Category: Technology

Xbox was well on its way to delivering a sci-fi stylized game with plenty of exciting movement mechanics before an abrupt change of heart. The upcoming third-person shooter RPG codenamed Blackbird from ZeniMax Online Studios, which developed The Elder Scrolls Online, has been “shelved indefinitely,” according to an exclusive report from Bloomberg. The report added that Xbox execs were “blown away” by the game and had “nothing but complimentary words,” according to Bloomberg‘s sources.

The exciting new IP was expected to rival the Destiny franchise with its looter-shooter gameplay in an alien noir-themed world. The Bloomberg report revealed that a sci-fi setting would be paired with movement-based abilities like “double-jumping, air-dashing, a grappling hook and wall climbing.” The project was reportedly gaining momentum recently and was set to be released in 2028, after the studio expanded its team to 300 people.

Microsoft didn’t provide comments to Bloomberg or any explicit reasoning why the Blackbird project was dropped. Not much was known about the game, but TrueAchievements uncovered a plot that revolves around players uncovering a notorious murder in a capital city called Exodus. Along with Blackbird, Microsoft canceled Everwild, a fantasy game from Rare that’s been in development since 2014, and a reboot of the Perfect Dark first-person shooter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xboxs-sci-fi-looter-shooter-blackbird-was-scrapped-even-after-leaving-execs-blown-away-191305493.html?src=rss 

One of Tesla’s fully autonomous robotaxis grazed a parked car after completing a ride recently in Austin, Texas. In a video recorded by YouTuber DirtyTesla, a self-driving Model Y is seen turning and accelerating into a Toyota, making light contact with its tire. As seen in the video, the Model Y already dropped off its passenger, but had trouble navigating out of the dark alleyway afterwards. Tesla’s robotaxi service launched in Austin just two weeks ago with a small fleet.

According to DirtyTesla, there were no serious injuries or damages and the robotaxi’s safety monitor eventually swapped to the driver’s seat and drove off. Although the sideswipe was minor, it’s unclear what caused the Tesla to drive into the parked car instead of driving off normally after completing the ride.

Outside this incident involving another car, other invited guests have shared their unexpected experiences with Tesla’s robotaxi service. So far, we’ve seen the robotaxi service abruptly stop for emergency lights that aren’t on the road and briefly drive on the wrong side of a double yellow line. It’s important to note that Tesla’s self-driving software relies mostly on cameras and artificial intelligence. That’s unlike some of its competition, like Waymo, which uses a combination of cameras, lidar and radar for its robotaxi service. However, Waymo isn’t without its own incidents, one of which led to a voluntary recall of its fleet in Phoenix, Arizona, following a collision with a telephone pole last year. More recently, Waymo issued another recall for its robotaxis, which were reportedly prone to hit roadway barriers that are harder to see.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/a-tesla-robotaxi-inexplicably-drove-into-a-parked-car-171004400.html?src=rss 

You can now send your reMarkable notes and doodles straight to Slack. The companies have announced Slack integration for reMarkable tablets, letting you send whatever you want from the e-paper device straight to your workplace chat in one tap. “…we realized that when there’s friction between thinking and producing, you risk losing time, ideas, and momentum,” reMarkable Chief Technology Officer Nico Cormie said in a statement. By linking the tablet with Slack, there’s less friction between coming up with ideas and sharing them with your team, so you can more easily collaborate with others. 

reMarkable is an e-paper tablet designed to work with a stylus. Simply put, it’s a digital notebook, where you can sketch, write notes, draw, annotate documents and even read ebooks if you want to treat it more as an eReader like the Kindle. If you want to share your notes with Slack, you simply have to go to the menu on the left-hand corner of your device and choose “Send to Slack.” When you do, it opens into a canvas in Slack containing an image of your file with AI-generated notes. If there’s handwritten text in the image, the canvas will also include your notes that AI has converted to editable text. 

To be able to use the Slack integration, you’ll need to be subscribed to reMarkable Connect, which gives you access to unlimited cloud storage and sync for $3 a month. You’ll also need to have a Slack account with a Pro, Business+ or an Enterprise Grid plan. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/slack-now-integrates-with-remarkables-e-paper-tablets-140015983.html?src=rss 

Welcome to our latest roundup of indie game news and releases. It’s a shorter edition than usual this week, but there are still a few interesting games here that are worth having on your radar. 

