It's safe to say that not everything is going swimmingly over at Netflix, given that it just laid off another 300 employees. However, the company's games division is putting together a strong library of titles. Among those are exclusive mobile ports of several beloved indies like Spiritfarer, and Netflix just snagged another one with Into The Breach.

Netflix subscribers will have exclusive access to Into The Breach on iOS and Android starting on July 19th. It's the exact same turn-based strategy title that's available on PC, Switch and Stadia, albeit with a touch interface that has been revamped for smaller screens.

Into The Breach was one of Engadget's favorite games of 2018. You control three mechs and the main aim is to protect structures from monsters known as the Vek. Each map has its own objective and you have a fixed number of turns to complete it. The key twist is that, when it's your turn, you'll see exactly what the monsters will do on their next move, which makes Into The Breach a puzzle game. Since it's a roguelike and the scenarios are procedurally generated, no two runs are the same.

When Into The Breach lands on iOS and Android next month, Subset Games will release a major update for all platforms. The studio says the free Advanced Edition Update will expand almost all elements of the game. It will add more mechs, weapons, enemies, challenges, pilots and abilities. Support for seven more languages will be added — Arabic, Thai, Swedish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Spanish (Latin American) — taking the total to 17. A physical edition will be released for Nintendo Switch later this year too.

Netflix's gaming push started small but has ramped up significantly over the last year. Among the well-regarded indies it counts as mobile exclusives are Exploding Kittens, Kentucky Route Zero and Before Your Eyes. Immortality, the latest FMV game from Her Story and Telling Lies creator Sam Barlow, is coming to Netflix Games, as is Desta: The Memories Between from Monument Valley studio Ustwo.

Netflix has a slate of original games as well. Those include some based on its own properties — such as Stranger Things, The Queen's Gambit and Money Heist — as well as the likes of the fantastic Poinpy from Downwell creator Ojiro Fumoto. Netflix aims to have 50 games available for subscribers by the end of the year.

The much-delayed remaster of the classic Blade Runner adventure game is finally here. As Polygonreports, Nightdive Studios has released Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition for Windows PCs (via Steam) as well as PlayStation, Switch and Xbox consoles. The modernized version runs at 60 frames per second instead of the original's 15FPS, complete with updated animations and models. Improved in-game tools help you work with clues as you track down hostile replicants, and gamepad support is available on all platforms.

Westwood's 1997 game pushed the boundaries of both gameplay and graphics at the time. Instead of the usual fixed plot, Blade Runner changed the replicant with each playthrough while offering branching storylines, different outcomes and characters that operate on their own timetables. You couldn't just cut to the chase and 'retire' the android at the start. And instead of relying on either 2D art or crude 3D, the title used voxels (pixels with 3D attributes) that allowed far more visual detail for the era, including volumetric lighting that mimicked the Ridley Scott movie's gritty atmosphere.

You'll still notice the limitations from 25 years ago. This won't control as elegantly as present-day games, and Westwood's budget limited it to only some voices from the movie cast (including Sean Young and James Hong) and recreated music from Vangelis' score. Even so, this remains the closest you'll get to filling Deckard's shoes in a game while preserving the 1982 film's atmosphere.

If you visited arcades in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, you surely remember the golden age of beat-em-up games. Cabinets like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, X-Men and more followed a fairly simple formula: take a popular franchise and have its characters cut through swaths of bad guys, throw in some environmental challenges to keep the levels from getting too repetitive, and top it off with a big boss battle at the end. But the real draw was multiplayer — these games let four or even six friends (or strangers) play simultaneously, a totally chaotic but thrilling shared experience.

Given the popularity of the TMNT franchise, it’s no surprise that both the original arcade game and its sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time were both ported to the NES and SNES, respectively. As a pre-teen, my best friend and I spent untold hours playing these ports, as well as the arcade games on the too-rare occasions that we could get to the mall.

