And now for a game that’s actually 50 games — at least.

UFO 50, the latest project from Spelunky studio Mossmouth, is due to hit Steam on September 18, about six years after it was originally expected to launch. That’s merely an observation, not a criticism — UFO 50 is an ambitious project that offers 50 full, retro-styled games in a single package, and it’s all coming from a team of just six people.

In UFO 50 lore, UFO Soft was a game developer who was active between 1982 and 1990, peak NES and Genesis years. The games collected in UFO 50 feature recurring characters and sequels from UFO Soft’s fictional past, and they’re restricted in terms of color and audio, as if they had actually been developed for bygone hardware. Mossmouth is manifesting an alternate timeline of video game history here, and it looks like a ton of fun.

“The story of UFO 50 is that the games were all created in the ‘80s by a fictional company that was obscure but ahead of its time,” the game’s FAQ reads. “They're also connected by a unique 32-color palette and other restrictions we decided on to make them feel more authentic. (However, we don't force sprite flickering or slowdown, as we didn't feel that it would make the games more enjoyable.)”

Every game in UFO 50 is unlocked from the start, and the collection features a wide variety of genres, including platformers, RPGs, roguelites and shoot-em-ups. None of the titles are mini- or micro-games, and while they’re all done in an 8-bit aesthetic, their visual and mechanical styles evolve with the years. Every game is playable solo, and half of them include multiplayer elements.

All that said, I think Mossmouth is selling itself short by calling UFO 50 a collection of just 50 games. Sure, it includes 50 individual experiences inspired by classic games of the 1980s, but there’s also one huge, hidden title in the collection — UFO 50 itself. Don’t forget to factor that into your pricing deliberations, Mossmouth.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

Simpler Times, the game that’s sweet like honey on a summer’s day, is out right now. Simpler Times is a soft and slow exploration game set in a supremely cozy bedroom, featuring a lifetime of memories to uncover and a soundtrack of soothing lo-fi music. Simpler Times is available on Steam.

The game takes place over four seasons, as the protagonist, Tania, clears out her childhood bedroom and looks back on her life. Her room is compact, with a wide bay window, a desk, a bed and a record player, which controls the game’s soundtrack. Players have to physically swap out the vinyl to keep the lo-fi beats going: remove the record, select a new one, slide the arm back and forth, drop the needle down. The process is meditative and rewarding, just like the rest of the game.

Indie studio stoneskip and publisher iam8bit announced Simpler Times’ surprise launch during the Day of the Devs showcase, which is part of Summer Game Fest. We played the demo at last year’s SGF and found it to be the coziest game of the show.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

Alan Wake 2 is getting its first DLC package, which will consist of three separate chapters letting players explore the weird world of Alan Wake 2 with three new, if familiar, characters. The DLC itself is called Night Springs, and it’ll be available to download and play tomorrow.

Night Springs is a TV show that appears in the Alan Wake universe and if we followed that show’s Twilight Zone theme, these spin-off chapters could be ‘episodes’ of this series, existing in “parallel realities”. 

Think of it as Remedy’s take on Marvel’s What If…, because you’ll get to play as Alan Wake’s biggest fan, Rose Marigold, Quantum Break’s Jack Joyce and Control’s Jesse Faden, in each chapter, respectively. 

It's a fun idea for DLC and it seems like Remedy is looking to get silly. Sinister voices tell Jesse to “try the coffee.” We get a jump cut to Shawn Ashmore's ‘acting’ as Quantum Break’s Jack Joyce and a talking Billy Bass for fair measure. As mentioned alongside the full reveal, the DLC will be downloadable starting June 8.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

Slitterhead, the new, twisted title from Silent Hill series director Keiichiro Toyama, is due to hit PC and consoles on November 8. A new trailer debuted today during the Summer Game Fest kickoff event, showcasing slightly more information (and blood) than the original teaser we saw in December 2021.

Slitterhead is a third-person action and horror experience with possession mechanics and a cast of giant, bug-like enemies to hack and slash. There seem to be hints of a detective storyline here, but most of the new trailer is concerned with punching, kicking, slicing, clawing and shooting a bunch of hulking monsters on dense city streets. It looks strange, spooky and incredibly satisfying.

Slitterhead comes from Bokeh Studio, which was formed by Toyama and other Sony veterans in 2020. Devil May Cry character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa, Gravity Rush lead designer Junya Okura and Puppeteer lead designer Kazunobu Sato are working on the project as well. 

The November 8 release date for Slitterhead puts it in close proximity to the Silent Hill 2 remake, which is due to come out on October 8 from Bloober Team and Konami. It's a real Dead Space and Callisto Protocol situation.

Slitterhead will land on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PS5, Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

Thank Goodness You're Here! was perhaps the highlight of Untitled Goose Game publisher Panic's first-ever game show last year. It's described as a "slapformer" or slapstick platformer, and it's set in a fictional Northern English town called Barnsworth. With a Cartoon Network aesthetic and a very English sense of humor, it captured a lot of peoples' hearts.

