Daedalic Entertainment has delayed The Lord of the Rings: Gollum a little more than five weeks before it was due to debut on September 1st. The studio took to Twitter on Monday to announce it would need more time to complete work on the game. “In order to deliver the best possible experience, we have decided to push the release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum by a few months,” Daedalic said. The studio did not share a new release date but promised to do so “in the near future.”

First announced in 2019 with a 2021 release window, Daedalic eventually went on to push the game back to 2022 at the start of last year. It shared the previous September 1st release date in May. Set during the early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, Daedalic is billing Gollum as a “cinematic stealth adventure.” Part of the game involves navigating a narrative system that reflects Gollum’s dual personalities. Once the game finally arrives, it will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

In late June, Blizzard delayed Diablo Immortal’s Chinese launch mere days before the game was set to debut in the country after co-developer NetEase seemingly drew the ire of government censors over an ill-advised social media post. The episode was a reminder of the tightrope act foreign game developers often have to pull off to release their games in China.

Now, newly published documents by Motherboard offer a rare insight into the steps some companies will take to comply with China’s censorship laws. The publication obtained an internal presentation created by Roblox in 2017 as the company was working toward entering the Chinese market.

In addition to highlighting the lengths Roblox was prepared to go to appease Chinese censors, the documents reveal the risks the company was willing to shoulder. One of the presentation's more interesting insights is that Roblox expected its game would be hacked, likely by whatever firm it partnered with to bring Roblox to China. “Expect that hacking has already started,” states one bullet point. “Expect it to ramp up after a deal is signed, possibly even by partner.”

There’s no evidence Tencent, the company Roblox eventually partnered with, ever targeted the game, but the company clearly had reservations about working with the tech giant. The slides warn a relationship with Tencent would require Roblox to “keep our guard up.” Additionally, they show Roblox also considered working with NetEase and even had a favorable assessment of the company. “Direct, down-to-Earth, flexible problem solvers, acting in the interests of a joint venture,” one slide states. It’s unclear why Roblox ultimately went with Tencent over NetEase, but the fact the former promised the “fastest way to mega acquisition” probably played a part in the decision.

Roblox did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment, but the company did share a statement with Motherboard.

“The slide you reference was from 2017, before we had a formal joint venture relationship in place,” a Roblox spokesperson told the outlet. “As normal for a company entering into a new market, we consider risks and opportunities and plan for them.” The spokesperson added the company’s policy is to comply with the laws of the regions where it operates.

In the end, whatever plans Roblox made to ensure a smooth entry into the Chinese market were not enough. Five months after Roblox launched within the country, the company temporarily shut down the Chinese client to take “important transitory actions.” If you want to read more about the factors Roblox considered before entering China, make sure to read Motherboard’s full report.

Ahead of the debut of House of the Dragon on August 21st, HBO Max will begin streaming all eight seasons of Game of Thrones in 4K. HBO parent company Warner Bros. Discovery announced the news this week in a programming notice spotted by FlatpanelsHD (via The Verge). The company said all eight seasons would also support Dolby Atmos, as well as HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Whether that’s a good reason to revisit the show’s infamous “The Long Night” episode and less-than-stellar final season is up to you.

Previously, the only way to watch the entirety of Game of Thrones in 4K was to buy the Ultra HD Blu-ray collection, which can cost as much as $255. Streaming the series in 4K will be considerably more affordable since all you will need is a subscription to HBO Max’s $15 per month ad-free tier and a supported device like an Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K or Google Chromecast Ultra. Those same devices will allow you to watch House of the Dragon in 4K HDR when it arrives late next month.

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 Again and 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.

Details about Apple’s upcoming high-end variant of the Apple Watch Series 8 have been trickling out in recent weeks. According to a report Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman published at the start of the month, the wearable will feature the largest display Apple has ever shipped on a smartwatch. As a result, it may also include a new design.

In his most recent Power On newsletter, Gurman says the Apple Watch “Pro” will incorporate a fresh design. The company hasn’t redesigned its wearable line since it introduced the Series 4 in 2018. Gurman notes the new model will be “a good bit bigger” than Apple’s current Series 7 models to accommodate a screen that is seven percent larger. “It also won’t have those rumored flat sides,” he adds, noting the redesign will represent “an evolution of the current rectangular shape.”

Additionally, Apple will reportedly employ “a more durable formulation of titanium” for the casing that should make the smartwatch better suited for extreme sports. With a bigger battery and Apple’s long-rumored “Low Power Mode,” Gurman says the Apple Watch Pro could go multiple days on a single charge. It will also include the rumored body temperature sensor Apple is preparing for the entire Series 8 line.

A high-end Apple Watch is one of many products Apple is reportedly working on for the fall and beyond. Gurman previously said the company plans to release a “deluge” of devices over the next year. Among the more notable items the company has on the way includes a replacement for the original HomePod.

