After a slow month in the world of video game marketing, things are starting to pick up. The past week has given us a first look at the new Fallout TV show, a few release dates and a trailer for a little game called Grand Theft Auto VI — and the Game Awards are still to come. What good timing for us to launch a weekly video game show to dig into the news.

This week’s stories

The Game Awards

The Game Awards

The Game Awards will go live on Thursday, December 7, at 7:30PM ET. Expect a few hours of game announcements, new trailers, awkward interviews and musical performances, including one by the fictional band from Alan Wake 2.

Amazon MGM Studios

Fallout, but on TV!

Amazon dropped the first trailer for its live-action Fallout series — and, man, it sure does look like Fallout. The show is set in Los Angeles 200 years after the nuclear apocalypse, and it stars Yellowjackets actor Ella Purnell, plus Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten and Kyle MacLachlan. It’s heading to Prime Video on April 12, 2024.

GTA VI is coming in 2025

The biggest news item this week, pre-The Game Awards, was the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. As of writing it's already reached 105 million views on YouTube — a pace usually reserved for only the finest K-Pop videos. GTA VI is set in Vice City, it’s coming out in 2025 and I'm sure we’ll hear a lot more about it before then.

Nexon

What is an indie game?

The meat of this week’s episode focuses on the longstanding debate about what “indie” actually means. One of the titles nominated for Best Independent Game at the Game Awards, Dave the Diver, was commissioned and bankrolled by Nexon, one of the largest video game studios in South Korea. It’s not indie, and its inclusion in this category highlights how little consensus there still is around the definition.

This is kinda my area of expertise — it’s my 13th year as a video game journalist and indie games have always been a core feature of my reporting. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I mean when I say “indie,” so I sat down and formalized this thought process. There are three questions that can help define a game in an indie gray area: Is the team on the mainstream system’s payroll? Is the game or team owned by a platform holder? Do the artists have creative control? I dug into these questions this week, and discuss how having a publisher isn’t related to the indie label at all.

But when all else fails in the indie debate, there’s one ultimate question to ask: Can this team exist without my support? This is why the distinction matters: The indie label helps to identify the artists that would not exist without game sales, crowdfunding or word-of-mouth support from players. It exists to determine the teams that are truly living and dying on game sales, and it helps players decide where to spend their money. If Dave the Diver didn’t sell well, its team would likely have the chance to try again. If, say, Pizza Tower didn’t sell well, its studio could have folded.

I think this is an important conversation, so give that story a read and let us know in the comments if you think my questions help or just make things more confusing. It’s probably a little bit of both.

Now playing

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood on Steam Deck — it’s the latest game from Deconstructeam, the indie studio that made The Red Strings Club and Gods Will Be Watching. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a game about building tarot decks, manipulating elections, betraying a coven of witches and seducing everyone; it’s sexy and well-written, and I highly recommend it. Another game I’m looking forward to is A Highland Song from indie studio Inkle; it just came out this week and I’m excited to dive in.

Let us know in the comments what you’re playing! Also, we still don’t know what to call this weekly video game news show, so leave us some name suggestions, too. Thanks!

Jimmy Stewart can now send you off to a blissful night's rest with a Calm bedtime story. The mindfulness app is known for its Sleep Stories, read by celebrities including Harry Styles and Idris Elba, to help users drift off to dreamland. To revive Stewart's iconic voice Calm has collaborated with AI company Respeecher. The new It’s a Wonderful Sleep Story, which Calm has dubbed “a heartwarming new holiday tale,” is now available for Premium subscribers.

Stewart starred in several major films (including It’s a Wonderful Life) and was known for his signature drawl and calming voice. Tina Xavie, chief marketing officer of CMG Worldwide (the company that manages Stewart's estate) said that makes this AI recreation a great fit for Calm's bedtime series. Folks at Respeecher trained its system with old recordings of the star and merged them with a voice actor's rendition of the story.

"Hello, I'm James Stewart, but you can call me Jimmy. Tonight I'm going to tell you a story," the AI-generated Stewart begins, before urging listeners to get nice and comfortable. “It’s a heartwarming story of love, of loss, of hope and of joy, but most of all — it’s a wonderful sleep story.”

According to Variety, the project received the green light from both Stewart’s family and his estate. While this project was created with consent from the necessary parties, the growing use of AI to replicate voices of celebrities and other public figures has sparked ethical debates. There have been several instances of unauthorized use of likenesses or voices, including that of Drake, Tom Hanks and Gayle King.

The It’s a Wonderful Sleep Story has also been receiving some backlash on social media. Users on X (formerly Twitter) have called it "despicable" and "terrifying" with one user saying there was "no way Jimmy Stewart would be okay with AI using his voice."

