Category: Technology

You can now play Square Enix’s action RPG Forspoken after several launch delays — as a demo, that is. The developer and publisher has released a demo for the PS5 game on the PlayStation Store at this years Game Awards, where it also announced that Final Fantasy XVI will be available for Sony’s current-gen console on June 22nd, 2023. 

Forspoken was originally supposed to be released in May, but it got pushed back to October 11th and then again to January 24th next year. It looks like Square Enix truly is gearing up for the game’s release this time, now that we’re just a bit over a month before its latest launch schedule. The game puts you in control of Frey Holland, a woman from New York City who’s transported to another world called “Athia,” where she gains magical abilities. There, she must find her way home while battling monsters and the Tantas, who were once “benevolent matriarchs [that] now rule the lands as evil and maddened sorceresses.”

Square Enix says the demo will give you a “deeper look at the devastating effects of the Break,” which is the powerful force responsible for corrupting everything it touches, the Tantas included. Forspoken will also be available on PC via Steam, Epic Games and the Microsoft Store, but the demo only seems to be available for the PS5. If you don’t have access to the console, you can also watch the game’s new trailer below:

 

This week, many of us saw our social media feeds taken over by colorful, surreal pictures of people we follow, except they don’t quite look like themselves. The images were generated by Lensa AI, and it’s the latest in what feels like a now-annual trend to use a new app to create mockups of your face in various scenarios. Alongside Lensa, some folks also saw blocks of text from another AI generator, ChatGPT. So on this episode of the podcast, Devindra and Cherlynn chat the appeal, implications and possible future of these types of AI, before being joined by Engadget editor-at-large James Trew for a check in on the state of action cameras.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

Lensa AI “magic avatars” and ChatGPT – 1:27 

What’s the state of the GoPro-style action camera in 2022? – 23:47 

iPhone users can now share digital car keys with Pixel owners – 43:02 

iOS 16.2 includes time limits on AirDrop receiving – 47:44 

Carl Pei said Nothing wants to come to the US – 53:40 

Working on – 1:08:02 

Picks – 1:10:51 

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Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh

 

The Game Awards gave us a busy night for gaming news.. First up, Idris Elba will star in Cyberpunk 2077’s first big DLC. Phantom Liberty is a spy thriller introducing a new character, FIA agent Solomon Reed, played by Elba. The DLC also includes new missions and a new district in Night City, all of it culminating in “an impossible mission of espionage and survival,” according to developer CD Projekt RED. I wonder if he’ll bump into Keanu Reeves’ character.

A Hades sequel might be the biggest reveal. While the game looks similar to the Supergiant hit, you can expect a new female protagonist, Melinoë, training with the witch goddess Hecate, and generally slaying beasts in the underworld. We also got release dates for Final Fantasy XVI (June 22nd), Street Fighter 6 (June 2nd) and Diablo IV (June 6th). In short, June 2023 is shaping up to be a busy month in gaming.

Hideo Kojima was also ready to reveal his next project, Death Stranding 2 – yes, another sequel. Both Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux will reappear in the game, headed for PS5. Kojima added that his studio is also working on a second, completely new project with an experimental edge. So, not a sequel?

We’ve pulled together all the other big gaming headlines right here. But which game won? FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, of course. It beat games like God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to claim Game Of The Year.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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IKEA’s latest Sonos Symfonisk speaker is a $260 floor lamp

It’s the most expensive member of the Symfonisk lineup.

IKEA and Sonos’ floor lamp collaboration, at $260, is the most expensive speaker in the Symfonisk lineup. Current models range from $120 for a bookshelf speaker (with less than stellar audio) to $250 for musical wall art. And your investment in the floor lamp could creep even higher if you want something other than the included bamboo shade. It’ll launch in January 2023.

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Google merges its Maps and Waze teams

But it says apps will remain separate.

Google is planning to merge its Waze and Maps divisions, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The move aims at reducing duplicated work across the products, but Google said it will still keep the Waze and Maps apps separate. Waze and Maps have been sharing features ever since Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion back in 2013. “Google remains deeply committed to Waze’s unique brand, its beloved app and its thriving community of volunteers and users,” a spokesperson told the WSJ. Waze CEO Neha Parikh will leave her role after a transition period, but there will reportedly be no layoffs.

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Google says it’s making Chrome less of a battery and memory hog

Two new modes should help lighten the load on your desktop or laptop.

