Sony’s 2023 Wrap-Up is now available. The recap, similar to those from music streaming services, reflects on your PS5 or PS4 gaming habits from the past year. The new version will sum up your most-played games, tally your total hours and assign an algorithmically generated “gaming style.” Since, from a business standpoint, these year-end rewinds also serve as crowdsourced social media marketing, Sony created easily shareable digital cards outlining your 2023 habits.

You can view your PlayStation 2023 Wrap-Up by visiting Sony’s web portal and logging in with your account. It generates cards summarizing your top games, trophies earned, monthly gaming stats and your personalized style. (Mine was “Thrill Seeker.”) A button at the bottom of the UI will pop up the cards to share with friends or followers. Sony will also, uh, “helpfully” recommend games you haven’t yet bought that fit your personalized style.

The company says the recap is only available if you’ve played games on a PS5 or PS4 for at least 10 hours from January 1 to December 31. In addition, if you didn’t consent to “Full Data” collection from PS5 settings or “Additional Data” from PS4 systems in certain regions (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India and Russia), you won’t be able to use the promotional feature. Sony is also throwing in a bonus “unique avatar” and a PlayStation Stars digital collectible of a Spider-Bot from the Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise as rewards.

Since annual digital recaps have transformed into a popular online tradition in recent years, you can likely expect similar rewinds from Xbox and Nintendo before long.

In a story ripped from the opening scenes of a sci-fi horror movie, scientists have bridged a critical gap between the biological and electronic. The study, published in Nature Electronics (summarized in Nature), details a “hybrid biocomputer” combining lab-grown human brain tissue with conventional circuits and AI. Dubbed Brainoware, the system learned to identify voices with 78 percent accuracy. It could one day lead to silicon microchips fused with neurons.

Brainoware combines brain organoids — stem-cell-derived clusters of human cells morphed into neuron-filled “mini-brains” — with conventional electronic circuits. To make it, researchers placed “a single organoid onto a plate containing thousands of electrodes to connect the brain to electric circuits.” The circuits, speaking to the brain organoid, “translate the information they want to input into a pattern of electric pulses.”

The brain tissue then learns and communicates with the technology. A sensor in the electronic array detects the mini-brain’s response, which a trained machine-learning algorithm decodes. In other words, with the help of AI, the neurons and electronics merge into a single (extremely basic, for now) problem-solving biomachine.

The researchers taught the computer-brain system to recognize human voices. They trained Brainoware on 240 recordings of eight people speaking, “translating the audio into electric to deliver to the organoid.” The organic part reacted differently to each voice while generating a pattern of neural activity AI learned to understand. Brainoware learned to identify the voices with 78 percent accuracy.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

The team views the work as more proof of concept than something with near-term practical use. Although previous studies showed two-dimensional neuron cell cultures could do similar things, this is the first trial run using a trained three-dimensional lump of human brain cells. It could point to a future of biological computing, where the “speed and efficiency of human brains” spark a superpowered AI. (What could go wrong?)

Arti Ahluwalia, a biomedical engineer at Italy’s University of Pisa, sees the technology shedding more light on the human brain. Since brain organoids can duplicate the nervous system’s control center in ways simple cell cultures can’t, the researcher views Brainoware (and the further advances it could spawn) as helping model and study neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s. “That’s where the promise is; using these to one day hopefully replace animal models of the brain,” Ahluwalia told Nature.

Challenges for the bizarre proto-cyborg tech include keeping the organoids alive, especially when moving to the more complex areas where scientists eventually want to deploy them. The brain cells must grow in an incubator, which could become more challenging with bigger organoids. The next steps include working to learn how brain organoids adapt to more complex tasks and engineering them for greater stability and reliability.

BeReal is launching new features for its app, which won Apple’s 2022 iPhone App of the Year. The company tries to differentiate its platform by prompting spontaneous authenticity via randomly timed two-minute windows to take selfies. Now, it’s adding a feature similar to Apple’s Live Photos. In addition, invite-only groups, tags and 2023 recaps are on their way to the “Your friends for real” platform.

Behind the Scenes (BTS) is BeReal’s branding for its Live Photos-esque feature. Like Apple’s version, BTS captures a video for a few seconds before taking a static shot. After posting, your friends can long-press on the shot to see the short video clip. BTS is an opt-in feature, so nobody should be sucked into it unwillingly, and you can toggle it anytime.

