Netflix said that user engagement with games on the service tripled in 2023. “[Despite] games still being small, and certainly not yet material relative to our film and series business, we’re pleased with this progress,” the company said in its earnings report on Tuesday. As an example, the company pointed to the addition of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy to the service last year, although it isn't clear how much the trilogy, which only arrived on Netflix on December 14, helped drive engagement in the final two weeks of the year. 

Netflix said that Grand Theft Auto has become its “most successful launch to date” in terms of installs and engagement. It didn’t say how many people had downloaded the trilogy since it was released on the platform, however. Some customers had signed up for Netflix just to play the Grand Theft Auto games, the company said.

That’s a big change from 2022, when and analysis from Apptopia and CNBC revealed that less than one percent of Netflix’s customers were playing games, which the company had made available to anyone with a Netflix subscription a year earlier. Despite the slow uptake, Netflix continued adding games to the platform. It’s growing gaming library includes popular titles like Hades, Dead Cells, Braid, Death’s Door and Katana Zero, as well as games such as Oxenfree II: Lost Signal, which it developed on its own after buying indie developer Night School. The platform also includes games based on its own popular original shows like Money Heist and The Dragon Prince.

Beyond gaming, Netflix said that it added 13.1 million subscribers in the last three months of 2023, the highest number of subscribers it has added since the explosive growth it experienced during the pandemic. The total number of Netflix subscribers around the world is now 260 million.

Hold onto your cabbages. Netflix just dropped a full trailer for its forthcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It actually looks pretty cool, surprising fans who have been dreading a repeat of the disastrous 2010 film adaptation. The vibe is on point, calling to mind the source material, and the casting department looks to have done a fantastic job. Just look at Sokka, as portrayed by Ian Ousley.

This is the second trailer for the show, but the first was more of a teaser. The new trailer features two and a half minutes of footage, complete with jokes, action set-pieces and plenty of appearances by the franchise’s resident cutie-pies, the air bison Appa and winged lemur Momo. They are both CGI, but look pretty good to me.

You also get a deeper glimpse into both the world itself and the show’s primary characters. Gordon Courmier and Kiawentiio Tarbell look great as Aang and Katara, respectively. The trailer also boasts a shirtless Firelord Ozai, as played by Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim. Of course, it wouldn’t be Avatar without Prince Zuko and General Iroh, both of whom are featured prominently. Iroh is played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, fresh off his stint in a galaxy far, far away (he’s in a bunch of Star Wars shows.)

Netflix’s version of Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres with all episodes on February 22. Original series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko aren’t involved with this adaptation, but are making an animated movie to further the adventures of Aang and the gang, in addition to more projects set in the Avatar universe.

As for Netflix, this is just the latest live-action adaptation of a pre-existing cartoon. The anime One Piece got a show earlier this year, preceded by Cowboy Bebop, Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist and several more.

It’s that time of year again. Oscar nominations are in, setting off a firestorm of debate and speculation until the awards ceremony in March. This year, the streamers absolutely ruled the roost. Netflix snagged 18 nominations, including best picture, which technically puts it in first place, according to a breakdown from Variety.

I say Netflix “technically” received the most nominations because it depends on your point of view. Disney actually scored 20 nominations across various categories, but only when you don’t split up its various sub-brands. Remember, Disney owns just about everything, including 20th Century Studios, Hulu, Lucasfilm Ltd., Marvel Studios, National Geographic Documentary Films, Pixar Animation Studios and Searchlight, among others. All of them together came to 20 nominations, including a best picture nomination for Poor Things.

Apple came away with 13 nominations, including best picture nods for Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon, which isn’t bad for a company that just started creating original content around four years ago. Universal, an actual old-school production company, also nabbed 13 noms, including best picture for one half of the summer’s hottest cinema event, Oppenheimer.

The other half of the equation, Barbie, was also nominated for best picture. However, Greta Gerwig got snubbed for best director, which is not sitting right with denizens of the internet. Also, Margot Robbie didn’t get a best actress nomination, while Ryan Gosling got one for best supporting actor. To be fair, that best actress category is crowded with stellar performances from relative newcomers like Lily Gladstone to long-time veterans like Annette Bening.

The films with the most nominations include Oppenheimer and Poor Things, both with 13. Production company A24, however, was the only studio with multiple nominations in the best picture category, thanks to Past Lives and The Zone of Interest. A24 was also behind the Netflix limited series Beef, which took home a slew of Emmy awards last week. Inexplicably, A24 also produces the hilarious, yet decidedly low-brow, sitcom Tacoma FD. That's your useless fact for the day. 

Mere days after Alphabet and Google CEO Sudar Pichai warned of more job attrition this year, the company is shedding more staff, at its moonshot lab. Alphabet is also restructuring X (not to be confused with what used to be called Twitter) to make it easier to spin out projects with backing (read: money) from outside investors.

X division head Astro Teller told staff in a memo that the company was “expanding our approach to focus on spinning out more projects as independent companies funded through market-based capital.”

