Amazon Games is winding down King of Meat

King of Meat‘s reign is ending. The game will end service on April 9, less than a year after its October 2025 debut. The Amazon Games-published title will be playable until that date, but will then be taken entirely offline. 

“Despite the creativity and innovation Glowmade brought to King of Meat, the game has unfortunately not found the audience we hoped for,” the announcement read. 

Developer Glowmade had high hopes for King of Meat, its debut game, but it fell starkly short of expectations. The developer wanted a concurrent player count of at least 100,000, but peaked at 320, according to Insider Gaming. The game had a multi-million dollar marketing budget that included a video on MrBeast’s YouTube channel and custom-wrapped London buses. The company even made a pilot for an animated TV show. Here at Engadget, we were so-so on a preview version of the game

December brought voluntary redundancies to Glowmade after previous assurances to staff. Anyone who has purchased King of Meat will be able to get a refund through their purchase platform and, in most cases, these refunds should process automatically by April 9. 

While it seems that King of Meat struggled to reach its audience, Amazon has a history of pulling games that are popular. Last fall, Amazon Games announced it would wind down support for New World: Aeternum, which first debuted in 2021. The news came as the division faced layoffs, but just that week the game had reached almost 50,000 concurrent players on Steam. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/amazon-games-is-winding-down-king-of-meat-113049172.html?src=rss 

Apple will start making Mac minis in the US

Starting later this year, Apple will start manufacturing Mac minis meant for sale in the US within the country. The company took The Wall Street Journal on a tour of its Houston facility, where Foxconn is also building servers for Apple Intelligence, and was shown an empty warehouse. Apple says it will turn the space into a 220,000 square feet plant where it will produce the compact desktop computers. The decision to produce Mac minis for local sales within the US is part of the company’s efforts to make good on its pledge last year that it will spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years.

If you’ll recall, Apple announced it was going to ramp up its investments and hiring in the US after Tim Cook met with President Trump. The president said at the the time that the company was growing its US investments because it wanted to avoid tariffs. Prior to that pledge, during the Biden administration in 2021, Apple vowed to invest $430 billion domestically over the following five years.

As the Journal notes, Apple previously made Mac Pros in a facility in Texas, but production in the plant has dwindled in recent years. Sabih Khan, Apple’s COO, told the Journal that the company feels more confident in projecting the Mac mini’s long term demand. At the same time, the model makes up a tiny portion of Apple’s sales, making it one of the company’s best options if it wants bring more production into the US. It will be incredibly difficult, after all, to move the production of a more in-demand product, say the iPhone, stateside. The companies making and assembling iPhones in China already have factories fitted for and people with skills honed for the production of Apple’s best-selling device.

Khan said the Houston facility will be able to meet local demand as production ramps up, insinuating that it might start small. Apple will also continue manufacturing Mac minis in Asia for everyone else in the world.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-will-start-making-mac-minis-in-the-us-101000341.html?src=rss 

Tesla sues California DMV after it banned the term ‘Autopilot’

Tesla is suing California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to reverse a ruling that prevented the automaker from using the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” to sell cars, CNBC reported. That follows a December ruling by a California administrative law judge that forced Tesla to clean up its marketing language or risk a suspension of its sales license. Last week, the DMV determined that Tesla had made the necessary changes, including changing the name to “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” and that no suspension would occur.

However, if you had “Tesla is going to sue them back” in your office pool, you can go ahead and claim your prize. The company filed a complaint on February 13 alleging that the DMV “wrongfully and baselessly” called Tesla a false advertiser. Calling the order “factually wrong” and “unconstitutional,” Tesla demanded that order be set aside.

The DMV had originally argued that Tesla’s terms for its driver assistance program gave consumers the impression that its cars were safe to drive without a human at the wheel. However, Tesla said that the DMV never proved that buyers were confused and that it was “impossible” to buy a Tesla without seeing “clear and repeated statements” that its systems aren’t fully autonomous. 

Tesla’s appeal of the ruling isn’t a shocker given that the company is essentially betting its future on autonomous vehicles. CEO Elon Musk has long promised buyers that its vehicles would eventually become fully autonomous and that you’d even be able to rent them out to provide robo-taxi services. “If you fast forward a year, maybe [15 months], we’ll have over a million robo-taxis on the road,” he wrongly predicted back in 2019.

