Palworld, the viral “Pokémon with guns” game that launched in Early Access to mixed reviews, has already sold 19 million copies. Developer Pocketpair says it’s sold 12 million copies on Steam and seven million on Xbox since its January 19 launch (after selling over a million in its first eight hours). Microsoft says the tongue-in-cheek Pokémon satire is the biggest third-party launch on Game Pass.

“The response from fans has been tremendous and it’s incredible to see the millions of players around the world enjoying Palworld,” Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe told Xbox Wire. “This is just the beginning for us and Palworld, and the feedback we’re gathering while in Game Preview will allow us to continue to improve the experience for Pal Tamers across all platforms.”

In addition to being the biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever, Palworld had the largest third-party day-one launch on Xbox Cloud Gaming (included with Game Pass Ultimate). The game’s highest peak since launch was nearly three million daily active users on Xbox. Microsoft says it was the most-played game on Xbox platforms during that period.

Pocketpair

Palworld uses Pokémon-esque characters and themes — enough to catch the attention of Nintendo’s lawyers. It has battles with monsters similar to those in the creature-collecting series, including the ability to capture them inside a sphere after winning.

But Palworld also includes biting social commentary and incorporates themes you’d never see in Pokémon — like labor exploitation. “Don’t worry, there are no labor laws for Pals,” a game FAQ reads. One of the title’s trailers showed a player circling hard-at-work Pals with an assault rifle. “Creating a productive base like this is the secret to living a comfortable life in Palworld,” the narration reads.

Microsoft emphasized that the developer is still hard at work on the Early Access title. “There’s much more to come as Pocketpair refine the experience ahead of a full 1.0 release,” Xbox Wire’s Joe Skrebels wrote. He says Pocketpair is listening to player feedback and applying what they’ve learned. He added that cross-play, one of the most requested features, is coming.

Even if early impressions of the game’s fun and polish are hit-or-miss (at best), having Microsoft in its corner could help the developer tighten up Palworld significantly. The Windows maker says it’s supporting the game by enabling dedicated servers and offering engineering resources to help optimize GPU and memory workload. Palworld posted on X it will “continue to prioritize fixing bugs.”

Palworld is available in Early Access for $30 (and included in Game Pass) on Xbox and PC (including Steam).

Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro AR/VR headset will have a bunch of dedicated Microsoft 365 apps at launch on February 2, including Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Loop. Apple has long described the Vision Pro as primarily a productivity device, so the addition of Microsoft products should make users, well, more productive.

These aren’t just slapdash remakes of correlating iPads apps, as many have built-in tools that take advantage of the headset. For instance, PowerPoint features a custom immersive environment that allows users to practice delivering a presentation to an actual audience. Excel will let users quickly move documents to other apps by using the headset’s pinch and drag functionality.

Microsoft

Microsoft Word will include a focus mode that blocks distractions so you can actually finish that novel you’ve been talking about for 15 years. Teams will take advantage of the headset’s persona feature, so your digital avatar can attend work meetings and creep everyone else out via the magic of the uncanny valley. The Zoom app on Apple Vision Pro will also include this feature.

Headset owners will also be able to access Microsoft’s AI-powered Copilot service. In other words, you’ll be able to use natural conversation to instruct the digital assistant to create drafts, summarize documents and even generate PowerPoint presentations.

Each of these apps will be available via the official App Store as soon as you unbox your expensive new gadget. There has been plenty of chatter about what software won’t be available at launch, like Netflix and YouTube, so it’s good to see that early adopters won’t be forced to exclusively use Apple-branded apps.

The Xbox Design Lab is neat in that you can customize the colors of your controller pretty much however you like. Microsoft is offering players more customization options for their Xbox controller with the Vapor series. These six top case options have swirling color patterns that will provide your peripheral with your ideal look if you're aiming for that bowling ball aesthetic.

The variants include Nocturnal Vapor, which blends dark green and grey; the bold pink and purple Cyber Vapor; and the red and orange Fire Vapor. You'll still be able to customize the button colors and swap in metallic triggers and D-pads, and rubberized side and back grips. Players can add a personalized engraving to the case too.

Xbox

Those who don't feel like fiddling around in the Design Lab but still want a controller with this kind of vibe can pick up the latest Xbox special edition controller, the Dream Vapor. While it uses the pink and purple top case from the Vapor collection, Xbox has included unique, matching purple rubberized side grips and soft pink ABXY buttons with purple accents. Snap up the $70 controller and you'll also get an exclusive dynamic background for your Xbox Series X/S.