Despite the backlash, Stewart’s family is happy to see his legacy live on. In a statement, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, one of Stewart’s daughters, said “It’s amazing what technology can do and wonderful to see Dad’s legacy live on this holiday season in new ways.”

Kiss’ final live performance at Madison Square Garden in New York last night also turned out to be the first for the band’s successors — four digital avatars that will play on in the real members’ retirement from physical shows. Kiss concluded the last show of its “The End of the Road” tour by introducing the new virtual band, which then performed “God Gave Rock And Roll To You.”

The avatars weren’t just straight replicas of the current band members — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer — but interpretations of them “as fantasy-based superheroes,” said Pophouse Entertainment, which partnered with George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic for their creation. And, it says that’s just “one of the many and varied ways in which Kiss will live on as digital performers through their avatars in the future.” Industrial Light & Magic also created the digital avatars of ABBA (or ABBAtars) for the ongoing ABBA Voyage show in London.

No specific plans for the virtual band have been announced just yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see similar Kiss experiences pop up in the near future. Gene Simmons, who founded Kiss alongside Paul Stanley, said the move will keep the band “forever young and forever iconic,” while Stanley called it a way to “see Kiss immortalized” and take the group “to a completely different level beyond being just a music band.”

Amazon has revealed more about its upcoming Fallout series on Prime Video. The company shared the first images from the show and gave Vanity Fair a sneak peek ahead of its April debut. Based on the game franchise, it stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets) as a naive newcomer to the post-apocalyptic surface world she’s spent her comfortable life hiding from underground.

The series takes place in the year 2296. That’s 219 years after nuclear war ravaged the Earth, driving deep-pocketed survivors into subterranean bunkers, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves above ground. Lucy is the daughter of “Overseer Hank” (Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks), the mayor-like figure of Lucy’s Vault 33.

Vanity Fair says Vault Boy, the iconic game logo, appears as the mascot for Lucy’s underground dwelling. We’ll even hear about its origin story. “That was something that they came up with that’s just really smart,” Bethesda’s Todd Howard said, describing the series’ creative take on Vault Boy’s genesis.

Amazon / Bethesda

The Ghoul, familiar to fans of the games, will be played by the scene-stealing Walton Goggins (Justified, The Hateful Eight) in a role that sounds tailored to the wry character actor. “Walton’s equally adept at drama and comedy, which is so difficult,” creator Jonathan Nolan told Vanity Fair. “There is a chasm in time and distance between who this guy was and who he’s become, which for me creates an enormous dramatic question: What happened to this guy? So we’ll walk backwards into that.”

Nolan says The Ghoul represents all sides of Fallout’s world. “He’s got a lot of mileage on him, but he’s still got a swagger and kind of a charm to him,” Nolan said. The series’ take on the character strikes a balance between using prosthetics and makeup to show his disfigured face while still giving Goggins room to find the half-dead, half-immortal character’s humanity. “I need to be able to see Walton and his performance, he needs to look like a Ghoul from the game, and he needs to be kind of hot,” Nolan said.

The series was created by Westworld creators Nolan and Lisa Loy. They describe the story as hitting similar notes as the games, including its retrofuturistic stylings, biting social commentary and themes of gray morality. “We had a lot of conversations over the style of humor, the level of violence, the style of violence,” Bethesda’s Howard, an executive producer on the show, said. “Look, Fallout can be very dramatic, and dark, and postapocalyptic, but you need to weave in a little bit of a wink…. I think they threaded that needle really well on the TV show.”

Fallout premieres on April 12, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video.

Apple Music’s full year-end Replay experience has arrived. Although elements of the personalized recap are available year-round (including a continually updating playlist), the company spruces up its web interface this time of year for a sleeker presentation as you reflect on your 2023 listening habits. Apple Music also announced its Artist of the Year (Taylor Swift, who you may have heard of) and subscribers’ top choices in various categories.

If you listened to Apple Music this year, you can head to the service’s Replay 2023 website and log into your account to view a rundown of the music you enjoyed during the last 12 months. It lists your most-streamed artists, songs, albums, genres, playlists and stations.

It also includes a highlight video summarizing your habits, which you can share with friends and family or on social channels. If you reach any milestones, like listening to 25,000 minutes of music, it will reveal exactly when you hit them. Apple says Replay 2023 will also tell you if you rank among an artist’s top listeners.

Apple

Taylor Swift had a busy year, and her Apple Music streams unsurprisingly reflect that. The platform’s Artist of the Year had 65 songs reach its Global Daily Top 100, more than any other artist. The pop icon was also the most streamed artist on the platform in 2023, setting a record for the most listeners in a single year. Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” took the top spot in Apple Music’s Top Songs of 2023: Global list. It was the first country song to top that chart since “Old Town Road” four years ago. “Last Night” enjoyed the most days at number one on the service’s Global Daily Top 100 chart.

