Everyone’s favorite Chrono Trigger-esque RPG, Sea of Stars, is getting a three-player couch co-op mode. Publisher Sabotage Studios dropped a trailer for the upcoming feature, which has been dubbed Single Player+.

As you can see, there’s independent traversal for each party member, so long as everyone stays within the same general vicinity. It doesn’t look like one party member will be able to dip out to snag a power up from another map. The trailer doesn’t show combat, but the publisher promises that each player will control their avatar during battles and teased something called “co-op timed hits.” This is likely a two and three-person version of the pre-existing timed hits system, which draws from games like Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario.

The new mode is currently in development and the publisher hasn’t announced availability information, nor has it said if this will be a free update or paid DLC. It’s a safe assumption, however, that couch co-op will show up on every available platform, including the Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and Steam.

Sabotage Studios also shared a significant milestone today. Sea of Stars has racked up an astounding five million players since launch. This was likely helped by strong reviews, incredible word of mouth and, of course, snagging best indie game at The Game Awards.

I’m one of those five million and, let me tell you, the hype is real. The Chrono Trigger vibes are heavy, with gorgeous pixelated graphics and an overworld map that seems plucked straight from the beloved 1995 JRPG. I went into this game highly skeptical, thinking I had grown out of turn-based RPGs. Sea of Stars proved me wrong. It’s just so dang charming. It also happens to be a great way to bond with children, which this couch co-op mode should further reinforce.

There aren't enough films that put movie stars in mechs and task them with saving the world. But that's just what Netflix flick Atlas is doing with Jennifer Lopez.

She plays Atlas Shepherd, "a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence," who joins a team that's aiming to secure a renegade robot. As it happens, Atlas and said machine share "a mysterious past," according to Netflix. Inevitably, things don't go as planned. Atlas finds herself stuck on a distant planet (a long way from any block), inside a robot she has to trust to help her protect life back home.

The first trailer doesn't shed much more light on the plot, but it does have plenty of explosive visuals. Titanfall springs to mind here, especially since it shows a mech dropping from the sky to the surface. Sadly, it's probably the closest we'll ever get to a proper Titanfall film.

Atlas also stars Simu Liu and Sterling K. Brown. The film is directed by Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Rampage). It'll hit Netflix on May 24. In the meantime, Team Engadget couldn't help but come up with some alternative titles:

• Mech In Manhattan

• Jenny from the Bot

• This is Mech... now

Spotify is officially expanding its offerings beyond just audio with the introduction of music videos. The streamer is rolling out a beta program that offers premium subscribers access to music videos on mobile, desktop and TV for a select number of tracks by artists like Ed Sheeran and Ice Spice. 

In an email seen by TechCrunch, Sten Garmark, Spotify vice president and global head of consumer experience said: "We're starting with a limited subset of the full catalog, which includes thousands of music videos. Within this subset, we aimed to prioritize a wide range of genres and artists across our launch markets." YouTube (of course) and Apple Music both already offer music videos, so this new feature helps Spotify match up to some of its biggest competitors. 

To watch a music video, Spotify users listening to a song can click "switch to video" right on the now-playing screen. The music video will always start the song back from the beginning, but users can touch switch back to audio at any point. Even if the music video plays through, Spotify will still queue the next song as audio only.

Currently, the beta option is only available in 11 countries, chosen for a "number of criteria including market size and the availability of local content support," Garmark said. While the US didn't make the cut, the countries included represent quite a global audience: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Sweden and the UK. Users from these nations must also have a premium account to watch music videos.

Rumors that Spotify might add music videos started last July following a number of layoffs (and more have come since). This announcement is the first time Spotify has announced the existence of music videos on its platform. However, a Reddit user posted three months back that they had the "switch to video" option on a single song: My Way, by Limp Bizkit.

Neil Young is back on Spotify after boycotting the platform over two years ago, he said in a new blog post. The Canadian singer ditched the platform over vaccine misinformation on the Joe Rogan podcast, later saying he was fed up with Spotify’s "shitty" sound quality anyway. 

Young returned because Rogan's podcast is no longer exclusive on Spotify. "My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify," he said, without specifically mentioning the Joe Rogan Experience.

There's no way he could also pull his catalog from Apple Music and Amazon as well, he added, "because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all" if he did. Young also expressed hope that Spotify would improve its sound quality, while shouting out Quobuz and Tidal for presenting his songs in high-res. 

"Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and listeners!!!! Start with a limited Hi res tier and build from there!" he wrote. (Spotify did announce that it would launch a HiFi tier way back in early 2021, but it has yet to actually do so.) 

Fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell joined Young in the boycott, and her music is still missing from the platform. Both had reason to be incensed about the vaccine misinformation on Rogan's show as both were victims of polio — a disease that was wiped out in North America thanks to vaccines.