Following a sales decline last year that was particularly steep in Europe, Tesla is banking on its Cybercab two-seater to boost its fortunes. The company has started limited testing of automated vehicles as part of its Robotaxi pilot in Austin, Texas. 

Last week, however, Tesla lost an appeal in a $243 million lawsuit verdict over a 2019 crash of a Model S — largely over its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.” Last month, the company canceled Autopilot, its basic of advanced driver assistance tier, on new Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and switched its FSD (Supervised) tier to subscription-only.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-sues-california-dmv-after-it-banned-the-term-autopilot-090845766.html?src=rss 

Beyond the Price Tag: Understanding the Turkish Hair Transplant

Hair loss is a common issue that affects millions of people globally, impacting their self-confidence and overall well-being. With the rise of advanced hair restoration techniques, more individuals are seeking reliable solutions to regain a fuller, natural-looking hairline. Among the various options available, one of the most popular and cost-effective solutions is a hair transplant…

Hair loss is a common issue that affects millions of people globally, impacting their self-confidence and overall well-being. With the rise of advanced hair restoration techniques, more individuals are seeking reliable solutions to regain a fuller, natural-looking hairline. Among the various options available, one of the most popular and cost-effective solutions is a hair transplant… 

Anthropic accuses three Chinese AI labs of abusing Claude to improve their own models

Anthropic is issuing a call to action against AI “distillation attacks,” after accusing three AI companies of misusing its Claude chatbot. On its website, Anthropic claimed that DeepSeek, Moonshot and MiniMax have been conducting “industrial-scale campaigns…to illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models.”

Distillation in the AI world refers to when less capable models lean on the responses of more powerful ones to train themselves. While distillation isn’t a bad thing across the board, Anthropic said that these types of attacks can be used in a more nefarious way. According to Anthropic, these three Chinese AI firms were responsible for more than “16 million exchanges with Claude through approximately 24,000 fraudulent accounts.” From Anthropic’s perspective, these competing companies were using Claude as a shortcut to develop more advanced AI models, which could also lead to circumventing certain safeguards.

Anthropic said in its post that it was able to link each of these distilling attack campaigns to the specific companies with “high confidence” thanks to IP address correlation, metadata requests and infrastructure indicators, along with corroborating with others in the AI industry who have noticed similar behaviors.

Early last year, OpenAI made similar claims of rival firms distilling its models and banned suspected accounts in response. As for Anthropic, the company behind Claude said it would upgrade its system to make distillation attacks harder to do and easier to identify. While Anthropic is pointing fingers at these other firms, it’s also facing a lawsuit from music publishers who accused the AI company of using illegal copies of songs to train its Claude chatbot.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-accuses-three-chinese-ai-labs-of-abusing-claude-to-improve-their-own-models-205210613.html?src=rss 

What Happened to Kara Braxton? WNBA Champ’s Car Accident & Tragic Death

Kara Braxton, a two-time WNBA champion, died at 43 on February 21, 2026, following a car accident. Learn more about her and the incident here.

Kara Braxton, a two-time WNBA champion, died at 43 on February 21, 2026, following a car accident. Learn more about her and the incident here. 

Bungie says ‘no second chances’ if you’re caught cheating in Marathon

Bungie isn’t taking any prisoners when it comes to cheating on its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon. In a detailed blog post explaining its anti-cheat measures, Bungie took a very declarative position against those caught trying to gain an unfair advantage.

“We are taking a strong stance against cheating and anyone found to be cheating or developing cheats will be permanently banned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances,” the blog post read, adding that there will be an appeals system in place.

However, Bungie’s anti-cheat standards go beyond punishment. In the blog post, Bungie detailed that Marathon‘s dedicated servers have full authority on movement, shooting, actions, and inventory. Since these key actions rely on the server, it will translate to smoother gunplay for players as well as the prevention of cheats related to teleportation, unlimited ammo or damage manipulation. Bungie is also incorporating a “Fog of War” system that limits an individual player’s client to see only certain regions of a map, which should prevent wall hacks, ESP cheats or loot revealers. 

On top of these robust regulations, Bungie is utilizing BattlEye, a kernel-level anticheat that’s seen with other popular multiplayer shooters like Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege and Destiny 2. Bungie added that in the event of disconnecting, you’ll be able to reconnect to your run without any hitches. If players can’t reconnect due to an issue with the servers, Bungie said it will “attempt to return the starting gear to all impacted players.”