Also, there’s still plenty of time to pick up some bargains in the Steam Summer Sale. So if you’re planning on bringing your Steam Deck (or ROG Ally or whathaveyou) to a cookout this July 4 weekend and have some change to spare, why not pick up a game or two and try it out? There are a bunch of quality options available for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. We’ve highlighted some of the juicier deals too.

Technically, 8BitDo is an indie gaming company in that it’s an independent enterprise that makes third-party gaming controllers. That’s relevant, because I read a cool story this week in Endless Mode (a new gaming- and anime-focused publication from Paste Media). It’s about how medical students are using tiny 8BitDo controllers to help them study with a flashcard program called Anki. And here’s me thinking those controllers would be most useful for on-the-go Mario Kart World sessions with friends.

New releases

Atuel is one of the more interesting new(ish) games that popped up on my radar this week. After debuting on Itch.io back in 2022, this experimental project just landed on Steam and Google Play.

It’s a short, free experience that should take around half an hour to finish. Atuel is billed as a surrealist documentary about climate change “in which you explore beautiful, dreamlike landscapes inspired by the topography and wildlife of the Atuel River Valley in Argentina.” Add an eye-catching trailer into the mix and I’m quite happy to spend 30 minutes checking this one out. 

We probably shouldn’t expect to see much more from the team behind this one — the crew at indie game co-op Matajuegos called it a day last year. However, the developers have been working on other projects, including their own games.

Upcoming

It’s been a decade since the debut of Turbo Kid, one of my favorite films of all time. It’s a low-budget love letter to Saturday morning cartoons with bucketloads of blood and heart. I love it so very deeply.

A video game that serves as a quasi-sequel arrived on PC in 2024. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it’s coming to Nintendo Switch soon. This is a Metroidvania (in other words, an action platformer) from Outerminds. It has wonderfully gruesome pixel art and a cracking soundtrack from Le Matos, the composers of the film’s score.

I’d highly advise watching the Turbo Kid movie before playing this one. You have a few weeks to do so before the Switch release date of August 5.

FMV games never really went away, and an upcoming one from Tales of Kendra: Zau developer Surgent Studios and Palworld creator Pocketpair’s publishing arm caught my eye this week. Surgent founder Abubakar Salim is an actor himself, so it’s perhaps not too much of a surprise that he’d want top-notch talent for his latest project.

Dead Take stars two of the most highly regarded game actors around In the lead roles: Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil Village) and Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33). In this game, you’ll play an actor who is seaching for a missing frined after a Hollywood party. You’ll solve escape room-style puzzles and piece together videos you find along the way to find out what really happened. Sounds promising!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-surrealist-documentary-about-climate-change-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110021975.html?src=rss 

The Amazon Smart Plug is on sale for just $13 as part of the latest Prime Day event. This is 48 percent off and a record-low, as the typical price is $25. It just might be time to stock up.

The Smart Plug is pretty handy. It plugs into any standard outlet and integrates with Alexa. This means that it provides voice control to many common household items like lamps and coffee makers. It made our list of the best smart plugs and this is especially true for those already tied into Amazon’s ecosystem.

It’s extremely easy to set up and use, particularly for folks who have some experience with the Alexa app. It doesn’t require a smart home hub, as the app itself handles adjustments. The compact design also ensures there’s room for another plug in a standard two-outlet fixture. The plug will automatically reconnect to Alexa after a power or Wi-Fi outage.

We came away impressed with some of the features here. The app allows users to create routines, and we got a small thrill by saying “Alexa, goodnight” and watching everything power down for the evening.

The major drawback here is the app’s lack of sharing capabilities. The app doesn’t let other people in the home access smart home devices, though they should be able to turn stuff on and off with their voice. However, they won’t be able to make routines or adjust settings. It’s also not the cheapest smart plug on the market, but this sale handles that for now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-deals-include-the-amazon-smart-plug-for-only-13-230012394.html?src=rss 

It’s been a rough week at Microsoft. Following the news that 9,000 people are being laid off at the company, one Xbox executive offered some questionable words of advice for people on their way out: Find solace in Microsoft Copilot.

