Esports tournament organizer ESL Gaming has teamed up with Qualcomm to run a mobile gaming league. The Snapdragon Pro Series will have three tiers of competition — Open, Challenge and Masters — and have around $2 million in prize money at stake.

Tournaments will be held in six regions: North America, Europe, the Middle East, China, North Africa and Asia-Pacific. The "multi-genre" competition will come to a head with a live event for Masters-level players. More details about the Snapdragon Pro Series, including which games will be used, will be revealed in the coming months.

ESL formed a mobile esports ecosystem last year with a smaller prize pool of $650,000 and games including Clash of Clans, PUBG Mobile and League of Legends: Wild Rift. With Qualcomm on board and more money on the line, there's a bigger opportunity for skilled mobile gamers to compete in esports and win potentially life-changing prizes. For Qualcomm, the circuit could prove a valuable showcase by letting esports fans see how well games run on Snapdragon-powered mobile devices.

Elden Ring isn’t the only recent game with a new update out today. Guerrilla Games has released patch 1.06 for Horizon Forbidden West and it addresses a number of issues that have been part of the experience since it came out on February 18th. In particular, it resolves a handful of bugs that prevented players from completing the “Reach for the Stars” main quest. For instance, Varl won’t get stuck swimming anymore and therefore won’t prevent a prompt from showing up that you need to move the mission forward.

A separate fix resolves an infinite black screen bug that occurred when players stored the Champion’s Spear and then started a tutorial or a challenge in the Chainscrape Melee Pit. But the one particular change that caught our eye is that Aloy won’t mention her stash as frequently after installing the patch. That should make your adventures in Horizon Forbidden West a bit more meditative. You can read the full list of changes patch 1.06 makes to the game over on Reddit.

EA says it's removing the Russian national team and clubs from FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile and FIFA Online. The move follows FIFA kicking Russia out of World Cup 2022 qualifying and UEFA suspending club teams from international competitions.

"EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and, like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine," a statement shared on Twitter reads. The publisher said it was "actively evaluating related changes to other areas of our games" and that it would keep players informed about actions it takes.

In addition, EA will drop Russian and Belarusian national and club teams from NHL 22 in the coming weeks. The International Ice Hockey Federation banned teams from both countries from its competitions until further notice.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine's vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov urged Sony, Microsoft and other gaming companies to suspend Russian and Belarusian player accounts. He called on esports organizations to ban Russian and Belarusian teams and players from international events too. "We are sure that such actions will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression," Fedorov wrote in an open letter.

Don't try to play Destiny 2 on your brand new Steam Deck — you won't like the outcome. As Reddit users and GamesRadar have noticed, Bungie has warned it will not only kick out players who try to run the game from a Steam Deck or other SteamOS devices, but ban those players who try to circumvent that restriction. PC players have to use an active copy of Windows, Bungie said.

Bungie didn't initially say why it forbids Steam Deck use. We've asked the company for comment. It shouldn't have anything to do with Sony's plans to acquire Bungie, however. The studio is still independent, and CEO Pete Parsons maintained that game development would continue for multiple platforms.

The decision might instead revolve around code integrity. Bungie added BattlEye anti-cheat technology to Destiny 2 in 2021, starting with the recently-ended Season of the Lost. While BattlEye worked with Valve to add support in Proton (the code that lets Windows-based Steam play on the Steam Deck and SteamOS), that doesn't mean Bungie was satisfied with the trustworthiness of that anti-cheating implementation. Reddit user floatingatoll speculated that Linux's open system boot approach still left opportunities for cheaters.

Whatever the reasoning, the news won't be heartening if you're a Destiny 2 fan. You'll either have to install Windows on your Steam Deck (not a realistic option at present) or buy an alternative like the Aya Neo or GPD Win 3 if you insist on fighting the Darkness from a handheld PC. Still, this isn't a complete shock. Valve made clear that not every game will run on the Steam Deck, and D2 just happens to be one of the more prominent examples.

