human colonies outside our planet. Specifically, the mission was carrying a module with hardware that could help us understand how heating and air conditioning systems can operate in reduced gravity and in the extreme temperatures observed on the moon and Mars. Daytime temperatures near the lunar equator, for instance, reach 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which is higher than the boiling point of water. At night, temperatures reach -208 degrees Fahrenheit. The lowest recorded temperature on Earth was -128.6 degrees Fahrenheit back in 1983.

The hardware was designed and built by scientists and engineers from Purdue University and NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. It will allow Purdue scientists to conduct the second part of their Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), which has been collecting data aboard the ISS since 2021. They've already finished gathering data for the first part of their study that focuses on measuring the effects of reduced gravity on boiling. This part will now focus on investigating how condensation works in a reduced-gravity environment.

Issam Mudawar, the Purdue professor in charge of experiment, explained: "We have developed over a hundred years' worth of understanding of how heat and cooling systems work in Earth’s gravity, but we haven’t known how they work in weightlessness."

His team has published over 60 research papers on reduced gravity and fluid flow from the data they've collected so far, and they're in the midst of preparing more. They believe that in addition to providing the information needed to enable human colonies to live on the moon and on the red planet, their experiment could also provide the scientific understanding to enable spacecraft to travel longer distances and to refuel in orbit.

The Apple TV+ film Tetris was copied from a book written years ago, according to a lawsuit filed against the tech giant and the Tetris Company. Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, has accused the plaintiffs of ripping off his book The Tetris Effect, which tells the history of the game in the form of a Cold War-era thriller. In his lawsuit (PDF, via Reuters), Ackerman said he sent the Tetris Company and its CEO Maya Rogers a pre-publication copy of his book back in 2016. Later that year, his agent received a "strongly worded Cease and Desist letter" to stop him from pursuing film and TV opportunities. 

Ackerman accused Rogers of working with screenwriter Noah Pink to develop a screenplay using content taken from his book without his knowledge or consent. Apparently, numerous producers showed interest in adapting his book, but the Tetris Company refused to license its IP for the project. "This was done at the direction and behest of Ms. Rogers so that she and the Tetris Company could pursue their own project and opportunities based on Mr. Ackerman's book without compensating him," the lawsuit reads. 

In his complaint, Ackerman explained that for writers, the option to license their work for film and TV is typically a major source of revenue. That's why he takes the Tetris Company's actions not as a means to prevent the unauthorized use of its IP, but as an "economic attack" on his business. To drive the point home, Ackerman included quite a lengthy list of "glaring similarities" between his book and the film in his lawsuit. Several items in the list explain how scenes in the movie mirrored his versions of events. That said, those events were based on scenarios that happened in real life, so it remains to be seen if the court will agree with him. Ackerman is asking for actual, compensatory and punitive damages equivalent to 6 percent of the film's $80 million production budget. 

X is giving advertisers new ways to have some control over what type of content can appear near their ads. The company formerly known as Twitter introduced new “sensitivity settings” that allow advertisers to choose between different types of content filtering for their ads.

The new controls arrive as X is increasingly desperate to win back advertisers. The company’s ad revenue has dropped 50 percent since Elon Musk took over as brands cut spending on the platform amid concerns about the rise of hate speech and other unsavory content. Since then, watchdog groups have reported several instances of ads from major brands being placed near neo-Nazi accounts, Holocaust deniers and other previously suspended users.

With the new tool, X says it “will use machine learning to reduce adjacency to varying levels of content according to a brand’s sensitivity threshold in an upcoming campaign.” For now, the two settings available to advertisers include “conservative” and “standard.” The company notes that all rule-breaking content is meant to be excluded from ads regardless of what advertisers have opted into.

X

Under the most restrictive “conservative” setting, ads would be excluded from appearing near “targeted hate speech, sexual content, gratuitous gore, excessive profanity, obscenity, spam and drugs” in the “for You” timeline. The “standard” option would avoid the same topics, but allow spam and drug-related content, according to an example shared by X. The company also plans to add a “relaxed” setting for advertisers who want to “maximize reach” of their ads with the fewest limits on what can appear nearby.

