Game developer Panic, the studio behind Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game, is dropping a unique soccer title on PS5 next year. It’s called Despelote and is described as a “beautiful slice-of-life adventure” about childhood and the world’s favorite sport. The title’s set in Ecuador in 2001, which was when the country had its first qualifying run for the World Cup.

Gameplay involves exploring the city of Quito, playing soccer and engaging in “playful, funny interactions” with various townspeople. It boasts a first person perspective and a highly unique art style that merges grainy photo realism with flourishes of animation. Not sure what that means? There’s a teaser trailer.

Panic says the game was inspired by lead co-creator Julián Cordero’s childhood and it boasts full voice acting in Spanish with the option for localized subtitles. Much of the dialogue was actually captured in real life on the streets of Ecuador to give it a bit more flavor. The same goes for the background ambient noise.

It’s worth noting that this is a narrative title first and a soccer game second, so don’t expect a full-on sim like FIFA. There looks to be plenty of opportunities to kick things, pass things and dribble, however, as you explore the town, “getting caught up in mischief and soaking in the local culture.”

Despelote first appeared on the scene in 2021 at that year’s Summer Games Fest, but there wasn’t an official publisher or release platform back then. As for Panic, the company’s been busy meeting the demands of PlayDate portable console owners in addition to publishing nifty indie titles.

Sony is set to kick off a busy spell of gaming events as it will host a PlayStation Showcase next week. You'll be able to watch the stream at 4PM ET on May 24th on YouTube and Twitch. The company says the showcase will run for just over an hour and it will focus on PS5 and PS VR2 games. Expect to see first-party titles as well as games from third-party partners and indie studios.

As for the specific games Sony plans to spotlight, it's a pretty safe bet that we'll get more details on Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the biggest PlayStation Studios game that's currently on the docket for the rest of this year. It's scheduled to arrive this fall, but perhaps Sony will reveal a firm release date next week. (Sidenote: check out the prequel comic if you haven't done so. It's a good read.)

We may also learn more about the standalone The Last of Us multiplayer game, while rumors have been swirling for a while that the showcase will include Mortal Kombat and Metal Gear Solid announcements. In any case, the showcase is likely to be a bigger deal than a typical State of Play stream. With over an hour to fill, here's hoping for a lot of exciting news on the PS5 and PS VR2 fronts.

Samsung and LG have a long-running rivalry, both Korean corporations, both make TVs, speakers, freezers, toothpaste (maybe?) and the rest. It’s a frosty relationship, with many trade shows revealing new TV products from both companies with nigh-on identical specifications and sizes. So it’s a bit of a shock to hear from Reuters​ that Samsung has inked a deal with LG to buy its white OLED (WOLED) TV panels.

The plan, according to the report, is for LG Display to supply two million panels next year, then three million and five million, respectively in 2025 and 2026. These high-end white OLED panels would be 77 and 83 inches, so they’re likely to be in Samsung’s most premium TVs.

Samsung could do with the OLED help: It has 6.1 percent of the OLED TV market, according to market research firm Omdia. LG Display's sibling LG Electronics is out in front with a 54.6 percent market share, while Sony has 26.1 percent. For the record, Sony also uses LG parts.

– Mat Smith

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Apple's Assistive Access simplifies iOS 16 for people with cognitive disabilities

It also introduced new speech and vision accessibility features.

Apple

With Global Accessibility Awareness Day just days away, Apple has detailed a raft of new iOS features for cognitive accessibility. These include Live Speech, Personal Voice and more. ​​The biggest update is Assistive Access, designed to support users with cognitive disabilities. Essentially, it provides a custom, simplified experience for the phone, FaceTime, Messages, Camera, Photos and Music apps. That includes a "distinct interface with high contrast buttons and large text labels."

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A third former Apple employee has been charged with stealing self-driving car tech

'Large quantities' of Apple data was found at his home.

A federal court in the Northern District of California has unsealed charges against Weibao Wang, a former Apple software engineer. Wang started working at the company in 2016, developing hardware and software for autonomous systems — technology that could conceivably wind up in self-driving cars.

According to the indictment, in November 2017, Wang accepted a job with a US subsidiary of a Chinese company that was developing self-driving cars but waited more than four months to tell Apple he was quitting. After Wang left Apple in April 2018, the company found he "accessed large amounts of sensitive proprietary and confidential information" in the lead up to his departure, the Department of Justice said.