With a new Memory Saver mode, Google says Chrome will reduce its memory usage by up to 30 percent on desktop. The mode frees up memory from open tabs you aren’t using. Google says this will help to give you a smoother experience on active tabs. Chrome will reload inactive tabs when you switch back to them. The company has also revealed a Battery Saver mode, which Google says can kick in when you’re using the browser and your device’s battery level drops to 20 percent. Chrome will limit background activity, including tabs with videos and animations. Google says all users will have access to them in the coming weeks, and it’s rolling out the build already.

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EU sets December 2024 deadline for USB-C wired charging on new phones

Expect to see a USB-C iPhone by 2025 at the latest.

The European Union has set a firm deadline for manufacturers to adopt USB-C charging for most electronic devices sold in the region. New phones, tablets, headphones, portable speakers and many other types of devices will need to adopt the standard for wired charging as of December 28th, 2024. Laptop makers will need to switch to USB-C by April 2026.

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Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has picked his companions for SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission to the Moon over a year after he put out a call for potential private astronauts. He chose eight crew members and two backups from various backgrounds to be part of the mission called “dearMoon,” and while application was open to everyone, some of the names will likely stand out when you review the list. One of the people flying with Maezawa on SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is Choi Seung Hyun, better known as T.O.P. from the Korean boy band BIGBANG. 

DJ Steve Aoki is also part of the crew, as well as Tim Dodd, who’s known for creating space-themed content as a photographer and host of YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut. The other crew members include Rhiannon Adam, a photographic artist from Ireland who now works in London and the US, and Yemi A.D., a designer, director, choreographer and non-profit org founder from the Czech Republic. Brendan Hall, a filmmaker who directed projects for National Geographic, Karim Iliya, a filmmaker who documents whales, birds and other threatened species, and Dev D. Joshi, an actor from India, round up the main crew list. Meanwhile, snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew. 

Maezawa said the project received about a million applications from interested individuals around the world who went through a strict selection process. The inclusion of musicians and other creatives doesn’t come as a surprise, since the billionaire originally intended to bring artists with him on the trip in hopes that it would inspire them to create something that promotes world peace. He didn’t say why he chose T.O.P. specifically, but the rapper did don a spacesuit for one of BIGBANG’s music videos.

The dearMoon project was launched in 2018 after Maezawa purchased all the seats for a six-day trip to the Moon from SpaceX. It will fly a single circumlunar trajectory around Earth’s faithful companion and is expected to take place sometime next year, though the actual date depends on Starship’s development. To prepare for the dearMoon mission, Maezawa flew to the ISS last year and spent 12 days on the flying lab shooting videos about life in space. 

 

Riot Games has sued Chinese tech giant NetEase, calling its mobile game Hyper Front “a copy of substantial parts of Valorant,” Law360 has reported. On top of matching the format, NetEase also replicated parts of its character designs, game maps, weapon designs and more, Riot claims. It brought the case to the high court of England and Wales, but is also launching complaints in Germany, Brazil and Singapore, according to Polygon. 

Like Valorant, Hyper Front is a free-to-play first-person shooter that pits teams of five against each other in different modes. In its claim, Riot noted that Hyper Front began development shortly after it revealed an early of Valorant dubbed “Project A” in October of 2019. NetEase, meanwhile, showed off a beta version of Hyper Front under the code name “Project M.” 

The release of Hyper Front in Singapore and other countries prompted complaints from users that it was essentially a “copy” of Valorant. That led to NetEase making modifications to the games, but the level of infringement goes beyond that, Riot said. The modified version of Hyper Front is currently available on Android and iOS stores, boasting more than one million downloads and 48,000+ reviews on Google Play. 

NetEase is currently involved in a dispute with Korea’s PUBG corp. over two NetEase mobile games. Earlier this year, two California judges said NetEase faced an “uphill battle” in challenging a settlement agreement with PUBG. Meanwhile, Riot Games recently settled a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit for $100 million. 

 

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter is currently working on a software update that will give you access to a tool that can clearly show whether you’ve been shadowbanned. The term means different things for different platforms, but being shadowbanned typically makes your posts invisible to other users or makes your profile hard to find without your knowledge. Musk says the upcoming tool will also explain the reason why you’ve been shadowbanned and will give you instructions on how to submit an appeal. 

Instagram has just launched a similar feature with its latest update, letting you know whether you’re currently blocked from recommendations. At the moment, it can only show if you’ve been blocked from recommendations in Explore, Feed and Reels, but Instagram is working on expanding the tool so that you can see if you’re also blocked from showing up in “suggested accounts.” 