X has attempted to tackle bigger-picture challenges and problems worldwide, like climate change, the future of the internet and cybersecurity, but it hasn’t found consistent success through its spinoff businesses. The company hopes this could refocus heady ideas into those with a future.

— Mat Smith

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Apple launches iOS 17.3, including the new Stolen Device Protection feature

An iPadOS update has the same.

iOS 17.3 is available to install now, and while it’s not shaking things up too much, it does have Stolen Device Protection. The feature first popped up in the developer beta of iOS 17.3, and it’s actually pretty handy. If someone steals your iPhone or iPad, and you’re updated to OS 17.3, you can lock them out of the system by forcing Face ID or Touch ID access. This works even if they have your passcode. The update also has AirPlay hotel support, optimized crash detection and collaborative playlists on Apple Music — something I’ve been waiting for since my iOS 17 preview.

Continue reading.

NVIDIA’s RTX Remix tool launches in open beta

It can add ray tracing and AI-upscaled textures to older games.

NVIDIA has finally leased a beta version of its RTX Remix tool. This software is for modders and can add ray tracing and AI-upscaled textures to older games. For those who know what they’re doing, it’s capable of end-to-end remastering of just about any DirectX 8 or 9 game from the past. NVIDIA has released a list of compatible games — classics like Call of Duty 2, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Garry’s Mod, Freedom Fighters and Need for Speed Underground 2.

Continue reading.

Watch the trailer for Apple’s latest sci-fi series, Constellation

It stars Noomi Rapace and premieres on February 21.

Apple

Apple's newest TV series follows an astronaut, played by Noomi Rapace, after an emergency return to Earth. According to the trailer, it will be filled with unreliable narrator twists and turns — and it’s in HDR, so it should really pop on that new Vision Pro headset.

Watch here.

At CES 2023, Roland introduced a streaming mixer called Bridge Cast, which can give creators a way to pipe different audio feeds to different destinations and make it easy for them to create mixes, add vocal effects and remove unwanted audio. Now, the company has unveiled a follow-up to the device called Bridge Cast X that adds video support on top of all its predecessor's audio-focused features. The Bridge Cast X has two HDMI input ports and an HDMI Thru connector that can feed video up to 4K in resolution to an external monitor. 

As for audio, creators can plug in broadcast-quality XLR mic and headphones if they use those accessories. They can also adjust sounds to ensure that they can clearly hear the game's audio and voice chat more clearly than any background sounds. Meanwhile, they can broadcast a different mix that's optimized for maximum viewer engagement. The device has dedicated volume knobs for different input sources and audio output, and it has programmable buttons creators can use to mute specific sounds and to do various functions. 

On the software side of things, the BGM Cast service on Roland Cloud will give creators access to thousands of royalty-free music tracks that they can use as sound effects and background audio. They will need to sign up for a Roland Cloud Core membership that costs $3 a month or $30 a year to be able to use all those tracks, but a free account still gives them free access to 36 background music tracks and 16 sound effects. The Roland Bridge Cast X will start shipping in the US in February and will cost buyers $500.

Roland

Earlier today, Riot Games announced that it is eliminating 530 roles globally, which make up about 11 percent of its workforce. The company publicly delivered this devastating news in two separate posts — one for players, and another for "Rioters," with the latter detailing severance package and some other benefits to treat the dismissed employees "with respect and grace."

Additionally, Riot Games shared that it is sunsetting its publishing label, Riot Forge, which has worked on six titles — including Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story due to be released on February 21. In their joint letter to gamers, CEO Dylan Jadeja and co-chairman Marc Merrill described Forge as "an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favorite indie devs," but now "it's time to refocus" on their internal projects. Forge will cease operation once it's done publishing Bandle Tale.

The execs also admitted that their digital collectible card game, Legends of Runeterra, hasn't been doing well enough financially since its launch in 2020. In the hopes of making this title more sustainable, its development team will be downsized, with its focus shifted to its more popular "The Path of Champions" single-player game mode.

Riot Games' cutback is the latest blow to the video game industry, after a total of around 9,000 people lost their jobs in 2023 alone. Embracer Group and Unity both laid off around 900 people each, whereas Epic Games fired about 830 people, and EA dismissed more than 1,000 employees. 2024 has only just began, and we fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg for the entire tech industry.

If you love old PC games, but wish they had access to modern graphical flourishes, NVIDIA has you covered. The company just released a beta version of its long-awaited RTX Remix tool. This software is designed especially for modders and can be used to add ray-tracing and AI-upscaled textures to older games.

Remix was built on NVIDIA’s Omniverse 3D graphics collaboration platform and allows for end-to-end remastering of just about any DirectX 8 or 9 game. It consists of two basic components. There’s an application for creating new lighting scenarios and one for remastering and adding assets into a scene. The company says that the tool can already be used to fully remaster a game from start to finish, despite it being “just” a beta.