Meanwhile, RealGroups are invite-only groups. In the new communities, group creators can manage the “Time to BeReal” notification (alerting you it’s time to say cheese), offering users a degree of control over the app’s core gimmick for the first time. RealGroups will also support private chat and private BeReals between group members. The company says its Live Photos clone and groups have been the platform’s “most community-requested features.”

Like Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music and various social platforms, BeReal will offer a 2023 recap. It sounds like it doesn’t stray far from the beaten path, with the company pegging it as “a custom experience that users can record and share anywhere they want,” alongside promotional hashtags.

Finally, the app’s new tagging feature lets you cc your friends to ensure they catch your daily selfies. There should be plenty of people to choose from, as BeReal says its platform now has over 25 million daily active users.

Beeper Mini, the chat app that reverse-engineered Apple’s iMessage for Android, is having problems. 9to5Google reported Friday the entire Beeper platform is seemingly broken right now, leading to the obvious speculation that Apple has stomped on the bootleg iMessage workaround. Beeper posted on X that it’s “investigating reports that sending/receiving is not working in Beeper Mini.”

Engadget emailed Beeper to ask whether the outage could have been triggered on Apple’s end. We’ll update this article if or when we hear back. Although it’s easy to jump to conclusions, given the iPhone maker’s preference for absolute control over its entire ecosystem, there’s no direct evidence at this stage suggesting it’s behind today’s problems.

Beeper’s crafty solution — surprisingly — seemed to work well. The app automatically scans for messages from iMessage users and changes them to blue bubbles, apparently routing them through Apple’s servers. The wizardry is the product of a 16-year-old high school student, who reverse-engineered it by jailbreaking iPhones and digging into them to learn how iOS handles iMessages. It even included end-to-end encryption between iPhones and Android phones.

Co-founder Eric Migicovsky, the former Pebble smartwatch founder, described the service to Engadget’s Lawrence Bonk this week as a “scale-up.” The original (pre-mini) Beeper depended on a Mac mini server farm to relay chats through Apple’s system. Whether Beeper Mini is going the way of the dodo (or the Sunbird), we’ll have to wait and see.

OpenAI’s recent drama hasn’t only caught UK regulators’ attention. Bloomberg reported Friday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Microsoft’s investment in the Sam Altman-led company and whether it violates US antitrust laws. FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this year that “the expanding adoption of AI risks further locking in the market dominance of large incumbent technology firms.”

Bloomberg’s report stresses that the FTC inquiry is preliminary, and the agency hasn’t opened a formal investigation. But Khan and company are reportedly “analyzing the situation and assessing what its options are.” One complicating factor for regulation is that OpenAI is a non-profit, and transactions involving non-corporate entities aren’t required by law to be reported.

In addition, Microsoft’s $13 billion investment doesn’t technically give it control over OpenAI in the eyes of the law, another factor in determining what action a governmental agency might be able to take. However, the recent ousting and re-hiring of Altman — and the integral role Microsoft played in reverting those chess pieces to its preferred positions — suggests the lack of control over the nonprofit is more a technicality than the relationship’s underlying essence.

Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wrote earlier today that it’s considering investigating the relationship between AI’s two dominant players. It said it’s weighing “recent developments,” referring obliquely to the Altman-Microsoft drama. “The CMA will review whether the partnership has resulted in an acquisition of control — that is, where it results in one party having material influence, de facto control or more than 50% of the voting rights over another entity,” the CMA wrote in its news release.

Khan, also challenging Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, has previously sounded the alarm about the need for AI regulations.

“As these technologies evolve, we are committed to doing our part to uphold America’s longstanding tradition of maintaining the open, fair and competitive markets that have underpinned both breakthrough innovations and our nation’s economic success — without tolerating business models or practices involving the mass exploitation of their users,” the youngest-ever FTC chair wrote in May. “Although these tools are novel, they are not exempt from existing rules, and the F.T.C. will vigorously enforce the laws we are charged with administering, even in this new market.”

Hideo Kojima said his documentary, Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds, will be distributed exclusively by Disney+. The legendary game designer posted Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) that the film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this summer, will launch globally in the spring of 2024.

Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds tracks the pioneering auteur during the development of Death Stranding while providing a rare glimpse into his creative process as he launched his studio, Kojima Productions. The film also includes “shots from the early days of our independent studio, memories from my childhood and my creative journey,” as the designer said. The film strives to capture the artistic side of gaming, which Kojima embodies as well as anyone.