It's not exactly the first time Xbox has embraced this vibe. The Stormcloud Vapor controller has been around for a while. But the fact Microsoft is wading further into these swirly waters has us suspecting there's perhaps a really big Pete Weber fan on the Xbox team.

Sony has revealed the PlayStation Plus monthly games lineup for February, and it’s pretty solid. There’s no clear headliner here, but a trio of nifty games are about to hit the platform, including Foamstars, Rollerdrome and Steelrising. Also, a two-hour trial of the beloved superhero simulation Spider-Man 2 drops on February 6 for PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe members.

If we had to pick the biggest game of the bunch, it’d be Rollerdrome. The dystopian roller-skating sim is absolutely fantastic, with a neat 1970s aesthetic, comic-book style visuals and a timely message about corporate greed. It’s also really fun to play, which is why it made our list of the best games of 2022. It even made our list of the best PS5 games of 2023, and that was back when you actually had to pay for it outright.

We already knew Foamstars was hitting PS Plus this month, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. This is Square Enix’s attempt to capture some of the magic of Nintendo’s Splatoon franchise and it's actually a day-one release for the platform. Foamstars is a 4x4 online party shooter, just like Splatoon. Unlike Nintendo’s game, you use foam as a primary mechanic instead of paint.

We haven’t written about Steelrising, but it’s a pretty cool riff on the Soulslike genre, trading a fantasy setting for a steampunk vibe. It’s set in an alternate history version of Paris in which robots quelled the French Revolution. It doesn't get more steampunk than that, though I haven’t played long enough to see if Jules Verne somehow shows up via time travel. The combat is fun though.

Fall Guys is also getting an avatars pack as part of this drop, including costumes based on characters from the Ratchet & Clank franchise. All three of the aforementioned titles will be available to PS Plus members starting February 6 and until March 4. To that end, some titles are leaving the platform this month. You only have until February 5 to add A Plague Tale: Requiem, Evil West and Nobody Saves the World to your digital library.

Sony is set to host its first PlayStation showcase of 2024 and it's shaping up to be a big one. The State of Play stream will run for over 40 minutes and feature more than 15 games. The event starts at 5PM ET and you can watch it below.

We know for sure that we'll get extended looks at two games in particular: Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin. Shift Up's Stellar Blade is a Sony-published action-adventure game that's coming to PS5 at some point this year. Perhaps we'll get a release date during the showcase. Sony is also publishing Rise of the Ronin, an action RPG from Nioh developer Team Ninja that's coming to PS5 on March 22. (Sidenote: it sure seems like time for Ghost of Tsushima to make the leap to PC.)

Beyond that, there have been all kinds of rumors about what the State of Play will include. Along with chatter about Death Stranding 2, there have been murmurings that a remake of Until Dawn is coming to PS5 and PC (perhaps ahead of the planned movie adaptation). Given that it's only a month away, it's a safe bet that we'll get another peek at Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. We could also get more details on the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake, which is a PS5 console exclusive. In any case, we'll find out new information about a bunch of games that are coming to PS5 and PS VR2 this year and further down the line.

Online commerce platform eBay will pay $59 million to settle allegations from the Justice Department that it assisted in the sale of pill press machines, which are used to manufacture both legitimate and counterfeit prescription medications. The platform sold thousands of these presses, along with other products to create pills, such as molds, stamps, dies and encapsulating machines. For the uninitiated, encapsulating machines are used to fill capsules with medication.

Pill press machines are used by legitimate pharmaceutical companies to manufacture medication, but they are also a required tool for making counterfeit pills. Criminals use these machines to make fake medications that look like actual prescription pills, typically for sale on the street or via the dark web. When combined with molds, stamps and dies, these fake pills will look exactly like the real McCoy, down to the logos and letters on each side. Additionally, these presses can whip up thousands of pills per hour. 

The issue here is that companies that facilitate the sale of pill presses and related equipment are required to verify the buyers’ identities and send records along to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to ensure the machines can be traced if used illegally. It looks like eBay shirked its duties here, which is a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.

“Through its website, eBay made it easy for individuals across the country to obtain the type of dangerous machines that are often used to make counterfeit pills," US Attorney Nikolas Kerest told ABC News.

eBay’s failure to follow “basic reporting and record keeping requirements” allowed people to "set up pill factories in their homes and to do so without detection,” added US Attorney Henry Leventis.

