Hazelight Studios and Sonic the Hedgehog production company dj2 Entertainment are aiming to turn It Takes Two into a movie or TV show. Pat Casey and Josh Miller, who wrote both Sonic movies, are onboard to adapt the co-op game for the big or small screen. Although no studio or network has snapped up the project just yet, Variety reports that a bidding war is underway.

“Creating the world and story in It Takes Two was so much fun for me and the team,” Hazelight founder and creative director Josef Fares said in a statement. “Since it has a strong narrative with many crazy characters and just as crazy co-op action moments, the potential is huge for a great adaption to film or television.”

At the 2021 Game Awards, It Takes Two won three honors, including the game of the year gong. EA published it last March and more than three million copies were sold by October. Along with It Takes Two and the Sonic movies, dj2 is working on a Tomb Raider anime for Netflix. It's also developing a Disco Elysium series and a Sleeping Dogs movie.

Although It Takes Two received widespread plaudits for its platforming and asynchronous split-screen gameplay, several critics took issue with the "stay together for the kids" story and an "awful" character called The Book of Love. With some finding the plot to be the weakest aspect of the game, it'll be interesting to see how that translates to a movie or TV show.

A single-player version of the card game Gwent is in the works. CD Projekt Red said the standalone title, which is currently codenamed Project Golden Nekker, will be released this year. Although the developer has already released a single-player component of Gwent called Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, it says the upcoming game will be a distinct experience.

“It’s not another Witcher Tales but something different,” Gwent communication lead Paweł Burza told IGN. “We’re aiming to provide a captivating single-player for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent.”

CDPR has been teasing Project Golden Nekker over the last several months, including in a Gwent roadmap presentation in December. It hasn't revealed many more concrete details beyond the release window and some concept art.

As for Gwent, itself a spin-off from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CDPR plans to add new cards throughout the year. The studio is also aiming to release the delayed current-gen console versions of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 in 2022.

Starting today, owners of non-Tesla electric vehicles can juice up their batteries at select Superchargers in France and Norway. Drivers can find eligible locations in the Tesla app. Based on screenshots Tesla shared, there are 20 such sites in France and 15 in Norway.

Tesla started opening up broader access to its Supercharger network in November. It initially allowed drivers of non-Tesla EVs to charge their car at 10 stations in the Netherlands. The pilot is open to EV drivers who live in the Netherlands, France, Norway, Germany and Belgium.

Only CCS-enabled vehicles are supported for now. Tesla owners will still be able to charge at Supercharger stations as normal, though drivers of other EVs will need to pay some additional fees to "support charging a broad range of vehicles and adjustments to our sites to accommodate these vehicles."

The company said it will keep an eye on possible congestion at each site. Future expansion of the pilot will depend on capacity, though Tesla said that "more customers using the Supercharger network enables faster expansion." It aims to eventually open all of its sites to all EV owners. Tesla said it has long been its ambition to open Supercharger locations to non-Tesla EVs to boost the overall availability of charging locations and encourage more drivers to opt for an electric vehicle (while earning some more scratch, of course).

Neil Young's frustrations with Spotify go far beyond COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. A day after his music was removed from the platform, he said he "felt better" after leaving and slammed Spotify for its sound quality compared with other streaming services.

"Amazon, Apple Music and Qobuz deliver up to 100 percent of the music [quality] today and it sounds a lot better than the shitty degraded and neutered sound of Spotify,” Young wrote in the latest letter published to his website. "If you support Spotify, you are destroying an art form." He urged fans to switch to "a platform that truly cares about music quality."

Young, who claims "Spotify streams the artist's music at five percent of its quality," has long been vexed by the audio quality on some streaming platforms. He temporarily removed his music from them in 2015. Young launched his own audio player and music download platform that year, but Pono shut down in 2017.

In February 2021, Spotify said it planned to roll out a CD-quality music streaming option in some markets that year. That didn't happen. The company said earlier this month it was "excited to deliver a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future," but didn't offer a timeline.

Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal all started offering CD-quality music streaming as part of their standard plans last year. Deezer and Qobuz also offer hi-res streaming.

Earlier this week, Young accused Spotify of allowing Joe Rogan to share COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and gave the platform an "it's him or me" ultimatum. Spotify, which reportedly paid north of $100 million to secure the exclusive rights to Rogan's podcast and said it has taken down more than 20,000 COVID-related podcast episodes, barely flinched. The service pulled the musician's songs, though said it regretted Young's decision and hoped he'd return soon.

Meanwhile, Young wrote that he supported free speech and companies' right to choose what to profit from, "just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.” He said he was standing "in solidarity with the frontline healthcare workers who risk their lives every day to help others" and "as an unexpected bonus, I sound better everywhere else."

The Federal Aviation Administration says it has reached an agreement with AT&T and Verizon (Engadget's former parent company) regarding the rollout of their C-Band 5G networks at and around airports. The agency said the three sides have found common ground "on steps that will enable more aircraft to safely use key airports while also enabling more towers to deploy 5G service."

