Outer Wilds is getting a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade on September 15th, and it'll be free for anyone who already owns the game on PS4 or Xbox One. Outer Wilds is a brilliant open-world mystery about exploring strange planets and unlocking the secrets of an endless time loop that's consumed the solar system, and it first landed in 2019. It's the first console and PC game out of indie studio Mobius Digital, and it's picked up a handful of prestigious accolades since launch, including Best Game at the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards.
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, a big and beautiful bit of DLC for the game, landed in September 2021. The native PS5 and Xbox Series upgrade will hit 60fps. It's unclear whether Echoes of the Eye will be included.
The Switch version of Outer Wilds is set to come out after the new upgrade in September, and this is a delay from its original release window of this summer. Mobius Digital made all of these announcements during today's Annapurna Interactive showcase.
Annapurna Interactive is set to hold its second games showcase today at 3PM and you can watch it below (we'll embed the stream once it's available). The powerhouse indie publisher just released one of the most anticipated games of the year in Stray, as well as the acclaimed, speedrun-friendly Neon White. It's about to offer a look at what's next.
We might find out a release date for Open Roads, the latest game from Gone Home and Tacoma studio Fullbright. The road trip adventure is still slated to arrive this year, according to its Steam page. Here's hoping for more details on Sayonara Wild Hearts developer Simogo's Lorelei and the Laser Eyesand Cocoon, from Limbo and Inside lead gameplay designer Jeppe Carlsen.
Maybe there will be word of updates for Annapurna's previous games too. In any case, we won't have long to wait to find out.
Ghosting can hurt, for sure. When someone suddenly cuts off contact, doesn’t show up at a date or just unmatches on one of those many dating apps, it sucks. One Filipino lawmaker is trying to make it stop, which could be a tall order. Arnolfo Teves Jr., a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said ghosting was "a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as an emotional offense."
The bill — yes there’s proposed legislation — doesn't offer specific penalties, but Teves suggested in an interview that community service might work. The bill tries to define a dating relationship as one where the parties live together without being married or are "romantically involved over time and on a continuing basis."
Teves said neither casual acquaintances nor “ordinary socialization” constitutes a dating relationship. But those are likely the connections that ghost the most. The bill doesn’t account for blocking someone without explanation if they're being creepy or threatening, which can often be the case. (Why am I coming across as a regular ghoster / ghostee?) Silently ditching a conversation is usually easier than being honest, sadly. It’s not cool, but I’m not sure it’s truly a criminal offense.
Google Photos is getting a significant update that has the distinction of first arriving on Chromebooks. Your photo and video library will get a new movie editor and video editing features this fall as part of a Chrome OS update. You’ll be able to make videos similar to the highlight clips the app already automatically makes, and select a theme, people or pets you want to feature in it; from there, Google Photos will pull together a movie using video clips and images from your library. Google isn’t saying yet if these video editing features will come to the mobile apps for iOS and Android, but Google Photos has usually had feature parity regardless of platform.
Generative Artificial Intelligences (GAIs) are systems that create pieces of work to equal the old masters in technique, if not in intent. But there’s a problem: These systems are trained on existing material, often using content pulled from the internet, from us.
DALL-E 2, Open AI’s system for creating “realistic images and art from a description in natural language” is the current star of GAIs. A user could enter the phrase “teddy bears shopping for groceries in the style of Ukiyo-e,” and the model will produce pictures in that style, often to a pretty high standard. But this all prompts several questions on ownership, data biases and the law of art. Engadget’s Daniel Cooper explores the future of AI-generated images.
Projectors have come a long way from the clunky, dim models of the past. The latest models are brighter, sharper, more discreet and easier to install than ever. There are a lot of different types of projectors, though, ranging from ultra short throw to portable to long throw. There are also a lot of technical terms, so it’s the perfect topic for our latest Engadget guide, which explains everything you need to know.
Overall user figures grew to 433 million, but the company lost $197 million in the quarter.
The music streaming company hasn’t yet felt the effects of a looming global recession. Unlike Netflix, which had to report a fall in its overall customer base, Spotify has seen both free and paying accounts grow. It now has 433 million users, up from the 422 million reported at the end of the first quarter. Of those, 188 million pay for Premium, a leap of six million from three months ago. Spotify’s plan to pivot toward cheaper forms of audio content, like podcasts and audiobooks, should help to keep new listeners streaming away.
You can also get a peek at your environment to avoid collisions.
Finally, some early details of PlayStation VR2's software experience, not just the hardware. Sony teased a few key features for its PS5 VR headset, including live streaming support. If you have a PS5 HD Camera, you can broadcast both gameplay and a view of yourself. As you might guess, that could be helpful for Twitch streamers and YouTubers. The company also explained how it will handle non-VR content, with a 1080p Cinematic Mode that displays the PS5 interface and conventional games on a virtual screen at refresh rates between 24Hz and 120Hz.