As part of a new eight-year deal between the United States Soccer Federation and Turner Sports parent company Warner Media, HBO Max will stream at least 20 US national team matches every year moving forward from 2023. The agreement will make the streaming platform and Turner Sports channels TBS and TNT the exclusive English-language home of World Cup qualifier games played by both the men’s and women’s national soccer teams, as well as friendlies, send-off matches and special events leading up to the Olympics and World Cup.

Not included in the deal are the broadcast and streaming rights to World Cup tournament games. Fox Sports will continue to hold the men’s rights through to 2026 and 2023 for the women’s team. The deal builds on a similar one Turner Sports signed last year with the NHL. That agreement saw the company secure streaming rights to 72 regular season games, including the league’s annual Winter Classic match.

To say the pandemic threw off my exercise routine would be an understatement. I was a gym regular who thrived on treadmills and weight machines, and I suddenly had to improvise with pushups and runs. I struggled to maintain a routine, and for a while gave up entirely. How was I going to stay fit at a time when merely ordering dumbbells was a challenge? Late last year, though, I resolved to get back into shape and bought a $599 Echelon Connect Sport exercise bike to use in tandem with an $80-per-year Apple Fitness+ membership. I haven’t regretted it.

The math behind my decision was simple: I wanted a quality bike that wouldn’t tie me to one service or empty my bank account in record fashion. That quickly ruled out Peloton, whose Bike ($1,495 as I write this) and full subscription ($39 per month) were overkill for someone who mainly wanted to shake off some cobwebs. The Connect Sport was appealing precisely because it didn’t chain me to anything; I could put my phone on the built-in stand and use a lower-priced service like Fitness+ to guide my workouts. I was poised to save hundreds of dollars per year, even if I had to buy the virtually mandatory Apple Watch. (I already own a Series 5.) An iPhone is also required, of course.

Yes, the Connect Sport amounts to a Peloton Bike doppelgänger without the screen, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Echelon’s machine feels solidly built, and it’s stable even in the midst of an intense workout. The flywheel-based mechanism is also remarkably quiet. Apart from a clacking sound that disappeared after the first three weeks, the loudest noise I’ve heard was my own breathing. The handlebars and seating are highly adjustable, and the pedals use cages to keep your feet in place (thus letting you use ordinary shoes) instead of clips. This is a bike that’s easy to live with, letting me concentrate on the task at hand rather than my equipment.

Jon Fingas/Engadget

The quirks mostly stem from the inherent nature of full-size spin bikes like this. The Connect Sport isn’t as compact as some alternatives, particularly folding models like Echelon’s own Flex Ultra. At 92 pounds, it’s also too heavy to casually move between rooms. And while you don’t need electricity unless you intend to use the built-in Bluetooth telemetry, the included power cord isn’t lengthy. I wouldn’t choose this bike if I was a space-conscious apartment dweller.

I’m happy with its Apple Fitness+ performance, though. To start a cycling workout, I just need to put my iPhone on the stand, launch the Fitness app and go. The exercise data I care about (heart rate, calories burned, duration) comes from the Apple Watch, so I don’t even need the Connect Sport’s Bluetooth functionality. I would only want to plug the bike into power if I craved the Echelon Fit app’s cadence and resistance info, which aren’t necessary with Apple’s service. Just be prepared to buy a tablet if you plan to use Echelon’s app (in its open-ended “free ride” mode) and Fitness+ at the same time, as you can’t juggle both on one screen.

Fitness+ works about as well as it did when Engadget tried it on launch, but that’s plenty for someone getting back into shape on the Connect Sport. Apple’s cycling coaches are friendly, helpful and accommodate a wide range of ability levels. Instead of demanding precise cadence and resistance ranges like you might see with some services, they frequently ask you to match a song’s beat or tweak the resistance to feel enough leg strain. That may be too fuzzy if you’re eager for consistent numbers, but for me it’s perfect: I’m measuring progress in terms of how well I can sustain an all-out push, not how closely I mimic someone else’s settings. The bike’s resistance knob is easy to adjust, so it’s trivial to ramp up the difficulty if a ride is too much of a cakewalk.