The update isn’t the first time X has introduced tools to promote brand safety. The company previously added other keyword-based “adjacency controls” that were also meant to limit ad-buyers’ exposure to problematic content. But those changes, introduced in December, seem to have had little effect on X’s ad business. 

Though the company has repeatedly claimed that it has successfully limited the reach of hate speech on its site, researchers have said otherwise. Last month, Bloombergreported that researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) indicating hate speech has surged, both in terms of sheer volume and in engagement, since Musk’s takeover of the company. X disputed the findings and is now suing CCDH, alleging the group “illegally” scraped data.

YouTube announced today that it’s changing how its home page works if you have your watch history disabled. Starting today, the video service’s home feed will stop appearing for those with their viewing history turned off and “no significant prior watch history.” The change will provide a more streamlined browsing experience, showing only the search bar and guide menu.

“Starting today, if you have YouTube watch history off and have no significant prior watch history, features that require watch history to provide video recommendations will be disabled — like your YouTube home feed,” the company wrote in a blog post today. “This means that starting today, your home feed may look a lot different: you’ll be able to see the search bar and the left-hand guide menu, with no feed of recommended videos, thus allowing you to more easily search, browse subscribed channels and explore Topic tabs instead.”

YouTube says the changes will appear “slowly, over the next few months.” The company describes the move as making “it more clear which YouTube features rely on watch history to provide video recommendations and make it more streamlined for those of you who prefer to search rather than browse recommendations.”

YouTube says, once the change rolls out to your account, you can change your watch history settings to switch views at any time. The toggle is in a dedicated section on the My Google Activity settings page.

Valve announced today that it’s offering “certified refurbished” Steam Deck units. The renewed devices shave around 20 percent off the prices of their new counterparts, allowing you to pick one up for cheaper than Steam Summer Sale prices. The consoles include the same one-year warranty as new models. In addition, Valve announced that GameStop is now selling Steam Deck refurbs in select stores, although its models are “refurbished at GameStop facilities and will come with their own warranty.”

At the time of publication, Valve has all three Steam Deck tiers in stock. The 64GB model costs $319, the 256GB variant is $419 and the 512GB one is sold for $519 — the same systems in new condition retail for $399, $529 and $649, respectively.

Valve says it thoroughly tests each unit before certifying it for resale. “Every device goes through a complete factory reset, software update, and an extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve’s facilities,” the company wrote. “Among the tests are all controller inputs, the audio system, the screen, and internals. Battery health is also assessed to ensure proper functionality and longevity.”

The company cautions that the renewed units “may have minor cosmetic blemishes,” but it promises “a reliable, high-quality gaming experience at a lower cost.” In addition to offering the same warranty as new consoles, the refurbished models include a power supply (also refurbished), carrying case and quick-start guide. Valve says refurbished Steam Deck stock is limited “and may fluctuate over time.” The company recommends checking its refurbished stock regularly if they’re sold out.

Meanwhile, GameStop's refurbished Steam Decks are also available today. They’re sold in select retail locations for “up to 20% less than new models” and are only available for customers with a GameStop Pro membership, which costs $25 annually.

After months of testing, Google has announced that all group chats that have RCS enabled in its Android and Wear OS Messages app now have end-to-end encryption (E2EE) enabled by default. That should help keep prying eyes away from your chats as only the group participants will be able to read your messages, as long as they're not sharing screenshots or showing their phone to someone next to them (there's not much you can do about that, unfortunately).

Google notes that RCS will now be enabled by default for new and existing users, as long as they haven't previously switched off RCS in their settings. So, maybe make sure that no one in your group has opted out of RCS before you start sharing your most private information.

E2EE has been available in one-on-one chats for some time and enabling it for group conversations is a welcome move. However, Android and iOS don't exactly play nicely together on this front. Google has been trying in vain to get Apple to support RCS, but the latter is quite content with using its own iMessage service for encrypted messaging. So, you'll only be able to embrace E2EE chats if every member of your group is on either Android or iOS, unless you opt to use a third-party app like Signal.

Sony has reportedly begun rolling out a cloud streaming beta for PS Plus Premium subscribers — and it supports up to 4K resolution. Announced in June as being in the “early stages” of development, the feature will support PS Plus catalog titles, game trials and “supported digital PS5 titles that players own.” The feature could help PlayStation owners avoid lengthy downloads that take up precious storage.