According to the FAA, the providers offered "more precise data about the exact location of wireless transmitters and supported more thorough analysis of how 5G C-Band signals interact with sensitive aircraft instruments." The agency said it used the data to "determine that it is possible to safely and more precisely map the size and shape of the areas around airports where 5G signals are mitigated, shrinking the areas where wireless operators are deferring their antenna activations. This will enable the wireless providers to safely turn on more towers as they deploy new 5G service in major markets across the United States.”

The accord follows a months-long tussle between airlines and wireless providers over C-Band 5G. AT&T and Verizon voluntarily delayed the rollout for six weeks to address concerns that their services could interfere with aircraft systems and electronics, due to C-Band frequencies being close to ones used by altimeters. 

Earlier this month, the CEOs of airlines including Delta, United and Southwest claimed in a letter to the federal government that the networks could affect their planes' instruments and lead to a “catastrophic” event. 

AT&T and Verizon activated their C-Band 5G networks last week after agreeing to create temporary buffer zones around dozens of airports — they haven't switched on C-Band 5G towers within two miles of some runways. They also argued that similar networks have been deployed in 40 other countries without issue.

It's not clear when AT&T and Verizon plan to turn on C-Band 5G towers closer to airports following the FAA agreement. AT&T declined to comment on the development. Engadget has contacted Verizon for comment. 

The CTIA, a trade association for the wireless industry, was bullish about the news. "This is a positive development that highlights the considerable progress the wireless industry, aviation industry, FAA and FCC are making to ensure robust 5G service and safe flights," CTIA chief communications officer Nick Ludlum told Engadget in a statement.

Meanwhile, the FAA said it would continue discussions with helicopter operators and other stakeholders in the aviation industry "to ensure they can safely operate in areas of current and planned 5G deployment."

A week before the Winter Olympics get underway, EA has added women's teams to its NHL games for the first time. You can now select one of 10 women's International Ice Hockey Federation national squads in NHL 22: Canada, Czech Republic (Czechia), Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and, of course, Team USA.

EA has also introduced IIHF Men's and World Juniors teams to NHL 22. Along with competing in IIHF World Championship tournaments, the Men's and Women's teams are playable in the Play Now, Online Versus, Threes Now and Offline/Online Shootouts modes. EA announced the additions last month.

NHL 12 (which was released in 2011) was the first game in the series in which players could take to the virtual ice as a woman, as long as they created one themselves. The following year, Canadian hockey pioneer Hayley Wickenheiser and American defense player Angela Ruggiero (who could join any team in NHL 13) became the first real playable women hockey players in the franchise, but it's taken almost another decade for EA to add full women's squads.

The NHL series is following other major sports games franchises in adding women's teams. EA brought them to its FIFA games for the first time in 2015, while 2K Games introduced the WNBA to NBA 2K in 2019.

Tesla is selling a new accessory: a microphone for in-car karaoke. The TeslaMic is only available in China for the time being. The company introduced it amid the rollout of a Chinese New Year software update, which adds a karaoke platform called Leishi KTV to infotainment systems.

The microphone automatically pairs with the infotainment system, according to Tesla. The TeslaMic comes in a pack of two, so it could come in handy if you ever feel like parking somewhere with a date and belting out some duets. The pack costs around $188 but the Tesla store page is failing to load for many would-be crooners.

A Weibo post (which has been mirrored onto YouTube) shows the TeslaMic and karaoke system in action. As Elektrek notes, by adopting the Leishi KTV interface and catalog, Tesla is building on a "Caraoke" feature it introduced in 2019, which had a more limited selection of tracks.

It remains to be seen whether Tesla will sell the TeslaMic outside of China, though maybe you'll be able to buy it with Dogecoin if it ever comes to the US. In the meantime, there's an official Carpool Karaoke microphone that you can connect to your car's audio system (though you'll need to provide your own backing tracks and a display with lyrics).

An Ubisoft executive has responded to the backlash against the company's push to add NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to its games. In December, the publisher announced Quartz, an NFT platform that lets people buy and sell unique digital items, which it called Digits. Both employees and consumers criticized the move, with many expressing concern about the environmental impact of NFTs and one Ubisoft developer saying they're "just another way to milk money."

The backlash to Quartz was swift. Within 24 hours of Ubisoft heralding the platform in a YouTube trailer, more than 35,000 people had clicked the dislike button, with just over 1,300 liking it.

Ubisoft’s first foray into NFTs hasn’t exactly gone gangbusters. It gave away some to players who reached certain play time or experience levels in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It offered players the chance to buy some NFTs, but sales have reportedly been very sluggish. Someone who bought one, which is a gun skin with a small, unique serial number, told Waypoint that "it didn’t feel different from using any other cosmetic but the custom serial and ability to view it outside of the Ghost Recon experience really added a level of ownership that I appreciate.”