I clearly have a lot of nostalgia for these games, and I’m not alone. Last year, developer Tribute Games announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, a brand-new beat-em-up title inspired by the arcade games of yesteryear. The game features retro pixel-art, two different game modes, online and local multiplayer (up to six players online), and seven playable characters, including the four turtles, Master Splinter, April O’Neil and Casey Jones. On the surface, it seems to have everything you could ask for in a modern version of an arcade classic, and Tribute’s comments prior to the game’s release showed a deep love for the source material.

After a week playing Shredder’s Revenge on the Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, I can confirm that Tribute absolutely nailed its mission of bringing the classic TMNT experience into the modern era. It all starts with the art style and music, both of which are spot-on for this franchise; it feels like a natural evolution of the original two arcade games, both of which were largely based on the 1987 cartoon (rather than the comic books, live-action films, or more recent animated shows). The music immediately sets the tone – the score by Tee Lopes immediately brings to mind classic 16-bit tunes, Mike Patton performs the opening theme, and Raekwon and Ghostface Killah contribute as well. While the music isn’t quite as compelling as the soundtrack from Turtles in Time (which is an absolute banger), it evokes the essential mood of playing in an arcade with your friends in the early ‘90s.

The gameplay essentials from earlier games are all intact here — each playable character has different strengths and weaknesses like range and speed, but they’re not so different that you’ll feel thrown by switching players. The core gameplay is still mostly accomplished with two buttons: attack and jump.

Tribute

But, there are a lot more moves than in earlier games, including a variety of throws, slides, aerial attacks and dodges. Dashing lets you pull off different slide and charge attacks, you can grab enemies and throw them right towards the TV screen (just like you do in Turtles in Time), there’s a dodge button that lets you dance out of trouble and there are a host of different aerial moves. And unlike older games, Shredder’s Revenge has unique animations for every move each character in the game can pull off. Even though gameplay between each character isn’t radically different, the distinct visuals for all four turtles and their friends keeps things looking fresh.

As with any good beat-‘em-up, each character has their own special move, too. Unlike in old arcade games, where using a special would usually take a chunk out of your health, these moves are tied to a power bar that fills up as you string together longer and longer hit combos. When it’s full, you can unleash a special move or save it for later use. It’s a good way to make it so players can’t just use special attacks constantly and adds a bit of strategy to the otherwise chaotic melee.

Another way Tribute makes Shredder’s Revenge feel more modern is the game’s story mode. You’ll be able to level up your character over time, which unlocks more health, extra lives and new special attacks. You’ll also eventually get the ability to stack multiple special moves — when you fill up your bar and bank one move, you can keep filling it up and hold two and eventually three in reserve — or you can blow all three at once in a frenzied super-attack. Story mode also lets you re-enter levels to find hidden items or meet the achievement goals for each stage (things like take out 10 enemies with a special attack, or make it through without taking damage). And you can switch your character between levels, rather than stay locked to one turtle for the entire game.

Arcade mode, on the other hand, is for old-school fans who want a tougher challenge. The game is simple: pick a character, and fight through all of the game’s dozen-plus levels before you run out of lives and continues. You get the advantage of having your health bar extended to its max capacity and all your special moves are unlocked — but given the number of stages in this game, it won’t be easy, especially on the intense “gnarly” difficulty level.

Tribute

This all makes for a fun single-player experience, but — just like the arcade games from the ‘90s — Shredder’s Revenge really shines in multiplayer mode. You can have up to four player on local co-op, or an insane six-players online. It’s a glorious amount of chaos, but it’s managed surprisingly well. The game scales up in difficulty depending on how many people you’re playing with; that usually just amounts to more enemies and bosses that can take more damage.

Unfortunately, cross-play isn’t supported for now — Xbox and PC players can team up, but PlayStation and Switch players will need to play the same version as their friends if they want to work together. The good news is that it’s also not hard to get a game going with strangers. It’s not quite as much fun as playing with people you know, but the game definitely feels more alive when you have at least a pair taking on Shredder and the Foot clan.

This all adds up to a game that’s a lot more fun to play than even I expected. Nostalgia goes a long way, but Shredder’s Revenge manages to work as a love letter to games of the past while still feeling fresh. There’s just something incredibly satisfying about teaming up with a few friends and mowing down a never-ending swarm of enemies; that was true in the ‘90s, and it’s still true today.