Nearly a decade after it propelled creator Lucas Pope to indie game stardom, “dystopian document thriller” Papers, Please is finally coming to phones. On Saturday, Pope took to Twitter to announce he’s bringing the game to Android and additional iOS devices next month. “‘Papers, Please’ but small. August 5th,” he said. Before Saturday’s announcement, the game had been available on iPads since 2014.

On Twitter, Pope said he spent about eight months developing the new port. Most of the work involved updating the user interface and making minor tweaks to make the game playable on smaller screens. “No zooming,” Pope said in response to one question about the UI. “My vision is terrible and I wanted the game to feel natural on a phone so the interface is built around that.”

For those hoping to play Papers, Please on PlayStation and Xbox, Pope had news to share on that topic too. “On track for a console release in 2031,” he joked. In a later tweet, Pope said the mobile version would be a standalone release, but if you already own the game on iPad, you’ll get access for free.

The arrival of Papers, Please on phones will allow a new audience to experience one of the most creative games of the past decade. In Papers, Please, you play as a border control agent for a Soviet Bloc-esque country known as Arstotzka. Gameplay primarily involves you checking the documentation of immigrants who want to enter Arstotzka and looking for discrepancies among all their entry forms. At almost every stage of its story experience, Papers, Please presents the player with moral dilemmas, asking them to consider how someone maintains their humanity in a job that is so frequently heartless.

China has successfully launched the second of three modules that will eventually make up its Tiangong space station. On Sunday at 2:22 PM local time (2:22 AM ET), the Wentian “Quest for the Heavens” module lifted off from the country’s Wenchang spaceport atop a Long March 5B rocket, Reuters reports. With the launch a “complete success,” Wentian is expected to rendezvous with the Tiangong space station later today.

At that point, the crew of China’s Shenzhou-14 mission will begin the work of linking Wentian with the Tianhe “Harmony of Heaves” module. The latter has been in space since orbital construction on Tiangong began in April 2021. Once Wentian is operational, it will serve as one of two laboratories that will form Tiangong’s eventual t-shaped structure. Once complete, the station will be about a fifth of the size of the International Space Station, with long-term accommodation for three astronauts.

In addition to including space and equipment for Chinese astronauts to carry out microgravity and life sciences research, Wentian features an airlock cabin that will serve as the main entry and exit point for future extravehicular activities out of Tiangong. The module also has temporary living quarters that will allow China to carry out crew handover missions. According to Space.com, the first such handover is planned for later this year. China plans to launch Tiangong’s final module in October. The country is exploring the possibility of allowing commercial space flights to visit Tiangong. It has also invited international space agencies to visit the station.

Paramount has shared a new trailer for the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Picard. And while we already knew Picard’s final adventure would reunite Patrick Stewart with most of the principal cast of The Next Generation, it’s still good to see some characters we haven’t seen in a while. The minute-long clip Paramount released during San Diego Comic-Con features voiceovers from nearly all of Picard’s season three cast, including LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn. It’s not much more than what Paramount had to offer back in April, but at least this time we get to see the former crew of the USS Enterprise in their new uniforms.

That’s not the only Star Trek news to come out of Comic-Con. Paramount also announced that season two of Strange New Worlds will feature a crossover episode with Lower Decks. Jonathan Frakes will direct the episode, which will feature a combination of live-action and animated footage. Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid will also reprise their roles as the voices of Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler. Season two of Strange New Worlds doesn’t have a release date yet, but Star Trek fans can look forward to watching a new season of Lower Decks starting on August 25th. On that note, Paramount also shared a new trailer for the animated show, which you can see below.

Uber has officially accepted responsibility for hiding a 2016 data breach that exposed the data of 57 million passengers and drivers. On Friday, the company entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), reports Reuters. As part of the deal, Uber admitted it failed to inform the agency of the cyberattack. It also agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of former chief security officer Joe Sullivan who was fired by the company shortly after the incident came to light.

Uber did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The company first revealed the details of the data breach in 2017. Instead of sharing what it knew about the incident with the government and users, the company paid hackers $100,000 to the delete the information and stay quiet. “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s then recently appointed CEO, at the time of the disclosure. “While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes.” In 2018, Uber paid $148 million to settle allegations by US state attorneys general the company was too slow to disclose the incident.

Ahead of the show’s August 10th debut, Marvel has shared the first trailer for “I Am Groot.” Shown off at San Diego Comic-Con, the clip features the loveable Groot up to his usual hijinks. We see the tiny humanoid tree dancing and trying on new outfits. At one point Groot even gets into a fight with an army of even smaller aliens only to resolve the conflict with a fart.

Adventure Time animator Kirsten Lepore wrote and directed I Am Groot, with Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn serving as executive producer and Vin Diesel reprising his role as the voice of Groot. The show takes place before the events of the recently released Thor: Love and Thunder. All five episodes of the series will be available to watch through Disney+ on August 10th. According to ComicBook.com, I Am Groot will get an additional five episodes at a later date.