Film director Roland Emmerich is making a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game powered by everyone’s favorite punching bags, NFTs. The director of Independence Day, Stargateand, uh, Moonfall just announced Space Nation Online, a forthcoming RPG that's going to be part of a larger shared universe encompassing animated shorts, a live-action TV show and plenty of Web3 nonsense.

To that end, there’s a bile-inducing page detailing the tokenomics surrounding the “Web3 Space Opera MMO”, if you want to throw away your money on a procedurally-generated picture of a starship or whatever. The developers say the NFT-based framework is “designed for the purpose of solving multiple issues and enhancing the potential of Web3 games by means of our observation, investigation and research.” Okay. 

Now on to the good news. Despite the heavy emphasis on non-fungible tokens, there’s some decent talent behind the scenes here, beyond Emmerich. Jerome Wu, who worked on World of Warcraft, is on board, as is Tony Tang from Warframe. The shared-universe title has received more than $50 million in financial backing, with more funding rounds to come, as reported by Deadline. There's even a first-look video if you want to see how development is coming along.

Space Nation Online, which puts players on an “epic journey to unravel the mysteries of the Telikos Cluster”, drops an alpha build later this summer, with a full release planned for 2024. Assuming some level of success, animated shorts, TV shows and spinoff games come after that.

Hit video game Among Us is getting the cartoon treatment, as originally reported by Variety. CBS Studios is behind the venture, partnering up with Innersloth, the game studio originally responsible for the indie sensation. There looks to be plenty of talent behind the scenes here, as the showrunner is Owen Dennis, the creator of the criminally-underrated Infinity Train. Titmouse Studios is handling the animation, after successful work on shows like Star Trek: Lower Decks and Bigmouth.

If you are at all familiar with the game, the series description will seem like deja vu. The show will feature the crew of a spacecraft as they are murdered and replaced by an alien shapeshifter in an attempt to sabotage the ship and cause mass confusion. In other words, it’s the game, only with professional voice actors instead of your friends and family.

There’s no voice cast yet, or even some simple still shots of the animation. There hasn’t even been a streaming platform or network announced to house the cartoon, but with CBS Studios bankrolling, Paramount+ is a good bet. Though, Paramount+ has been doing that thing modern streamers do where they not only cancel shows but immediately delete them, so who knows.

Should you be excited for this animated series? Creator Owen Dennis cut his teeth on the critically acclaimed Cartoon Network series Regular Show before moving onto the absolutely stellar Infinity Train. Dennis served as showrunner throughout all four seasons of Infinity Train before it was, you’ll never guess, canceled and then completely erased by Max. There’s no official DVDs or Blu-Rays, but you can purchase the episodes digitally via Amazon and Apple to see what all the fuss is about.

In the meantime, the Among Us series has no release date, though the show is covered by The Animation Guild and not the WGA, so work should be able to proceed without crossing picket lines.

Apple is borrowing a marketing tactic from Twitter pirates. The company made the unusual move of uploading the entire first episode of its series Silo to the social platform, allowing anyone there to watch the opening installment for free. The gambit follows Twitter’s move to allow longer video uploads for subscribers. The free episode may be worth checking out: Engadget found the Apple TV+ original series to be “simply transcendent sci-fi TV.”

Silo is based on the science fiction novel Wool by American author Hugh Howey. It takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth, where what remains of humanity is confined to the Silo, a 144-story underground bunker that serves as a self-sufficient underground community. The citizens are told that the world outside the Silo is perilous, but questions arise about what truly lies beyond. It’s a clever premise that allows showrunner Graham Yost to explore the book’s themes about truth vs. fiction and information as power. Apple has reportedly renewed the series for a second season.

Rebecca Ferguson (Dune) stars as Juliette Nichols, an engineer who uncovers a web of secrets after her lover, George (Ferdinand Kingsley), is murdered. The series also stars Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Common, Tim Robbins and Harriet Walter.

Episodes one through nine of Silo are available to stream now on Apple TV+. The season finale (titled “Outside”) premieres this Friday.

Meta has added new tools to its Family Center that will allow parents to see and control how their teenage kids are using Messenger. They'll now be able to view how much time their kid spends on the app, along with their privacy and safety settings. Parents and guardians will be able to see who can message their child and who can see their stories. In addition, they can get notifications for changes to their teen's contact list and for any changes their kid makes to their privacy and safety settings. If their child reports a user to Meta, parents can also get notified if their teen chooses to share the information with them. 

The social networking giant said these are but the first batch of parental supervision tools coming to Family Center, and that it plans to add more over the next year. While they're only rolling out for users in the US, UK and Canada at the moment, Meta intends to expand their availability to other regions around the world in the coming months. Take note that Facebook has had parental controls for Messenger Kids for years, and these tools are for the main Messenger app, meant for parents with teens 13 to 18 years old. 

Facebook/Meta

Aside from these new parental tools, Meta will now show teens a notification when they've already spent 20 minutes on Facebook to urge them to set daily time limits. For Instagram, it's exploring a new nudge feature that will ask teens to close the app if they've been scrolling Reels at night. Meta has also expanded its parental controls for Instagram to show parents how many friends their teen has in common with accounts they follow and are followed by. Plus, teens will get a new notification after they've blocked someone, encouraging them to add their parents to supervise their account. 

