Sony has acquired Bluepoint Games, the Austin-based studio best known for remaking Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. Rumors that Sony was buying Bluepoint started to spread online right around the time the company acquired Returnal developer Housemarque in late June. Sony didn’t say whether Bluepoint will continue to focus its efforts on remastering past titles or if it will work on an entirely new IP now that it’s part of the PlayStation Studios family.
“PlayStation has such an iconic gaming catalog and for us there’s been nothing better than to bring some of gaming’s masterpieces to new players,” said Marco Thrush, the president of Bluepoint Games. “Becoming a part of PlayStation Studios empowers our team to raise the quality-bar even further and create even more impactful experiences for the PlayStation community.”
With the announcement of today’s deal, Sony has acquired three studios in the past year. That number increases to four over more than two years if you include its 2019 purchase of Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games. That’s a significant change of pace for a company that was previously much slower to buy up external developers to bolster its first-party lineup. But then a lot has changed in just the last year. Microsoft’s recent $7.5 billion deal to buy Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media means many highly anticipated games like Starfield aren’t coming to PlayStation anymore. Sony needs the kind of talent that’s at Bluepoint to keep pace.
At the start of the year, Google added a feature to its search engine called About This Result. By tapping on the three dots icon located next to most results, the tool allows you to find out more about a website before you navigate to it. With the initial rollout of About This Result, Google displayed information from Wikipedia, and, if that wasn’t available, it pulled what it could from one of its services. The panels also included details about the website like when it was first indexed by the company, and if you could expect a secure connection.
Today, Google is making those panels more robust by adding to the diversity of information they display. To start, in addition to a description from Wikipedia, you’ll see what each website has to say about itself in its own words. You will also see what others have had to say about them — be that through reviews or a simple news article. In the “about the topic” section, Google will include other coverage or results from different sources.
As before, the idea behind the About This Result feature is to save you an extra search when you want to find out more about a website you’re about to visit. Google also sees it as a way to help people make more informed decisions about how they use the internet and provide peace of mind if you’re looking for important information related to important topics.
Aside from these "Information Literacy features," the company also announced new features coming to its results pages during its Search On event today. They're called Things to Know, Refine This Search, Broaden This Search and Related Topics to its results to make it easier to learn more about different topics. Things To Know, for example, will pull up the basics you'll need to understand a new subject, while refining and broadening your search can help you explore related issues.
Google Search users in the US will see today's expansion roll out over the coming weeks and months.
The team behind hit indie game Oxenfree is joining Netflix, marking the first time the streaming giant has acquired a game developer. The company announced the purchase of Night School Studio on Tuesday. Netflix didn’t share many details about what it plans for the Night School team, but at very least it sounds like the studio will continue work on Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, and that its previous games will be available through the streaming platform.
“Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix’s track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing,” Sean Krankel, the founder of Night School Studio said. “It felt like both teams came to this conclusion instinctively.”
The move comes as Netflix works on an expansion into the gaming space. It was only earlier today it added several Android titles to its streaming app in Spain and Italy. Over the next year, the company plans to offer more games in this way.
Amazon held its annual fall hardware event on Tuesday. It's too bad the company didn't stream the proceedings to the public because it was jam-packed with announcements. We saw everything from new Echo devices to an Alexa-powered robot. But worry not, we have you covered. Here's everything the company announced today.
Astro
Amazon
In an event packed with offbeat products, Amazon saved its most unusual one for last. In Astro, the company has created an Alexa-powered robot that can move around your home. It has three primary functions. It can provide home security, check-in on loved ones and pets and offer Alexa functionality on the go. When it becomes available later this year, Astro will cost $999.99 before it eventually increases to $1499.99 at a later date.
Echo Show 15
Amazon
Amazon is adding yet another model to its Echo Show family. Its latest addition features a 15.6-inch 1080p display that the company envisions you mounting on the wall in spaces like your home’s kitchen. New to the Echo Show 15 is a redesigned home screen that emphasizes Alexa widgets. The smart display also features a camera and a new feature that will adjust the contents of the home screen to you when the device recognizes your face. Sales of the $250 Echo Show 15 will start later this year.
Halo
Amazon
Amazon had two major announcements related to its Halo fitness product. First, the company introduced its new Halo View fitness band. In short, Amazon essentially added an AMOLED color display to its Halo wearable and made the resulting device cheaper. It doesn’t come with the tone-detecting microphone that made the company’s first foray into fitness wearables so controversial, but what it can do is track your heart rate, skin temperature, steps and more. Halo View isn’t available to purchase just yet, but it will cost $80 when it does become available.
Outside of new hardware, the company announced Halo Fitness and Halo Nutrition, two new features that will come included with its yearly $80 Halo subscription. The former is an alternative to Apple Fitness+ and other similar services. The latter, meanwhile, includes personalized recipes and meal planning. Halo Fitness will roll out later this year, while Halo Nutrition will arrive at the start of 2022.
The award for the second-most offbeat device Amazon announced at its annual event goes to Glow. It’s a teleconferencing display the company designed for kids. Glow includes a projector that can create a 19-inch touch-sensitive playspace for all the games and activities included with the device. Glow will cost $249.99 when it goes on sale in the next few weeks, but Amazon said that's just an introductory price.
All the rest
Amazon
Amazon wouldn’t be Amazon if the company weren’t trying to create more affordable versions of some of the best-selling products on its marketplace. So it should come as no surprise it announced an Alexa-enabled smart thermostat that only costs $60.
