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UPS tentatively agreed to equip its delivery trucks with air conditioning for the first time following union negotiations between the company and the Teamsters. “Air conditioning is coming to UPS, and Teamster members in these vehicles will get the relief and protection they’ve been fighting for,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. However, the agreement only requires AC in new delivery vehicles purchased after January 1st, 2024, meaning it won’t likely spell relief for drivers this summer.

In addition to air conditioning, UPS agreed to install cab fans for additional airflow in its delivery vehicles, and the company will install a second fan in those without AC by June 1st, 2024. New vehicles will also get exhaust shields to minimize heat conduction from the powertrain to the van’s floor; existing package cars will add them within 18 months of contract ratification. Finally, new and existing trucks will get air intake vents that bring fresh air from the vehicle’s front to the cargo area to help reduce the sauna-like conditions that can develop in the vehicles’ package-storage areas.

Unless you know someone who works for UPS, you may not have realized the company’s iconic brown delivery vans lacked air conditioning. Unfortunately, it’s common practice: Standard USPS delivery trucks, introduced in 1987, also lack AC. (The Postal Service’s next-generation fleet of delivery vehicles, which begin arriving this year, finally add proper cooling.) According toNBC News, over 100 UPS workers have been hospitalized for heat-related illnesses in recent years. Especially as climate change begins to show its teeth in tangible ways (record-setting temperatures and smokey summer air becoming the new normal in many regions), it’s a sad commentary on big business that the countless drivers delivering our packages often have to suffer through sweltering heat to complete their routes.

The negotiations are part of union negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters. UPS agreeing to the most basic of heat-safety essentials may help avoid a strike, which union members began voting on last week. The union is scheduled to announce the results of the strike authorization vote (which won’t necessarily lead to a work stoppage if approved) on Friday.

At some point in the last console generation, Ubisoft lost its soul. It was a piecemeal erosion process that started in 2015, and it finally resulted in a complete identity collapse somewhere between the studio’s unironic rollout of in-game NFTs and its sixth delay of Skull & Bones. Ubisoft has 40 years of AAA hits and weird licensing deals to its name, and it used to be a pillar of European innovation – but in 2023, it’s selling live-service blandness, mobile ports with microtransactions and unreliable release dates. What even is Ubisoft anymore?

Ubisoft

Ubisoft has been a company longer than most of its players have been alive. It’s responsible for developing and publishing hundreds of games, including iconic franchises like Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Trackmania, the Toms Clancy, Rabbids, Rayman, Just Dance and, of course, Assassin’s Creed.

At the company’s Summer Game Fest show we got reveals of Massive Entertainment’s big licensed games, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, as well as a proper look at the new 2D Prince of Persia game, which actually seems pretty good. But for the most part we saw sequels, live-service games and mobile titles. XDefiant is a free-to-play team-based shooter, and following an off-key sea shanty performance, we saw Skull & Bones – a live-service game we actually played in 2017 and 2018, but has since been delayed to oblivion. Then there were several mobile-first games like The Division Resurgence and Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade, and a new Crew game, The Crew Motorfest. We also got another Ubisoft TV show and a look at the Assassin’s Creed VR game. It was far from the worst stream of the Summer Game Fest, but it didn’t do much to make people excited about Ubisoft.

So, let’s talk about how we got here.

Everything changed for Ubisoft in 2015. Assassin’s Creed: Unity shipped the previous November and proved to be the series’ most busted installment to date. It was the first Assassin’s Creed built specifically for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and Ubisoft overshot it on all fronts: Unity was full of visual and mechanical bugs, and it was so unplayable at launch that Ubisoft publicly apologized for the game and eventually released free DLC, all while furiously rolling out fixes. That same year, Ubisoft debuted Watch Dogs, too – and that game was also disappointing from a visual standpoint, especially compared with its announcement trailers in 2012.

Until this point, Ubisoft had an annual cadence for Assassin’s Creed, releasing one mainline entry per year from 2009 onward. Syndicate came out in 2015, and by 2016, Ubisoft was openly talking about series fatigue and announced plans to re-evaluate its approach to its tentpole franchise. Notably, longtime producer Jade Raymond left Assassin’s Creed and Ubisoft altogether in October 2014, just before the Unity disaster.

