We finally have a release date for Ninja Theory's Hellblade sequel: May 21, 2024. It's been over four years since Senua's Saga was announced at the 2019 Game Awards alongside Microsoft's (then next-gen) Xbox Series X console. 

The first game in the series, Senua's Sacrifice, focused on the main character's journey to the realm of the dead, and her battle with mental health issues. Saga will focus on Senua tracking down the Vikings who have been raiding her home town. Expect more "perception puzzles led by her experiences of psychosis," along with some pretty standard video game combat, but this time, in Iceland!

As you'd expect for a first-party title, Senua's Saga will arrive on Microsoft's Game Pass service for Xbox consoles and PC on day one. For those without Game Pass, it'll be a digital-only release priced at $50. PC users will be able to buy it on either the Xbox store or Steam. 

AI-generated content can be found everywhere online, including your Google News feed. A report from 404 Media revealed that Google is boosting websites filled with AI-generated articles ripped from other outlets. While this isn’t a total surprise, the revelation is disappointing. Google News used to be a place you’d find the latest and most accurate information on most topics. But just because something makes it to Google News doesn’t necessarily mean the information is reliable.

404 Media cited several examples of AI-written articles getting past Google. One example involved a “news site” called Worldtimetodays, that recently published an article about Star Wars. An analysis of the article showed it was highly similar to one published earlier by Distractify. The Worldtimetodays article included the same author photo along with some odd phrasings, as you’d expect with AI. The ripped article read “Let’s be honest, war of stars fans,” instead of Star Wars fans. The site also had articles that were barely rewritten from Heavy, without bothering to replace Heavy’s watermarked images.

As AI advances and becomes even more accessible, we will likely continue to see mass output of plagiarized articles and unreliable information on Google News. Because as of right now, it’s clear Google may not be ready to fully audit the articles populating its news feed. The company told 404 Media that while it tries to filter spam on Google News, it isn’t overly concerned whether an article is written by humans or AI. A Google representative said it’s more about the quality of the content.

“Our focus when ranking content is on the quality of the content, rather than how it was produced. Automatically-generated content produced primarily for ranking purposes is considered spam, and we take action as appropriate under our policies,” the statement read.

Google went on to reiterate that websites are considered for Google News automatically, and new websites may not be immediately detected by the system. The company added that its goal is to reward “original content that demonstrates things such as expertise and trustworthiness,” but it looks like it’s missing the mark by letting these AI-generated articles through in the first place.

Rock Band 4’s weekly DLC drops are coming to an end. Harmonix said Wednesday the upcoming batch of new songs on January 25 will be the game’s last. Although all other live services will remain active, the developer plans to give full attention to the Rock Band-like Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game inside Epic’s digital world.

Product manager Daniel Sussman waxed nostalgic about Rock Band 4’s impressive eight-year run of new song drops each week. “Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment — over the years we’ve cleared, authored and released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC and well over 3,000 if you include all the game soundtracks,” he wrote in an announcement blog post. “That’s wild.”

Sussman says Harmonix is committed to protecting its licensing, promising that purchased content will remain available. He adds that all the game’s other live services, including Rivals and online play, will continue as usual. There just won’t be any more new music for the rhythm game, which arrived in 2015 with 65 tracks.

Epic Games

Fortnite Festival, launched in December, is a rock god stage in the popular battle royale title. It has the advantage of being free: You don’t have to pay a couple of bucks to fulfill your dreams of jamming out to “Seven Nation Army,” The Cranberries’ “Zombie” or Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison.”

Rock Band 4 instrument support is on its way to Epic’s virtual stage. “If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet…”

Harmonix is tight-lipped about its final tracks, but it promises thematic relevance. “We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era,” Sussman explained. “The last two weeks will feature some tear jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game.”

Sony is continuing to mine its back catalog of games for movie adaptations while conveniently continuing to forget that Bloodborne is right there. The next game that's bound for the big screen is Until Dawn, a 2015 interactive horror title that Supermassive Games developed and Sony published.

David F. Sandberg (Lights Out and the Shazam! movies) will direct the adaptation, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gary Dauberman, who previously worked on Annabelle: Creation with Sandberg, is taking a fresh stab at a script originally written by Blair Butler (The Invitation).

Until Dawn focuses on a group of eight young people who try to survive the night at a perilous mountain retreat. The spooky game has a branching narrative and, depending on the decisions you make (or if you fail at quick-time events), some of the characters may not make it until the group is rescued the following morning.