Outside of new hardware, Tuesday’s event saw the company announce various updates for its Alexa. In brief, the company worked with Disney to make a voice assistant that will be available on Echo devices and Walt Disney World Resort hotel rooms. It also introduced a feature called Alexa Together that turns an Echo speaker or smart display into an emergency support device for your family members. Lastly, the company is adding offline voice support for Alexa devices.
Follow all of the news from Amazon’s fall hardware event right here!
The rumors were true. Amazon is working on an Alexa-powered robot on wheels. At its fall hardware event, the company showed off Astro. Set to cost $999 when it becomes available later this year, it's essentially an Alexa display that can follow you around your home. The robot features a periscope camera that allows it to expand its field of view beyond the floor of your home. It can extend the camera to check on things like stovetops and sleeping pets. With Ring's Protect Pro subscription service, you can program Astro to patrol your home while you're away. It will send you notifications when it notices something usual, and you can save what it records to your Ring account.
Astro is one of those projects Amazon has reportedly been working on for years. The fact Amazon finally decided to show the device off comes as something of a surprise. Leading up to today’s event, there were reports many people at Amazon, including former CEO Jeff Bezos, weren’t sure whether it made sense to move forward with the device.
Developing...
Follow all of the news from Amazon’s fall hardware event right here!
Amazon's latest device is about creating more interactive video calling experiences for kids. Announced today at the company's fall hardware event, Glow is actually two devices in one. It combines an 8-inch LCD display with a projector that creates a 19-inch touch-sensitive touch. Parents, relatives and grandparents can connect to the device through the accompanying Glow mobile app, allowing them to interact with the projected playspace remotely.
Amazon
The inclusion of object scanning allows kids to turn toys and other items into digital stickers they can use in the various activities that come with the device. features a physical privacy toggle that disables Glow's microphone and camera. Amazon partnered with Disney, Mattel, Nickelodeon and Sesame Street to create content for Glow.
Introducing Amazon Glow, a new way for kids and families to connect with loved ones through virtual experiences that help them feel like they're together in person. pic.twitter.com/A5mijUL9O2
After four delays spanning nearly a year and a half of missed release dates, New World is finally here. You can download the MMORPG from Steam and Amazon’s own marketplace. At launch, the title is available through a $40 Standard Edition or $50 Deluxe Edition. The latter comes with the game, a digital artbook and a collection of bonus items. Beyond the cost of entry, you don’t need to pay a subscription fee to play New World.
If you buy the game and you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can claim the Pirate Pack for free until November 1st. It comes with a corsair-themed skin and emote, as well as $5 worth of in-game currency. It’s the first of seven Prime Gaming drops Amazon has planned for New World in 2021.
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Now that it's finally out, New World is a critical test for Amazon. The company got into gaming on the belief it could dominate in the space much like it’s done in other verticals. After the very public failure of Crucible, it’s fair to say things haven’t gone according to plan for the company. And it's hard to see Amazon investing more money into game development if New World isn't at least a commercial success.
Since 2019, Sign in with Apple has allowed iPhone and Mac users to protect their privacy by allowing them to generate random email addresses when they need to access a new website, service or app. It’s one of those small features that can have an outsized impact, and now something similar is coming to 1Password.
The company has partnered with email host Fastmail to introduce a feature called Masked Email. Like its Apple counterpart, the tool allows you to create unique email addresses for your logins. You can create the aliases directly within the 1Password app, which means you can access the tool on all platforms where the password manager is available.
Just how much the ability to hide your email can do to help safeguard your online privacy can’t be overstated. The vast majority of privacy breaches start with phishing emails. You’re far less likely to click on a suspicious link or inadvertently share your personal information if you don’t get one of those messages in the first place.
With the addition of features like a 120Hz display on some models, Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup is many ways a step above the phones the company shipped last year. But when it comes to the question of repairability, the story is more complicated. Conducting a teardown of the device, iFixit found it couldn’t get the iPhone 13’s Face ID feature to work if replaced the phone’s display. No matter what workaround it tried, iFixit could not get Face ID to work again. By its estimation, the display on the iPhone 13 lineup is serial-locked to the device. “Right now, if you replace your screen, Apple kills your Face ID, unless they control the repair,” the company warns.
While obviously not a good look for Apple, there may be a simple explanation for what’s happening. iFixit says it spoke to a licensed repair technician who said they were told by Apple support that the issue is a bug the company plans to fix in a future iOS release. We’ve reached out to Apple for more information. If it turns that limitation is not a mistake, it would be a brazen move on Apple’s part given that the FTC, at the behest of President Joe Biden, recently voted unanimously to tackle unlawful repair restrictions.
One week after coming to terms with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Twitch has signed a deal with Warner Music Group. In partnering with the record label, a first for the Amazon-owned platform, the company says Warner Music will launch dedicated channels for some of its artists, including the likes of Bella Poarch and Saweetie. The label will also create a standalone channel that will air original programming from its IMGN production house.
Twitch has made a similar deal with Warner Music Group (WMG) to what they made last week with the NMPA.
Streamers *cannot* play WMG music on stream. Nothing changes as it relates to playing copyright music you don't have the rights to.#TwitchNewspic.twitter.com/A7bLZXLH0O
But if you’re a content creator on Twitch, those are secondary to the other part of the deal. Much like its pact with the NMPA, this isn’t a licensing agreement; creators can’t include music from WMG artists in their streams. As part of the agreement, WMG has agreed to use the new process Twitch recently put in place to allow rights holders to report content. In an email last week to creators, the company said the new system is more forgiving towards individuals who may have inadvertently played music they weren’t authorized to use.
