Kalakshar US

Hideo Kojima said in an interview with Vogue Japan earlier this year that an anime based on his game Death Stranding was in the works. Today, Deadline reports that Aaron Guzikowski will write the screenplay for the upcoming animated feature based on the game world. His most recent credit is the sci-fi series Raised By Wolves, but Guzikowski has also worked on movies including Prisoners and Papillon. The animated film will tell “an original story” from the same universe as the already quite cinematic Death Stranding.

Kojima Productions will be involved with this adaptation and Line Mileage is the animation company attached to the project. The executive team at Line Mileage has previous experience making animated series and adaptations. Their bios mention shows such as Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft and Castlevania that have reimagined popular games as animated projects squarely targeting adult viewers.

This film is a separate project from the live-action adaptation that’s being helmed by writer-director Michael Sarnoski with production company A24 (and of course Kojima Productions). And if you can’t wait for either of these movies to wrap to get more Kojima, the release date for Death Stranding 2 is just around the corner.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/animated-death-stranding-movie-gets-its-screenwriter-200537247.html?src=rss 

Waymo’s autonomous cars are heading back to New York City in July, the company announced today. Cars will be manually driven for now, not unlike the mapping tests Waymo ran in 2021, but the company says it ultimately wants to bring the same autonomous ride-hailing service it offers in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles to NYC.

New York state law currently doesn’t allow for the operation of a vehicle without a human driver, an obvious obstacle for a company like Waymo. As a bridge to offering its full service, Waymo says it’s applied for a permit with the New York Department of Transportation to operate vehicles autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel. If NYC DOT approves the permit, the company says this will be the first “testing deployment” of autonomous vehicles in New York City.

Waymo’s previous excursion in New York was focused on navigating city traffic and dealing with icy and snowy weather. Each city the company enters presents a new challenge, but the places Waymo currently operates are primarily in drier, warmer climates. For now, getting the state and city onboard with autonomous vehicles seems like the larger issue.

Outside of New York, Waymo continues to grow. The company recently expanded its service area around San Francisco and Los Angeles, came to Austin with the help of Uber in March and plans to either offer paid rides or test its self-driving system in several other cities over the next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-will-start-testing-its-autonomous-cars-in-new-york-again-190530022.html?src=rss 

Wyze, the Seattle-based tech company that specializes in smart home products and wireless cameras, has released a major security update that it hopes will rebuild some lost trust. The company has been plagued by numerous security failures over the past few years, most notably when an AWS outage led to thousands of users gaining access to recorded videos from other people’s homes. That incident, paired with the company’s history of lackluster responses to security flaws, even led The New York Times to explicitly stop recommending Wyze products more than a year ago.

Now, in a YouTube video announcement that cheekily mentions the AWS outage, Wyze is introducing a new layer of security that the company is calling Wyze VerifiedView. The added layer of security works by embedding a unique user ID into the firmware of a Wyze camera upon setup. The camera in turn stamps that ID onto every photo, video and livestream. Before any device can access that footage, the Wyze software will check that the embedded ID matches the one for the user before it allows the footage or images to be seen.

Wyze is adamant that this new layer is simply building upon its already robust security structure, which the company somewhat meaninglessly says is akin to “barbed wire fencing, booby traps, security guards, acid sharks, laser scanners, and AI robot guard dogs.” While it’s not mentioned in the press release, the announcement video clarified that VerifiedView may never come to older models like the Wyze Cam Pan V1 and V2 due to hardware limitations.

Wyze says it has been pushing this update to its most popular models since the beginning of April, and that users of those models just need to update their firmware and app to receive the update. Which models exactly remains unclear, as Wyze also mentioned that some other models will receive the updates over the coming weeks and months, but again did not specify which models they were referring to.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/wyze-adds-major-security-update-to-its-security-cameras-after-numerous-security-lapses-181735619.html?src=rss 

It’s the end of the line for Beat Saber on PS VR and PS VR2. While you’ll still be able to buy and play the base game on both platforms, as well as any songs and music packs that were released before today (June 18), Beat Games is winding down support for those versions. They won’t get any new songs or music packs. As such, the final song that became available for Beat Saber on PS VR and PS VR2 was Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra.”

Moreover, the PlayStation versions of Beat Saber will lose their multiplayer features on January 21 next year. Beat Games says that it will still provide customer support to players on those platforms.

“As we look to the future and plan the next big leap for Beat Saber, we have made the decision to no longer release updates for PS4 and PS5 starting in June 2025,” Beat Games wrote in a statement on X and its website. “Our passion for VR remains unwavering. We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and what we can bring to Beat Saber fans who have been on this journey with us over the past seven years.”