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YouTube’s recommendations are leading kids to gun videos, report says

Researchers posing as nine-year-olds were flooded with gun-related content.

YouTube’s recommendations are leading young kids to videos about school shootings and other gun-related content. According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is “pushing boys interested in video games to scenes of school shootings, instructions on how to use and modify weapons” and other gun-centric content. As the report notes, several of the recommended videos appeared to violate YouTube’s own policies. Recommendations included videos of a young girl firing a gun and tutorials on converting handguns into “fully automatic” weapons and other modifications. Some of these videos were even monetized with ads.

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The best SSD for your PS5

And a step-by-step guide on how to upgrade.

Engadget

Has that Horizon: Forbidden West DLC put you at your PS5 storage limits? Need space for Final Fantasy XVI this summer? We’ve got you covered. Here are the best SSD expansion options – and how to install them. Yep, it’s a little more complicated than a plug-in USB drive.

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Lucifer ought to take the temperature of the underworld, because it seems like hell has just frozen over. According to Reuters, Samsung has inked a deal with LG to buy high-end white OLED (WOLED) TV panels from its long-standing rival. LG may start supplying the panels as soon as this quarter.

The plan, according to the report, is for LG Display to supply 2 million panels next year, then 3 million and 5 million respectively in 2025 and 2026. At least at the outset, the company will reportedly be making 77-inch and 83-inch WOLED panels for Samsung.

It's an unexpected partnership that may actually make a lot of sense for both sides. Samsung could use the panels to help it make up ground in the OLED TV market. The company has taken the approach that OLED displays are a better fit for smartphones and tablets than TVs. One reason for that perspective is that OLED panels are expensive — they tend to cost nearly five times more than LCD panels. On the TV front, Samsung has focused on making QLED models, which are cheaper than OLEDs.

Samsung has 6.1 percent of the OLED TV market, according to market research firm Omdia. LG Display's sibling LG Electronics is said to be out in front with a 54.6 percent market share while Sony has 26.1 percent. An LG Display deal could help Samsung overtake Sony in that realm or at least to better compete with Chinese manufacturers that are selling lower-cost LCD televisions. 

The reported deal could help LG Display to turn its business around after four straight quarters of losses. LG Display also makes smartphone screens for Apple, as well as OLED panels for Sony and LG Electronics. However, its OLED manufacturing facility hasn't been running at full capacity. That, according to Reuters, is due to a drop in demand for new TVs and a "limited customer base." Analysts suggest that the Samsung pact could help LG Display max out its manufacturing capacity and account for between 20 and 30 percent of production in the first year. The agreement could add north of $1.5 billion to LG's bottom line next year.

Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest suggested to Engadget that Samsung might have taken this path to resolve volume and screen size availability issues. “QD-OLED panel production from Samsung Display is still limited in quantity at the moment, and the motherglass has to be cut to cater for both monitors (e.g. 34-inch 240Hz QD-OLED gaming monitors which are greater in demand) and TVs (e.g. 55-inch QD-OLED TV).

"QD-OLED is also only available in 55-, 65- and 77-inch screen sizes at the moment, while the WOLED panels supplied by LG Display can go up to 83 and even 97 inches, or as small as 42 and 48 inches," Teoh said.

You may have to get a Peacock subscription if you want to watch every single game in the NFL playoffs. The streaming service will serve as home to the first-ever exclusive livestreamed NFL playoff game, NBCUniversal and the league have announced. It's a wild card game that's scheduled to take place on January 13th, 2024, which is the first playoff weekend. And by "exclusive," they meant it will not be aired on national TV or even on cable. Only the local markets for the two competing teams will have access to the game outside Peacock, through a local TV channel that'll most likely be an NBC affiliate. 

As The Wall Street Journal notes, the NFL made postseason games available for streaming in the past. However, this marks the first time one can only be accessed on a streaming service by most viewers. NFL chief operating officer Hans Schroeder has acknowledged that the decision could upset some fans who'll have to get Peacock to watch that one game, but he believes it "will be transformative for sports on digital."

In fact, Schroeder said the NFL will likely continue making one of its wild card games exclusively accessible via streaming going forward. Whether Peacock will carry the game again in 2025 will probably depend on how the 2024 game performs for the service: Peacock and the NFL only signed a one-year deal, which The Journal says cost around $110 million. 

TCL just announced a bunch of new TVs in two different product lines. As originally teased during this year’s CES, the S Class models are easy on the old bank account. Despite the budget-friendly price, S Class TVs boast plenty of modern features, like a metal bezel-less design.