Later this year, Google Photos is going to get a significant update that has the distinction of first arriving on Chromebooks. According to a Google blog post, Google Photos will get a new movie editor and video editing features this fall as part of an update to Chrome OS. From the sound of things, it’ll let users make videos similar to the highlight clips the app already automatically makes. You’ll be able to select a theme as well as people or pets you want to feature in it; from there, Google Photos will pull together a movie using video clips and images from your library. It’ll be smart enough to scan longer videos and pull out specific clips to include in these new creations as well.
While it’s no surprise that Google is including an automated tool, the company is also including the ability to start from scratch, adding video clips and photos in any order you like. The app will let you adjust things like brightness and contrast, trim clips as you see fit, add title cards and music and apply Google’s Real Tone filters that work better with non-white hairstyles and darker skin.
Google isn’t saying yet if these video editing features will come to the mobile apps for iOS and Android, but Google Photos has usually had feature parity regardless of platform, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see these tools expand past Chromebooks before long. In fact, the video editor will be built in to an optimized version of the Android Google Photos app specifically built for larger screens. The app will also seamlessly work with the Files and Gallery Chrome OS apps, so you can open a video in the Gallery app and immediately move it right over to Google Photos for editing or including in a new creation.
Google
There are numerous other handy updates planned for Chrome OS coming in the next few months. Another new Google Photos feature will allow Chromebooks to access your library and use those pictures for background wallpaper; like other Chrome OS wallpaper options, you can pick a specific album and set it to change daily. The aforementioned Gallery app is going to get PDF editing features, so you can fill out forms and sign them if you’re using a Chromebook with a stylus. That feature is coming next week. There’s also a new Cursive app for capturing and organizing hand-written notes; those can be copy and pasted into other apps or exported to PDFs for, depending on how you need to share them.
Chrome OS is also getting a new dark mode, something that’s been rumored for a long time now. As you can on most other devices, you’ll be able to pick one mode or have it automatically switch based on the time of day. Some new wallpapers will also come with light and dark versions that automatically switch depending on which theme you use, too.
Google
Finally, Google is making a few productivity improvements to Chrome OS. Clicking on the date in the Chromebook shelf will pop up a monthly calendar view; you can choose a date to see your Google Calendar events without having to open the app or website. And Chrome OS will let you save virtual desk setups, so if you have a specific set of tabs and apps you use frequently, you can call them up and dismiss them as needed.
Most of these updates should be coming in August, though Google specifically noted the virtual desk update won’t be available until late September. And the Google Photos video editing tools are set to arrive in the “fall” — hopefully sooner than later.
You might not get to play the PlayStation 5 remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic anytime soon: According to Bloomberg, its development has been delayed indefinitely. Sony announced that Aspyr Media, a company known for creating ports out of existing video games, was remaking BioWare's classic Star Wars RPG last year. Aspyr had been working on the remake for three years by then and had industry veterans, as well as people who helped create the original game, onboard. Things certainly looked promising, but now the game's future seems uncertain.
Apparently, Aspyr finished a demo of the game to show Lucasfilm and Sony on June 30th and the developers were even excited by what they've achieved. A week later, however, the company fired design director Brad Prince and art director Jason Minor. On his LinkedIn page, Minor's Aspyr credit shows his end of employment as July 2022, and his profile image currently features the "#Opentowork" frame.
Aspyr reportedly held a series of meetings in July about the situation to tell employees that the demo wasn't where they wanted it to be and that the project would be put on hold. The studio heads also told staff members that the company will be looking for new contracts and development opportunities.
While the developer's reasons for firing Prince and Minor and for freezing the project aren't clear at this point, one of Bloomberg's sources suggested that it poured a disproportionate amount of time and money into creating the demo. If that's the case, continuing what it's been doing for the rest of the game wouldn't be sustainable. Bloomberg says another possible point of contention is the game's timeline. Aspyr has been telling partners that the game would be released by the end of 2022, but 2025 would be a more realistic target.
Some Aspyr personnel now believe that Saber Interactive, which has been doing outsourced work for the project, could now take over. We reached out to the company for a response to Bloomberg's report and will edit this post with any information it may provide. To note, company released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II for the Nintendo Switch back in June. The game went out with a bug that prevented people from finishing it, but Aspyr rolled out a patch to fix the issue in July.
It's only been a few days since Netflix started streaming The Gray Man, its most expensive film to date, but the company has already announced plans to turn it into a major franchise. A sequel is in the works with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo returning. Netflix didn't say when the follow-up is expected to arrive.
A spin-off from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese is in development too. Netflix says that movie will explore a different aspect of The Gray Man universe, but it's keeping quiet on the details for now.
While critics by and large had a lukewarm reaction to The Gray Man, the film appears to be a hit with viewers. It has a 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted as the number one movie on Netflix in 92 countries when it was released last Friday. Netflix hasn't revealed more specific viewership data as yet.