Today, developer Coal Supper announced the game's voice cast, with Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows) headlining and a lot of UK talent that will be familiar to those in the know, including Chris Cantrill of Icklewick FM. Expect a lot of accents that would be subtitled on US TV. 

Also new is a release date of August 1, which Coal Supper says is also Yorkshire Day. My somewhat northern colleague Mat Smith informs me this is a real thing. Either way, this all looks like a lot of fun — it's coming to PC, Switch and PlayStation, and you can catch a bunch of cute GIFs on the game's official site.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

The classic movie 12 Angry Men is titled as such because, well, it's about a jury comprised of 12 men. But viewers have noticed recently that the image Amazon uses for the movie has more than 12 characters in it. Further, their melting, inhuman faces look like they could be somebody's sleep paralysis monsters. The terrifying quality to the characters' faces is just one of the elements indicating the use of AI to generate the image. Their deformed and claw-like hands are another, along with the other obvious AI artifacts in the photo. 

Upon checking, Amazon didn't use the AI-generated image for the Prime Video version of the classic film. Some viewers pointed out that one could only see the AI version of the film's poster on Freevee, Amazon's free ad-supported streaming service. According to AV Club, the company used a different poster on Freevee due to licensing issues. Apparently, Freevee got its license to stream 12 Angry Men from a third party, which also provided images for the film. It's not quite clear why the third party didn't provide any of the film's official posters for use, but Freevee is reportedly working to get the AI-generated one replaced. 

Viewers also previously called out Amazon for using what looked like AI images to tease its Fallout TV show. Seeing as the use of generative AI could potentially save companies money — and they are, as we all know, driven by profit — we may have to get used to seeing TV and film posters and marketing materials that range from odd to nightmare fuel and beyond.

Somehow, it's already been almost a year and a half since the first season of The Last of Us arrived on HBO. Things are well underway with the second season, and we've known for a while that it won't premiere until 2025. We still don't know exactly when to expect it (though given that they're well into shooting, an early-year debut isn't out of the question), but we do now know that season two will only have seven episodes.

In an extensive interview with Deadline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (director of the two The Last of Us games that Naughty Dog has released for various PlayStation consoles) confirmed the shorter season. "The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin said to Deadline. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

That said, Mazin said that season three will likely be "significantly larger" — we don't know if that's from a scope perspective or running time perspective, but it's an interesting thing to broadcast given that we're still six months minimum away from season two premiering. And Deadline also confirmed that season two will have at least one extra-long episode, much like the 90-minute series premiere and the 70-plus minute episode focused on Bill and Frank in season one.

We've known for a while that Mazin and Druckmann were going to spread The Last of Us Part II over multiple seasons, but it even sounds like the story could spin into a forth season. "We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4," Mazin said. 

While the plotting of The Last of Us Part II was fairly involved, with lots of flashbacks and multiple points of view, stretching it over three seasons seems like a bit much. But based on this interview, it sounds like Mazin and Druckmann have figured out exactly where they want each season to begin and end and what story beats it'll cover. Of course, the show hasn't yet even been renewed for season three yet, so all this is contingent upon continued success. Given that season one was one of HBO's biggest ever, that probably won't be an issue.

HBO

Finally, Deadline dropped a surprising tidbit about a potential third game in the series — specifically, it's still unknown if one will happen. Indeed, the publication says that "a new installment has not been picked up or put into development." That's a very strong statement, albeit one that isn't sourced directly from a quote or given any real attribution. If true, it means a third The Last of Us game could easily be more than five years away, if it ever happens. 

Druckmann did confirm that the show won't go beyond the what has been portrayed in the video games, unlike the HBO Game of Thrones series infamously moving beyond the novels it was based on (not that they had much of a choice). "As a fan, I’m thrilled that there might be a third Last of Us game," Mazin said. "As the co-creator of this television show, there’s no world where I would want our show to go beyond the source material that people have in the world." 

Hopefuly, Deadline just has its lines crossed about a potential third game — with Summer Games Fest just days away, there's a lot of buzz around what Sony's first-party studios, including Naughty Dog, might be planning to announce. The last bit of concrete news we got around the game series was that the planned multiplayer game set in the Last of Us universe was canceled.

YouTube quietly snuck in a policy change that will age-restrict some gun-related videos and bar others altogether. Content featuring homemade and automatic firearms will be banned for viewers under 18, while tutorials for removing safety devices will be prohibited regardless of age. The new policy will take effect on June 18.

“Starting June 18, 2024, certain content showing how to remove safety devices will be prohibited,” a disclaimer on YouTube’s firearms policy page now reads. “Content showing the use of homemade firearms, automatic firearms, and certain firearm accessories will be age restricted.”

In a statement to Engadget, YouTube spokesperson Javier Hernandez wrote, “These updates to our firearms policy are part of our continued efforts to maintain policies that reflect the current state of content on YouTube. For example, 3D printing has become more readily available in recent years so we’re expanding our restrictions on content involving homemade firearms. We regularly review our guidelines and consult with outside experts to make sure we are drawing the line at the right place.”

YouTube added that the prohibitions will apply to the real use of firearms and won’t pertain to video games, film clips or other artistic content. The platform may also make exceptions for content that’s in the public interest, like military or police footage, news or warzone videos.