Jon Fingas/Engadget

I’ve found Apple’s cycling workouts challenging enough as someone relatively new to spin bikes while still well-acquainted with structured exercise. For one, there’s a healthy variety of classes now that Fitness+ has been available for over a year. Many of them rely on a familiar hill climb metaphor that alternates between intense pushes and easy recoveries, but I’ve sometimes encountered welcome twists, like rides that get progressively harder without significant breaks. While these classes likely wouldn’t push a pro athlete or dedicated amateur to their limits, they’ve gracefully scaled with me as my abilities improved.

More importantly, the sessions are engaging. I find myself picking workouts based on well-chosen music with some surprisingly deep cuts. Ever rally to nostalgia-inducing late ‘90s dance tracks, or a coach’s favorite heavy metal band? I have. And while the inspirational talk is borderline cliché, the personalities often shine through and help me look forward to classes from my favorite instructors. I just wish there were more episodes suiting my exact music tastes. It’s no fun to “settle” for a rock workout when I really hoped for dance, no matter how thrash-worthy that rock might be.

Jon Fingas/Engadget

As a result, the combination of a Connect Sport with Fitness+ works very well for me. Exercise is a pleasure I look forward to, and I’ve seen tangible improvements to my leg power and even my posture. I wouldn’t recommend the pairing to everyone, though. As you might have guessed, Fitness+ is a no-go if you’re either an Android user or seriously considering a switch. You’re thoroughly locked into Apple’s ecosystem if you sign up between the iPhone, Apple Watch and subscription. I would also pass if I were a pro or serious amateur racer — you just won’t get the detailed stats needed for targeted improvements. Spring for a dedicated sports watch and a more demanding membership instead.

If you do live in Apple’s universe and aren’t competing for glory, though, this duo is easy to recommend. It’s an affordable, effective way to cram some cycling into a packed schedule. Moreover, Echelon’s bring-your-own-device strategy offers a convenient escape hatch if you ever want to ditch a service without replacing your bike or rigging an ad hoc solution. For me, the results speak for themselves: I’m in the best shape I’ve been for two years, and I can’t ask for much better than that.

The long wait is over: Elden Ring has finally arrived. FromSoftware's latest opus has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, but there are some notable issues with the RPG. For one thing, there's a problem with game save data on PlayStation 5 that's worth keeping in mind.

Publisher Bandai Namco said that if your console switches off unexpectedly while you're playing Elden Ring or you put the PS5 in rest mode, "saved data may not be saved correctly." It's working on a fix for the issue, but for now it's best for PS5 players to save their progress manually "by exiting the game regularly." Bandai Namco said your data will be saved properly when you open the menu with the Option button and select Quit Game.

For the time being, it's probably best for PS5 players to exit and restart the game after completing a major event (the bosses already seem tough enough without having to beat them twice) or visiting a site of Lost Grace checkpoint. It's an annoyance that will likely break the level of immersion, but until FromSoftware and Bandai Namco release a patch to fix the issue, exiting the game every so often is still better than losing a big chunk of progress.

The bug is especially grievous given that Elden Ring doesn't have a pause option. PS5 players might have been tempted to put their console into rest mode when they take a break, but it doesn't seem like a great idea to do that for now.

Bandai Namco also says it's working to resolve performance issues, particularly on PC. Those include framerate drops, stuttering, Easy Anti-Cheat not launching for some Steam accounts and the mouse sensitivity being too high. The publisher didn't offer a timeline for rolling out the fixes.