Given that any or all of the characters may perish during the night, there are hundreds of possible endings to the game, so it'll be interesting to see which direction Sandberg and Dauberman take with the material. Several notable actors appeared in Until Dawn, including Hayden Panettiere, Jordan Fisher and Oscar winner Rami Malek.

Sony has already adapted several of its games into film and TV properties, with live-action versions of Uncharted (another movie pastiche that itself became a film), Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal and The Last of Us popping up over the last couple of years. Sony also has adaptations of Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War and others in the pipeline.

For many, "new year, new me" includes finding a new job. Scouring sites like LinkedIn and Indeed for opportunities can feel like a full-time role in and of itself. This process could potentially improve moving forward, with LinkedIn announcing its latest feature: Job Collections. 

Basically, instead of searching for a specific industry or role, LinkedIn is using generative AI and large language models to analyze each job posting and categorize it into groups such as IT, pro sports, remote and top startups. Along with saving time, LinkedIn indicates that this feature can benefit people who aren't sure what their next step looks like. The company compares it to Airbnb Experiences — you might not know what you're searching for, but you could find something great. Its success relies significantly on how well it understands you versus wasting your time further sorting through jobs that are completely off base. 

According to LinkedIn, applications have risen 50 percent in the US and 36 percent globally, with 85 percent of working people contemplating changing jobs this year. The number of people searching for a job isn't surprising, given the number of recent layoffs. In the tech industry alone, 2024 has already seen layoffs at Twitch, Google, Meta, Discord and more.  

To use LinkedIn's new feature, simply go to the Jobs tab and click on "Explore with Job Collections." You can now also go to Preferences and choose from things like employment and location type. Then LinkedIn will highlight them in green anytime they appear on a job listing. Plus, if a job isn't exactly what you want but the company is, you can now send them an "I'm Interested" notification right from the listing instead of visiting their profile to do so. 

If you own a copy of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition or Minecraft: Education Edition, you can now grab a free expansion pack based on the BBC's Planet Earth III. Much like the previous Frozen Planet II experience, this new wildlife documentary DLC lets players explore five scenarios through the lens of animals — arctic wolves, ocelots, musk oxen, leopards, Cape fur seals, great white sharks, impalas and more. 

Basically, be the hunter or be hunted; you get to play both sides on locations ranging from the Arctic tundra to the Okavango Delta. In the case of the lily-trotter, you're either the father protecting your chicks from crocodiles, or you're one of the chicks following your father's signals. There's also an activity involving the fascinating interaction between unlikely insect allies: the tree hopper and the stingless bee, with the latter in charge of shooing ants and assassin bugs away from the tree hoppers' nest.

A new addition to this educational experience is the "BBC Planet Earth Field Station," which is set in the heart of a pixelated jungle. This serves as a portal to the five biomes, with extra goodies including sound boards, animal facts and a cinematics album. Upon the completion of each activity (which can be repeated), you'll receive rewards that can be used to decorate the hub or dress up your avatar.

With the game reaching its 15th anniversary this year, Minecraft has become the best-selling video game of all time, reaching over 300 million copies sold as of October last year. There's also a movie adaptation in the works, reportedly starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa when it comes out in April 2025.

Take-Two Interactive has filed an opposition to Remedy Entertainment’s newest logo, claiming the symbol infringes on Rockstar Games’ logo despite the two having little in common besides the letter “R” representing a video game publisher. First reported by RemedyFirst, the trademark dispute was filed against two versions of the Remedy logo (one with the company’s name, one without) in September with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.

The UK’s IP rules mean Take-Two’s objection to the logo suggests Rockstar’s parent company sees “a likelihood of confusion by the public.” Engadget reached out to Take-Two and Remedy for comment, and we’ll update this article if we hear back.

Remedy revealed its new logo last spring, describing it as a “refreshed visual identity” that moves its image away from a 23-year-old game, better reflecting its current stable of Control and Alan Wake. “The bullet in the letter R in the old logo represented the era of Max Payne, but the Remedy of now is much bigger than a single game; we have a whole portfolio of games, new and old,” the publisher explained in an April blog post.

“It was time to update and redefine our visual identity to bring more consistency, showcase our evolution over the years, and better express our vision of today’s Remedy,” the post continued.

Remedy Entertainment

The icon was well received. Design blog Creative Bloq wrote, “Gamers can’t get enough” of the new logo. “The new Remedy logo is made from three letter ‘R’s chopped and stitched together as if the letter itself is moving; the curved right side of the R is shaped into an arrow and the points of the character form further arrows, pointing in new directions,” editor Ian Dean wrote. Social media reactions also appeared positive.