As reported by Aftermath, Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing who clearly did not lose his job recently, took to LinkedIn to let folks know, “You’re not alone and you don’t have to go it alone.” In the same breath as acknowledging that AI evokes “strong feelings in people,” Turnbull suggested that LLMs like ChatGPT and Copilot could “help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.” 

Turnbull went on to provide specific AI prompts that he recommended for recently laid-off people, including, “Write a warm intro message for reaching out to someone at [studio name] about a job posting.” He explained how an LLM could aid overwhelmed developers in planning their careers and punching up their resumés, and also help with “emotional clarity and confidence.”

The post was circulated on Bluesky by Necrosoft Games director and Insert Credit host Brandon Sheffield, where it received a predictably negative reaction. According to Video Games Chronicle, LinkedIn users were similarly unimpressed. Turnbull deleted the post a few hours later. Here’s the full text from the LinkedIn post:

Turnbull’s post, however earnest, comes at a time when Microsoft is seemingly all-in on both AI and layoffs. The 9,000 job losses this week add to over 6,000 announced in May. Microsoft President Brad Smith began 2025 by committing to spend around $80 billion on AI infrastructure through the year, and CEO Satya Nadella recently shared that a large portion of his company’s code is now authored by AI. 

Just last week, Business Insider reported on another executive telling employees that using Copilot is “no longer optional” in an internal memo. One developer at Halo Studios, which was affected by the layoffs, told Engadget’s Jessica Conditt that they felt Xbox leadership was looking to “replace as many jobs as they can with AI agents.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/how-ai-can-help-you-navigate-layoffs-according-to-one-executive-producer-at-xbox-210008717.html?src=rss 

Despite it having upward of 61,000 reviews on Steam, Hades II isn’t actually out yet. The sequel to Supergiant Games’ hugely successful roguelite dungeon crawler has been in early access on PC for over a year, and even the early builds were extremely polished and content-rich for what is still a work-in-progress game. But we (and Switch owners) have been waiting patiently for that 1.0 release date, and it looks like it might be just around the corner, with Supergiant confirming that the latest Unseen Update patch is likely to be the final one ahead of the full launch.

The third major early access update arrived on June 17, and was focused primarily on combat tweaks, as well as adding a new Vow of Rivals that not only made Guardian encounters tougher, but forced players to switch up their strategies for each bout. The latest patch is mainly a host of minor adjustments to existing items and abilities, as well as some balancing on the aforementioned Vow of Rivals Encounters. No more new story content or areas are due to be added ahead of the v.10 launch, with Supergiant confirming back in June that the game’s true ending is being held back for the full release. If you’re a console player or just wanted to hold out until the game is finished, it’s probably safe to start getting excited.

That said, PlayStation and Xbox owners are going to have to wait a little longer, because while we still don’t know Hades II’s release date, we do know that the game is launching on PC and both the Switch and Switch 2 initially, mirroring the release roadmap of its predecessor. The developer has already assured fans that both Nintendo consoles can run the game at a smooth 60 fps, with the Switch 2 version benefiting from the console’s larger 1080p display in handheld mode.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/supergiants-latest-hades-ii-patch-is-likely-its-last-before-launch-190005440.html?src=rss 

Dutch company Fairphone continues to lead the charge on consumer- and planet-friendly electronics, proving that a great phone doesn’t have to be impossible to repair or environmentally unsustainable. The Fairphone 6 has just been released, coming two years after the last generation of the phone built to last. The folks over at iFixit wasted no time in conducting a teardown of this new entry to see how it stacks up against previous generations. The Fairphone 6 scored a perfect 10 out of 10, like every generation of Fairphone bar the very first.

Fairphones are modular, and have been designed with easy repair in mind, but there is one change from the previous generations that makes things harder. Whereas the last few Fairphones have used hard batteries that could be flipped out with your fingernail, the new handset packs a soft-pouch cell that’s thinner than its predecessors. That’s slimmed the phone down, but it does mean the battery is now held in place with five screws.