Beyond the hefty payout, eBay has agreed to comply with regulations moving forward, so information regarding each pill press machine sold, along with accessories, will be sent to the DEA for perusal. Additionally, many of the people who bought the machines on eBay have been charged in illegal counterfeit pills trafficking cases, according to the DOJ.

This is a big deal, because these counterfeit pills are often filled with all kinds of junk, including fentanyl. The synthetic opioid is largely responsible for the deadliest overdose crisis in US history, with nearly 74,000 people dying from fentanyl overdoses in 2022 alone. This drug accounts for more than two-thirds of overdose deaths in the US. You won’t fall into a coma by touching it, no matter what cops say, but you should still stay far, far away from the stuff.

As for eBay, this isn’t the first time the company had to pony up money to the DOJ. It recently had to pay $3 million to settle a truly bizarre cyberstalking case involving the shipment of live animals. The DOJ is also suing eBay for allowing the sale of aftermarket “defeat devices,” which bypass vehicle emission controls.

Sega of America plans to lay off 61 employees in March, according to a California WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) report. Eurogamer and X user @WhatLayoff first reported on the government notice, which lists two separate job cuts classified as “layoff permanent” on March 8. It’s the latest chapter in a year-plus of brutal job cuts in the tech and gaming worlds.

California’s WARN Act, passed in 1988, requires employers to provide 60 days’ notice for upcoming layoffs — allowing the affected workers time to prepare. It applies to companies with at least 75 full-time or part-time workers and covers layoffs of 50 or more people within 30 days. It isn’t clear precisely how many workers Sega of America employs.

The WARN report lists separate layoffs (one of 12 and another of 49 workers) at two Irvine, CA-based Sega of America offices. The job cuts both have a “notice” date of January 8, and the reports were “processed” by California on January 29 with “effective” dates of March 8.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Sega in November after the publisher allegedly said it would lay off 80 unionized workers. At the time, the organization said Sega presented the proposal in a captive audience meeting, describing the circumstances as “a clear case of bad faith bargaining.”

The Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS-CWA), the union representing Sega workers in the US, wrote on X Tuesday that the company announced the latest plans “a few months ago,” suggesting the layoffs posted in the WARN notice are part of the same roadmap. The union said Sega plans to outsource quality assurance and some localization work “in a move that would significantly impact our workforce.”

Sega hasn’t publicly confirmed the layoffs. Engadget reached out to a company representative, and we’ll update this article if we hear back.

The layoffs come less than two months after Sega said it would refresh its classics Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage. Eurogamer notes the company’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which launched last week, has been a high mark for the publisher.

The CEOs of Meta, Snap, Discord, X and TikTok testified at a high-stakes Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on child exploitation online. During the hearing, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Jason Citron, Linda Yaccarino and Shou Chew spent hours being grilled by lawmakers about their records on child safety. 

The hearing was the first time Spiegel, Citron and Yaccarino testified to Congress. Notably, all three were subpoenaed by the committee after refusing to appear voluntarily, according to lawmakers. Judiciary Committee Chair Senator Dick Durbin noted that Citron “only accepted services of his subpoena after US Marshals were sent to Discord’s headquarters at taxpayers’ expense.”

The hearing room was filled with parents of children who had been victims of online exploitation on social media. Many members of the audience silently held up photos of their children as the CEOs entered the room, and Durbin kicked off the hearing with a somber video featuring victims of child exploitation and their parents.

“Discord has been used to groom, abduct and abuse children,” Durbin said. “Meta’s Instagram helped connect and promote a network of pedophiles. Snapchat’s disappearing messages have been co-opted by criminals who financially extort young victims. TikTok has become a quote platform of choice for predators to access, engage and groom children for abuse. And the prevalence of CSAM on X has grown as the company has gutted its trust and safety workforce.”

During the hearing, many of the senators shared personal stories of parents whose children had died by suicide after being exploited online. "Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us — I know you don't mean it to be so — but you have blood on your hands," Senator Lindsey Graham said in his opening remarks. The audience applauded. 

While years of similar hearings have so far failed to produce any new laws, there is growing bipartisan support in Congress for new safety regulations. As Tech Policy Press points out, there are currently more than half a dozen bills dealing with children's online safety that have been proposed by senators. These include the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require platforms to create more parental control and safety features and submit to independent audits, and COPPA 2.0, a revised version of the 1998 Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act, which would bar companies from collecting or monetizing children’s data without consent.