Of course, it helps if you have some affection for the TMNT franchise, but even if you don’t, the tight gameplay, addictive soundtrack and great co-op features should be enough to enjoy Shredder’s Revenge. And if you grew up playing the arcade games or their home console counterparts, this new adventure is a must-play. That’s especially true if you have friends to play it with, either IRL or online.

The following article discusses spoilers for The Elysian Kingdom.

There’s a genre of writing best embodied by the serial escalation of premises found on forum threads in certain corners of the internet. It’s the sort of energy that imbues this week’s Strange New Worlds as it takes a one-episode detour into a fantasy parody. Not content with dropping the crew into a swords-and-sorcery romp, they’re all tasked with playing against type! Oh, and the only people who can save them is an awkward buddy-cop duo of the noble Doctor and the grouchy engineer! Shut this off five minutes or so before the ending and this could easily be the second best episode of the show’s first season.

The Elysian Kingdom is both the episode’s title, and the subject of the book Dr. M’Benga has been reading to his terminally ill daughter Rukiya throughout the series. She’s annoyed by the ending, which requires the noble king to choose what thing he’s willing to give up at the conclusion of the story. M’Benga tells her, when he’s cured her, she can rewrite the story any which way she chooses. And before you can say gee, that foreshadowing was a bit on the nose, the Enterprise gets caught up in the nebula it’s been studying, unable to move.

By the time the doctor gets to the bridge, the ship has been covered in tapestries and ye olde tiki torches. Everyone bar him (and, as it turns out, Hemmer), has been mind-wiped into becoming characters from the book. Pike is a cowardly courtier, La’an is a comedy Disney princess, Uhura is the big villain and Spock is an evil wizard with a Fabio wig and two-day stubble that reminds us all Ethan Peck is, in fact, hot under that goofy Vulcan haircut.

Marni Grossman / Paramount+

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Star Trek lean into its often-denied campy side and, as I’ve said before, it’s a groove Strange New Worlds works well in. The fact the series feels confident enough to do this just eight episodes into its first run speaks volumes about how the creative team are doing. (You just know there’s a whiteboard in the writers’ room with Musical Episode(?) written up top, and I’m here for it.) If there’s a downside, it’s that the ensemble is big enough that some actors get short-changed in their moments to play out of character. Of course, none of this would work without Babs Olusanmokun’s central performance to hold the story together, aware of the ridiculousness of the situation but remaining true to M’Benga’s inner turmoil.

Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about Strange New Worlds if there wasn’t also a small list of annoyances. The tone reminds me a lot of Futurama’s glorious M*A*S*H parody with iHawk, the robot with a Maudlin / Irreverent switch on his side. This episode wants the switch to be jammed at both ends, mixing high camp with a meditation on, uh, something.

We must now talk about the ending, (again, spoiler warning) which is such a weird left turn that it makes my scalp feel itchy just thinking about it. The denouement of the episode sees the sentient nebula offer to take Rukiya off the ship and cure her illness, allowing her to live a life of fantasy in the stars. She appears, moments later, as an adult, telling her father about her life and reassuring him he made the right decision to let her go. Suitably resolved, he’s back at work minutes later.

Marni Grossman / Paramount+

Sorry, it doesn’t sit right. I can understand the notion of giving up your kid to save their life, and parents have thrown kids from burning buildings on that basis. But the idea he’d make that decision in about half a minute’s conversation with a sentient space cloud with unclear motives? M’Benga has spent the whole season so far working to find a cure for Rukiya, and was even given a promising lead just two weeks back. This storyline has been seeded through enough of the series that this feels like it’s the creative team course-correcting.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say the abruptness of this is the resolution of a production problem. My guess is that nobody realized just how quickly children age, making it difficult for Sage Arrindell to play a child trapped in temporal stasis. It’s the reason Malcolm David Kelly left Lost at the end of its first season: You can’t pretend everyone has spent just 40 days on the island if the kid visibly ages a year since they shot the pilot. (I assume, too, the episode was shot on the standing Enterprise sets as a way of saving cash for the finale unless those gorgeous period costumes rinsed through the show’s substantial budget.)