Ubisoft

This was the stage when a French media investor group, Vivendi, attempted to take over Ubisoft. Vivendi began buying up shares in the studio in 2015, and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot went on a publicity tour against the raid, arguing about the importance of staying independent on-stage at E3 and beyond. Meanwhile, the Guillemot family, which founded Ubisoft in 1986, went on a buying spree of its own, increasing its control of the studio alongside Vivendi. The fight ended in 2018, when Vivendi agreed to sell all of its Ubisoft shares for nearly $2.5 billion, a hefty return on its investment. This deal was able to happen because Vivendi sold a significant chunk of its ownership to Tencent, an existing Ubisoft investor and one of the largest video game companies in the world. At the exact same time, Ubisoft and Tencent, a Chinese company, announced they’d entered a strategic agreement that would bring Ubisoft’s games to PC and mobile devices in China. Since then, Tencent’s stake in Ubisoft has grown significantly, and today, in addition to its studio shares, it owns 49.9 percent of Guillemot Brothers Limited.

I feel like you can see this period of financial turmoil in Ubisoft’s creative output between 2015 and 2019. Ubisoft was consistently releasing entries in its established franchises, but it wasn’t developing original, genre-shifting hits like it used to. The studio was kind of coasting. In 2019, Ubisoft delayed a number of big games in its lineup – including Skull & Bones, again – and executives said they wanted to slow down even more between releases. In 2020, Ubisoft faced serious allegations of systemic sexual misconduct and sexism, and a handful of longtime leaders were fired or quit.

Ubisoft

On an investor call in 2021, Ubisoft’s CFO said the company was focused on building its library of free-to-play and mobile games. Since then, Ubisoft has done exactly that, developing Rainbow Six, The Division and Assassin’s Creed mobile games, and focusing on live-service iterations of its franchises, old and new. Ubisoft also earnestly tried to make in-game NFTs a thing, which… no.

The most recent Assassin’s Creed games, Valhalla and Odyssey, have been just fine, but they’ve suffered from the same open-world bloat as Far Cry, offering too-big worlds with too little variety or innovation. The studio’s newest announcements include licensed games, live services, mobile entries and microtransaction specials – with Assassin’s Creed represented in most of these categories. The most intriguing Assassin’s Creed title in Ubisoft’s roster is Mirage, the next mainline entry due out in October. It’s a condensed Assassin’s Creed experience that was initially conceived as a bit of DLC for Valhalla, and it’s an homage to the series roots, with a contained map and a return to stealth-first combat. It sounds like the original Assassin’s Creed – which maxed out at 15 hours or so, rather than 60-plus for the recent games – and it feels like the type of thing Ubisoft players have been looking for over the past eight years. Unfortunately, Ubisoft doesn’t see it that way, and it’s charging just $50 for the game. That’s not a bad thing for players, but when Ubisoft is charging $70 for The Crew Motorfest, it says something about how the studio sees value in terms of game size and paid DLC, rather than substance.

Ubisoft

To me, Mirage is a welcome step back in terms of scope, but it almost feels like an accident in Ubisoft’s broader plans to build freemium experiences and mobile games for a global market. The studio might be on the cusp of a renaissance, with the space to find its voice and alter the direction of entire genres again, but I don’t think microtransactions and open-world blandness will push it over that edge. Ubisoft used to be weird and profitable in the world of prestige games, but both of those descriptions are fading fast as the studio chases hot monetization trends and relies on the innovations of other creators. Mirage represents one path for Ubisoft, where it chases quality design rather than accounting goals. A game like XDefiant represents another potential altogether – it might be lucrative, but it doesn’t really feel like Ubisoft.

Developer Motion Twin just announced an animated series based on the game Dead Cells that releases in 2024. The series is being produced by French studio Bobbypills, who also handled the animated trailers for the game and its many DLC releases. The cartoon series seems to follow the game’s narrative, as it’s set on a “cursed island” with a population of “monstrous creatures” and “prophecies depicting a flame-headed hero.”