Instagram/Meta

The company has a few safety updates that aren't teen-focused, as well. It's rolling out Quiet Mode, which mutes all notifications and changes a user's profile status, on Instagram around the world over the coming weeks. It's also currently testing a couple of new features meant to protect Instagram users from unwanted DMs. Users must now send an invite to connect to someone who doesn't follow them before being able to send a message. Further, they can only send one invite at a time and can't send more until the recipient accepts it. These message request invites are text only, prohibiting users from being able to send photos, videos or voice messages to other users they're not connected to. 

Instagram

Meta is getting into the games subscription business. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Meta Quest+, a plan that grants users access to "the best titles on the platform" for $8 per month or $60 per year. The subscription is available starting today on Quest 2 and Quest Pro. It's also coming to Quest 3 when that headset arrives this fall. Those who sign up to Meta Quest+ by the end of July will only pay $1 for their first month.

You'll get access to two curated titles on the first day of each month. The first two are the hit first-person shooter Pistol Whip and Pixel Ripped 1995. August's titles are Walkabout Mini Golf and Mothergunship: Forge. As with services like PlayStation Plus Essential, you'll retain access to the games as long as you remain a member. If you cancel Meta Quest+ and sign up again later, you'll once again have access to the games from your original membership period.

Meta has been embracing subscription models as of late. Along with Meta Quest+, the company this year introduced Meta Verified, which is a verification service for Facebook and Instagram. In addition to a checkmark, the subscription includes extra protection against impersonation and "direct access to customer support."

This isn't the only subscription service for a VR headset, however. HTC has offered access to hundreds of VR games, apps and videos through its Viveport Infinity service since 2019.

If you’re a Star Trek fan and haven’t watched Prodigy yet, you may want to do so before next week. According to The Hollywood Reporter (via io9), Paramount+ has canceled the series alongside a handful of other shows, including Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and The Game. Taking a page from Disney and Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global is also removing Star Trek: Prodigy, and the other shows it canceled on Friday, from Paramount+ in exchange for a tax writeoff. Fans have until sometime next week to watch the series before its fate becomes uncertain.

“As we prepare to combine Paramount+ and Showtime later this month in the US, we are refining our content offering to deliver the best streaming experience for subscribers,” a Paramount+ spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is consistent with our content strategy since launch and across our business, which ensures we make smart, efficient choices, informed by audience data and insights. We are removing select programming as we look to optimize Showtime’s robust slate of premium originals.”

The cancelation comes after Paramount+ previously greenlit a second season of Star Trek: Prodigy. The show could find another home. The Hollywood Reporter notes Prodigy producer CBS Studios plans to complete postproduction on season two and shop both seasons to a new streaming platform. The announcement won’t affect other Star Trek series, with Paramount+ set to remain the home of ongoing entries like Strange New Worlds.

Google is looking at online games as a new possible source of income for YouTube, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The video hosting platform has reportedly invited employees to test a new product called Playables, which gives users access to online games right on YouTube itself. Based on the internal email the Journal saw, it wouldn't even matter what device they're using: Apparently, the games are accessible both on mobile and on desktop. 

Users will be able to play them on the YouTube website using a web browser or on the app, whether on an Android or an iOS phone. While the report insinuates that there are currently several games available for testing, it only mentioned Stack Bounce in particular. It's an ad-supported arcade game that gets players to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball. As the publication notes, YouTube already earns money from gaming livestreams, but this product will give it another way to generate revenue from the industry in the midst of a decline in advertising spending.

While Google failed to grow its defunct Stadia games streaming service and ultimately shut it down, this endeavor is a different thing altogether. YouTube already has a massive audience regularly visiting the site, so getting eyes on the new product wouldn't be a problem. Playables is perhaps more akin to Netflix's gaming product that gives its paying users access to casual games on mobile. Netflix has big ambitions for its gaming initiative, as well, and is reportedly working on an expansion that goes beyond mobile devices by testing TV games that use phones as controllers. 

This episode, Cherlynn is joined by senior reporter Jess Conditt and special guest Michael Fisher to talk about the week of reviews. From the Moto Razr+ to the Pixel Tablet, we look at how these devices fit into our lives and make them better (or worse). Then, we go over the highlights from Summer Games Fest and dig into that Titanic situation.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• Moto Razr+ review: a foldable with an external display you’ll actually want to use – 1:56

• Pixel Tablet review: Google made a great smart display and a passable tablet – 31:53

• The doomed OceanGate submarine was piloted with a Logitech game controller – 47:50

• Amazon is shutting down Halo health services at the end of July – 59:15

• Jess Conditt’s takeaways from Summer Game Fest – 1:02:51

• Working on – 1:19:27

• Pop culture picks – 1:20:51

Livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Jessica Conditt
Guest: Michael Fisher
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh

Twitch just announced a chat-pinning feature similar to those found on YouTube and other platforms. Hype Chat, beyond sounding like something from 2006, offers a new revenue stream for both streamers and the platform itself. Here’s how it works. You pay $1 to $500 and compose a message that rests atop the chat until someone with deeper pockets comes along and knocks you from the spotlight.

