Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today delayedHogwarts Legacy yet again, but the most demanding versions of the game are spared. Instead, the postponement pushes the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions back to April 4th, 2023, with the Nintendo Switch variant arriving on July 25th.

Previously, the last-gen versions were scheduled to launch on February 10th alongside the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC iterations. Although today's delay will disappoint Harry Potter fans with older consoles, you need to look no further than Cyberpunk 2077 for an example of a game that just wasn't ready for last-gen hardware. This latest reshuffling should give developer Avalanche Software time to polish the Harry Potter-themed game for older systems.

Warner Bros. initially slated the wizarding title for a 2021 launch but later pushed it back to this year and, finally, to 2023. Starting on February 7th, people who buy the Deluxe Edition for PS5, Xbox Series X/S or PC will have 72 hours of early access to start their adventure. However, the delayed versions won’t have an early-access period.

Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the 1800s. You play as a custom-created Hogwarts student in the century before the events in the Harry Potter books and movies. You will craft potions, learn spells and make friends while embarking “on a dangerous journey to uncover a hidden truth of the wizarding world.”

Warner Bros. notes that the game isn’t a new story from author JK Rowling, but it collaborated with her team to ensure it remains true to her original vision. However, the RPG’s character creator may let you make transgender characters, a welcome departure from Rowling’s opinion on that topic.

Amazon is rolling out new Echo Show accessibility features today. The company announced new gestures, text-to-speech (TTS) features and caption settings using the device’s screen to help customers with disabilities.

The Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) and Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) now let you dismiss timers with a gesture. If a cooking timer goes off while your hands are messy, you can raise your palm towards the camera to silence it. Of course, Alexa already supported dismissing timers with voice, but the hand-wave accommodates people with speech disabilities (or those who don’t feel like talking to a computer).

The Echo Show is also adding text-to-speech capabilities. Tap to Alexa, an accessibility hub that uses the touchscreen instead of spoken commands, now lets you type phrases for Alexa to read aloud. Additionally, it can create shortcuts for commonly used phrases, which you can organize with icons and colors. The TTS feature was already available on Fire tablets, but this is its Echo Show debut.

Amazon

Finally, Consolidated Captions turns on captions universally without repeating the process on every device. Activating captions from the Echo Show’s accessibility settings now enables Call Captioning, Closed Captioning and Alexa Captioning on all of your account’s supported Echo Show devices.

The updates arrive as Amazon reshuffles its priorities amid economic uncertainty. Last month, it began laying off employees, reportedly cutting around 10,000 jobs. Its Devices & Services division, which handles Echo Show and Alexa, reportedly bore the brunt of it. In October, Amazon also killed off Glow, its kid-focused video-calling device.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the 2023 Golden Globes nominations today. Streaming services dominated television categories, while direct-to-streaming films were recognized as well. Netflix and HBO Max had the best showings among streamers, tallying 14 television nods.

Netflix’s The Crown received four nominations: Best Drama Series, Best Television Actress - Drama Series (Imelda Staunton), Best Supporting Actress - Television Series (Elizabeth Debicki) and Best Supporting Actor - Television Series (Jonathan Pryce). Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story also received four: Best Limited Series - Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture and acting nominations for Evan Peters, Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins. Other Netflix series receiving nods include Ozark's three nominations (including Best Drama Series), along with a single nod each for Inventing Anna and The Addams Family spinoff Wednesday.

Netflix also did well in the film categories, with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery nominated for two awards (including Best Picture - Musical/Comedy) and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio picking up two more (including Best Picture - Animated). Additionally, three more Netflix movies received acting recognition: Ana de Armas (Blonde), Adam Driver (White Noise) and Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse).

HBO

The White Lotus was HBO Max’s top series, picking up four nominations, including Best Limited Series - Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture. The dark comedy anthology also picked up acting nods for Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza and 83-year-old F. Murray Abraham. Hacks was close behind with three, including Best Musical/Comedy Series and two acting noms (Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder). Finally, House of the Dragon’s three nominations (including Best Drama Series) brought the Game of Thrones franchise back to awards season.

Severance and Black Bird put Apple TV+ on the board. The former was nominated for Best Drama Series, along with acting recognition for Adam Scott and John Turturro. Black Bird was nominated for Best Limited Series - Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture, alongside acting noms for Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser.