The series is being co-produced by French anime distribution service the Animation Digital Network. The first season of the Dead Cells cartoon will consist of ten episodes, each around seven to ten minutes long. It will also be exclusive to France, at first, before getting a global release at some point after the initial premiere. There’s a short teaser trailer that doesn’t reveal too much but does give a sense of the animation style.

Developer Motion Twin promises that the forthcoming animated series will not sway its commitment from providing constant updates and new content for the original game. Dead Cells is available on just about every platform in existence, including PC, consoles and mobile devices, having sold an astounding 10 million copies during its lifespan. For the uninitiated, the critically-acclaimed game is a roguelike/metroidvania hybrid that casts you as—surprise—a flame-headed hero trying to escape a cursed island.

Sonos is the latest big tech company laying off staff. The smart speaker brand has revealed in an SEC filing that it's cutting 7 percent of its workforce, or about 130 jobs. It's also planning to further shrink its "real estate footprint" and rethink spending on certain programs, according to the filing. This will cost an estimated $11 million to $14 million, up to $11 million of which will be linked to severance and benefits.

In a statement to Engadget, Sonos chief Patrick Spence says his company already planned to "protect profitability" if performance didn't match expectations. The layoffs and spending changes are the result of "continued headwinds," the CEO adds.

Sonos has run into financial trouble in recent months. It has swung between narrow profits and losses for multiple quarters, and in the second quarter of 2023 lost $30.7 million compared to a $8.6 million profit a year earlier. Spence pinned the shortfall on "softening" demand and tightening store inventory, and promised "swift action" to cut costs. It's not clear how much of a role the rough economy played in the reduced sales, but it won't have helped.

This is the first significant round of layoffs at Sonos since 2020, when the company slashed 12 percent of its headcount due to the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also come at a critical moment. Sonos just introduced its most important speakers in years, the Era 100 and spatial audio-focused Era 300, and is still fighting Google over patent royalties. It's also facing renewed competition that includes the second-generation Apple HomePod. The market is evolving, and Sonos is under pressure to keep up.

Google has announced a slew of new search updates, ranging from travel planning to clothes shopping — oh, and a bit of skin abnormality checking for good measure. That's right, Lens is no longer just for naming a plant or historical object but will now identify things about your skin. You simply upload a picture into Lens, and it will show you similar images. This update might be good for determining if you have a tick bite, but, like any Google searches when you're not feeling well, it could lead you down a pretty scary rabbit hole. Try to consult with a doctor if there are any spots you're unsure about across your skin.

Google

On a more fun note, Google is also enhancing its search options to make it easier to find what you want while online shopping. You can now search by filters like style, color and pattern across retailers. Then, when you do find what you're looking for, Google is attempting to solve the main problem of shopping for clothes online: uncertainty about how it will really look on you. It's releasing a new virtual try-on tool that shows what the same top would look like on a diverse range of models. The program utilizes a generative AI technique to show the fit and look of the fabric. Right now, it's only available when shopping for tops at select retailers like H&M, Everlane, Anthropologie and Loft.

Google is also releasing quite a few new travel-centric features. For starters, it's expanding Immersive View, a tool that lets you explore a 3D model of a city, to include Florence, Venice, Dublin and Amsterdam — along with letting you get close and personal with another 500 landmarks worldwide. Immersive View already exists across cities like Tokyo and New York, as well as for hundreds of interesting sights. 

Google

Whether you have an iOS or Android phone, Google is rolling out a feature that lets you follow your trip right from the route overview or your lock screen. The "glanceable directions" provide ETA updates and instructions for walking, biking or driving. The desktop version of Google Maps is also updating "Recents" to improve trip planning and allow you to work on multiple itineraries at once by saving everything to your highlights. 

In the vein of trip planning, you can also access an AI-generated summary about different locations from articles, reviews and photos. It's available through Search Labs, Google's testing center that opened up to the public in May — but there's still a waitlist. Speaking of AI experimental products, Bard will soon be using Lens to facilitate you adding photos to prompts.

Meta is trying to lure more creators to Facebook with new monetization features. The changes come as the company looks to make the short form videos and AI-driven recommendations a more central part of its primary social network.