The more you pay, the longer the message stays up top and the more characters you can use to compose the missive. Big spenders also get access to various design options to help that “notice me senpai” message garner the attention of your favorite streamer.

Streamers set the price here and Twitch takes 30 percent of the cut, leaving the remaining 70 percent for the creator. At launch, only high-profile streamers, aka Partners, will have access to the feature. Twitch says this is because pinned chats are meant to allow messages to stand out during fast-moving conversations with plenty of participants. Oddly, these Twitch partners are unable to opt out of the service, according to The Verge.

Of course, whenever you mention pinned messages you must contend with the reality of hateful and discriminatory language. This is the Internet, after all. To that end, Twitch is beefing this feature up with safety tools. Just like regular Twitch chat, there’s a host of banned words and phrases at the sitewide level and set by individual creators. Also, if you say something nasty and get banned from a chat, your pinned message flies away with you. All messages sent via this feature are screened by the company’s AutoMod system and human moderators can delete messages whenever they want.

The feature is rolling out right now, but only for approved partners and only on the web app. It’ll launch for smartphone and tablet apps in the near future.

The following article contains spoilers for “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

Prequels, especially for well-known properties, are straightjackets which limit their own storytelling possibilities. Dramatic license is hampered by the fact the audience often knows where these characters (and storylines) end up. And any violence to the extant narrative can jar viewers who likely know what’s going on now contradicts what they’ve already seen. Until now, Strange New Worlds has navigated this issue well, making a virtue of its well-known conclusion.

“A Quality of Mercy” deftly played with the fact Pike will eventually get his near-fatal dose of radiation. The episode served to make the tragic nature of his character both a benefit and a burden, making it compelling in the process. In comparison, “Ad Astra per Aspera,” serves as an indictment of prequels, exposing the limits of what it can say, and do. Much as it presents a world that’s hopeful of change, long-term viewers know that optimism is misplaced.

That’s not to say the episode is bad, because it’s another confidently told, if lightweight, tale in a series that knows it works in that register. It helps that Star Trek wears the tropes of courtroom drama so well, since they’re both prone to a melodramatic exploration of The Big Issues(™). The subtext here is sufficiently broad that there’s a multitude of readings it’ll accept without too much stretching. And there’s at least one actually funny comedy moment where we, once again, see how much more fun Spock is when he’s played as a goofball.

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Number One is preparing to stand trial for fraudulently entering Starfleet despite its ban on genetic modification. She’s thinking about her childhood, where her parents worry about taking her to a doctor and therefore exposing her status. Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) – who for some reason is now a member of Starfleet’s legal corps – offers a plea bargain with a dishonorable discharge, something Number One recoils at.

Pike, refusing to passively accept his friend’s fate, jets off to meet Neera (Yetide Badaki), an Illyrian lawyer and former friend of Number One, who has until now refused their pleas for help. His refusal to take no for an answer, and the lure of a high-profile case with which to stick it to the Federation, is enough to convince her to sign up. What follows is the usual courtroom drama, focusing on what prompted Number One to sign up to an organization that hates her.

We learn Number One was inspired to sign up to Starfleet because of the visible diversity of its crews. But that isn’t enough to win until Neera finds the contradiction between the Federation’s fine words, its goals, and its laws. It’s a subtle, pointed, critique of what Darren Franich dubbed the “California liberal paradox” in his essay on Star Trek: Insurrection. (And Star Trek is nothing if not a creature of Californian values.) He says that those people may wish “everyone to live comfortably, but would secretly prefer that most people live comfortably someplace else.”

But the court finds Number One not guilty, and she’s allowed to return to active duty on the Enterprise. At the happy ever after reunion in the transporter room, Neera says that while the case affected just one person, it’s a “start.” She adds that Number One’s visibility as an Illyrian (second) in command of a starship will help turn people’s hearts and minds toward her cause. It’s a hopeful ending, and one that suggests Number One’s story will kickstart a process of change and growth that will eventually see these prejudices and legal blocks go away.

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

The issue with that ending, and how hopefully it’s portrayed, is that long-time Star Trek viewers know it doesn’t happen. Any hearts and minds that would be changed in this process would be a minority given that – from this point in Trek history – things won’t change. Chronologically, we have “Space Seed,” The Wrath of Khan, “Dr. Bashir, I Presume” and “Statistical Probabilities” as affirmations of the status quo. At least a century later, people with genetic modifications remain – in Trek’s narrative – unable to serve in its premier military, scientific and exploratory branch.

It lends the episode a tragic quality that isn’t reflected in its presentation, but one that adds a layer of depth for dedicated viewers. Perhaps what I’m describing as a limit of its storytelling is really a smart commentary on how hard it is to bend the arc of history toward justice. In fact, I think I’ve just talked myself around, this is a wonderfully pointed exploration of this stuff, bravo Dana Horgan and Valerie Weiss.