For the second time this year, Behaviour Interactive has announced a round of layoffs. The Dead by Daylight maker says it will dismiss as many as 95 employees, 70 of whom are based in its home city of Montreal. The company also has studios in Toronto, Seattle, the UK and the Netherlands. It previously shed 45 jobs in January.

Behaviour said in a press release that its ranks had grown from 575 to 1,300 over the last five years, buoyed by the success of Dead by Daylight and its service business (it works "alongside the industry’s global leaders to develop hundreds of high-quality titles"). The company says neither the service business nor DbD development will be affected by the layoffs.

It notes that the high level of competition in the gaming space has led it to narrow its focus on its core strengths, with the restructuring process leading to the layoffs. The company will concentrate on horror games and working with its development partners. It also claims it will "explore the possibilities of location-based entertainment," without detailing what that means.

This is the second blow for Montreal's gaming sector in as many days. On Monday, Just Cause creator Avalanche closed studios in the city and New York, laying off 50 people as a result. Avalanche had only opened the Montreal office in October after buying Monster Closet Games.

The gaming industry at large is in a state of turmoil. The estimated number of video game layoffs so far this year sits at 10,300, which is already nearing the 2023 total of around 10,500.

Part wuxia epic and part pulp mystery novel, The Acolyte demonstrates what's possible when Star Wars embraces new characters and genres while abandoning the Dark Side of nostalgia. There isn't a Skywalker to be seen (at least in the four episodes I've watched), or any characters you've met before. It's not trying to fill gaps in pre-existing lore. It's simply a kickass Star Wars story, with perfectly executed action choreography, a bevy of talented actors and a story that feels genuinely fresh. And, best of all, you don't have to be caught up on The Book of Boba Fett or 208 episodes of animated shows to enjoy it.

A major reason why The Acolyte feels so unique is that it comes from Leslye Headland, a writer and director with no prior association to Star Wars. As the co-creator of Russian Doll, she proved that she could juggle a fantastical premise with rich, multi-layered characters. Her outsider perspective is exactly what Star Wars needs to avoid feeling stale. It's the counterpoint to the obsessive world-building from Dave Filoni, the George Lucas disciple behind The Clone Wars and many of the franchise's TV shows.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

The Acolyte begins with a scene right out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A lone warrior enters a bar, presents themself to the most powerful person there, and demands a fight. What follows is an expertly choreographed array of kicks, flips and Force-thrown knives, as the Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss), deflects her young attacker with effortless grace. "Who trained you?" She asks, echoing Michelle Yeoh's first confrontation with Zhang Ziyi in Ang Lee's film. (Yes, I got chills upon hearing that.)

I won't say too much about the plot of The Acolyte, but briefly it involves a former Jedi trainee, Mae (Amandla Stenberg), who is suspected of committing a series of crimes. Her former Jedi Master, Sol (played by Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae), is tasked with tracking her down and figuring out what's really going on. They're also joined by his new padwan trainee, played by Dafne Keen (Logan), and the over-eager, by-the-book Jedi Master Yord (Charlie Barnett).

Lucasfilm Ltd.

What makes The Acolyte truly intriguing is the way it explores the role of the Jedi and their chokehold (heh) on Force powers in the Star Wars universe. Are they actually the keepers of the peace, or a group of fanatical monks aligned with whoever happens to be in power? Is there a legitimate path beyond the Jedi for someone Force-capable like Mae, without turning to the Dark Side? I don't know how the series will answer these questions, but their existence alone is fascinating, as the broader franchise has seemed incapable of interrogating itself in recent years.

After The Rise of Skywalker brought the sequel trilogy to a disappointing close, Star Wars has mostly been mining nostalgia on Disney+ with varying levels of success. The Mandalorian started strong, but became bogged down with repetitive storytelling. The Book of Boba Fett was mostly forgettable, except for when it served as a bridge between season's two and three of The Mandalorian. Nobody needed the Obi-Wan series, but it was nice to see Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen back in action.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

Ahsoka and Andor were the most uniformly successful of the Star Wars TV projects, but they both also had to wrestle with pre-existing storylines. To truly understand Ahsoka, you needed to have watched over 200 episodes of The Clone Wars and Rebels, as well as several shorts and episodes from other Star Wars shows. Andor was the most mature vision of the franchise we've ever seen, thanks to creator Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Identity), but it was also a slow burn narratively. (And it was still about a character we briefly met in Rogue One, itself a prequel story about finding the Death Star's blueprints.)

The only baggage The Acolyte has to deal with is the trail of middling Star Wars shows behind it. That alone may turn off some audiences. But I'm hoping people recognize it as a fresh start, a world beyond Skywalkers and nostalgia bait. The Acolyte is a reminder of what makes Star Wars great: exciting and pulpy storytelling on a cosmic scale. 