Elden Ring is already a big hit. At the time of writing, Twitch streams have more than 796,000 viewers, an impressive number for a primarily single-player game in this genre. Elden Ring hit peak concurrent viewership of 910,000, according to Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad. Elden Ring is far outpacing the peak player counts of other FromSoftware titles on Steam too. The number of concurrent players has hit a high of 764,835 — even before people have more free time to play at the weekend. 

Dodgebrawl brawler Knockout City will be free-to-play on all platforms, starting with the launch of its sixth season later this year. Game developer Velan Studios will also be publishing Knockout City in-house, instead of through its original publisher, Electronic Arts. According to an announcement published today on the game’s website, this will give Velan the ability to grow Knockout City’s global audience and carry out its vision for the future.

“We couldn’t have introduced Knockout City to the world without the incredible support of EA Originals, but now as we switch to free-to-play, the natural next step is for us to take over publishing responsibilities and work even more closely with our community. We have exciting plans for Knockout City, and bringing publishing in-house will allow us to fully realize our vision for the long-term future of this game. There’s so much to look forward to, because this is just the beginning,” wrote the studio, based in Troy, NY, in its announcement.

As a consequence of Velan focusing on Season 6’s rollout, Knockout City fans can expect Season 5 (to released on March 1) to be a lot lighter. There will be no Brawl Pass, fewer bundles and no new cosmetics. There will also be no new map or new ball. But expect Season 6 to be packed with new features, including a new special ball and multiple maps.

Velan revealed little else about Knockout City’s future, but promised there would be more announcements to come. While the multi-player dodgeball game was a knockout success after launching in May 2021 (it drew roughly 5 million new players in a month), the enthusiasm has died down a bit. Players have complained about the amount of time it takes to match with other players. Going free-to-play will likely reignite the game’s popularity for some time, but players will likely have to tolerate ads or fork over for additional features. For now, Knockout City’s future looks uncertain, but fans should stay tuned.

An off-road racing series that uses hydrogen cars is expected to debut in 2024. Extreme H will be a companion championship to Extreme E, an off-road motorsport with electric vehicles that held its first race last year. The two series will hold races in the same locations on the same days using the same format. According to Alejandro Agag, who also founded Formula E, organizers are looking at two options for hydrogen integration: combined racing or full transition.

Development on the Extreme H car is underway and there are plans to have a prototype ready by early 2023. The vehicle will have the same powertrain and chassis that's used in Extreme E. The main difference is that the central power source will be a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a battery.

Extreme H organizers say that the fuel cells will be powered by green hydrogen, which combines water and solar energy. Extreme E uses the same process to power EV batteries, while the paddock runs on a combination of batteries and green hydrogen.

Peloton today launched Lanebreak, a new series of workouts that mimic a racing game for its connected stationary bike. Riders get behind a virtual wheel, race down a multi-lane highway and gain points for higher levels of output and resistance. The fitness company briefly beta tested Lanebreak last July, and is now launching the new mode as a software update to all Peloton bikes in the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia.

Unlike the majority of other Peloton workouts, there’s no instructor on Lanebreak offering encouragement throughout the ride. Instead, riders can choose from a selection of different pop-centric playlists to listen to in the background, featuring the likes of David Guetta, David Bowie, Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran.

For Peloton riders who are bored with the usual slate of instructor-led classes, Lanebreak adds a change of pace. It’s also the first new program that the fitness company has added to their fitness library in a while, following a major expansion in 2020 that included barre, yoga, pilates and strength training classes.

The fitness company, once a darling of the pandemic, has now run into financial woes due to a decline in demand. Earlier this month, Peloton replaced its CEO and laid-off roughly 20 percent of its workforce in an effort to streamline its expenses. But despite its struggles on Wall Street, Peloton's incredibly loyal customer base has a 96% one-year retention rate. The bikes are a large upfront investment, and few Peloton riders want the added hassle of reselling and moving their $1,495 bike. While it’s unlikely that Lanebreak will recruit new Peloton riders, it’ll add some variety to a fitness library that, for some seasoned riders, has become stale.