Ironically, the two studios are currently working together on a revamp of the game Remedy’s new logo is diverting away from. In April 2022, Remedy said it would collaborate with Rockstar on fully remastered versions of the first two Max Payne games, bringing the oughts-era franchise to a new generation.

RespawnFirst noted Take-Two’s legal team has a precedent of being trigger-happy on attacking IP in a way that stretches the definition of “infringement.” The publisher filed a trademark claim in 2021 against Hazelight Studios for its game It Takes Two. IGN highlighted incidents of Take-Two going after a clothing brand called Max Fayne, an axe-throwing company in Florida called Rockstar Axe Throwing and a music book called Think Like a Rockstar. The company has also sued GTA modders and the creators of reversed-engineered Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City fan projects.

Take-Two briefly got a taste of its own medicine in 2014 when actor Lindsay Lohan sued the publisher for using what she claimed was her likeness in GTA V and its marketing materials. That case was dismissed the following year on the grounds that video game parodies are fair game.

Like last week's Golden Globes, the Emmys were very good to streaming services. The 75th Primetime Emmys aired on Monday, January 15 and saw Max, Hulu and Netflix take home the most awards by a solid margin.

Hulu led the pack, winning six Primetime Emmys thanks to its dark comedy, The Bear. The Hulu and FX production won for outstanding overall, along with writing and directing for a comedy series. The cast also continued their award season winning streak. Jeremy Allen White won for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series, while Ayo Edeberi won for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series — notably she took best actress (not supporting) at the Golden Globes. Ebon Moss-Bachrach won in the supporting actor counterpart.

Max (formerly HBO Max) also left with six awards, all coming from the final season of Succession. The Television Academy awarded outstanding directing and writing for a drama series for the same episode, "Connor's Wedding" (if you know, you know). The show's three male leads competed for outstanding actor in a drama series, with Kieran Culkin once again taking home the trophy. Sarah Snook won for outstanding actor in a drama series, while Matthew Macfayden received the supporting actor award for that category. Succession also won as a whole for outstanding drama series.

Like its fellow streamers, Netflix's wins all came from the same series: Beef. The show took home five awards, including outstanding limited or anthology series. Its lead actors, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, won for outstanding actor and actress in the same category, respectively. Beef rounded out its awards with outstanding writing and directing wins for two separate episodes across the show's ten parts.

The Emmys were originally scheduled to take place in September, but The Television Academy and Fox postponed it to January due to the writers and actors strikes. The Creative Arts Emmys took place on January 6 and 7, competing with Golden Globes weekend, while the Primetime Emmys took place only a day after the Critics Choice Awards — it's a busy month for Hollywood folks.

Facebook was flooded with fake advertisements featuring a deepfaked Rishi Sunak ahead of the UK's general election that's expected to take place this year, according to research conducted by communications company Fenimore Harper. The firm found 143 different ads impersonating the UK's Prime Minister on the social network last month, and it believes the ad may have reached more than 400,000 people. It also said that funding for the ads originated from 23 countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States, and that the collective amount of money spent to promote them from December 8, 2023 to January 8, 2024 was $16,500. 

As The Guardian notes, one of the fake ads showed a BBC newscast wherein Sunak said that the UK government has decided to invest in a stock market app launched by Elon Musk. That clip then reportedly linked to a fake BBC news page promoting an investment scam. The video, embedded in Fenimore Harper's website, seems pretty realistic if the viewer doesn't look too closely at people's mouths when they speak. Someone who has no idea what deepfakes are could easily be fooled into thinking that the video is legit.

The company says this is the "first widespread paid promotion of a deepfaked video of a UK political figure." That said, Meta has long been contending with election misinformation on its websites and apps. A spokesperson told The Guardian that the "vast majority" of the adverts were disabled before Fenimore Harper's report was published and that "less than 0.5 percent of UK users saw any individual ad that did go live."

Meta announced late last year that it was going to require advertisers to disclose whether the ads they submit have been digitally altered in the event that they're political or social in nature. It's going to start enforcing the rule this year, likely in hopes that it can help mitigate the expected spread of fake news connected to the upcoming presidential elections in the US. 

Welcome back to our weekly gaming news roundup. 

January is a magical time in the video game industry. We've just closed out 12 months of marketing hype and shifting production timelines, and the year ahead is filled with the promises of new titles and fresh hardware. During this special month, we can look at the 2024 release calendar with excitement and optimism, before the delays start rolling in. So, let's get to it — these hearts aren't going to break themselves.