World music has grown in popularity on the platform. Nigerian breakout artist Rema had the most Shazam’d song of the year with the Afrobeats tune “Calm Down.” Meanwhile, “Idol” by J-Pop duo Yoasobi was the most popular karaoke song using Apple Music’s Sing feature, and it also hit number seven on the year-end top songs chart, joined by fellow J-Pop track “Subtitle” by Official Hige Dandism. Música Mexicana also did well, with four tracks on the top 20 global songs list. These include “Ella Baila Sola” by Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado, “un x100to” by Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny, “PRC” by Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano and “Bebe Dame” from Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera.

Year-end rewinds have become a popular feature for streaming services, as people enjoy the self-expression and comedy that can come from sharing their tastes on social media. If recent years are any indication, you can expect Spotify and YouTube to reveal theirs within the coming days.

The Google Chromecast with Google TV 4K streaming stick has dropped to a record low price of $38 as part of a larger Black Friday deal on Amazon. That’s 24 percent off the MSRP of $50. This is the latest and greatest Chromecast stick and, as the name suggests, can be used to watch live TV with resolutions up to 4K HDR.

We appreciated the streaming stick in our official review, calling out the comfortable remote control that ships with the product and the excellent Google Assistant integration, which lets you skip that remote entirely and use your voice for controls. The stick also offers support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and good ‘ole HDR10. We also loved that this is a nearly lag-free device, especially when compared to rival products in the same price range. There's a reason, after all, that this stick easily made our list of the best streaming devices in 2023. 

It’s also extremely easy to use, and the integrated dongle makes for a simple installation process. Just plug and play. Once installed, you’ll be able to watch content from just about every major streaming platform out there, including a diverse array of free ad-supported stuff, with one major caveat. The system doesn’t allow access to Apple TV+, so you’ll have to find another way to watch that Kurt Russell Godzilla show.

We are in the middle of Black Friday festivities, so that’s not the only streaming stick on sale. Amazon is also offering the HD version of Google’s Chromecast streaming stick for just $20. That's a savings of 33 percent from the MSRP of $30. This is basically the same product as above, but without 4K.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Apple has announced it will begin supporting the RCS messaging standard at some point next year. RCS, or Rich Communication Services, was developed by the mobile industry as an upgrade on SMS and MMS. But Apple has been resistant to adopt it both because it prefers its home-grown iMessage platform, and because it’s not secure by default. It doesn’t help that Google has used RCS as a cudgel in its own text-message–bubble-color culture war with the iPhone maker.

In a statement, presumably typed through gritted teeth, Apple said RCS would offer better interoperability compared to SMS and MMS. But added that iMessage, which, unlike RCS, is end-to-end encrypted by default, remains the “best and most secure messaging experience.” It’s likely the change was, in part, motivated by the European Union, which has been turning its attention to the ways the technology industry makes life harder for consumers.

— Dan Cooper

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You can click and collect (from your local dealership).

Amazon

It’s hard to tell if there’s magic in buying a car, or if the dealership just puts on a show to make you think there is. We’ll find out for ourselves next year when Amazon enables direct car sales on its platform. The first automaker to sign up is Hyundai, who is, in return, adding Alexa to its 2025-era vehicles.

Continue Reading.

YouTube’s first AI-generated music tools can clone artist voices and turn hums into melodies

John Legend and Charli XCX will let you use their vocal stylings.

YouTube’s newest feature uses an AI to cook up 30-second backing tracks using the voices of high-profile artists. With Dream Track, users specify a general idea for the system to knock out music and lyrics in the style of a selected star. That includes Charli XCX and John Legend, who have both signed up to lend their simulated pipes to your next short clip.

Continue Reading.

Unity launches a suite of AI tools intended to simplify game creation

Unity Muse costs $30 a month.

Unity is now making its suite of AI-enhanced game development tools available to everyone for $30 a month. It’s designed to take a lot of the hard work out of making a new title, by automating the coding process. In the future, you can expect to see tools to create game graphics, set NPC behaviors and animate characters, which could be a very big deal indeed.

Continue Reading.

Hackers use a new SEC rule to snitch on the company they infiltrated

Who’d have thought?

Earlier this year, the SEC mandated companies had four days to notify regulators if they suffer a material cybersecurity breach. So, when hackers accessed fintech company MeridianLink and saw the SEC hadn’t been notified, they took matters into their own hands. Reporting was a way to force the company to negotiate, but it’s still wild to think they reported their own hack to regulators.

Continue Reading.