Disney+

Disney+ had a limited presence on this year’s list. Diego Luna picked up an acting nod for the title role in Andor while Turning Red was nominated for Best Picture - Animated. However, Hulu — Disney’s other streaming service — did very well, picking up noms for Pam & Tommy (four, including Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture), Only Murders in the Building (three), Elizabeth Holmes story The Dropout (two) and Under the Banner of Heaven (two).

As always, there were several high-profile omissions. Amazon’s budget-shattering epic, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, didn’t receive a single nomination. Meanwhile, whether because of Will Smith’s damaged reputation or the movie itself, Apple TV+ film Emancipation was also left out.

Winners will be announced at the 2023 Golden Globes ceremony on January 10th, starting at 8 PM ET. The show will air on NBC and Peacock with comedian Jerrod Carmichael as host.

Embattled FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said today that he will testify before Congress next week. After a Twitter back-and-forth with committee chair Rep. Maxine Waters, he agreed to testify about the crypto exchange’s sudden collapse. “I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like,” he tweeted this morning. “But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.” The House Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing on Tuesday investigating FTX.

His agreement to testify is an about-face from last week when he tweeted that he only would appear after he finished “learning and reviewing” what led to the company’s rapid downfall. Waters replied, “Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it’s clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony.”

He testimony for the House Committee will likely be remote, according to The Wall Street Journal. Leaders of the Senate Banking Committee, holding a separate FTX hearing next week, have threatened to subpoena him if he doesn’t also agree to appear in front of their panel. But that may be tough to enforce since he lives in the Bahamas.

Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images

His testimony could include a public showdown with John J. Ray III, FTX’s current CEO overseeing bankruptcy proceedings, who is also testifying Tuesday. Ray hasn’t minced words about Bankman-Fried’s “erratic and misleading public statements” about FTX. “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

Bankman-Fried resigned last month after Binance backed out of a deal to buy FTX, citing concerns discovered while conducting due diligence. FTX then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, capping off the collapse. The company currently faces more than 100,000 creditors, but that number could expand to over one million.

Hollywood, never an industry to turn down a high-profile downfall story, quickly pounced. Amazon has already greenlit a limited series about FTX helmed by the Russo brothers.

A new Crash Bandicoot online multiplayer game is on the way. The 4v4 team-based Crash Team Rumble launches on PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. The game, which supports cross-platform play, will arrive in 2023.

In the game, you team up with three other players to bank fruits into your drop-off zone while trying to defend the opposing team’s goal. You can play in various arenas and choose from heroes like Crash and Tawna Bandicoot or villains Doctor Neo Cortex and Dingodile (among others). Each character has a distinct power, personality and playstyle.

Activision owns the Crash Bandicoot IP after producer Universal Interactive became Vivendi Games before merging with Activision in 2007. Toys for Bob is developing the new multiplayer game after its work on the well-received Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. Original developer Naughty Dog hasn’t been involved with the series since its PlayStation-exclusive days in the late 1990s.

The Ghostbusters virtual reality game teased earlier this year now has a full trailer. Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord comes to Meta Quest 2 and PlayStation VR2 in 2023.

The trailer shows four Quest 2 users donning their headsets to battle dark forces descending on San Francisco. The in-engine (pre-alpha) footage follows the players using an arsenal of PKE Meters, Proton Packs and traps to hunt down and ensnare a slippery phantom. Just as the players close their trap and breathe a sigh of relief, a gigantic, skull-faced specter we can only assume is the titular Ghost Lord emerges over the rooftop. It’s exactly the gameplay you’d expect from ghost-busting in VR.

Publisher Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) and developer nDreams (known for Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity) are launching the title right as the Ghostbusters IP is enjoying a pop-culture resurgence. Although the latest movie received mixed reviews, it did well at the box office, ranking as the tenth highest-grossing movie last year. An animated Netflix series is also in the pipeline, and a 4v1 co-op game that lets you play as a ghost launched on PC and consoles this October.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution today asking countries not to conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite tests (ASAT) that create space junk. The US spearheaded the measure after the International Space Station (ISS) had a close call last year with more than 1,500 pieces of debris from a Russian ASAT.

The measure doesn’t ban the development or testing of ASAT systems, but it discourages conducting them in a way that creates space debris. Although since it came from the UN General Assembly and not the Security Council, it isn’t legally binding.