Kojima Productions

The documentary announcement follows the official reveal of Kojima’s next game, OD. Although we don’t know much about it yet, its trailer blends a cinematic art style with horror, aligning with previous leaks. Director and comedian Jordan Peele is even involved. Xbox Game Studios is publishing the title, which Kojima has said will lean heavily on Microsoft’s cloud technology.

“Video gaming is an art,” director Guillermo del Toro summarizes in the documentary trailer (below) about the Metal Gear creator. “But the only person in charge of the orchestra is the auteur.”

The first Final Fantasy XVI DLC was not only announced at the Game Awards 2023; it’s already available on the PlayStation Store. Echoes of the Fallen, set before the base game’s final battle, is out now, while a second DLC installment, The Rising Tide, arrives in spring 2024.

The PlayStation blog says Echoes of the Fallen “unlocks a whole new story, battles, weapons, accessories, level cap and more.” You’ll follow Clive and the gang as they run into “a group of suspicious traders,” which points them to an abandoned Fallen tower, the Sagespire. “Terrible secrets” lie in store.

A bonus awaits those who buy Echoes of the Fallen or the game’s Expansion Pass, in the form of the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII. In addition, it adds the “Away (1987)” Orchestrion Roll, unlocking a chiptune version of the song as new hideout background music.

As for The Rising Tide, Square Enix promises a climactic confrontation between Clive and Leviathan, the legendary Eikon. In addition, if you haven’t played the base Final Fantasy XVI game yet, it’s discounted on the PlayStation Store through December 11.

Hideo Kojima officially unveiled his upcoming game (that leaked in 2022) at the Game Awards 2023. Previously described as something “no one has ever experienced or seen before,” the cinematic OD (previously known as Overdose) will include a collaboration with horror director and comedian Jordan Peele.

OD’s 90-second trailer includes intimate closeups of actors reading nursery rhymes and other dialogue as they grow increasingly frantic. In the clip’s final moments, you catch a glimpse of a door opening in the reflection of their eyes (with a creaking sound hammering the point home). Wherever the game’s plot takes us, the trailer makes it clear it falls squarely in the horror genre (as expected).

We already knew the title would be published by Xbox Game Studios, relying heavily on Microsoft’s cloud technology. Previous leaks indicated Death Stranding actor Margaret Qualley would play the protagonist, although she was nowhere to be found in the trailer. The billed cast in the trailer includes Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier.

You can watch OD’s cryptic trailer below.

Dead Cells developer Motion Twin dropped one of the first eye-popping trailers of the Game Awards 2023 (in the pre-show, no less). The visually striking Windblown is billed as “a lightning-fast action roguelike,” bringing “a whole new level of speed to the action rogue-like genre.”

Windblown takes place in The Ark, a floating village in the sky, full of “innocent souls.” It orbits the deadly Vortex with its army of Sentinels, as they threaten to “devour” the protagonists’ aerial home. Playing solo or multiplayer, you’ll control characters called Leapers, who “absorb the memories of the fallen warriors who came before, learning how to master the fighting styles of their predecessors to unleash their full potential.”

The game’s blurb invites you to “find your rhythm” in the fast-paced combat, which the trailer appears to back up. Both its cutscenes and gameplay use a cel-shaded art style that should at least comfort you with plenty of eye candy as you die 20 times in a row.

Windblown is scheduled to arrive in early access on PC in 2024. You can add it to your Steam wishlist now.

The tenth edition of the Game Awards is upon us. The event unfolds Thursday evening, with host Geoff Keighley scheduled to take the stage at 7:30PM ET. In addition to the myriad trailers, announcements, gameplay clips and speeches, six titles will compete for the coveted Game of the Year award. Engadget will cover all the big news as it happens, and you can watch along below.

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 lead the pack with eight total nominations. They’ll compete for Game of the Year with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (seven nods), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (five), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (five) and the Resident Evil 4 remake (four).

Nintendo had a banner year, even as the Switch likely approaches its swan song. The company raked in 15 total nominations — the most of any publisher. Sony was next, with 13 nods, while Microsoft (including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard) received 10 noms. Meanwhile, Epic Games, the only non-hardware-producing publisher in the top four, snagged nine.

The awards show includes 31 total awards in areas as diverse as Best Action Game, Best Esports Coach and Best Independent Game. The indie category opened a can of worms this year, as the beloved Dave the Diver was included in the category despite being produced by a subsidiary of Nexon, a behemoth with an $18.3 billion market cap.

You can tune into the Game Awards on YouTube, Twitch (and other platforms) at 7:30PM ET on Thursday. Or, watch below: