EA is reportedly working on a remake of Dead Space. You read that right. After more than eight years of the franchise collecting dust, VentureBeat reports EA has tasked its Motive studio to develop a Resident Evil 2-style remake of the first game in the series. According to writer Jeff Grubb, fans should expect an experience that uses the original game as a “strong foundation,” but features modern visuals and gameplay tweaks introduced in later Dead Space games.

Grubb first hinted at the possibility of the series coming back during an episode of the GamesBeat Decides podcast, saying EA would announce a revival at its upcoming Play event on July 22nd. Eurogamer and Gematsu later corroborated his claims, noting they had heard similar information. It’s also worth noting Grubb was the first person to report that EA was working on Mass Effect Legendary Edition. And while it’s always good to be skeptical, there have been other tantalizing hints that EA will resurrect Dead Space. Just yesterday, someone noticed the company had updated the official Dead Space YouTube page following years of inactivity to change the channel’s profile picture. With EA Play a mere three weeks away, we won’t have to wait long to see if the rumors are true. 

Alongside Oculus VR and livestreams, Facebook's gaming ambitions also include the cloud. Today, the company is making free game streaming available to 98 percent of the mainland US and bringing on board a major partner in Ubisoft. Facebook says it has now scaled-up its cloud computing infrastructure to the extent that it can roll out the service to 100 percent of the US by the fall. An international rollout is also underway, beginning in Canada and Mexico and expanding to Western and Central Europe by early 2022.

While its rivals Google and Amazon have opted for a standalone cloud gaming service for a monthly subscription, Facebook has built its offering into its main social network and accompanying Android app. Unlike the competition, which deliver console and PC games over the internet, the social network is focusing on smaller free-to-play mobile titles that it says are easier to host at its data centers. 

After launching cloud gaming on Android in a handful of US states last October, Facebook says it has added 25 titles to the service, including newcomers Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch by Atari, Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed and Dragon Mania Legends by Gameloft and State of Survival by FunPlus. It's also redesigned its Play section with new categories, including a list of the top games in the US, improved filtering and sorting options.

More than 1.5 million people play cloud-streamed games on Facebook every month, the company revealed. With 195 million daily users in North America and more than 1.87 billion global users, the service has a big runway ahead of it. Despite offering less games than the competition, Facebook will be hoping that its focus on mobile titles can help it to thrive in the lucrative game streaming arena. The cloud gaming market will be worth an estimated $1.4 billion this year and over $5 billion in 2023, according to research firm NewZoo.

To bolster its appeal, Facebook is partnering with France-based developer Ubisoft. The studio's game subscription service is already available on Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, but (for now at least) Facebook will only host its mobile gaming titles. Ubisoft games available on the service include Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, Hungry Shark Evolution and Hungry Dragon, with Mighty Quest and Trials Frontier launching in the coming months. Facebook also recently acquired Unit 2, the developer behind game creation platform Crayta, with plans to integrate its tools into its cloud gaming platform.

On the infrastructure side, Facebook is focusing on lowering latency caps to allow it to host even more game genres across multiple devices. Currently, it says its "sweet spot" is in mobile sports, card, simulation, strategy, action-adventure, and puzzle titles, but it plans to add more variety to the mix in the coming months. 

Facebook says it is still working to get cloud gaming onto iOS devices. Though its gaming app is available on iPhones and iPads, it doesn't include playable games due to Apple's restrictions on third-party software.

Much like bookshelves, watchlists say a lot about who we are as people. They reflect our interests and the things that inspire us. Tapping into that, Google is introducing a new TV feature called Watch With Me. Part of an ongoing series, it will share content recommendations from celebrities and artists. Each spotlight will also include an interview where the featured individual will talk about their picks. The first Watch With Me will star Emmy-nominated actress and LGBTQ+ advocate Laverne Cox.

Google isn’t the first company to put together a feature like this. If you’ve used HBO Max recently, you’ve likely seen the playlists the streaming service has shared around events like Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In that instance, HBO Max highlighted recommendations from Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu. But in Google TV’s case, what separates Watch With Me is that you’ll get recommendations for a variety of sources, not just one streaming service, and that's likely to make you more inclined to use Google TV as a hub.