First, Meta’s “performance bonus program,” which rewards creators for engagement on their Facebook posts, is “expanding significantly.” The program is still invitation-only, but the company is planning to enroll more creators and add additional bonuses to boost their potential earnings. The expansion comes after Meta previously cut payouts from a bonus program that paid creators for engagement with Reels. It's notable, then, that the performance bonus program is geared toward Facebook feed posts, not Reels or Stories. In a blog post, Meta notes that “most successful creators in this program post regularly, typically every day,” with a combination of text and photo posts.

Meta

Meta is also testing two new features that could make it easier to share content between Instagram and Facebook. The company will be experimenting with cross-posting for branded content so creators can more easily share sponsored posts from Instagram in Reels and Stories on Facebook. A separate test will allow “select creators” to make money from Reels that include licensed musical tracks from the company’s audio library.

According to Meta, the updates are meant to help creators “earn steady streams of income on Facebook.” But the changes also seem designed to boost creator engagement with Facebook as the platform struggles to hold the interest of younger users, who are more interested in TikTok and Instagram.

Getting more creators to post more original content to Facebook will also be an important part of Meta’s strategy to shift its main social network away from feeds toward a more TikTok-like “discovery engine” in the coming year. But in order to reorient Facebook around recommendations, Meta will first need a much bigger pool of original creator content to keep users scrolling.

The Zwift virtual cycling platform is getting a dedicated first-party game controller to simplify and improve the user experience. The Zwift Play controller attaches to the handlebars and provides a full suite of input options, with a directional pad, programmable analog buttons and a paddle on the back of each handle for braking and steering. The device attaches via silicone straps and integrates with most drop handlebar designs.

Prior to this release, Zwift users who wanted additional control options were stuck choosing from a couple of bare-bones third-party options and Bluetooth-enabled e-racing controllers that weren’t designed to optimize the company's digital fitness experience. Also, many of these devices struggled to integrate with the Zwift Companion app, which is where most users otherwise access certain features of the experience.

The Zwift Play controllers give users “complete control” and allows for easy U-Turns and general navigation throughout a multitude of virtual worlds. To that end, the buttons are programmable to allow for shortcuts like deploying power ups and teleporting to multiplayer races. That means less reaching for your phone or a keyboard while riding, which is certainly helpful.

The controller is launching alongside some brand-new software, called the Beta Zwift Play Game Experience. A game mode called Repack Rush exists as a tutorial of sorts, teaching new users how to make the most of their controllers, with more games launching in the near future. There’s also going to be more multiplayer tournaments like the annual UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, held in a virtual recreation of Central Park.

Zwift Play controllers are available starting today in the USA and Europe. The controllers are available with a discount at first, costing $100, but raise up to $150 once the initial beta testing phase has completed.

Amazon's Freevee is continuing to expand its lineup of cable-style streaming channels. The platform currently has more than 280 free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels and it's adding more from MGM and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Twelve MGM channels are coming to the service over the next few months, including one called MGM Presents and others dedicated to action and sci-fi shows and movies. There will be channels focused on individual shows, including The Pink Panther, Stargate, Green Acres and The Outer Limits. There are already dedicated channels for the likes of Paternity Court, In the Heat of the Night, The Addams Family and Teen Wolf.

Amazon bought MGM last year, and spinning up FAST channels to monetize the studio's wealth of films and TV shows makes a lot of sense. Perhaps there'll be a James Bond one at some point too.

Meanwhile, Freevee is adding 11 FAST channels from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) this month. They'll include reality and documentary shows such as Cake Boss, Extreme Couponing, Ghost Brothers, Paranormal Lockdown, Say Yes to the Dress and Long Lost Family.

WBD has made a push into FAST channels in recent months in an attempt to generate more revenue. It pulled shows such as Westworld and The Nevers from its own Max streaming service to offer those titles (and others) for free on FAST channels on the likes of Roku and Tubi.

You'll be able to access all of these channels through the Freevee app, Fire TV and Prime Video (you don't need an Amazon Prime subscription to watch them). Earlier this year, Amazon said it would make more than 100 Prime Video shows and movies available for free through Freevee's channels.