In addition to creating navigational hazards for astronauts, space junk also reflects sunlight to Earth’s surface, interfering with ground-based telescopes. Moreover, researchers expect orbital debris to increase by magnitudes over the next decade as internet-broadcasting mini-satellites, like SpaceX’s Starlink, grow in popularity.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who chairs the White House National Space Council, tweeted praise today for the passage. “Back in April, I announced the United States will not conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests, and I called on other nations to join us. Today, 155 countries voted in favor of a UN resolution, helping establish this as an international norm for space.”

Of the four countries that have conducted ASATs — United States, China, India and Russia — only the US voted in favor today. In addition to Russia and China, nations voting no included Belarus, Bolivia, the Central African Republic, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua and Syria. Nine more nations abstained: India, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo and Zimbabwe.

In June’s Xbox showcase, Riot Games teased that the company’s biggest titles were heading to Xbox Game Pass — and now we know when. Ahead of tonight’s Game Awards, Riot has announced that League of Legends, Valorant, Legends of Runeterra and other titles (with bonuses) will arrive on Monday, December 12th.

Starting then, Game Pass subscribers can play League of Legends on PC with all 162 champions unlocked (and first-day access to future champions) and a 20 percent XP boost. Meanwhile, Valorant brings all 18 agents (with first-day access to future agents) and a 20 percent XP boost for Battle Pass, Event Pass and active Agent Contract progress. In addition, the strategy card game Legends of Runeterra will include the Foundations Set (the game’s first cards) with your subscription. Finally, Teamfight Tactics unlocks a rotation of Tier One Little Legend avatars on PC and mobile, along with four Arena Skins available until April.

Riot Games

In January, Game Pass subscribers can play League of Legends: Wild Rift on mobile with all 80 champions. Like LoL and Valorant, it also includes day-one access for future champions and a 20 percent XP boost.

Starting on Monday, the Xbox App on PC will offer instructions to link your Riot Account and Xbox Game Pass accounts (or create a Riot account if you don’t yet have one). Additionally, the developer has some perks if you link your accounts before January 1st. These include a Pocket Sage Buddy in Valorant, a Masterwork Chest and Key in League of Legends, a Little Legend Rare Egg in Teamfight Tactics, Random Emote Chest in Wild Rift and Prismatic Chest in Legends of Runeterra.

Motorola is churning out another budget Android phone today with the Moto G Play (2023). The $170 handset runs an eight-core MediaTek Helio G37 chipset, the same entry-level processor from the latest Moto G Power. Unfortunately, although the new Moto G Play offers decent-enough specs on a budget, it also underscores Motorola’s habit of churning out endless rehashes of cheap phones.

The Android 12 handset has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (expandable to up to 512GB with a microSD card). Its IPS TFT LCD 6.5-inch display has a mere 720p resolution but a fast 90Hz refresh rate, something you won’t always see in this price range.

The phone has three cameras on its back, a first for the Moto G Play series. A 16MP main lens gets help from 2MP macro and depth sensors to produce extreme closeups and portraits with blurred backgrounds. In addition, the rear camera and 5MP front sensor can each record full HD footage at 30 fps.

Motorola

Motorola says the phone’s 5,000mAh battery lasts up to three days and supports 10W rapid charging via USB-C. It has IP52 water protection, so it should withstand light splashes and spills. Continuing a familiar cost-cutting measure, the Moto G Play lacks NFC and 5G.

The phone’s unlocked version launches on January 12 at Best Buy, Amazon and Motorola. UScellular and Canadian carriers will have it on the same day, with various US regional carriers following later.

IKEA announced its latest Sonos collaboration today, a Symfonisk speaker that doubles as a floor lamp. The lamp/speaker combo will launch in January in IKEA stores and online.

The floor lamp’s $260 price makes it the most expensive speaker in the Symfonisk lineup. Current models range between $120 for a bookshelf speaker (with less than stellar audio) and $250 for musical wall art. And your investment in the floor lamp could creep even higher if you want something other than the included bamboo shade, as alternative lampshades run from $39 to $49.

Although Symfonisk speakers are cheaper than Sonos-branded devices, models in the IKEA collaboration don’t have a built-in AI assistant, so you’ll need a separate Alexa, Google Assistant or HomePod product to control them with your voice. But they still support other mainstay Sonos features, like a healthy list of music services, TruePlay tuning (iOS only) and speaker pairing.

IKEA

Sonos and IKEA launched the Symfonisk line in 2019, merging IKEA’s distinct home style with Sonos’ audio smarts. The companies frame the combination as helping customers conserve space on tables or nightstands — or, in this case, the floor — in apartments or smaller homes.