Alternatively, the writers planned this out and it was always meant to be something that resolved itself within the first season. In that case, I’m forced to wonder who in the world thought that a father just handing over his kid in such an arbitrary fashion was a smart emotional beat. Unless it’s one of those situations where more emphasis was placed on the surprise of it, rather than the logic, narratively or emotionally. To me, it feels a bit like yet another Strange New Worlds episode where, much as I want to offer praise, there’s always something that leaves me a bit cold.

Spotify has expanded its old Concert Hub and added more features to make it easier to find information and tickets for live events in your location. The streaming service sources listings for the hub, now called Live Events Feed, from its ticketing partners that include Ticketmaster, AXS, DICE, Eventbrite and See Tickets, among other companies. During the height of COVID-19 lockdowns, the Concert Hub helped users find at-home or studio performances, podcast recordings and other online performances. Turns out Spotify was studying user behavior at the same time. 

Sam Sheridan, Product Manager for Live Events Discovery, said Spotify spent the past two years studying the music industry and its users. One of the most important behaviors the company noticed was that fans would engage with artists on the platform and then leave to search for concert listings or to follow them on social media to be able to stay on top of any upcoming tour dates. "We think the Live Events Feed is an opportunity to help close this loop," Sheridan said. 

If you don't see the Live Events Feed in your app, simply search for "live events." You'll see a listing of all the performances in your area, and clicking on any of them would lead you to an interface that includes a link where you can find and buy tickets. If the artist you're listening to has an upcoming tour date, Spotify will show you that event in-app while you're listening. Spotify has also built a new messaging tool that can notify you about upcoming concerts based on your listening habits. Don't worry — you can tweak your notification preferences so you don't have to get messages if you don't want to. 

Sheridan says Spotify will work "to even further integrate event discovery directly into the app" to make it more intertwined with the listening experience, so we'll likely see more updates to Live Events in the future. 

Creative Assembly is best known for deliberately-paced games like Alien: Isolation and the Total War series, but it's about jump headlong into the multiplayer action realm. The developer is partnering with Sega to introduceHyenas, a team-based shooter coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PCs in 2023. The title takes its cue from tech headlines, but also doesn't take itself (or its gameplay mechanics) too seriously.

You join three-person teams to raid spaceship shopping malls for the coveted merch left behind by Mars billionaires. You'll have to compete against four other loot-seeking teams while simultaneously dealing with security systems, hired goons and zero-gravity. You can not only flip gravity on and off, but use bridge-making goo and other special abilities to claim the upper hand. And yes, it's pretty silly — you can expect appearances from Richard Nixon masks, Sonic the Hedgehog merch and Pez dispensers.

The creators are currently accepting sign-ups for a closed alpha test on PCs. They've also made clear there will be no "pay to win" systems. While that suggests you might have the option of buying cosmetic items, your success should depend solely on talent. It's just a question of whether Hyenas will be good enough to pry gamers away from multiplayer shooter mainstays like the Call of Duty series or Fortnite.

Your favorite podcast might soon have an official, easy-to-find forum. Meta has teamed up with podcast giant Acast to offer exclusive Facebook Groups for podcasts using Acast+ paid subscriptions. Link your membership to your Facebook account and you'll have a ready-made place to discuss the latest episode with fellow fans — you won't have to hunt for a message board or use social network hashtags. You'll also get exclusives like livestreams and Q&A sessions with show hosts.

The two companies didn't say when subscriber groups would be available. Several podcasts are involved in a testing period, including the beauty show Fat Mascara. The price you'll pay will likely vary, but podcasters can enable Acast+ for free. 

Meta has struggled to compete in the podcasting realm, and began shutting down services in early June. The deal keeps the company involved in the category, however. The social media company can benefit from the rise of paid podcasts (through increased use of its services) without having to pour resources into creating or distributing content. This is the first time a podcast company is using Facebook's new platform for Interoperable Subscriber Groups, but it might not be the last if Acast's partnership proves successful.