By now, gamers are accustomed to receiving freebies through Sony's PlayStation Plus and Microsoft's Xbox Games with Gold perks. Now, Amazon is here to remind you that it offers gaming benefits for Prime members, too. From today through to September 1st, the subscription service is giving away three classic LucasArts PC games on the first of every month. The trio includes The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, followed by Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and, finally, Sam & Max: Hit The Road. 

Compared to its expedited deliveries and Prime Video streaming, Amazon's gaming goodies (including free titles and loot) inevitably feel like the lesser of its Prime perks. These certified classics should therefore help to boost its appeal with nostalgic gamers. 

Since its revival in January, the Disney-owned Lucasfilm Games brand has been busy retooling its franchises for newer platforms. In honor of Monkey Island’s 30th anniversary, Limited Run Games released a comprehensive collector’s edition back in October that assembled all five games in the series, including Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island. In June, Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual! brought the anthropomorphic detectives to Oculus VR. While Indy is about to star in a new game from MachineGames, the studio behind the modern Wolfenstein series, with Bethesda's Todd Howard serving as an executive producer.

Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter have committed to battle online abuse and improve women's safety on their platforms. The four tech giants made the promises during the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris.

The pledge follows four consultations arranged by the Web Foundation that took place over 11 months. The organization then ran a few policy design workshops in April to "develop prototypes that center the experiences of women most impacted by online abuse." Two core themes emerged: Curation, with a broad recommendation to "build better ways for women to curate their safety online," and Reporting, with a call to "implement improvements to reporting systems."

The tech companies promised to offer users more granular settings over who can see, comment on, reply to or share posts. Easier navigation and access to safety features, simpler and more accessible language across the user interface and "proactively reducing the amount of abuse" that women encounter are also among the commitments.

As for reporting, Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter say they'll enable users to have the option of tracking and managing the reports they file as well, as having more ways for women to access support and help as they go through the reporting process. The other commitments include "enabling greater capacity to address context and/or language" and "providing more policy and product guidance when reporting abuse."

According to the Web Foundation, the companies pledged to implement their solutions within a certain time frame. They'll provide insights and data on how they're carrying out those commitments. The Web Foundation will publish annual reports on their progress as well.

More than 200 prominent figures have signed an open letter to the CEOs of the four companies, urging them to take action based on the promises. Among those who have signed the letter are actors Emma Watson and Gillian Anderson, UK Members of Parliament Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips, Creative Commons CEO Catherine Stihler and ex-Australia prime minister Julia Gillard.

The Web Foundation says 38 percent of those who identify as women have experienced online abuse. The figure rises to 45 percent for Gen Z and Millennial women. Women of color, and those in LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized communities often experience much worse abuse.

Meanwhile, Facebook just opened a Women's Safety Hub that explains the platform's tools for bolstering privacy and security. It will also run training sessions to help people harness those tools. In addition, the hub has resources for victims of abuse. Facebook developed the hub with the support of nonprofit partners around the globe. The hub's resources will soon be available in 55 languages.

In three weeks' time, you'll be able to start playing the pixel remaster versions of the first three Final Fantasy games. Square Enix has revealed that the Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III remasters are coming out on July 28th for PC via Steam and on July 29th for Android and iOS. You can now also pre-purchase the games individually for prices between $12 and $18, or buy the bundle with all six games for around $96. You'll get three soundtracks and two unique wallpapers for each title you pre-purchase. The gaming giant doesn't have a specific release date for the fourth to sixth installments in the franchise yet, but they're also scheduled to come out sometime this year.

Square Enix first announced that it's giving the first six games in the Final Fantasy franchise the pixel remaster treatment during its E3 presentation back in mid-June, though it barely shared any details about them. In the description box of the first installment on Steam, it says the game will feature completely new graphics, as well as "improved ease of play" with a modernized UI and auto-battle options. Its soundtrack has been rearranged, but the process was overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu. In addition, it will come with extra features, such as a bestiary, an illustration gallery and a music player.

While the other three games getting a remaster don't have a release date yet, Square Enix recently announced it's pulling the current versions of the fifth and sixth installments from Steam on July 27th. The developer received a lot of flak for reducing the quality of the art on the games it originally released on Steam, so it makes sense for the remasters to completely replace them. 