S Class models break down into three sub-categories. The S2 is the barest of the bunch, with a 720p resolution and display sizes perfect for easy transport, going all the way down to 32 inches. The 1080p S3 ranges from 32 inches to 43 inches and throws in HDR, a voice remote and Bluetooth audio.

The S4, however, is where things get interesting. These TVs offer 4K resolutions, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and frame insertion for smoother motion. Best of all? The S4 starts at $280 for the 43-inch model and sizes go all the way up to 85 inches.

TCL’s Q Class begins with the Q6. The QLED display offers a 66 percent brighter picture than any of the S Class models and it also features something called “Game Accelerator 120” which is a tool that pushes the refresh rate to 120Hz when playing games, at the expense of half the vertical resolution of a 4K image. The Q6 line ranges from 55 inches ($500) to 85 inches ($1,600).

The Q7 includes a native 120Hz panel that balloons to 240Hz by accessing its own Game Accelerator mode, though with the same cut in vertical resolution. These TVs support AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, Dolby Vision IQ and ship with a backlit remote. TCL’s Q7 line starts at 55 inches ($750) with sizes going up to 85 inches ($2,200).

Finally, there’s the flagship QM8 line. These TVs are all about picture quality, with Mini LED backlighting, 2,000 nits of peak brightness, thousands of local dimming zones and a proprietary engine to improve contrast. These models also boast a built-in subwoofer, much like the Hisense U8H, Wi-Fi 6 for improved streaming and a height-adjustable stand for proper soundbar positioning. The QM8 starts at 65 inches ($1,700) and goes all the way up to 98 inches (an eye-watering $10,000).

Most of these televisions are already available at both online and physical retail locations, except for that massive 98-inch QM8. That one comes out later this year, so start saving now. 

Microsoft has overcome a significant hurdle in its attempt to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. As expected, the European Union has rubberstamped the acquisition. The European Commission (the EU's executive arm) said Microsoft will have to ensure full compliance with the commitments it has made to offer its games on other platforms, particularly cloud gaming services.

Activision does not yet offer its titles on cloud gaming services. EC regulators determined that the game streaming market is relatively small as things stand and having Activision games available on cloud platforms could help it to grow. Were Microsoft to offer Activision games exclusively on its own cloud service, that could have impaired competition, the EU said. 

Microsoft has signed 10-year deals with Nintendo and cloud gaming services such as NVIDIA GeForce Now and Boosteroid to make its own games and Activision's available on them. As such, regulators said Microsoft's commitments "fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation." 

"Video games attract billions of users all over the world. In such a fast-growing and dynamic industry, it is crucial to protect competition and innovation. Our decision represents an important step in this direction, by bringing Activision’s popular games to many more devices and consumers than before thanks to cloud game streaming," the EC's competition chief Margrethe Vestager said. "The commitments offered by Microsoft will enable for the first time the streaming of such games in any cloud game streaming services, enhancing competition and opportunities for growth."

"The EC conducted an extremely thorough, deliberate process to gain a comprehensive understanding of gaming. As a result, they approved our merger with Microsoft, although they required stringent remedies to ensure robust competition in our rapidly growing industry," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement. "We intend to meaningfully expand our investment and workforce throughout the EU, and we’re excited for the benefits our transaction brings to players in Europe and around the world."

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the Activision acquisition last month over concerns that it would give Microsoft too much of a dominant position in the cloud gaming market, though it does not believe the takeover would pose a threat to competition in the console ecosystem. Microsoft is appealing the CMA's decision. That process is likely to take months to resolve.

In response to the EU's decision, the CMA stood by its claim that Microsoft would still have too much power in the cloud gaming space. "Microsoft’s proposals, accepted by the European Commission today, would allow Microsoft to set the terms and conditions for this market for the next 10 years," the CMA wrote on Twitter. "They would replace a free, open and competitive market with one subject to ongoing regulation of the games Microsoft sells, the platforms to which it sells them and the conditions of sale."

On the console side of the equation, the EU has determined that "Microsoft would have no incentive to refuse to distribute Activision's games to Sony." It noted that Sony is the world's biggest distributor of console games and that in the European Economic Area (EEA), there are four PlayStations for every Xbox sold. The EC suggests that would give Microsoft "strong incentives" to keep offering Activision games on PlayStation.