It's hard to say how Young's boycott affected Spotify, but it certainly impacted his finances. Last year, Billboard estimated that pulling his songs from Spotify cost him roughly $300,000 in lost recorded music and publishing royalties.

It's been a busy several few months for fighting game fans between the likes of Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 arriving. Another game is entering (or more accurately re-entering) the fray as Warner Bros' platform fighter MultiVersus will return on May 28. It will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and the Epic Games Store.

MutliVersus is Warner Bros' take on the Super Smash Bros. series. The aim is to weaken enemies enough to knock them off of a platform. Instead of controlling the likes of Mario, Link, Pikachu and Sephiroth, the roster is made up of characters from across WB properties, including DC Comics, its movies (hence the inclusion of LeBron James from Space Jam: A New Legacy) and even HBO. It's an enjoyable two vs. two take on the format.

The free-to-play game debuted in open beta in July 2022 and it was an instant hit. It brought in 20 million players in its first month. However, the player count dwindled quickly (at least on PC) amid complaints of a lack of updates and new characters. Developer Player First Games said last March that it would take the servers offline in June so it could work on the game ahead of its full release this year. One aspect of this that angered some fans was the fact many spent money on the game to unlock characters and cosmetics, only for it to go offline for what turned out to be another 10 months.

Along with the full release date, game director Tony Hyunh announced some of the updates to MultiVersus. There will, of course, be new characters. Hyunh didn't reveal any of the fresh faces, but I have my fingers crossed for a couple of names from Succession and The Last of Us showing up, just because. You can also expect more stages and fresh attacks for each character. We'll learn more details in the lead up to the release date.

Player First Games rebuilt the game from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5 to improve character lighting and the visuals. Hyunh says the team incorporated new rollback netcode to minimize lag for online play and to ensure consistent performance. There will also be a player versus environment mode that will allow you to play the game without having to square off against other players.

MultiVersus is returning just after Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to focus more on live-service, mobile and free-to-play games with a long-tail rather than single-player experiences. That's despite the disappointing performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (a live-service title) and colossal commercial success of Hogwarts Legacy, which sold 22 million copies last year.

Apple has reversed its decision to ban Epic Games’ developer account after it emerged that European Union officials were investigating the issue. And the EU is currently fining Apple for almost two billion dollars, so it's probably wise to pay attention.

This means Epic can bring its own app store to iPhones and iPads in the EU. “Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA [Digital Markets Act] policies,” an Apple spokesperson told Engadget.

Earlier last week, Apple killed Epic’s developer account, claiming Epic was unlikely to abide by contractual agreements and even describing Epic as “verifiably untrustworthy.” Now, nearly four years after its disappearance, the publisher can more easily bring Fortnite back to those devices in the bloc.

Yes, Fortnite was last (officially) on iOS four years ago.

— Mat Smith

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Another Super Mario Bros. movie is coming in 2026

And the first is coming back to theaters this summer.

Nintendo and Illumination are releasing a second animated film for the Super Mario franchise, and it’s expected to come out April 3, 2026. The news comes from series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, who tweeted it from the Nintendo of America X account on Sunday as part of the ongoing Mario Day shopping push celebrations. Based on his description, it doesn’t seem like it will be a direct sequel to the first, though. To kill time until 2026, you can play some Mario game remakes and make Mario Kart Lego sets.

Continue reading.

Oppenheimer ruled at the 2024 Oscars 

Apple and Netflix were nearly shut out.

Despite combining for 32 nominations, Netflix and Apple TV+ were nearly shut out of the 2024 Oscars, with Netflix winning just a single award for Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Best Live Action Short Film). Netflix scored six prizes last year. The big surprise was Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV+) not gaining a single award. Oppenheimer claimed prizes for Best Picture, Best Director, editing, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Original Score and Cinematography. 

Continue reading.

Marilyn Monroe gets digitally resurrected as AI

Thanks to a company that owns the rights to her likeness.

ABG

At SXSW on Friday, Soul Machines unveiled Digital Marilyn, an AI chatbot designed to look and talk just like Marilyn Monroe. It was made in a partnership with Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Monroe’s likeness and those of numerous other dead and living celebrities, including Elvis Presley and Shaq.

Soul Machines introduced its Marilyn Monroe AI to the public in an International Women’s Day Instagram post. Notably, all of the other AI celebrities the company currently offers chats with are men who are alive, and who can weigh in on their inclusion.

Continue reading.

Despite combining for 32 nominations, Netflix and Apple TV+ were nearly shut out of of the 2024 Oscars, with Netflix winning a single award for Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Best Live Action Short Film). The big surprise was Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV+) not gaining a single statue, notably Lily Gladstone losing the Best Actress prize to Poor Things' Emma Stone. 