An alleged PlayStation email to an invited tester, posted on Reddit, reads, “We’re excited to unveil PS5 cloud streaming, and your help testing it means a lot to us.” The beta period uses exclusive invite codes that can’t be shared with other users. The email notes that features could change before cloud streaming’s official launch.

User ArashiGames wrote on ResetEra that they tested God of War: Ragnarok at 2160p with “no issues so far.” They described resolution options ranging from 720p to 2160p for that title, and they said Returnal streamed in 4K. “There’s a new section in the PS+ menu that is for Streaming PS5 Games,” the beta-tester wrote. “Just click the game and it loads in a few seconds.” They listed Horizon Forbidden West, Fortnite, Destiny 2 and Death Stranding (among others) as streaming options. 4K resolution could prove a competitive advantage against Xbox Cloud Gaming, which maxes out at 1080p resolution and 60fps.

Sony’s upcoming “Project Q” streaming handheld will have an 8-inch, 1080p screen with a 60Hz refresh rate. The accessory is confirmed to use Remote Play (streaming directly from a console rather than the cloud) but could theoretically support cloud streaming as well. The device is set to launch later this year for an as-yet-unknown price.

Game streaming will be exclusive to PS Plus Premium members. The $18 / mo. service already supports cloud gaming for PS4, PS3 and select “classic” titles. It lets you stream available games to PS5, PS4 or PC.

Amazon Prime Day came and went in July, but Amazon’s not done with its membership-only sales events for 2023. The company just announced that it will hold another Prime Day of sorts in October, potentially mirroring what it did at the same time last year. This year’s event is dubbed “Prime Big Deal Days,” and at the moment, all we know about it is that it will be held sometime in October. Engadget will be surfacing all of the best tech deals we can find during the event – both on Amazon and elsewhere – but there are some important things to know ahead of time so you can get exactly what you want out of October Prime Day.

When is Prime Big Deal Days?

Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days will take place in October 2023, but specific dates have not been announced yet. We’ll update this post once Amazon provides more information publicly.

Just like classic Prime Day, you’ll have to be a Prime subscriber to take advantage of most of the savings you’ll find on Amazon during the sale period. The company still offers a 30-day free trial to new Prime subscribers, so you can start your free trial ahead of the event to participate.

If you don’t pay for Prime and have no intention of doing so, you should still check out Amazon on October Prime Day for sales that are available to all shoppers. Plus, other retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target will likely have their own competing Prime Day sales during that time frame, too.

October Prime Day deals

It’s very likely that October Prime Day will be two days long, as that’s the pattern Amazon has followed for the past few years with all of its Prime-exclusive sale events. However, the company also usually pushes out early Prime Day deals ahead of the event itself. We expect to see early access Prime Day deals this October, too.

Be they early Prime Day deals or day-of sales, Amazon gadgets are almost guaranteed to be discounted during Prime Big Deal Days. You can safely bet on things like Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers and Fire TV devices to be on sale for Prime Day. And with this event being in October, it’s very likely that Amazon will use this Prime Day almost as an early Black Friday deal event for Prime subscribers: paying for Prime may get you Black Friday pricing on Amazon devices (and other gear) one month in advance.

Make no mistake, Amazon gadgets will not be the only items discounted on Prime Day. You’ll find clothes, shoes, household items, appliances, accessories and more on sale, but here at Engadget, we’ll naturally be focusing on electronics. We expect this October Prime Day to be like July’s, in that it will bring big discounts on headphones, earbuds, laptops, gaming accessories, SSDs and microSD cards, robot vacuums and more.

It’s also worth mentioning the types of deals we expect to see during October Prime Day. Some deals will be live for the entire 48 hours of the event, while others will be day one- or day two-only sales. Those are the hardest to predict, since Amazon usually does not give any indication how long a given sale will last. Our recommendation is to buy the things you’re most keen on as soon as you see them drop in price – that will ensure you get it while the discount is available, and while the item is still in stock.

You can also expect to see some “Lightning deals” happen during Prime Day. Thankfully, these are usually clearly labeled with the amount of time remaining to grab the sale price noted on the product page. In our experience, only a handful of these flash deals are actually worth your money — but if you see something that’s been on your wishlist drop in price for the next few hours, it’s in your best interest to grab it immediately.