Kia’s latest EV concepts go big on geometrics and cabin vibes

Retro-futurism never looked so boxy.

Kia

Kia’s concept vehicles merit attention because so many features wind up carrying over to the production model. So, if you’re curious about what a next-generation Kia will look like, take a gander at this gallery. Hope you love boxy shapes and straight lines.

Continue Reading.

YouTube has announced new experimental AI services, including a feature called Dream Track in YouTube Shorts. It creates up to 30-second soundtracks using AI-generation versions of artists' voices. Though musicians have mostly pushed back on AI (and their voices being used for training models without permission or compensation), YouTube got nine big names from the music industry to participate, including John Legend, Troye Sivan, CharliXCX and T-Pain. The company hoped to announce the feature at its Made on YouTube event in September but has been in negotiation with recording companies over rights and payments.

Users can access Dream Track by typing an idea into the creation prompt and choosing from one of the participating artists. It uses Google DeepMind's Lyria — a new, powerful music generation model designed specifically for creating high-quality vocals and instrumentals while giving the user more control over the final product. Any content Lyria produces will also have a SynthID watermark, denoting it as such. 

Charlie Puth and T-Pain created sample Dream Tracks, which YouTube has shared as inspiration. However, many of the artists involved expressed their apprehension about AI but hoped that collaborative work could create positive, non-exploitative opportunities. "When I was first approached by YouTube I was cautious and still am, AI is going to transform the world and the music industry in ways we do not yet fully understand," singer CharliXCX said. "This experiment will offer a small insight into the creative opportunities that could be possible and I'm interested to see what comes out of it." 

Music AI Tools are also coming to YouTube, in collaboration with its Music AI Incubator. These tools can create guitar riffs from a hummed melody or turn a pop track into a reggaeton anthem. Producer and songwriter, Louis Bell, created a sample video to showcase it. 

YouTube is walking a tightrope as it navigates the careful balance of introducing AI tools and protecting against misuse. The video platform recently announced new policies for labeling videos made using AI and letting public figures, such as musicians, report deepfakes. 

Dream Track is currently only available to a select group of creators and artists, whereas participants of the Music AI Incubator should be able to test the tools out later this year. 

As part of a Black Friday deal, you can get two MasterClass annual memberships — one for yourself and one to give away as a gift — for the price of one. Memberships start at $120 per year, which lets you watch on one device at a time, $180 grants access to two devices simultaneously and allows for downloads, and a Family membership covers six devices. The free membership for gifting will be at the same level you buy for yourself. The deal is available now and ends at midnight on Black Friday.  

If you're looking for something that's not a "thing" to gift this year, MasterClass makes a nice option. A membership includes access to 180 different big name instructors teaching on topics they know a lot about. Classes on offer sound like an A-list roll call: Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster teach lessons on filmmaking, Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Mirren cover acting, Questlove shows you how to DJ, and Margaret Atwood gives a seminar on writing. 

Classes range from around two to six hours and are broken up into shorter lessens, usually between 10 and 20 minutes. There are even exercises and community forums to get you actually doing the things the teachers teach. Recently, MasterClass added series as part of its lineup, such as GOAT, which are 20 minute episodes covering a single topic (such as making a grilled cheese or playing pickleball) that feel more like a mini documentary than a lesson. The mobile app also offers series of short, swipeable videos, for a highly polished TikTok feel. 

When I tried out MasterClass, it struck me that the learning platform was more like a streaming service than anything else — a really smart streaming service, where you get to watch masters talk about how they go about their craft. Even if you don't see yourself becoming a comedian, watching Steve Martin tell you how it's done is riveting nonetheless.  

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Netflix has given The Witcher fans their first look at a new animated film that's set to hit the streaming service in late 2024. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is based on A Little Sacrifice, a short story written by the universe's creator Andrzej Sapkowski. It will have Geralt of Rivia investigating a series of attacks in a seaside village in the midst of rising conflict between its human inhabitants and merpeople from the ocean. Netflix says the film is set between episodes 5 and 6 of the live-action series' first season, and it does show: The Geralt in the film resembles original Witcher actor Henry Cavill more than the Geralt in the games. 

The live action's stars Anya Chalotra and Joey Batey will also be reprising their roles as Yennefer of Vengerberg and Jaskier in the animated film. But Geralt will be voiced by Doug Cockle, who's known for voicing the White Wolf in the Witcher games. The movie is directed by Kang Hei Chul, who served as a storyboard artist for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which featured the story of Vesemir before he became Geralt's mentor. It was also animated by Studio MIR, the same South Korean studio that worked on Nightmare of the Wolf. 

The film may be the last time those who were particularly fond of Cavill as Geralt can see, well, a version of him play the role. He left the live-action show after its third season and is set to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.