Amazon has announced its latest series coming to Prime Video, and gamers might recognize it. The streamer is releasing Like A Dragon: Yakuza, a live-action adaptation of the Yakuza SEGA game series. The Japanese Original show will premiere worldwide in two batches of three episodes on October 25 and November 1, 2024.

SEGA launched Yakuza in 2005, with over 20 other titles and spinoffs joining it in the years since. Amazon bills Like A Dragon: Yakuza as a "crime-suspense-action series, follows the life, childhood friends, and repercussions of the decisions of Kazuma Kiryu, a fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity." The show takes place during 1995 and 2005 in Kamurochō, a fictional entertainment district modeled off Kabukichō, the game's setting.

There will be similar themes between the show and the game, of course, but it seems creators are attempting to give it a unique identity. "While the games let you experience their world through the subjective lens, this adaptation will be the ultimately objective way to enjoy the show," Yokoyama Masayoshi, Yakuza writer, head of Ryugagotoku Studio and executive producer. "I have no doubt that fans of the series will be drawn to how it brings the games to life and adds new surprises. Newcomers, I'm sure will find themselves invested simply in the gritty realism of the show."

Sometimes it’s the simplest games that end up leaving you all teary-eyed and emotional.

When I first downloaded Cool Lemon Club’s The Keyper for Playdate, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations beyond a general sense that it should be pretty good, since lots of people online seemed to be recommending it. The adventure game, which is available on itch.io and the official Playdate Catalog, sees the player searching for the many different keys needed to unlock areas of the mysterious Winchester 21 building after taking over the role of caretaker. The person who formerly held the job is gone, leaving only some cryptic notes behind, and the residents are varying degrees of weird.

On its face, it seems like a pretty standard game of puzzle solving and exploration. It’s effectively frustrating throughout, as you repeatedly retrace your steps trying to navigate the Winchester 21’s several floors and labyrinthine tunnel system to find the keys and the doors they unlock. But as the plot unfolds and you uncover more of the building’s secrets, The Keyper reveals itself to be a game with a lot of heart.

Its charm lies in the strange interactions between you and the people who live in the apartments (and tunnels… and walls) of the Winchester 21. They each have their own little storylines, some of which present new mysteries and side-quests for you to take on. One of these in particular really tugged at my heartstrings, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you here.

The Keyper is a little dark, a little funny and just the right amount of challenging. While it does offer the option to save your progress so you can walk away from it and come back later, I’d recommend setting aside a few hours and just playing this through in one shot for the most impact. By the time you reach the end and finally figure out what’s been going on all along, the entire tone of the game has shifted into something a lot more heartwarming than it all first appears. I may even have cried a little during the final scene. 

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is coming to Netflix on October 10. Netflix announced the release date today along with a new trailer, which finally gives us a slightly more in-depth look at what the series will be like. It picks up after the events of the Survivor Trilogy, which focused on a younger Lara Croft. Per Netflix’s Tudum, it will see Lara “forced to confront her true self and decide just what kind of hero she wants to become,” as she chases down a “dangerous and powerful” stolen artifact.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was first announced back in 2021 and is being produced by Legendary Television and Powerhouse Animation, the studio behind the Castlevania anime. It’s executive produced and written by Tasha Huo, known for The Witcher: Blood Origin. Lara Croft is voiced by Hayley Atwell (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning). The Legend of Lara Croft is not to be confused with the other Tomb Raider series currently in development for Prime Video, which has Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge on board as writer and executive producer.

Godzilla Minus One is now available to stream on Netflix, and the black-and-white version will soon follow. The streaming giant announced the surprise release today, coinciding with the film’s arrival for digital purchase and rental on VOD platforms including Prime Video and Apple TV, where both the color and “Minus Color” versions are available. On Netflix, Godzilla Minus One can be watched with subtitles or dubbed.

For anyone who didn’t get a chance to catch the black-and-white Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color when it briefly ran in theaters earlier this year, distributor Toho International said it’s coming to Netflix later this summer. Anyone else’s plans for a summer Godzilla marathon just get even better?

Godzilla Minus One, which is set in post-World War II Japan, quickly gained a lot of passionate fans when it was released in December 2023, becoming one of those movies that had people running back to theaters to see it again — and again, once the Minus Color version dropped. It received critical acclaim, and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 2024 Oscars. 

When you think of the 20-year-old social network that is Facebook, its popularity among “young adults” is probably not what comes to mind. Naturally, Meta wants to change that and the company is once again telling the world it intends to reorient its platform in order to appeal to that demographic.

In an update from Tom Alison, who heads up the Facebook app for Meta, he says that the service is shifting to reflect an “increased focus on young adults” compared with other users. “Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” he wrote.