How to prep for October Prime Day

We’ve alluded to this already, but it’s best to go into Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days as prepared as possible. That means knowing exactly what you want to look for so you stay focused and avoid distractions. This is especially important for October Prime Day — Amazon used this event last year as an unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season, so if you want to get some of your gift buying done early, you’ll want to stay focused. The whole of Amazon.com will be overwhelming on Prime Day, so the less time you spend aimlessly browsing, the more your wallet will thank you later.

Two simple things you can do ahead of Prime Day are make a list and bookmark a price tracker. For the former, take note of the most important items you want to pick up on Prime Day. You can either do this the old-fashioned way on a sticky note, or you can use Amazon’s wish list feature. For the latter, add the items you want to buy on Prime Day to your wish list (or, even better, make a dedicated wishlist with only your Prime Day or holiday gifting desirables) and return to that list during the event. Not only will you have everything you want all in one place, but you’ll also be able to see which of those items are cheaper on Prime Day than they were when you originally added them.

As for the price tracker, sites like CamelCamelCamel let you monitor the price of specific items on Amazon. You can check out price history charts and you can make your own price-drop alerts, receiving emails when something you want gets a discount. CamelCamelCamel also has some browser extensions you can download so you don’t have to navigate away from an Amazon product page to check its price history.

We know that not everyone – not even every Prime member – will be flocking to Amazon during Prime Big Deal Days. Whether you find such blatant displays of consumerism off putting or you simply don’t want to give Amazon more of your money, there are plenty of reasons why you might be skipping this all together. But that doesn’t mean you have to skip all of the sales that will be happening during that same time. Especially with it being so close to the holidays, retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others will most likely have competing Prime Day sales and we expect many of them will match the discounted prices you’ll find on Amazon. We recommend checking them out if you want to cross some items off your holiday shopping list for less, without spending money on Amazon.

Engadget will be covering October Prime Day in full, so if you have a lot of tech on your to-buy list, be sure to check back here on Prime Day for the best tech sales we could find. We’ll be sure to include gadgets from across the board – from headphones to robot vacuums to gaming gear – plus the best “anti-Prime Day” deals you can find from other retailers. You can also follow the @EngadgetDeals Twitter account and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter to stay up to date on the latest discounts. The volume of deals will be daunting, but we sift through them all and pick out the best ones to make Prime Day a bit easier for you.

The Pokémon Company had a bunch of updates to share during its latest Pokémon Presents stream. For one thing, it shared a new trailer for Detective Pikachu Returns, a long-awaited sequel that's coming to Nintendo Switch on October 6th.

For the uninitiated, Detective Pikachu Returns recasts the franchise's mascot as a hard-boiled, tough-talking detective. Detective Pikachu and his current partner Tim Goodman (who can actually understand Pikachu) get to the bottom of a string of unusual incidents with the help of some other Pokémon and humans, who live side-by-side in Ryme City. In between, Pikachu is drinking coffee or trying to find out just what happened to his missing partner, Harry (Tim's dad).

The cute trailer offers a look at some gameplay. You'll need to get your thinking cap on as you look for clues and use a casebook to solve cases. Other Pokémon will help you out by sniffing out clues or punching through walls. If the latest clip has you excited to play the game, you may be pleased to learn that pre-orders for Detective Pikachu Returns are now open.

Elsewhere, The Pokémon Company revealed that the first half of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s major paid expansion will arrive on September 13th. In "The Teal Mask," you'll go on a school trip to the land of Kitakami and meet Pokémon that aren't available in the Paldea region. The second half of the DLC, titled "The Indigo Disk," is slated to arrive this winter.

On top of that, Mew and Mewtwo are coming to Scarlet and Violet as part of an event. You'll be able to add Mew to your team and battle the formidable Mewtwo.

Meanwhile, a couple more Pokémon games are now available on Nintendo Switch Online. Those with the base membership can now play Pokémon Trading Card Game, which hit Game Boy Color back in 2000. If you're a Nintoendo switch Online + Expansion Pack member, you should also now have access to Pokémon Stadium 2 from the Nintendo 64.