This is one of your best chances to set up a smart home on a budget, or expand the one you have. Amazon is bundling the latest-generation Echo Dot with a Kasa Smart Plug Mini for only $28, or a whopping $45 off. That's less than the smart speaker by itself, and even undercuts the price of the brand new Echo Pop.

The 2022 Echo Dot is our favorite budget smart speaker for a good reason: it sounds better than you'd expect at its regular price, let alone on sale. It's loud enough to fill a large room, and clear enough to do justice to your music. The Alexa ecosystem is also robust, so you won't have problems finding services and smart home devices (including the smart plug, of course) you can control with your voice. Toss in a temperature sensor and an Eero network extender and you might not feel the need to buy much more, at least if you're committed to Amazon's ecosystem.

We're also fond of Kasa smart plugs. They offer broad compatibility (you won't be locked into Amazon's world) and are generally easy to set up. That makes the Echo Dot bundle a good choice for turning on household devices (especially on schedules) without reaching for a switch. You might appreciate that if you need to run a light or appliance while you're on summer vacation.

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Armored Core, one of the longest-running mech battle series ever, hasn’t been seen in over a decade. Now, developer FromSoftware, flying high from Elden Ring and Dark Souls glory, is returning to mechs, with what it says is a remastered, reimagined take on robot combat. The last time I extensively played a mech game was Konami’s Zone Of The Enders space opera – and that was back in 2003. I think it’s time for a true mech gaming boom.

In a hands-off demo at Summer Game Fest, I saw roughly 15 minutes of Armored Core VI gameplay, set in an early icy stage filled with vertiginous factory structures and tightly-packed warehouses. These dense environments immediately demonstrate how modern consoles can elevate FromSoftware’s newest mech game.

Since mechs can move around in all three planes, expect to see plenty of levels and architecture that take advantage of that. ACVI producer, Yasunori Ogura, noted that you’d be able to go anywhere in a level, flying “as far as your boost system allows”. He teased that several missions offer multiple paths and ways to achieve your objectives. In the snowy level I saw, he said the player could fly to the top of a structure to make their way into a base, or (and what I saw) you can just rush in, guns blazing, to the main entrance.

At the heart of Armored Core VI is your mech loadout. Alongside components affecting energy levels, defense and speed, you can attach weapons to four slots: one in each arm and two on the back, like multi-lock missiles. Arm weapons can range from rifles and machine guns through to light-saber-esque blades and more.

As anyone who’s played an AC game can attest to, your mech design choices will be crucial. You’ll be able to create a lighter, agile mech that can float in the air longer, dodge attacks and probably not take a lot of damage. Or, you could go heavy-duty, making a slower-moving robot with an array of long-range attacks and powerful melee weaponry. You’ll also need to balance out the energy demands of your mech against the power generator component.

Bandai Namco

While you can expect a degree of exploration as you fly around these huge environments, the game will be mission-based, just like its predecessors. Each stage begins with a briefing about your mission, some backstory and an outline of what you need to accomplish. If you’re here for the story, Armored Core VI is set on a distant planet of Rubicon 3. The planet is the home of a new energy source, one that’s so powerful and volatile that it caused a cataclysmic event in the past that “engulfed the entire star system in flames”.

If you were expecting a more Souls-style approach to the Armored Core series, you’d likely be disappointed, going off both the hands-off demo I saw and comments from FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki. In an interview with IGN, he said the studio would stick to what makes the Armored Core series "special", which he believes is the breadth and depth of mech customization. But like Dark Souls et al., major fights against more capable mechs could prove to be a highlight.

During the hands-off demo, the player dodged around a powerful molten steel-flinging mech, boosting above it to reveal a weak spot. You’ll be able to stagger enemies to deal bigger damage, another dynamic you’ll need to pay attention to when selecting your mech’s composition.

The fiery mech soon bested the player in the demo, but this meant they could make some adjustments and changes to their mech, retooling it specifically to take down this boss. In this instance, they swapped in more agile legs and a rifle capable of doing more substantial stun damage. A new Armored Core game is long overdue. Hopefully, it’ll be worth the wait.

Armored Core VI will be released on August 25th on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One and PC .

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!