Marathon isn’t out until March 5, but Bungie is doing a preview weekend with the Server Slam event starting February 26. Still, it’s obvious that Bungie already wants to get ahead of the competition, since Arc Raiders, another recently released extraction shooter, has been dealing with its own cheating problem. To address the rise in cheating, the game’s developer, Embark Studios, implemented a three-strike system, which some players have criticized as too lenient.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bungie-says-no-second-chances-if-youre-caught-cheating-in-marathon-191633998.html?src=rss 

Summer Game Fest runs from June 5-8

It’s getting to be that time of year again. Summer Game Fest officially kicks off on June 5 and will go until June 8. The Live Kickoff show will once again be hosted by Geoff Keighley and takes place on June 5 at 5PM ET. This is where we’ll see all of those juicy reveals and trailers.

The opening event will be streamed globally on just about every digital platform, including YouTube, Twitch, X and even Steam. Those in the Los Angeles area will be able to pick up tickets for the live show sometime in the Spring.

The kickoff event is just the beginning. There’s something called Play Days, which is an expo in downtown LA produced by iam8bit. This invite-only event promises “immersive exhibits and hands-on experiences from the industry’s leading publishers and developers.” Coverage of this will be shared across digital and social platforms.

There is, of course, another Day of the Devs livestream scheduled for immediately after the kickoff. Day of the Devs: SGF Edition should provide us with even more trailers and reveals, this time for indie games.

Finally, there’s a “thought leadership event” on June 8 that’s primarily for developers and publishers. Game Business Live “brings together top industry voices on one stage for insightful discussions on key changes, challenges and opportunities shaping the global video game industry.”

We’ll be covering the event live and will have all of those trailers ready to go. After all, that’s pretty much the main reason people watch these things.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/summer-game-fest-runs-from-june-5-8-193054418.html?src=rss 

Why Was Kash Patel at the Olympics? About the FBI Director’s Hockey Team Celebration

The U.S. FBI Director was seen in a viral video partying with the American men’s hockey team after their big win against Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The U.S. FBI Director was seen in a viral video partying with the American men’s hockey team after their big win against Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Ball x Pit will land on iOS and Android on March 12

Ball x Pit, a delightful roguelite that was one of our favorite games of last year, is on the way to mobile devices. The chaotic brick-breaking action is coming to iOS and Android on March 12. There will be a free trial with no ads, and you can unlock the full game with an in-app purchase. This is Ball x Pit “for your pants pocket,” according to the latest trailer.

For the uninitiated, Ball x Pit is sort of a mix of Breakout and Vampire Survivors with some base building (and elements of many other genres) blended in. It’s all about finding powerful synergies between the character(s) you select, passive abilities and the balls you use to take out enemies before they get too close to damage you. These balls are regular ones that deal damage on impact (aka baby balls) or special balls that are infused with a range of effects and powers, such as Lightning, Ghost and Poison. These special balls can be fused to combine their effects or evolved into more powerful versions.

BALL x PIT is going MOBILE! 📱🏐

🗓️ Launching on iOS & Android March 12

💸 Try-before-you-buy: try it for free, no ads! Love it? Unlock the full game with a single in-app purchase and keep BALLing forever!

Pre-order now on the App Store and Google Play! pic.twitter.com/3MmJ6dGNzp

— BALL x PIT 🏐 REGAL UPDATE OUT NOW (@BALLxPIT) February 23, 2026

On each run, you’ll collect blueprints and resources that you’ll use to reconstruct a fallen town. Buildings unlock new characters and abilities that can aid you on your next run. Everything synergizes beautifully in Ball x Pit.

Ball x Pit should work well with touch controls on mobile. You can set the balls to fire automatically, so all you really need to worry about is moving your character and aiming, as well as choosing your next upgrade when you earn enough experience gems.

The first of three planned updates for this year arrived in January. I’m still waiting for developer Kenny Sun to add cross-progression since I’ve already plowed dozens of hours into this game on PS5, PC and Xbox — it’s available on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 as well. Ball x Pit is also currently on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ball-x-pit-will-land-on-ios-and-android-on-march-12-175159137.html?src=rss 

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