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Meta executives have been trying to win over “young adults” for years in an effort to better compete with TikTok. Mark Zuckerberg said almost three years ago that he wanted to make young adults the company’s “North Star.” And Alison and Zuckerberg have both been talking about the Facebook app’s pivot to a discovery-focused feed rather than one based on users’ connections.

That shift is now well underway. Alison said that the company’s AI advancements have already improved recommendations for Reels and feed, and that “advanced recommendations technology will power more products” over the next year. He added that private sharing among users is also on the rise, with more users sharing video (though no word on the once-rumored plan to bring messaging back into the main app).

Notably, Alison’s note makes no mention of the “metaverse,” which Zuckerberg also once saw as a central part of the company’s future. Instead, he says that “leaning into new product capabilities enabled by AI” is a significant goal, along with luring younger users. That’s also not surprising, given that Meta and Zuckerberg have recently tried to rebrand some of the company’s metaverse ambitions as AI advancements.

But it’s also not clear how successful Meta will be in its efforts to win over young adults. Though Alison says Facebook has seen “five quarters of healthy growth in young adult app usage in the US and Canada,” with 40 million young adult daily active users, that’s still a relatively small percentage of the 205 million daily US Facebook users the company reported in February, the last time it would break out user numbers for the app.

The Tribeca Film Festival will debut five short films made by AI, as detailed by The Hollywood Reporter. The shorts will use OpenAI’s Sora model, which transforms text inputs into create video clips. This is the first time this type of technology will take center stage at the long-running film festival.

“Tribeca is rooted in the foundational belief that storytelling inspires change. Humans need stories to thrive and make sense of our wonderful and broken world,” said co-founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises Jane Rosenthal. Who better to chronicle our wonderful and broken world than some lines of code owned by a company that just dissolved its dedicated safety team to let CEO Sam Altman and other board members self-police everything?

The unnamed filmmakers were all given access to the Sora model, which isn’t yet available to the public, though they have to follow the terms of the agreements negotiated during the recent strikes as they pertain to AI. OpenAI’s COO, Brad Lightcap, says the feedback provided by these filmmakers will be used to “make Sora a better tool for all creatives.”

When we last covered Sora, it could only handle 60 seconds of video from a single prompt. If that’s still the case, these short films will make Quibi shows look like a Ken Burns documentary. The software also struggles with cause and effect and, well, that’s basically what a story is. However, all of these limitations come from the ancient days of February, and this tech tends to move quickly. Also, I assume there’s no rule against using prompts to create single scenes, which the filmmaker can string together to make a story.

We don’t have that long to find out if cold technology can accurately peer into our warm human hearts. The shorts will screen on June 15 and there’s a conversation with the various filmmakers immediately following the debut.

This follows a spate of agreements between OpenAI and various media companies. Vox Media, The Atlantic, News Corp, Dotdash Meredith and even Reddit have all struck deals with OpenAI to let the company train its models on their content. Meanwhile, Meta and Google are looking for similar partnerships with Hollywood film studios to train its models. It looks like we are going to get this “AI creates everything” future, whether we want it or not.

The Watcher stood tall in my family room, bald and berobed, nestled amongst my kids' toys, sleeping cats and TV. I was being asked to help save the multiverse! So began Marvel and ILM Interactive's What If...? on the Apple Vision Pro. Like the Disney+ series and comics of the same name, this interactive experience recontextualizes Marvel's characters in a variety of intriguing ways — what if the Allies never won World War 2 and the Captain America experiment was a failure, for example.

What If...? has always been a fun concept, but can it actually be transformed into a worthwhile augmented reality showpiece? Well, yes and no — at least, based on the hour I spent with it on the Apple Vision Pro.

Before I dive into major criticisms, I'll say up front that What If...? is clearly an experiment, so rough edges are to be expected. I give Marvel and ILM Interactive credit for making it completely free for Vision Pro users and for taking a sizable swing at a platform without many users. The entire experience also looks wonderfully detailed, thanks to the combination of Marvel and ILM's immersive environments and character animation, as well as the sheer power of the Vision Pro's M2 processor. It's the closest you'll get to living inside of a comic.

Marvel has already dabbled in virtual reality with Iron Man for the PSVR and Quest, as well as Marvel Powers United VR, but What If...? is an attempt to accomplish something even more immersive: What if you could interact with superheroes right in your home? Mostly, though, I found myself asking "What if this experience was actually fun to play?"

Marvel

You're placed in the role of a mystical apprentice, wielding powers similar to Doctor Strange. Initially you can hold up a fist to manifest a shield, or look towards objects to use telekinesis. But you eventually gain the ability to shoot mystical blasts and trap enemies. It all sounds incredibly cool in theory, but in practice it felt worse than the first-gen VR games I played a decade ago.

