Epic Games is shutting down "out-of-date online services" and servers for several of its older games, including multiple Rock Band and Unreal titles, starting today. The company notes that most affected games will still be available offline, but others will no longer work. It says the move is part of a shift that will only see it support online functions through Epic Online Services, which offers a unified friends system, voice chat, parental controls and parental verification.

Epic is removing the mobile title DropMix and the Mac and Linux versions of Hatoful Boyfriend and Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star from storefronts today. You'll still be able to play these games if you already own them.

Servers for several games will be shut down on January 24th, but Epic has already started delisting them from digital storefronts and turning off in-game purchases. After that date, you'll still be able to play the following offline in single or local multiplayer modes:

• 1000 Tiny Claws

• Dance Central 1-3

• Green Day: Rock Band

• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess

• Rock Band 1-3

• The Beatles: Rock Band

• Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars

• Unreal Gold

• Unreal II: The Awakening

• Unreal Tournament 2003

• Unreal Tournament 2004

• Unreal Tournament 3

• Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition

Dance Central VR and Rock Band 4 online multiplayer features will remain available. Epic also plans to restore online features to Unreal Tournament 3 down the line. It will integrate Epic Online Services into the game.

Battle Breakers, a hero collector RPG that a small team of Epic developers built inhouse and released in 2019, will shut down on December 30th. Epic will refund all in-game purchases made through its direct payment system in the 180 days before today. As of January 24th, the alpha of the Unreal Tournament reboot, Rock Band Blitz, the Rock Band companion app and SingSpace will no longer be available.

It's unclear how many people are still playing the Unreal Tournament and Rock Band titles but at their peaks, they were among the biggest franchises around. It's a shame to see Epic sunsetting these games and all the others on the list. Still, if you happen to have a Rock Band guitar or drum set gathering dust, this may at least be a decent reminder to bust those out and play along to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or "Basket Case."

Meanwhile, Rock Band developer Harmonix, which Epic bought last year, recently announced that its most recent game, Fuser, will go offline. The studio will also stop selling the game and in-game purchases on December 19th.

Tidal users in the US can now become DJs on the streaming service. The company is testing a feature called DJ, which enables those on the $20 per month HiFi Plus tier to share songs or a playlist they're listening to with other paying users in real time. Tidal added a proper playlist sharing option just last month. 

You can choose a name for the DJ session and share a link that others can use to access it. Unfortunately, Tidal says that those tuning in won't be able to listen to whatever the DJ's playing at high-resolution or lossless quality for the time being. The songs will play in regular AAC quality (160 Kbps) — higher-resolution streams will be available at a later date.

Budding DJs will need to be enrolled in Tidal's Early Access Program to access the beta. They'll only be able to start a session on iOS for now, but Android support is coming soon. All paying Tidal users can listen to a DJ session on either iOS or Android.

The feature is different from Tidal for DJs, which enables producers and DJs to plug songs from the streaming service into professional audio software, as The Verge notes. So, this new feature is geared toward amateur tastemakers. However, the fact that listeners also need to be paid Tidal users might prevent folks from sharing their live DJ sessions with friends who typically use Spotify or Apple Music. At least Turntable.fm is still around, while Amazon's Amp enables people to host their own radio shows with chat and licensed music.

A Twitter account that tracked the flights of Elon Musk’s private jet is no more. The company has permanently suspended @ElonJet, as Jack Sweeney, a college student who ran the account, noted.

Sweeney used publicly available flight data to operate @ElonJet and accounts that track flights of other public figures. Over the weekend, Sweeney said screenshots provided by a Twitter employee indicated that the company limited the reach of @ElonJet. On Monday, Sweeney said it seemed there were no longer any restrictions on the account, but Twitter has since dropped the banhammer.

In January, a few months before Musk announced a deal to buy Twitter, he offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. Sweeney rejected the overture, instead asking for $50,000. As CNBC notes, @ElonJet had more than half a million followers. Sweeney also runs a version of the bot on Instagram.

Self-proclaimed free speech absolutist Musk, who has caused chaos at Twitter since taking over the company, suggested in November that he would not ban @ElonJet, despite claiming the account “is a direct personal safety risk.” It’s unclear whether Musk himself reversed course or one of his employees made the call to suspend @ElonJet. Twitter no longer has a communications department that can be reached for comment.

