Kalakshar US

Alas, The Last of Us Online will never see the light of day. Naughty Dog has announced that it has “made the incredibly difficult decision to stop” its development. It explains that the online team had a clear vision of the project and had already refined its gameplay. However, it soon became clear when the company was ramping the game up to full production that it was going to bite off more than it can chew. If it releases an online game, it has to dedicate all its resources to supporting post launch content in the future. That means becoming a studio that exclusively offers live gaming services — one with no capacity to release more single-player narrative games like the original The Last of Us titles. 

The studio first gave us a peek at concept art from the project in 2022, but it offered very little in terms of updates since. After the PlayStation Showcase in May, it admitted that it knows fans of the franchise are looking forward to hearing more about the game but that it realized that it needed more time to work on it and couldn’t share details just yet. Bloomberg reported shortly after that, though, that the studio had already reassigned developers working on the project to other teams and was reconsidering its viability. Clearly, Naughty Dog has decided its path, and it doesn’t lead to the release of an online title. The developer says it has “more than one ambitious, brand new single player game” in the works and will be sharing what’s next when it’s ready.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/naughty-dog-cancels-development-on-the-last-of-us-online-055333989.html?src=rss 

Despite Elon Musk’s earlier attempts to avoid further testifying for the Twitter-takeover investigation, his luck appears to have run out. Reuters reported that in a San Francisco hearing on Thursday, a federal judge shot down Musk’s attorney’s challenge on whether the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) officials had the power to issue subpoenas, thus ruling that the exec must therefore comply with the regulator and appear for testimony. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler was quoted saying, “you’ve got one more four-hour deposition, one more day of depositions to survive and it’s over.” Failing that, the judge would have to issue an order.

The SEC’s ongoing probe dives into Musk’s late disclosure of his stake in Twitter — a publicly-traded company back then — which went against the requirements of US securities law. This 10-day delay on the paperwork, along with some potentially misleading information within, may have earned the exec as much as $156 million, according to The Washington Post. Former Twitter shareholders also filed a class-action lawsuit against Musk over his controversial $44 billion takeover of the social media platform, which has since been renamed X.

While it’s unlikely that Musk can skip future testimonies for this case, he would be better off heeding Beeler’s advice, regardless. “It seems unlikely there’s going to be any more hassle,” the judge added, should the world’s richest man “work it out” with the SEC. Whether that would help his case is a whole different matter, of course.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-will-have-to-testify-in-secs-twitter-probe-after-all-050742127.html?src=rss 

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is the latest public figure to question how Meta is moderating content during the Israel-Hamas war. In a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Warren raises several issues reported by Instagram users since October 7, and presses Meta for more information about its underlying policies and how much content the company has taken down related to the conflict.

In the letter, Warren cites reports from the media and human rights groups about inconsistencies in the company’s moderation practices since the start of the war. In particular, she notes that numerous Instagram users have accused the company of “shadowbanning” them for posting about the conditions in Gaza. She also references a third-party audit, commissioned by Meta and published last year, that found the company violated Palestinians’ right to free expression in 2021, the last time there was a major escalation in violence in the Gaza Strip.

“Reports of Meta’s suppression of Palestinian voices raise serious questions about Meta’s content moderation practices and anti-discrimination protections,” Warren writes. “Social media users deserve to know when and why their accounts and posts are restricted, particularly on the largest platforms where vital information-sharing occurs.”

The letter asks for detailed information about how Meta is enforcing its policies in the context of the war. For example, it asks Meta to disclose statistics about the number of posts that have been removed since October 7, and how many of those takedowns have been appealed. It also asks Meta to explain reports that the company hid numerous Instagram comments with Palestinian flags for being “potentially offensive.”

The letter gives Zuckerberg a January 5 deadline to respond to the questions. Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Meta has come under increasing scrutiny for its moderation practices since October 7. The company has publicly blamed several issues on unspecified technical glitches and bugs, but has also acknowledged taking temporary emergency measures to slow the spread of potentially harmful content.

Meta’s independent Oversight Board is also fast-tracking two cases related to the Israel-Hamas war content, the first time the group has opted to expedite its usual months-long process. The board said at the time it had seen a surge in appeals from Facebook and Instagram users since the start of the conflict.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elizabeth-warren-is-demanding-more-transparency-from-meta-on-how-its-handling-content-about-palestine-on-instagram-220226606.html?src=rss