Mostly, that's because What If...? relies on your hands for everything. The Vision Pro doesn't have a dedicated VR controller like the Oculus Quest or HTC Vive, which offer instant button inputs and could be tracked through IR sensors. Instead, you have to wait a fraction of a second for Apple's headset to recognize your hands and determine what you're trying to do. Consequently, What If...? feels more like you're sitting through a Marvel theme park ride, moving from one scenario to the next without much active participation. It's a poor way to make you feel like a multiverse-hopping adventurer.

At the very least, What If...? shows off what Marvel could do if it focused more on the Vision Pro and whatever Oculus has cooking next. Like a campy 3D film, the game wastes no time trying to blow you away with its core gimmick. It kicks off with a remixed Marvel intro montage in 2D, floating in front of you in augmented reality. As Michael Giacchino's iconic score crescendoes, you're suddenly surrounded by clips of the series drifting in from outside your field of view. It's a brief moment, but it's the sort of thing that wouldn't be as impactful in a traditional VR headset, where you're immersed in an alternate reality from the start.

Marvel

The experience truly begins with the aforementioned Watcher — one of Marvel's cosmic beings who observe its many universes — roping you in for an adventure. You know the drill: Find all of the Infinity Stones and stop whoever is trying to destroy all known creation. Kids' stuff. Along the way, you'll run into alternate-universe versions of familiar characters: Thor's sister Hela, who only wants to save her beloved giant wolf Fenris; a version of Steve Rogers who looks eerily like the Red Skull; and a more sympathetic Thanos. 

What If...? moves between virtual environments that fully immerse you in the action and augmented reality scenarios, where The Watcher and a few companions putter around your room. You can do the same, sometimes, but within the VR segments, the game expects you to stay still. You'll also have to click through Vision Pro pop-ups about being mindful of your surroundings before every VR scene — a necessary evil for people unfamiliar with VR, but also something that kills immersion since it's not integrated into the game.

Marvel

Despite my issues with the gameplay, I ultimately had a decently entertaining hour with What If...? It was a quick Marvel fix in a time where I've grown tired of the onslaught of Disney+ MCU shows. I just can't help but wish it were more fun to play. I'm hoping this release helps Marvel and ILM Interactive get better at building AR and VR experiences. And for Apple, it's a clear sign that some sort of Vision Pro controller would be helpful down the line. 

Liz Reid, head of Google Search, has admitted the company’s search engine has returned some “odd, inaccurate or unhelpful AI Overviews” after the feature rolled out to everyone in the US.

The executive’s explanation outlined some new safeguards to help the new feature return more accurate (and less funny) results. Some of the worst AI Overview results doing the rounds were apparently faked, but the glue-on-pizza example was real, as was the viral answer to how many rocks you should be eating. Also real. Reid said Google came up with an answer because it had tapped into a comedy satire site.

The issue for Google is this could erode trust in the search engine’s results and accuracy. Reid said the company tested the feature extensively before launch, but “there’s nothing quite like having millions of people using the feature with many novel searches.” Maybe it needed a little more testing first.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

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Sony’s Overwatch-esque Concord is coming to PS5 and PC on August 23

Overwatch of the Galaxy.

Firewalk Studios

It’s been a long time since we had a first-person shooter from a PlayStation studio. Finally, Firewalk Studios’ Concord has broken cover. Firewalk says it focused on tight movement, precise gunplay and a range of abilities — just as you might expect from a studio led by former Destiny developers. It’s a five vs. five hero shooter, suggesting comparisons to Overwatch 2 — now a Microsoft-owned title. Expect 16 heroes, six game modes and some cinematic scenes between all the fighting. It’s coming to PS5 and PC on August 23, with a beta in July.

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What to expect from Apple WWDC 2024

iOS 18, AI and more.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is right around the corner. Expect the company to reveal some of the main features of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, as well as what’s ahead for the likes of watchOS, macOS and visionOS at WWDC 2024. Expect all kinds of generative AI tricks — hopefully even some compelling ones. I’d appreciate more photo-fill features to match Google’s efforts on Android. It seems unlikely we’ll get any major hardware announcements at the event, but you never truly know until Tim Cook wraps things up — maybe we’ll get a next-gen Vision Pro VR headset.

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The TweetDeck clone for Threads is finally here

‘ThreadsDeck’ makes Threads on the web much more usable.

Meta is rolling out a new TweetDeck-like column view to all Threads users after it started testing the feature earlier this month. The new look, which some Threads users have nicknamed ThreadsDeck, allows you to pin up to 100 feeds to the Threads home page. Each column can also be set to auto-update. Yeah, it’s TweetDeck but Threads. And you can more easily hide Threads’ trashy for-you feed. At least, mine is particularly trashy. Perhaps I’m the problem.

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