Musk didn’t talk about how Twitter will be implementing the feature, but he made the announcement shortly after Bari Weiss released part two of The Twitter Files. In the thread, Weiss said that Twitter used “Visibility Filtering,” which is apparently just another term for shadowbanning, on some conservative personalities. Musk once called himself a “free speech absolutist.” After taking control of Twitter, he started lifting the bans on several controversial users, including former President Donald Trump, The Daily Stormer’sinfamous neo-Nazi creator Andrew Anglin and other white nationalists. 

Advertisers have been fleeing the platform since Musk took over due to concerns about policy changes and the reinstatement of banned accounts. In a blog post late last month, Twitter assured advertisers that “none of [its] policies have changed.” And according to a new report by Reuters, Twitter is gearing up to release a set of ad controls in an effort to lure advertisers back to the website. The controls, which could launch as soon as next week, will reportedly allow advertisers to prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets with the specific keywords they choose.

 

The next Final Fantasy game has a more tangible release date. Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XVI will come to PS5 on June 22nd, 2023. You’ll have to be patient if you plan to play the action RPG on anything else — the company warns that the game won’t come to other platforms until December 31st.

A new trailer accompanying the news offers only brief glimpses of gameplay, but does highlight the plot and the thread of vengeance running throughout. Humans (the Dominant) are waking up massive monsters, the Eikons, but it’s safe to say there will be serious consequences.

The game is the first in the core Final Fantasy series since XV from 2016, and has had a long, winding development history. It was unveiled in September 2020, but Square Enix revealed in December 2021 that the pandemic had pushed it back by half a year — and clearly, it wasn’t close to being ready at that point. The developers said they had a “mountain of challenges” in polishing the game at the time, and it’s now clear they weren’t joking.

 

The first major bit of DLC for Cyberpunk 2077 — unless you count a buttload of patches — is due out in 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. Phantom Liberty is a spy thriller, and it introduces a new character, FIA agent Solomon Reed, who’s played by Idris Elba. The DLC also includes new missions and a new district in Night City, all of it culminating in “an impossible mission of espionage and survival,” according to developer CD Projekt Red.

Phantom Liberty will be the first batch of paid DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, though there’s no word on exactly how much it will cost.

Cyberpunk 2077 came out in December 2020 and was immediately lambasted as a glitchy, unpolished mess by many players and reviewers. CD Projekt Red released a series of fixes for the game and, over time, it’s stabilized and players have found the fun that was hiding there all along.

Elba joins fellow mainstream actor Keanu Reeves in the Cyberpunk universe, and this won’t be the last we’ll hear of the franchise. There’s a fabulous Netflix anime based on the game and CD Projekt Red is already building a full-on sequel, codenamed “Orion.”

 

Although The Game Awards didn’t bring news of a major Elden Ring expansion, there was another juicy announcement for FromSoftware fans. The revered studio is bringing back the Armored Core series after a decade of dormancy. Best of all, you won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. It’s coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam in 2023.

From and publisher Bandai Namco announced the game with a trailer that shows mechs emerging from the embers of an apocalyptic event. The clip doesn’t offer a ton of story details, but it doesn’t have to. The footage is gorgeously detailed and richly rendered enough that the plot can easily take a back seat for now.

What we do know is that you’ll be able to assemble your own mech and freely explore the environment, seemingly with slow, steady movements. According to the Japanese version of the trailer’s YouTube description, you’ll be able to utilize more dynamic movements, fire weapons and engage in close combat when you battle enemies. 

This will be the first mainline Armored Core game since 2012’s Armored Core V (a standalone expansion followed in 2013). After the mammoth success of Elden Ring, From has set its standards extremely high. But if any studio can clear that bar, it’s probably this one.

 

Extremely OK Games, the developer behind the award-winning platformer Celeste, has revealed its new project at this year’s Game Awards. It’s called Earthblade, and just like Celeste, it’s a 2D exploration-action game set in a pixel world. In Earthblade, you’ll play Névoa, which the developer describes as an “enigmatic child of Fate” (with horns) who’s returning to Earth. The trailer shows you some of the obstacles you’ll have to face and the foes you’ll have to defeat while exploring the remnants of a ruined world. Extremely OK also says you’ll be piecing together Earth’s fractured history as you play. 

We wouldn’t be surprised if you have high expectations for Earthblade, seeing as Celeste had won several awards after it was launched. At The Game Awards in 2018, it won best independent release of the year. (Extremely OK didn’t get its winged statue after the show ended, but a fan unknowingly purchased it from eBay and sent it to the developer just earlier this year.) It will take some time before you can play Earthblade and go on an adventure with Névoa, though: The game won’t be available until 2024.