Even so, were Microsoft to pull Activision titles from Sony platforms, "this would not significantly harm competition in the consoles market," according to the EU. "Even if Call of Duty is largely played on console, it is less popular in the EEA than in other regions of the world, and is less popular in the EEA within its genre compared to other markets," the bloc said. "Therefore, even without being able to offer this specific game, Sony could leverage its size, extensive games catalog and market position to fend off any attempt to weaken its competitive position."

Much of the discourse related to the acquisition has centered on Call of Duty and how eager Sony was to stop Microsoft from making that series exclusive to its platforms (something Microsoft says doesn't make sense for it to do). Call of Duty games are said to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to Sony's bottom line every year, but cloud gaming has been the bigger sticking point for UK and EU regulators.

In December, the US Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal over concerns it "would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business." A hearing in that case is scheduled for August 2nd. Although Microsoft and Activision Blizzard face a tough battle to push the deal through in the UK and the US, the EU approval gives the companies some more momentum.

If you're looking to zhush up your workspace or gaming setup, or you simply need more screen real estate to help you get things done, you may want to consider picking up a Samsung Smart Monitor, as several models are currently on sale. Take, for instance, the 43-inch M70B. It's a 4K monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate that is currently available for $380. That's $120 off the regular price, and the lowest we've seen this monitor dip to since last year's holiday season.

The M70B can help you to get some work done without having to hook it up to a PC. You can use it to connect to a computer remotely, access the Microsoft 365 suite directly and link to a Samsung mobile device to use the Samsung DeX productivity experience. You can connect a SlimFit camera to use video calling apps such as Google Duo. The camera has a privacy cover and you can always disconnect it.

When you're done with work, you can kick back, relax and watch your favorite shows and movies via streaming apps. You'll be able to access free streaming channels through Samsung TV Plus and get personalized recommendations. You can stream games from the likes of Microsoft Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA GeForce Now and Amazon Luna as well, as it's possible to connect a wireless controller to your TV.

On top of all of that, you can use the M70B to control smart home devices. There's support for the Bixby and Amazon Alexa voice assistants, as well as AirPlay.

The sale includes deals on several other Samsung displays, including some Odyssey gaming monitors. The 32-inch Odyssey Neo G8 is a curved, 240Hz, 4K monitor with G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro support. It has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and latency as low as 1ms. The Neo G8 is available right now for $1,200, or 20 percent off the regular price of $1,500.

Elsewhere, you can snap up the Odyssey G51C for $270. That's 23 percent off the typical price of $350. This is a 27-inch, QHD display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 and a 1ms response time. There's FreeSync Premium support to minimize screen tearing as well.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

In little more than a year, Elden Ring has sold approximately 20.5 million copies. That’s according to an investor report spotted by a ResetEra forum user (via Eurogamer). “Repeat sales of existing titles such as Elden Ring were strong, especially overseas, [with] worldwide sales reaching 20.5 million,” Bandai Namco writes in the document. The publisher adds that it expects “a pullback” in repeat sales of the game. However, if Elden Ring can sell a few million more copies, it will land among the best-selling games of all time, a list that includes titles like God of War (2018) and Grand Theft Auto V.

The milestone comes a year after Elden Ring had the best-ever opening for a FromSoftware title. In just 18 days, Bandai Namco sold more than 12 million copies of the action RPG. Pretty good for a game that was expected to sell about 4 million copies in five days. The ongoing strong performance of Elden Ring bodes well for FromSoftware’s next game, Armored Core VI. When it arrives this August, the title will be the first entry in the Armored Core series in nearly a decade.

It’s no secret that the Nintendo Switch is showing its age, making it difficult to port games over from more powerful consoles. The latest hurdle for third-party publishers? Hogwarts Legacy developers just announced that the Nintendo Switch version of the open-world wizard simulator is getting another significant delay, all the way until November 14th.

This isn’t the first delay the port’s faced, as it was originally supposed to release in April after being pushed back to July 25th. At that time, all of the last-gen ports got hit with a delay, but the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions have since been released. The title originally launched for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC back in February.

Developers said the Switch delay is so it can provide the “best possible experience” for players. It’ll be interesting to see how the game performs when it eventually launches and what changes are made to accommodate the aging hardware. For those looking for a portable version of Hogwarts Legacy right now, instead of six months from now, the game is verified for the Steam Deck.

Despite some controversy,Hogwarts Legacy has become a bona-fide hit for Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games, selling over 15 million copies and generating over $1 billion in revenue.