It’s the same with every other component on the handset, since none of the components are held in with glue. The lack of adhesives does account for the phone’s IP 55 rating, which is lower than the rest of the industry. But given you can’t exactly get Samsung to send you a video guide telling you how to open your phone with nothing more than a T5 Torx screwdriver, so there’s give and take.

iFixit is quick to point out that the Fairphone 6 isn’t a bleeding-edge smartphone, nor is it intended to be. It’s designed from the ground up to be as sustainable and repair-friendly as possible, and this means some trade-offs compared with flagship devices. The Fairphone 6’s use of USB 2.0, a less pixel-dense screen, and only 8GB of RAM are all necessary design choices when built with longer life cycles in mind. Nevertheless, this almost certainly won’t affect the day-to-day use of the handset for most consumers, and owning a device you can truly repair yourself just might be worth it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/fairphone-6-lands-a-perfect-10-for-repairability-190001687.html?src=rss 

Less than a month after Capcom’s surprise announcement of the next Resident Evil game, another new entry has been confirmed. But before Resi fans get too wild with excitement, this one is a mobile spin-off for iOS and Android called Resident Evil Survival Unit. It’s a strategy game that somehow fits into the broader universe, even if it’s not clear how at this point.

We don’t have a lot of concrete information at the moment, with the game set to be fully revealed in a showcase scheduled July 10 at 6pm ET, but we do know that it’s being co-developed by Aniplex Inc and Korean developer Joycity. The latter is currently working on another strategy game called Disney Realm Breakers, with access to various Disney IP including Toy Story and The Incredibles. Joycity is also the studio behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, a free-to-play real-time strategy game that has an average rating of 4.4 from 210 thousand reviews on the Google Play Store.

Strategy is clearly the studio’s favored genre, then, and in its announcement message for Resident Evil Survival Unit it promises the game “expands the global fanbase of Resident Evil to mobile, allowing players to enjoy the world of the series with a new approach that is different from the existing series.” It was also confirmed in a press release that the mobile game is being developed in close collaboration to “ensure authenticity and quality.”

Resident Evil Requiem (the official name for what is technically Resident Evil 9) was announced back in June at SGF 25, and centers on a new character called Grace Ashcroft. For the first time in the series’ history, both first-person and third-person gameplay perspectives will be an option from launch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/resident-evil-is-getting-a-new-mobile-spin-off-game-160044931.html?src=rss 

Samsung has reportedly pushed back the completion of its semiconductor plant in Taylor, Texas, because it has no customers. According to Nikkei Asia, the company is in no hurry to install equipment in the facility due to lack of clients and even though the facility is over 90 percent done. The factory was supposed to come online in 2024, but the company has since pushed back its opening date to sometime in 2026 to upgrade its foundry process. Samsung’s fab was only supposed to be able to manufacture 4-nanometer chipsets, but the company adjusted its plans to give it the capability to manufacture more advanced 2-nanometer chips to be able to compete with rivals like TSMC. Still, the problem persisted. 

If you’ll recall, the plant in Taylor is part of Samsung’s planned $44 billion investment in Texas. When the Biden administration announced that it was giving Samsung up to $6.4 billion in grants as part of the CHIPS Act funding, the company said that the money was going to be spent finishing up the campus in Taylor. But the facility’s development has been troubled for quite a while now. Last year, Reuters reported that Samsung had delayed the deliveries of advanced-chipmaking equipment from ASML to its Taylor facility, since it had yet to sign up any major customer for the plant. 

When Samsung cut jobs around the world last year, some jobs from its Texas operations were reportedly also cut due to production delays. And it’s not just the company’s employees who were affected by the delays: Samsung’s suppliers, some of which are small companies, are also impacted and have had to look for other customers while the facility’s completion is on hold. While Samsung has assured Nikkei Asia that it’s still planning to open the fab in 2026, analysts previously called that into question seeing as it has yet to land volume clients. In fact, South Korean publication The Elec claimed in April that Samsung is now targeting a February 2027 opening date instead of sometime in 2026. The publication said that in addition to the lack of customers, Samsung’s contractors had also pulled out of the project and its on-site workforce is now a fourth of its original size. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsungs-texas-chip-plant-is-reportedly-delayed-due-to-lack-of-customers-140034619.html?src=rss