Boom has revealed more details about Symphony, the engine for the Overture jet with which it aims to bring back commercial supersonic air travel after the retirement of Concorde. Most importantly, the company has secured a new partner to develop the engine after it parted ways with Rolls-Royce in September. 

FTT, a division of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, will help design Symphony. Some of FTT's engineers were behind the F-22 and F-35 fighter jet engines, so they have experience in powering supersonic aircraft.

Symphony is a medium-bypass turbofan engine that will have the same basic architecture as current commercial aircraft engines. However, Boom says its new propulsion system is designed to help Symphony achieve 35,000 pounds of thrust and speeds of Mach 1.7. Boom claims that Overture will be able to fly between Newark and London in under four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in around six hours.

Boom expects Symphony to deliver a 25 percent increase in time on wing (i.e. in-flight time) and claims it will have significantly lower maintenance costs than other engines. The engine will be the first that's optimized for fully sustainable aviation fuel, Boom says, and it will operate at net zero carbon. Symphony will also have a single-stage fan that's designed for quiet operation.

Despite the switch in engine partners, Boom says the jet is still on track for certification in 2029. Production is set to start in 2024 at a factory in North Carolina with the first jet scheduled to leave the factory in 2026. Boom now expects test flights to start in 2027, a year later than previously planned. 

The company already has customers lined up. American Airlines placed an order earlier this year for 20 jets, with an option for another 40. United Airlines, meanwhile, has ordered 15 Overture planes with an option for another 35.

Netflix has added two more titles to its (very good) stable of mobile games: Kentucky Route Zero and Twelve Minutes. They're the first Annapurna Interactive titles to join the lineup. They're available now for all subscribers, including those on the ad-supported plan, on iOS and Android.

It's been a while since Netflix first said it would bring Kentucky Route Zero to its library and it's a welcome addition. It's a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure game that took the developers at Cardboard Computer almost a decade to see through. The first chapter debuted in 2013 and the fifth and final one arrived in 2020. It was a long journey, but the BAFTA award winner garnered strong reviews along the way.

Twelve Minutes, on the other hand, wasn't received quite as warmly. It's a time loop game with a trio of stars in the main roles: Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe. However, we felt that some bad twists ruined a promising idea. You can try it out on your phone now.

Netflix also revealed a couple other games that are coming to the service in the first three months of 2023. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, which dropped on other platforms earlier this year, is an absolute joy. Tribute Games did a fantastic job of capturing everything great about the TMNT beat-'em-ups of the late '80s and early '90s and updating them for a modern audience. Shredder's Revenge will only be available on mobile if you're a Netflix subscriber.

Also on deck for early 2023 is Vikings: Valhalla from Tilting Point. This is a tie-in to Netflix's sequel to Vikings, which debuted earlier this year. In this strategy game, you'll lead Viking clans and build settlements. Eventually, you'll battle against others as you try to extend your reach across the continent.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, the first of three Ubisoft games that are coming to the service next year. It's a sequel to Valiant Hearts: The Great War and will tell the story of the Harlem Hellfighters, who were the first African-American infantry unit to fight in World War I. Expect this one in early 2023 as well.

Amazon will offer Prime Gaming members an extra batch of PC games later this month at no extra cost. Along with a few Metal Slug titles, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection and a few others, you can snap up Arcane Studios' Dishonored 2 between December 27th and January 3rd.

A few years before it unleashed Deathloop, Arcane's Lyon studio developed another sneaky action-adventure game in Dishonored 2. As with the first game in the series, it enables players to be creative in how they tackle missions, depending on their preferred playstyle. You can, for instance, take a non-lethal stealthy approach or battle enemies head on. This time around, you can play as two characters, each of which has their own supernatural abilities — Deathloop fans will certainly see some of that game's DNA here.

It's not yet clear whether Amazon will offer Dishonored 2 through Steam, the Epic Games Store or the Amazon Games app. However, it's worth noting this game is unsupported on Steam Deck. That's a bit odd, considering its decade-old predecessor should run on the handheld without any hitches. Still, a free(ish) game that's as good as Dishonored 2 is nothing to sniff at, especially if you end up looking for something to play during the holidays.