Spotify is reportedly “considering” expanding into events, according to The Information. The outlet reports the company could sell tickets for both virtual and live concerts as it looks to diversify its business. However, making money off of ticketed events isn’t necessarily Spotify’s short-term goal. Its more immediate plan is to use them as a way to improve its relationship with artists.

The Information suggests Spotify thinks there’s an opportunity to leverage the data it has to help musicians plan successful concerts in places most promoters avoid. In this way, the company is said to believe it can better show those artists it’s invested in their careers. It would also be a way for it to differentiate its platform from Apple Music.

Spotify has already dabbled in live events. This past spring, the company put on a handful of prerecorded virtual concerts featuring artists like The Black Keys and Leon Bridges. It sold tickets to those shows for $15 each. The Information reports the results of those concerts “validated” Spotify’s thinking on what events could do for it in the future, and it’s been thinking about next steps ever since. Of course, we wouldn't say that makes an expansion is a done deal. Selling tickets to concerts might make a lot of sense for a music streaming platform, but it would still represent a massive business shift for Spotify.    

Instagram has confirmed it's working on a new feature called "Exclusive Stories." Since June 21st, images of the Stories offshoot have circulated online after software developer Alessandro Paluzzi shared on Twitter that they had found references to the feature in Instagram's codebase. On Wednesday, the company told TechCrunch the screenshots showcase an internal prototype it's working on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Instagram didn't reveal any other details about the project, noting it had nothing more to share when Engadget reached out.

But what we can gather from the screenshots is that the feature is Instagram's take on Twitter's paid Super Follow subscription. When regular users stumble upon an Exclusive Story, Instagram will tell them "only members" can view the content. It also appears the company will prevent people from trying to screenshot what they see. At the same time, it will push creators to save their Exclusive Stories to a Highlight so that new members have something to view as they subscribe.

As with any insight that comes courtesy of someone finding early references to a new feature, there's the possibility Instagram may never release the feature Paluzzi found. But the images clearly show the company is thinking about how it can entice creators to stay on the platform. If that means adapting a feature from one of its rivals, so be it. Facebook and Instagram have done that plenty of times in the past.

Fans of Loki will have more than just a new episode of Marvel’s live-action series to look forward to next Wednesday. On July 7th, Disney will also release The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, a new Simpsons short guest starring Tom Hiddleston, to Disney+. Of his latest (mis)adventure, the company says Loki has once again gotten himself banished from Asgard, only this time to find himself in the town of Springfield. The God of Mischief teams up with Bart and hijinks ensue.

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is the second Disney+ Simpsons crossover following the Star Wars-themed The Awakens from its Nap. Of course, you can thank the billions Disney spent adding Marvel, Lucasfilm and assets from 21st Century Fox to its empire for that fact the Simpsons and Loki can appear in an animated short together. 

Facebook is diving into ephemeral messaging. After debuting self-erasing media and texts on Messenger and Instagram, the social giant is rolling out a similar feature on WhatsApp. Starting today, the app's beta testers on Android have begun to receive a "View Once" mode that wipes photos and videos as soon as you view and dismiss them. You'll know if you have access to the new feature if you see a dedicated button (that looks like a timer) in the caption input field, according to the experts at WABetaInfo. 

Not to be confused with WhatsApp's disappearing messages — which delete within seven days — photos and video sent using view once mode are single-use only and vanish after you close them. You'll get a notification once your media has been viewed. 

Despite the added sheen of privacy, there are some quirks you should be aware of before jumping in. As noted by WABetaInfo, disabling read receipts won't stop others from being notified if a view once message has been opened — though, you won't see when a recipient open yours. In groups, you'll be able to see when members have opened disappearing media even if you have read receipts disabled. 

Also, there's nothing stopping people from screenshotting your message without you finding out. View once apparently still works if you send a message to someone who doesn't have access to the feature. Those on iOS will reportedly get the new mode at a later date.

Facebook announced the feature in June on the heels of its divisive WhatsApp privacy policy update. The tech giant was forced to delay the new rules to mid-May from early February following an outcry over its access to additional user data. Facebook also later backtracked on its decision to limit WhatsApp features for those who didn't accept the changes. The company has previously painted ephemeral messaging as a way to encourage more authentic and intimate conversations.