To that end, the software is available for download right now and NVIDIA hopes modders will experiment with the tool and leave feedback, which will be incorporated into future updates. It’s also free, which is always nice.

NVIDIA has released a non-comprehensive list of compatible games, which includes classics like Call of Duty 2, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Garry's Mod, Freedom Fighters, Need for Speed Underground 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, among others. For more information on compatibility, check out this FAQ.

The software suite has already been used by NVIDIA to create the Portal with RTX remaster, which is a free DLC, and the modder-made Portal: Prelude RTX. Orbifold Studios is also using RTX Remix to develop Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project, which is a community-driven remaster of the iconic title.

Again, this is a free tool, so it’ll be really fun to see what the modding community cooks up with it. I’m personally looking forward to more Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind ray-tracing goodness.

Apple just dropped a trailer for its forthcoming sci-fi mystery series Constellation. The series follows an astronaut, played by Noomi Rapace, after an emergency return to Earth. However, the homecoming is fraught with mysterious occurrences and plain-old sci-fi weirdness, leaving audiences wondering what happened to her up there.

We don’t exactly know what type of sci-fi this is. There are hints that it could be a multiversal story, something that draws from false memory theories like the Mandela Effect. There are also hints that Rapace is being toyed with by an alien intelligence. There are clues that point to Rapace herself being an alien intelligence. Whichever way it goes, the show premieres with three episodes on February 21, followed by new entries each Wednesday.

In addition to Rapace, Constellation stars Jonathan Banks from the Breaking Bad television universe, James D’Arcy, Julian Looman, William Catlett and Barbara Sukowa. The show was created by Peter Harness, who wrote a bunch of Doctor Who episodes, and directed by Michelle MacLaren, who has a fantastic track record in genre TV, having helmed episodes of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Westworld and, going way back, The X-Files.

This is going to be a trippy show, according to the above footage. It’s also cool that Apple releases trailers in HDR, so they’ll really pop on that Vision Pro headset, if you have more disposable income than Scrooge McDuck on tax return day.

Apple TV+ and sci-fi go together like peanut butter and space jelly. The streamer has quietly become the de facto source for science fiction TV. There’s For All Mankind, which just ended a stellar fourth season, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which just completed its first season. The streamer also recently put out the first season of Silo, based on the Hugh Howey books, and the second season of Invasion.

But wait, there’s more. Apple TV+ is home to the blockbuster hit Severance and a loose adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation book series. Both shows have been renewed. Additionally, there’s Hello Tomorrow, Extrapolations, Dr. Brain and See. Even shows that don’t seem to be steeped in sci-fi, like Schmigadoon and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, have otherworldly elements. Apple loves itself some sci-fi. I’m down with this. The real world is boring and dumb.

Palworld has sold a million copies in just over eight hours, according to developer Pocketpair. The game has been on our radar for a while, thanks to its unique ‘Pokémon with guns’ premise, and it looks like launch day has been an absolute success.

It’s been so successful, as a matter of fact, that the game’s servers have been buckling under the stress of millions of gun-toting PokéMasters. The developer urges patience and says it’s “working to resolve this ASAP!” The sheer number of downloads and concurrent players have made this the biggest Steam launch of the year so far, according to GamesRadar.

These figures only refer to Steam. The early access version of Palworld also launched on Game Pass, so the number of downloads is likely much higher than advertised, as there are no Xbox Series X/S numbers. It looks like many people have been jonesing for a dark and gritty take on everyone’s favorite pocket monsters.

And boy, is this game dark and gritty. Instead of releasing unwanted monsters, called Pals, back into the wild, you murder them with a cleaver. You can also sell your “Pals” into slavery, eat them and, of course, battle them to the death. One of the game’s trailers shows piles of Pal corpses stacked up, reaching into the heavens. The whole thing seems to be a satirical riff on the very nature of Pokémon, which is a game franchise in which you force your very good friends to fight just to further your own reputation.

Palworld has gotten pretty good reviews so far, and this is an early access build, so the devs will likely refine the gameplay in the coming months. In the meantime, you can pick it up on Steam for $27, until it reverts to its normal price of $30. It’s also a day-one Game Pass release, so boot up your Xbox and give it a go. Just try to keep the murder count down. Or not.

We finally have a release date for Ninja Theory's Hellblade sequel: May 21, 2024. It's been over four years since Senua's Saga was announced at the 2019 Game Awards alongside Microsoft's (then next-gen) Xbox Series X console. 

The first game in the series, Senua's Sacrifice, focused on the main character's journey to the realm of the dead, and her battle with mental health issues. Saga will focus on Senua tracking down the Vikings who have been raiding her home town. Expect more "perception puzzles led by her experiences of psychosis," along with some pretty standard video game combat, but this time, in Iceland!

As you'd expect for a first-party title, Senua's Saga will arrive on Microsoft's Game Pass service for Xbox consoles and PC on day one. For those without Game Pass, it'll be a digital-only release priced at $50. PC users will be able to buy it on either the Xbox store or Steam.