Before Dishonored 2 and the other games hit the Prime Gaming lineup later this month, there are a few other notable titles that members can snag at no extra cost right now as part of the regular monthly drop. Classic first-person shooter Quake and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (from A Way Out and It Takes Two director Josef Fares) are up for grabs for another few weeks.

The implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has drawn the attention of politicians, with the House and the Senate set to hold hearings on the mess on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The House's Committee on Financial Services is first up at 10AM ET with a hearing titled, "Investigating the Collapse of FTX, Part I." 

First up to testify is new FTX CEO John J. Ray III, but following the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas on Monday and subsequent charge by the SEC, it's unlikely that the co-founder and former CEO will appear remotely like first planned. As of this morning, the committee's witness list only names Ray.

Bankman-Fried said he'd participate after a back-and-forth on Twitter with Rep. Maxine Waters, the committee's chair. Previously, Bankman-Fried warned that he doesn't have access to much of his personal or professional data and, as such, expressed doubt over how helpful he'd be to the committee.

Last month, Binance agreed to buy FTX, which was facing a liquidity crisis. Binance backed out a day later after taking a look at FTX's books. FTX then filed for bankruptcy protection and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO.

Ray, a corporate restructuring veteran who oversaw Enron's bankruptcy process, said FTX was in an "unprecedented" mess and that he'd never "seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information." Ray also claimed that Bankman-Fried has been making “erratic and misleading public statements” about FTX. The former CEO has given several interviews since leaving the post.

The collapse of FTX, which has dragged down other players in the crypto industry, could impact more than a million creditors. Prosecutors in the US are said to be investigating Bankman-Fried for possible fraud.

As of the time of writing, Bankman-Fried is not scheduled for the Senate Banking Committee's hearing on Wednesday. "Crypto Crash: Why the FTX Bubble Burst and the Harm to Consumers" will feature testimony from American University Washington College of Law professor Hilary J. Allen and Jennifer J. Schulp, the director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Investor Kevin O’Leary and actor and crypto critic Ben McKenzie will also testify. That hearing will start at 10AM and you can watch it on the committee's website.

Discord is expanding on Connections, a feature that allows users to show what music they're listening to (among other things), by providing a way for folks to verify their identity using accounts on other platforms. Starting in the next few weeks, admins will be able to offer dedicated server roles to users who have authenticated profiles with accounts elsewhere.

The core idea behind these Linked Roles is to provide a stronger sense of trust. The platforms that support this feature at the outset are Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Epic Games, Battle.net, League of Legends, Riot Games, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, GitHub, Crunchyroll, PayPal and eBay. Discord bots for Destiny 2 (Charlemagne) and Roblox (Bloxlink) support Linked Roles too.

Discord

You can show these connected accounts on your Discord profile, along with certain details like your follower count or eBay seller feedback rating. If you're selling your art on Discord, for instance, you can indicate to potential customers that the work on a DeviantArt profile is actually yours, since the accounts will be linked. Discord admins and moderators can also choose to offer server roles with perks, such as access to certain channels, to users who authenticate their accounts with Connections and meet various conditions.

Admins will be able to select the parameters for unlocking Linked Roles. They can stipulate, for instance, that a user needs to link to a Steam account that's a certain number of days old and/or has a minimum number of Dota 2 or Team Fortress 2 items to show that they're genuine players. From a server's dropdown menu, users will be able to view the requirements for each Linked Role. Each role will automatically be granted to their profiles when they meet the conditions.

Discord

Discord is keeping privacy in mind here. Admins and moderators won't automatically gain access to info from your Connections even if you've already linked accounts before joining a server. You'll need to manually opt-in to a server's Linked Roles before details from your connected accounts are accessible. Moreover, if you're eligible, you can snag a Linked Role on a server without having to show any details from your Connections on your profiles. Discord can handle things on the back end without admins or moderators being able to see your info.