Universal was the big winner with Oppenheimer (Best Picture, Best Director, editing, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, original score, cinematography) while Poor Things (Disney's Searchlight Pictures) garnered four prizes. The other half of "Barbenheimer," (Barbie, ofc) took just a single prize for best song with What Was I Made For (and not I'm Just Ken, sung live at the ceremony by supporting actor nominee Ryan Gosling). 

The gala was a letdown for Netflix, which scored six prizes last year. Netflix has won 23 Oscars since 2017, but has yet to win in the Best Picture or Best Actor/Actress categories. That's despite four nominations this year for Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan (Maestro), Colman Domingo for Rustin and Annette Bening for Nyad. 

Lily Gladstone was perhaps slightly favored over Stone to win for Killers of the Flower Moon and she also would have been the first Indigenous American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor or Actress. The studio was also up for Best Supporting Actor with nominee Robert De Niro and Best Director for Scorsese. Apart from Gladstone's loss, though, awards were distributed largely as anticipated. 

This year, it couldn't be said that judges were swayed by a lack of theatrical presence from streamers. Killers of the Flower Moon had a fairly wide release in cinemas, while Maestro stayed in theaters for a month prior to its Netflix release. Both chalked up decent box office numbers. 

The ceremony itself appears to have been decent, with Deadline proclaiming that producers "finally made an Academy Awards ceremony for the 21st century" and The Hollywood Reporter calling it "busy and eclectic." USA Today did describe it as "boring," but every Oscars for the past 20 years has gotten the same knock.

Riding the success of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo and Illumination are releasing a second animated film in the franchise that’s expected to come out April 3, 2026. The news comes from series creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself, who tweeted it from the Nintendo of America X account on Sunday as part of the ongoing Mario Day celebrations. Details are so far scant, but Miyamoto says the team is “thinking about broadening Mario's world further, and it'll have a bright and fun story.”

Based on his description, it doesn’t seem like it will be a direct sequel to the first, though that remains to be seen. In an announcement video also featuring Miyamoto, Chris Meledandri from Illumination said the team is already “storyboarding scenes and developing set designs for new environments.” Animations are due to begin soon. The next movie set in the Super Mario Bros. world will be released in the US and other areas on April 3, 2026 before coming to other regions later that month.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie absolutely crushed at the box office when it was released last April, becoming the highest-grossing video game movie at opening. It hit $1.3 billion worldwide by the beginning of June, Variety reported. If you didn’t get a chance to catch it in theaters then — or you’re just dying to see it on the big screen again — AMC Theaters is bringing The Super Mario Bros. Movie back to theaters this year on June 28, as spotted by GoNintendo.

As is always the case between seasons, Epic Games took Fortnite offline early on Friday to perform some maintenance and get the game ready for all the new stuff fans are about to enjoy. While the downtime typically lasts a few hours, Epic has encountered a problem that's forcing it to delay the start of Chapter 5 Season 2.

"Hey everyone, we encountered an unexpected issue during our maintenance and we need to extend downtime at least 8 additional hours," a post on the Fortnite Status X account reads. "We apologize for making everyone wait longer than usual to drop into Chapter 5 Season 2 of Battle Royale. The team is working through this as quickly as possible, and we’ll provide another update when we have more info." The tweet was posted at 9:14AM ET, meaning Fortnite will likely remain down until at least 5PM. 

The delay is a bit of a pity as the new season looks pretty compelling. It's called Myths and Mortals and it's focused on Greek gods. Along with earning skins for the likes of Aphrodite, Medusa and Poseidon through the battle pass, you can wield mythical powers such as Zeus' lightning bolts and the Wings of Icarus. Epic has added some intriguing new areas to the island as well, including Mount Olympus and Hades' Underworld. A spooky-looking version of the River Styx, which is guarded by Cerberus, leads up to the latter. 

Journalists, creators and long-winded VCs on X now have a new way to be exhausting on main. X now allows verified organizations and Premium+ subscribers to publish long-form “Articles."

The feature adds a basic text-editing interface that includes embedded media and some text formatting options, like the ability to make bulleted lists. It also appears that articles can be longer than the 25,000-character limit currently in place for premium subscribers’ “longer posts” feature. According to my initial tests, I hit the character limit for articles at just over 100,000 characters or about 15,000 words.

Here’s what the editing interface looks like:

Screenshot via X

Notably, Twitter began working on longer form posts long before Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. The company showed off an early version, originally called “Notes” in 2022, as it looked to lure newsletter writers and other creators to the service. Musk confirmed last summer that the publishing tools were still in the works.

The rollout of publishing tools is notable as Musk has often been hostile to journalists on his platform. Last year, Musk directed a change to X’s recommendation algorithm so that links to newsletter platform Substack would not appear in users’ “For You” feeds, which has throttled many independent writers’ reach on the service. X also stripped headlines from news stories shared on the platform last fall (headlines eventually returned, in a much smaller font).