The change comes a year after the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, called out YouTube for recommending gun-related content to several “child” accounts the organization set up to see how easily the platform’s algorithms nudged underage users towards gun videos. The researchers set up four accounts, two posing as nine-year-old boys and another pair pretending to be 14-year-old boys. The accounts watched playlists of videos about video game franchises like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Lego Star Wars and Roblox, and the team monitored the accounts to see what recommendations popped up.

Lo and behold, YouTube allegedly recommended content about weapons and shootings. “These videos included scenes depicting school shootings and other mass shooting events; graphic demonstrations of how much damage guns can inflict on a human body; and how-to guides for converting a handgun to a fully automatic weapon,” TTP wrote at the time.

Other recommended videos featured a young girl firing a gun and tutorials for converting handguns into fully automatic weapons. Some of the content was monetized with ads.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, recently famous for convicting a 77-year-old who had trouble staying awake in court, chimed in soon after TTP’s report last year. The DA asked to meet with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan to discuss why the platform allowed video tutorials for “ghost guns,” firearms assembled using 3D-printed parts or kit components.

The Tech Transparency Project applauded the policy change but warned the real test would be in how stringently YouTube enforces it. “YouTube’s policy changes to age-restrict gun content are a step in the right direction, given that firearms are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America, but it’s not clear why it took the company so long to address the issue,” TTP Director Katie Paul wrote in a press release. “As always with YouTube, the real proof of change is whether the company enforces the policies it has on the books. Until YouTube takes real action to prevent videos about guns and gun violence from reaching minors, its policies remain empty words.”

Update, June 6, 2023, 3:19 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement and additional info from YouTube.

The Bitzee virtual pet line is expanding to bring some familiar characters into the family, plus some all new ones. Spin Master, which introduced Bitzee to the US last summer, is now gearing up to release two new versions of the device later this year: Bitzee Disney and Bitzee Magicals. The former will feature 30 characters from the Disney/Pixar universe, including Stitch, Olaf, Nemo and Dory, Remy, Mike Wazowski and Sully, and Heihei. 

Unlike most digital pet toys, Bitzee doesn’t have a screen. Instead, it functions almost like a pettable hologram in a box, with movement-based controls and a flapping flexible display that allows the player to physically interact with the character. You can run your finger along the top of the display to pet the creature that’s being projected, for example, or rock the little box from side to side to put it to bed. There's also a small swipe bar that serves as a way to navigate the menu of activities. 

On top of mini-games and caretaking tasks, there will be a replayable animation representing a memorable movie moment for each of the characters featured in Bitzee Disney. (Dory from Finding Nemo greets you by speaking whale.) Bitzee Magicals, on the other hand, will introduce entirely new characters, including some adorable cryptid-inspired creatures like a Yeti, Nessie and two versions of a Jackalope. Bitzee Magicals also mixes things up a bit with the addition of a magic wand feature that might, say, temporarily turn your pet into a duck on a skateboard. It’s pretty cute. You’ll also be able to change your pets’ colors by collecting potions.

Spin Master

Bitzee is a pretty low-stakes virtual pet game; if you forget about your pets for a while or just don’t do a great job of taking care of them, they’re not going to die on you. This makes them particularly good for kids who might not be ready yet for a virtual pet as demanding as a Tamagotchi, but also for adults who just like to have something on their desk that they can fidget with here and there. Just close the box, and the pet will go into sleep mode. 

Bitzee Disney is available to pre-order for $35 on Amazon today, while pre-orders for Bitzee Magicals ($30) will open on July 1. Both are slated to ship in the fall.

Australia's independent regulator for online safety has ended its bid to remove a violent video from X (formerly Twitter). 

On April 15, a clergyman was stabbed in Sydney, Australia, and, like some other horrific incidents these days, it was broadcast online. Australia's national regulator, eSafety, requested that all social media platforms take down the video. While eSafety claims Meta, Google, TikTok and more removed it, X only stopped Australian viewers from accessing the video — something a VPN can easily circumvent. When eSafety pushed for it to be fully taken down, X's CEO Elon Musk called the request an assault on free speech and argued that one country's laws couldn't control the entire world, The Register reported.

Despite dropping the fight against X, eSafety further reiterated their frustrations. "Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community," Julie Inman Grant, the commissioner of eSafety, stated. "Most Australians accept this kind of graphic material should not be on broadcast television, which begs an obvious question of why it should be allowed to be distributed freely and accessible online 24/7 to anyone, including children."

Grant notes that X did take down a video globally that compiled this attack with two other stabbing incidents. She also details the violence policy X laid out to the European Commission last October as proof that the platform should remove the video entirely. "...our service has clear rules that prohibit violent and hateful entities, perpetrators of violent attacks, violent speech, sensitive media and the synthetic and manipulated media policy," the passage states. "For the avoidance of doubt, we strictly adhere to our policies concerning illegal content and we continue to remove illegal content, including terrorist content, from our platform." In that vein, she calls taking down the video a "reasonable request" for X to take.