Linked Roles build on previous Connections features, such as being able to show off whatever Xbox or PlayStation game you're playing on your Discord profile. Discord is rolling out Linked Roles at a time when Twitter is upending its approach to account verification. Cross-platform authentication can help to verify a person's identity. You'll be able to tell, for instance, if a Discord profile actually belongs to a big name Instagram, YouTube or TikTok creator thanks to those accounts being linked.

Discord

Meanwhile, Discord is starting to roll out green checkmarks next to Connections for certain services. The icon will show that the connected app is from a vetted developer. Discord says this will "help establish an important level of trust between apps from developer partners and the millions of users who interact with those apps every day across Discord."

As of today, 22 of these "official" apps are available. Next year, Discord will start offering an application process for developers who want to have their apps designated as official. In the meantime, using a new API, developers can create or update apps to support Connections features.

After 25 days in space, Orion is about to conclude its uncrewed test run to the Moon. The Artemis 1 mission will draw to a close when the NASA spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean close to Guadalupe Island, which is 130 nautical miles off the coast of Baja California. Orion is scheduled to hit the water at around 12:40PM ET. NASA's livestream will start at 11AM and continue after splashdown as a recovery team picks up the capsule. You'll be able to watch the stream below.

NASA chose the landing trajectory and splashdown site so as not to pose a threat to people, land or shipping lanes. Just before re-entry, Orion and the European Service Module will separate, with the latter burning up in Earth's atmosphere.

The crew mobile will carry out a skip entry technique to ensure it accurately arrives at the designated landing site. Orion will edge into the upper part of the atmosphere, then use that and its own lift to "skip" back out before re-entering for the final descent. The atmosphere will reduce Orion's speed to 325MPH and the 11 parachutes will eventually slow it to a splashdown speed of 20MPH or less.

After multiple delays, Artemis 1 launched on November 15th as a precursor to the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. After carrying out a flyby in which it got as close as 80 miles to the lunar surface, Orion went into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That allowed NASA to test various systems while minimizing fuel consumption — Orion's cameras took some gorgeous pictures while it was out there too. The spacecraft left the Moon's gravitational pull on December 6th as it made its way home.

Have you ever thought up an idea for a movie or play that you just know will be a smash hit, but haven't gotten around to writing the script? Alphabet's DeepMind has built an AI tool that can help get you started. Dramatron is a so-called "co-writing" tool that can generate character descriptions, plot points, location descriptions and dialogue. The idea is that human writers will be able to compile, edit and rewrite what Dramatron comes up with into a proper script. Think of it like ChatGPT, but with output that you can edit into a blockbuster movie script.

To get started, you'll need an OpenAI API key and, if you want to reduce the risk of Dramatron outputting "offensive text," a Perspective API key. To test out Dramatron, I fed in the log line for a movie idea I had when I was around 15 that definitely would have been a hit if Kick-Ass didn't beat me to the punch. Dramatron quickly whipped up a title that made sense, and character, scene and setting descriptions. The dialogue that the AI generated was logical but trite and on the nose. Otherwise, it was almost as if Dramatron pulled the descriptions straight out of my head, including one for a scene that I didn't touch on in the log line.

Playwrights seemed to agree, according to a paper that the team behind Dramatron presented today. To test the tool, the researchers brought in 15 playwrights and screenwriters to co-write scripts. According to the paper, playwrights said they wouldn't use the tool to craft a complete play and found that the AI's output can be formulaic. However, they suggested Dramatron would be useful for world building or to help them explore other approaches in terms of changing plot elements or characters. They noted that the AI could be handy for "creative idea generation" too.

That said, a playwright staged four plays that used "heavily edited and rewritten scripts" they wrote with the help of Dramatron. DeepMind said that in the performance, experienced actors with improv skills "gave meaning to Dramatron scripts through acting and interpretation."

Use of the AI tool may raise questions about authorship and who (or what) should get the credit for a script. Last year, a UK appeals court ruled that artificial intelligence can’t be legally credited as an inventor on a patent. DeepMind notes that Dramatron can output fragments of text that were used to train the language model, which, if used in a script that was produced, could lead to accusations of plagiarism. "One possible mitigation is for the human co-writer to search for substrings from outputs to help to identify plagiarism," DeepMind said.