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.

The backlash to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to build. According to Variety, Netflix has “paused” all future projects it had planned to undertake within the country. The company had four original productions underway in Russia, including one directed by Dasha Zhuk that was in shooting before the decision. According to Deadline, Netflix has one untitled series that will be completed. The fate of the two other projects is less clear. In particular, the company reportedly hasn't made a decision about what to do with Anna K, its high-profile adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

The move comes after Netflix said it would not comply with Russia’s Vitrina TV law. The measure requires that audiovisual companies with more than 100,000 subscribers carry 20 free state channels, including NTV and Spa. In December, the country’s Roskomnadzor telecom regulator said Netflix would have to comply with the law, but Russia had yet to enforce it before the company made its decision at the start of the week. At the time, Netflix said it had “no plans” to offer the required programming due to the “current situation.”

Like that move, the decision to halt a handful of productions may be more of a symbolic gesture than a major sacrifice on Netflix’s part. The company only began offering a localized version of its platform in Russia about a year ago, and it reportedly has fewer than 1 million subscribers in the country. It also doesn't have an office in the country, nor any employees.   

We've reached out to Netflix for comment. 

Chiplets (blocks of integrated circuits) are increasingly common in chip design, and some of the tech world's biggest companies want to make them more ubiquitous. Tom's Hardwarereports a coalition including AMD, ARM and Intel has launched a Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) standard meant to ease "die-to-die" connections in hardware and software. If all goes well, a designer could "mix and match" chiplets from different companies to create an ideal system-on-chip.

The alliance has already ratified a UCIe 1.0 specification. The partners include a mix of chip and cloud heavyweights like Google, Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung and TSMC.

It could take a long while before you see chips built using the new standard. The UCIe group still has to work on defining the form factor, protocols and other details.

The appeal for the companies involved is clear, though. Companies could speed up development of CPUs and SoCs by using ready-made chiplet designs instead of crafting their own from scratch. They could also sell chiplets to other companies and increase the reach of their technology. Chips might become more homogenous, but they might show up sooner or deliver more consistent performance. That could be helpful in a whole host of devices, ranging from phones through to the servers that power cloud services.

Russia's space agency has refused to launch OneWeb internet satellites unless the company provides assurances they won't be used for military purposes and the UK sells its stake in OneWeb. Roscosmos was scheduled to launch 36 satellites on a Soyuz rocket on Friday.

Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said the agency made the demands in response to the UK issuing sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, as CNBC reports. Among other things, the government banned Russian ships from entering UK ports and sanctioned most of Russia’s financial system.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK's business and energy secretary, suggested Roscosmos' demands were a non-starter. "There's no negotiation on OneWeb: the UK Government is not selling its share," he wrote on Twitter. "We are in touch with other shareholders to discuss next steps." Rogozin said he'd give the UK two days to reconsider.

To date, 428 OneWeb satellites have been launched to low Earth orbit on Soyuz rockets. OneWeb plans to provide global internet coverage from space using 648 first-generation satellites.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has delivered Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine following a pledge by Elon Musk. It's believed that the government may use Starlink to stay online as the conflict continues.

Rejoice now, ye Tarnished. Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has released an update that sorts out an issue where the game would not save your progress on PlayStation 5 if the console crashed or if it lost power while in Rest Mode. Before the release of patch 1.02.2, the company told players they could ensure their progress was saved by manually exiting Elden Ring. Now, you don’t have to take that precaution.

The update is also available on PC and promises to at least partially address that version’s well-documented issues with stuttering and framerate drops. “Fixed an issue where the graphics card was not being used, resulting in slow performance,” the patch’s changelog notes. Among other bug fixes, the patch solves an issue that would cause Elden Ring to crash under certain circumstances when players fought the Fire Giant boss.

Epic Games is continuing its habit of buying creator-friendly companies. The Fortnite developer has announced plans to acquire the online music platform Bandcamp. The move will help Epic build a "creator marketplace ecosystem" based on "fair and open" platforms, according to the companies. Bandcamp will still run its standalone store and community, and co-founder Ethan Diamond will continue to lead its operations.

The two didn't say how much the deal was worth or when they expected to finalize the arrangement. Bandcamp has grown over the years and has paid musicians close to $1 billion so far, Diamond said.

The move follows a string of creativity-related acquisitions at Epic, including ArtStation, Cubic Motion and Sketchfab. While a music platform is an unusual purchase, it reflects Epic's evolution from a purely game-oriented company to one that produces visual effects tools for shows like The Mandalorian and turns games into creative platforms. While Bandcamp's exact role at Epic isn't known, it could easily help artists in various mediums profit from their work.

In what should come as a surprise to no one, Carl Pei’s Nothing has reportedly been busy at work developing a smartphone. According to TechCrunch, the startup plans to announce the device by sometime next month. Details on the phone are sparse, but it’s said to borrow design cues from the company’s Ear 1 wireless earbuds. Specifically, it will reportedly incorporate the “elements of transparency” found on Nothing’s first product. TechCrunch reports Nothing showed off the device to industry executives at Mobile World Congress, currently underway in Barcelona, Spain.

Beyond those details, the outlet doesn’t say much about the phone itself. But given Pei’s past involvement in OnePlus, that might be enough to get smartphone enthusiasts excited. After all, for the seven years that he was involved with the company, OnePlus released some of its most talked-about phones, including the OnePlus One, 3T and 6, and built a devoted fanbase on the back of its design and software philosophies.

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.

It's official: Apple just sent out invitations for its first event in 2022 and it will happen on March 8th at 10am PT. The invite, which usually offers subtle hints as to what we can expect, features the words "Peek performance." That's right — "peek" not "peak." The company is expected to launch the next-gen iPhone SE and iPad Air, along with new Macs. According to a Bloomberg report, an M2 chip may also be coming as part of the transition to Apple Silicon. 

Considering the last iPhone SE was launched in 2020, it does seem like an updated model is overdue. Apple's compact, sub-$400 handset is one of the last remaining to still have a home button on the front below the display. It also has a single rear camera, and generally feels like a throwback to phones from five years ago. This year's model may bring Face ID and 5G support, with a design that could be similar to 2018's iPhone XR. 

Apple launched updated MacBook Pros in October, powered by its then-new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. But it appears the company is already ready to bring M2-devices to us, with filings for several Macs having popped up in the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) database.

Whatever Apple is announcing, we will be covering the news and will also have a livestream following the company's keynote to discuss what was unveiled. Be sure to join us on the Engadget YouTube channel then to get your burning questions answered.