Nevertheless, Nicolas Pouard, vice president of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, suggested that players simply aren't understanding the utility of NFTs.

"I think gamers don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them. For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it's first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation," Pouard told Finder. "But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself. So, it's really, for them. It's really beneficial. But they don't get it for now."

Pouard also said that Ubisoft considered announcing Quartz without making any reference to the fact that Digits are actually NFTs, but decided against it as players would have recognized what was going on anyway. "So, we decided it would not be very smart to try to hide it," he said. "Our principle is to build a safe place and safe environment with Quartz. So, we need to be transparent on what we are doing."

NFTs are essentially a certificate of authenticity designed to live on the blockchain. The idea is that an NFT is a public record of ownership of a digital asset. In reality, it's a verified link to a file somewhere on the internet that the owner of the URL destination can alter or even delete.

Along with claims that they can be tantamount to a pyramid scheme, many critics have expressed concern about the environmental impact of NFTs. An artist who sold an NFT collection last year said the process used up more than 8,000 kWh of electricity, which is more than his studio's power consumption from the previous two years.

Ubisoft says that the Tezos system it opted for requires less power consumption than other blockchains. It claims a Digits transaction uses around as much energy as 30 seconds of video streaming. In any case, Quartz doesn't seem to offer anything different than say, the Steam marketplace, which has long allowed players to buy and sell virtual goods for real money without the downsides of NFTs.

Just a few days after rolling out iOS 15.3, Apple has released the latest iOS developer beta. Among the new features is one that'll come in very handy for unlocking your iPhone while you're out and about in the current climate. The company is testing a way for folks to use Face ID while they're wearing a mask — without needing an Apple Watch.

"Face ID is most accurate when it’s set up for full-face recognition only," Apple explains when users set up the feature. "To use Face ID while wearing a mask, iPhone can recognize the unique features around the eye to authenticate.”

The update comes almost a year after Apple started allowing users to unlock their iPhone via Face ID while masking up. Until now, people have used an unlocked Apple Watch as a key.

Apple's looking to get rid of that requirement in the latest beta, which will surely come as music to the ears of people who are fed up with punching in their iPhone passcode at the grocery store or the gym. Avoiding using your passcode in public is a boon for privacy too.

You'll need to switch on the option manually. Under the Face ID & Passcode section of the settings, select the "Use Face ID with a mask option" to get started. The feature will still work for those who are wearing glasses, but you'll need to remove your sunglasses.

Other features in the beta include the option to add notes to iCloud Keychain passwords and the ability to copy text from objects using the camera while in the Notes and Reminders apps. Also new is support for adaptive triggers on the PS5 DualSense controller, EU Digital COVID Certificate-compatible vaccination records in Wallet, an Apple Card widget and, perhaps most importantly for many, dozens more emoji.

As for the iPadOS 15.4, there's brightness control for the keyboard and (as part of the macOS Monterey 12.3 beta) something many Mac and iPad users have been waiting for: Universal Control. That feature allows people to control multiple Macs and iPads with a single mouse and keyboard. In December, Apple delayed the feature until the spring. It's not yet clear when Apple plans to release the final versions of the latest software more broadly.

It's all too easy for some folks to sign up for a service, pay a subscription fee every month and forget all about it. With that in mind, Microsoft is tackling the issue of inactive Game Pass memberships. As part of broader changes to Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass in the UK, the company says it will cancel subscriptions that have long lain dormant.

The company will get in touch with people who are paying for an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass subscription but haven't used it for at least a year. It'll tell them how to stop their payments if they want to opt out. If those people keep forking over cash every month without using their memberships for another 12 consecutive months, Microsoft will eventually stop taking payments. 

The change will apply to UK consumers at first. Microsoft told The Verge it will roll them out globally in the near future.

The company committed to the measure as part of a voluntary agreement with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The regulator has been investigating auto-renewing subscriptions on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch since 2019. Sony and Nintendo haven't committed to similar undertakings as yet.

Along with changes to inactive subscriptions, Microsoft has agreed to offer better upfront information about memberships, including clear details about auto-renewals, when subscriptions will be reupped, how much people will pay and a way to get a refund if they accidentally renew their plan. 

It will contact users who have recurring annual subscriptions and offer them a chance to cancel and receive a prorated refund. Microsoft will also provide clearer notifications about Game Pass and Live Gold price rises and tell users how to turn off auto-renewals.

"Gamers need to be given clear and timely information to make informed choices when signing up for auto-renewing memberships and subscriptions," said Michael Grenfell, the CMA's executive director of enforcement. We are therefore pleased that Microsoft has given the CMA these formal undertakings to improve the fairness of their practices and protect consumers, and will be offering refunds to certain customers."

From time to time, it's worth taking a look at whether you're getting your money's worth out of your various subscriptions. If not, there's little harm in pausing or canceling them. You can always sign back up later.