This week's stories

Arcane season 2 teaser

You watched Arcane, right? The Netflix series set in the League of Legends universe debuted in late 2021 and it was an instant sensation, starring fan-favorite characters like Jinx, Vi and Caitlyn. The next season is set to come out in November and Riot dropped a one-minute teaser for it last Friday. The trailer has Singed experimenting on himself in a dreary laboratory, while a creature that looks like Warwick hangs above, connected to tubes and IVs. It’s gonna get dark, kids.

If you haven’t watched season one of Arcane, do that now.

This kid beat Tetris

I guess we can all stop playing Tetris. 13-year-old Willis Gibson became the first person to reach the killscreen in the classic NES version of Tetris, 34 years after the game’s debut. Gibson caught the moment on camera and honestly, it gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. The competitive Tetris scene has been steadily growing over the past few years, and players are using a new input technique called rolling that allows them to move pieces faster than ever. If you’re into this kind of thing, I recommend watching Classic Tetris Monthly on Twitch or YouTube.

Promises, promises

Before we get back into all the award shows and livestreams and media events this year, let’s take a look at the video game promises heading into 2024.

There’s nothing official yet, but it looks like Nintendo is preparing to release the Switch 2 in 2024, seven years after the launch of the original Switch, and right in the middle of the PS5 and Xbox Series X console cycle. According to early reports, the Switch 2 will be an iterative hardware update with slightly more processing power and support for DLSS and raytracing. The big news is that Nintendo has finally joined us in the 21st century, and players should be able to transfer their Switch games to the new console without any roadblocks.

Outside of the new Switch, 2024 is all about games. We know how this goes, right — in video games, a release date is really just the first step before a delay, so whatever you’re into, prepare for heartbreak over the next 12 months.

There are two games I’m confident will actually hit the market on their release dates in 2024, and that’s only because they’ve been in development for years and delayed multiple times already. Ubisoft’s open-world pirate simulator Skull and Bones is due out on February 16 for PS5, Xbox and PC, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will hit PS5 on February 29. Rebirth looks legit, while Skull and Bones … doesn’t.

Overall, we have a healthy lineup of titles to get excited about in 2024. First, on the mainstream front: 

• January 18: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Ubisoft Montpellier

• January 19: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered | Naughty Dog

• January 26: Tekken 8 | Bandai Namco Studios, Arika

• February 2: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League | Rocksteady Studios

• February 2: Persona 3 Reload | P-Studio

• February 16: Skull and Bones | Ubisoft

• February 29: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | Square Enix

• March 22: Dragon’s Dogma 2 | Capcom

• March 22: Princess Peach: Showtime! | Nintendo

• March 22: Rise of the Ronin | Team Ninja

• 2024: Silent Hill 2 remake | Bloober Team

• 2024: Star Wars Outlaws | Massive Entertainment

• 2024: Avowed | Obsidian Entertainment

• 2024: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 | Ninja Theory

• 2024: Concord | Firewalk Studios

• 2024: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door | Nintendo

This isn't a comprehensive list for the year in AAA gaming, but it's a solid start. 

And then there are the games I’m personally looking forward to in 2024. Most of these still have vague release windows — it's as if the developers didn’t want to give a timeframe at all, so they just whispered 2024 to their marketing teams and hoped no one would notice. But I did. I always do. I’m always watching.

Here are the games on my underground radar this year (again, this isn't an exhaustive list because there are so many fantastic games nowadays, but these ones spring to mind):

• January 16: Home Safety Hotline | Night Signal Entertainment

• August 20: Black Myth: Wukong | Game Science

• 2024: Skate Story | Sam Eng

• 2024: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes | Simogo

• 2024: Baby Steps | Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy

• 2024: The Plucky Squire | All Possible Futures

• 2024: Mewgenics | Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel

• 2024: 33 Immortals | Thunder Lotus

• 2024: Thank Goodness You’re Here! | Coal Supper

• 2024: Despelote | Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena

• 2024: Time Flies | Playables, Raphaël Munoz, Michael Frei

• 2024: Cryptmaster | Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games

• 2024: Hades 2 | Supergiant Games

• 2024: Hyper Light Breaker | Heart Machine

When any of these titles is inevitably delayed, we can all gather right here and have a good cry. Let us know in the comments what you’re looking forward to this year and why it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Now Playing

I’ve been sticking with local co-op games during these chilly winter months, and now I’ve moved on to Baldur’s Gate 3. I know, I know, everyone is already telling you to play it, but this pitch is strictly for the splitscreen crowd — Baldur’s Gate 3 is a joy to play alongside a loved one, as long as your cleric actually remembers to heal your party every now and then. You know who you are.