Whether that apparent success translates into helping Netflix retain subscribers and attract new ones remains to be seen. The company lost almost a million subscribers last quarter, though the attrition wasn't as bad as Netflix feared.
Netflix spent a reported $200 million to make The Gray Man. So, along with moves the company is making elsewhere, it's not a huge shock that Netflix is turning it into a franchise. Sequels to other Netflix blockbusters are in the pipeline, including follow-ups to Extraction and Army of the Dead. Netflix also snapped up the sequels to the terrific murder mystery film Knives Out.
In case it's not clear, Netflix is very eager to build beloved franchises of its own. "We want to have our version of Star Wars or our version of Harry Potter, and we're working very hard to build that,” the company's vice president of original series Matthew Thunell told Reuterslast week.
Netflix does have a few hit franchises already. A Stranger Things spin-off series and stage play are in development. The company has made a Korean version of La Casa de Papel and is working on a spin-off. It's expanding Squid Game, Bridgerton and The Witcher beyond the core shows as well.
You're not alone if you think Instagram's TikTok-like test feed is undercooked, but don't expect it to go away completely. As CNBCnotes, social network head Adam Mosseri has posted a Twitter clip acknowledging that the video-focused trial feed is "not yet good," and would need to be improved before it reached all Instagram users. However, he maintained that Instagram would invariably become more video-centric over time as that's the content people were sharing. Get used to seeing more clips, in other words.
Mosseri also defended the rise of recommended posts in users' feeds. He contended they were the "most effective and important" ways for creators to grow their audiences. Users could pause all recommendations for a month if they weren't interested, he said.
👋🏼 There’s a lot happening on Instagram right now.
I wanted to address a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience.
The Twitter post is effectively Instagram's response to a mounting backlash against the video feed and recommendation efforts. High-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian recently blasted Instagram for "trying to be TikTok," while posts and petitions have increasingly called on the social media site to "make Instagram Instagram again" by returning its attention to photos.
While Mosseri asked for feedback, there's no guarantee Instagram will change course. Meta has a long history of duplicating features from social networks that pose a competitive threat, including TikTok and Snapchat. The test feed and recommendations are clearly meant to keep Instagram users from drifting toward TikTok, and Meta is trying a similarly overt strategy with Facebook. So long as Meta is worried that rivals might take its user base, it's unlikely to completely scrap features like these.
Funko, which is best known for its Pop vinyl figurines, is about to venture into new territory. It's making video games with the help of developer 10:10 Games. The studio is led by Jon Burton, the founder of Traveller's Tales and TT Games. “By partnering with 10:10 Games and utilizing the best creators in the business, we will have the talent to deliver games that reflect Funko’s unique look and feel across its lines and varied products," Funko CEO Andrew Perlmutter said in a statement.
The first game under the partnership is an action platformer that's coming to PC and consoles in 2023. Funko says the untitled game will have "major third-party studio integration," which probably shouldn't be a big shock given the high-profilelicensing deals Funko has for collectibles and Burton's experience with the various Lego games. Meanwhile, Funko expects the game to have a “T” for teen rating. The first teaser shows a Pop-style character called Freddie Funko, but offers few other details.
We are so excited to finally reveal that we have teamed up with Funko for our first game! pic.twitter.com/CKbyNK6FwO
After a delay of nearly three years, season 3 of Hulu's The Orville finally launched last month and proved to be worth the wait. Now, creator Seth MacFarlane has announced some extra recompense for fans — the first three seasons of the series will also stream on Disney+.
The Orville has been relatively popular with critics, but moved from much wider distribution with Fox to the smaller audiences of Hulu after two seasons. With over 85 million subscribers internationally, though, Disney+ will greatly expand the pool of potential viewers.
"I’m thrilled to bring all three seasons of The Orville to Disney+," said MacFarlane. "Making this show has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my career, and I’m immensely grateful to Disney for providing us the opportunity to expand our Orville community further. I can’t wait for new audiences to experience this series."
The extra eyeballs on The Orville with Disney+ could prove crucial to the series, as it has yet to be greenlit for a fourth season. MacFarlane himself didn't reveal anything in that regard, saying "I don't think we'll know until this season is finished." The last two episodes of season 3 are set to air on July 28th and August 4th, and all three seasons will hit Disney+ on August 10th.
It’s official. Nearly four years after Netflix canceled Daredevil and the series more recently made its way over to Disney+, Disney confirmed it’s developing a new 18-episode live-action TV show starring the blind superhero. On Saturday, Marvel announced Daredevil: Born Againand shared that stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio would reprise their roles as Daredevil and Kingpin.
News that the company planned to revive Daredevil first came to light in May, with Variety reporting that Disney had hired Matt Corman and Chris Ord to write and produce the series. Disney currently plans to begin streaming Born Again sometime in the spring of 2024. Before then, Marvel fans can look forward to I Am Groot and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law arriving on Disney+. Both shows got new trailers during San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