Senators have also proposed a number of bills to address child exploitation, including the EARN IT Act, currently in its third iteration since 2020, and the STOP CSAM Act. None of these have advanced to the Senate floor for a vote. Many of these bills have faced intense lobbying from the tech industry, though some companies in attendance said they are open to some aspects of the legislation.

Zuckerberg suggest a different approach, saying he supported age verification and parental control requirements at the app store level, which would effectively shift the burden to Apple and Google. Meta has come under particular pressure in recent months following a lawsuit from 41 states for harming teens’ mental health. Court documents from the suit allege that Meta turned a blind eye to children under 13 using its service, did little to stop adults from sexually harassing teens on Facebook and that Zuckerberg personally intervened to stop an effort to ban plastic surgery filters on Instagram.

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The Pew Research Center has published an updated survey of US adult social media usage. Although YouTube (especially) and Facebook retain their dominant status from the last poll in 2021, TikTok is the fastest-growing platform, with more than a third of adults now saying they use the app.

The survey polled 5,733 US adults between May 19 and September 5, 2023. YouTube was far and away the most used platform, with 83 percent of respondents reporting using it at some point. Meanwhile, 68 percent of users reported using Facebook.

Those two are the only platforms with a majority of people using them through each age demographic. However, gaps based on age groups still exist — especially among YouTube’s users. For example, 93 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds report using Google’s video platform, while 60 percent of those 65 and older say the same. (Facebook only has a nine percent difference between the same two demographics.)

Instagram came in third place overall, as 47 percent of respondents said they use it. Pinterest (35 percent), TikTok (33 percent), LinkedIn (30 percent), WhatsApp (29 percent) and Snapchat (27 percent) all fall into the next tier down. TikTok’s growth stands out the most: The ByteDance-owned platform shot up 12 points from 21 percent from two years before. That’s by far the biggest leap of any platform on the list.

Richard Bord via Getty Images

The next tier down includes Reddit and X, each sitting at 22 percent. Complicating matters, Elon Musk’s company changed its name from Twitter to X (and brought in a new CEO) while the surveys were in the field. The company’s reported users dropped slightly in two years, from 23 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, Reddit rose four points from 18 percent two years before — despite the platform’s API controversy happening while the surveys were out.

Other platforms with significant age-group discrepancies include Instagram (78 percent of 29-and-under survey participants use it, compared to 15 percent of 65 and older) and Snapchat (65 percent use it for those under 30, four percent for 65 and up). The 40- to 49-year-old demographic, which includes younger Gen-Xers and all but the youngest Millennials, has especially high rates for LinkedIn (40 percent), WhatsApp (38 percent) and Facebook (75 percent).

In other demographic-based notables, Pew reports TikTok is especially popular among Hispanic users, with 49 percent reporting use (and women reported using it at a 15 percent higher rate than men). X is more popular with adults with annual household incomes of at least $100,000 — a nine-point swing compared to the $70,000 to $99,999 tier. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, given its career-oriented focus, LinkedIn has a higher rate of respondents with at least a bachelor’s degree (25 points higher than those with “some college education” and 43 percent higher than those with a high school diploma or less).

There are a few go-to names when it comes to robot vacuums and Shark is right up there. The company makes some of the best robot vacuums on the market, and several models are currently on sale. The Shark AI robot vacuum with a self-emptying base is currently available for $350. That's $300 off the regular price, albeit $50 more than the record low. That said, it was only available for $300 for a short time during the holiday season. You'd be hard pressed to find a better deal on the device at the minute.

This model will run for up to 120 minutes before it needs to recharge, and it will return to its dock to top up the battery when need be. It uses LiDAR to map your home and a matrix grid approach to cleaning the floors, making multiple passes over dirt. The vacuum has a HEPA filtration system to help it capture pet hair, dust and allergens. You can set a cleaning schedule or ask the vacuum to spot clean using your voice thanks to Alexa and Google Assistant support. Best of all, the self-emptying base holds up to 60 days of debris and dirt, so you won't have to pay too much attention to the machine.

Elsewhere, you can score a notable discount on Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 robot vacuum and mop. That device has dropped to $430, which is $130 off the regular price, but $70 more than the record low we saw during the holiday shopping period. AS the name suggests, this adds a mop on top of vacuum functions. The mopping function can tackle stubborn stains by scrubbing hard floors 100 times per minute. A Matrix Mop feature can improve stain cleaning in targeted zones by 50 percent, Shark claims.

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