Twitter has finally shown off its long-rumored feature for long form writing. The company confirmed that it’s beginning to test a new “Notes” feature, which will allow writers to publish freeform content on Twitter without a character limit.

Notes are essentially blog posts that appear within Twitter without the typical limitations of a tweet. There are no character limits, and writers can embed photos, videos and other tweets within a Note. Writers can also share their Notes via tweets, and their published Notes will appear on their Twitter profiles.

Notes could significantly change how writers interact with their followers, and give them more flexibility than the typical tweetstorm. In a Note announcing the launch, Twitter’s editorial director Rembert Browne wrote that Notes are meant to give writers an alternative to the lengthy threads without having to publish writing elsewhere and share it back to Twitter. “Since the company's earliest days, writers have depended on Twitter to share their work, get noticed, be read, create conversation — everything but the actual writing,” Browne wrote. “With Notes, the goal is to fill in that missing piece and help writers find whatever type of success they desire.”

For now, the feature is available to a “small group of writers” from Canada, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and the United States, though the company says it will eventually expand the test group as it gathers feedback. Notes is part of a broader push by Twitter to build features for writers. The company also renamed Revue, the newsletter company it acquired last year, to Twitter Write. So far, it’s unclear how Revue newsletters may be incorporated into Notes.

Twitter has teamed up with Shopify to give merchants in the US an easy way to use the social network to grow their business. Merchants can now add a Twitter sales channel app to their Shopify admin dashboard to access a manager where they can see the social network's shopping tools and features. That sales channel automatically and regularly syncs with Shopify merchants' catalogs, so users won't have to worry about updating product information on multiple platforms. 

That will make it easier for merchants to showcase their products through Twitter's Shop Spotlight, which is a dedicated space at the top of a profile that can display up to five items. Visitors to a merchant's account will be able to scroll through those carousel of products to purchase them without having to leave Twitter. Merchants can also choose to highlight a bigger collection of goods through Twitter's in-app shops, which can list up to 50 handpicked items. Both features used to be on beta testing, but they're now available to all merchants in the US. Those who want to see what the Shopify integration looks like on Twitter may want to check out Trixie Cosmetics, which is one of the first users to take advantage of Twitter sales channel app on Shopify. 

Amir Kabbara, Director of Product at Shopify, said:

"Reaching potential customers where they are is critical to the success of Shopify merchants. Twitter is where conversations happen, and the connection between conversations and commerce is vital. Our partnership with Twitter, and the launch of the Twitter sales channel, will let merchants seamlessly bring commerce to the conversations they’re already having on the platform.” – Amir Kabbara, Director of Product at Shopify."

In addition to its team-up with Twitter, Shopify has announced other new features and products at its first semi-annual showcase called Editions. One of its upcoming offerings is the ability to accept customer payments right from an iPhone using Shopify's Point of Sale. The company has built PoS hardware merchants can attach to their iPhone, and merchants in the US will even have access to the new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature. 

Creators on Instagram and Facebook will have another year to make money from the apps without Meta taking a cut from their earnings. Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that Meta will "hold off on any revenue sharing" until 2024, a one-year extension of his prior pledge to not charge a commission until 2023.

The move will cover monetization features where creators directly charge their fans: paid online events, subscriptions, newsletters and badges sold during livestreams. It doesn’t apply to Meta’s advertising-related revenue sharing features for Reels or other video products.

Zuckerberg also announced several other monetization updates for creators on the platform. The company is expanding Stars, the company’s in-app tipping feature, to more creators, and will open up its bonus program for Reels to more users as well. Meta is also expanding its support for NFTs on Instagram, which it began testing on Instagram profiles last month. Now, the feature will be available to more people, though Meta declined to specify exactly how many will now have access. The company also plans to integrate NFTs into Facebook and Instagram Stories “soon.”

The updates build on Meta’s massive investment into creator-centric features. Meta has made competing with TikTok one of its top priorities, and getting more creators on its platform is central to that effort. Creators could also help the company make big bucks on the metaverse, where Meta will get as much as 48 percent of creators’ earnings.