This change doesn’t impact the Steam VR version of Beat Saber. New songs, music packs and features are still coming to Beat Saber on Steam and Meta Quest platforms.

Meta bought Beat Games back in 2019. In effect, the company is ceasing Beat Saber development on platforms that do not support its own headsets

It’s most likely that Meta and Beat Games are ending their efforts on PlayStation versions of Beat Saber because they’re no longer seeing enough of a return on investment (though ending multiplayer support is an odd move). By all accounts, Meta Quest headsets have far outsold PS VR2 units. 

It could be argued that Sony hasn’t fully gotten behind its own platform. By my count, there are fewer than two dozen PS VR2-exclusive games. The most recent State of Play stream featured only one (non-exclusive) game for the platform, Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow. So, it’s maybe not surprising that Meta is pulling the plug on Beat Saber on PlayStation’s VR headsets.

It’s still a shame though, as Beat Saber arguably remains one of the best VR games around, and maybe even the killer VR app. At this point, it might be best for PS VR2 owners who have a capable-enough PC and want more Beat Saber songs to pick up the PC adaptor and play the game on that platform. After all, Beat Saber is modable on PC (and Meta Quest), and there are thousands of custom song maps available.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/beat-saber-support-is-ending-on-ps-vr-and-ps-vr2-164136655.html?src=rss 

Nintendo just dropped a ton of details about the next major Switch 2 first-party game. Donkey Kong Bananza was the star of a Nintendo Direct livestream this morning and it was filled to the brim with nifty tidbits to get fans excited about the 3D platformer.

The biggest news is the addition of Pauline as DK’s sidekick. She goes all the way back to the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Nintendo really pulled a fast one here, as the first trailer showed the sidekick as an anthropomorphic rock of some kind. This would be in line with Mario’s various partners in his 3D platformers, as he’s teamed up with hats, stars and other inanimate objects.

However, it was all a ruse. Pauline is the sidekick, as she was trapped inside of that rock. Nintendo really went all in with this prank. Even the original box art showed the little rock character, which has now been replaced by Pauline. There’s even a two-player co-op mode in which one person controls Pauline. This will work on GameShare, so it only requires one copy of the game.

There are some major lore implications here. Donkey Kong Bananza features Pauline as a kid and the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet starred her as an adult. This throws everything we know about the arcade game into question. Was Donkey Kong just protecting his surrogate daughter from the evil mustached plumber? Remember, Donkey Kong Jr. featured Mario as the antagonist.

It’s also worth noting that Pauline last appeared in Super Mario Odyssey, as the mayor of New Donk City. Did she create the city to honor her childhood hero? I have so many questions.

Pauline wasn’t the only cool thing that Nintendo revealed today. Donkey Kong Bananza has some light RPG mechanics, in the form of a skill tree. There are outfits to purchase for both DK and Pauline, which is always fun. DK can also turn into other creatures, offering the ape new abilities. Transforming into an ostrich inexplicably grants flight and turning into a zebra lets players run on water.

The trailer also placed a heavy emphasis on the destructive nature of the gameplay. We already knew that DK could destroy just about anything, leading to novel exploration methods, but that looks to be an even bigger part of the game than we thought. Remember how much climbing up anything changed the Zelda formula with Breath of the Wild? This is Donkey Kong’s take on that.

Finally, the game will make use of the Joy-Con’s mouse functionality. There’s a bonus mode where players can sculpt rocks via mouse controls. Donkey Kong Bananza is a Switch 2 exclusive that will be available on July 17. Nintendo is also prepping an Amiibo figure that stars both Donkey Kong and Pauline. This grants a new outfit for Pauline. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-just-revealed-pauline-as-a-surprise-character-in-donkey-kong-bananza-165132377.html?src=rss 

Google will integrate the Veo 3 video generation tool into YouTube Shorts later this summer. This was revealed by YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at a keynote during the Cannes Lions film festival that was transcribed by The Hollywood Reporter.

This means that creators will be able to whip up endless clips via prompts, as Mohan said “the possibilities with AI are limitless.” He went on to opine that “anyone with a story to share can turn their dream into a career” and “anyone with a voice can bring people together and change the world,” thanks to “cutting-edge AI technology.” Those are some high-falutin words for something that’ll likely mostly be used to create clips of dogs playing piano or whatever.

To that end, there’s the AI slop of it all. I use YouTube Shorts primarily to watch quick tutorials or clips of comedians. I don’t want AI-generated tutorials because I think they’ll probably offer incorrect information. I don’t want AI-generated comedians because they aren’t funny. So this isn’t for me. If the platform becomes too stuffed with AI I’ll just move onto TikTok or, gasp, Instagram Reels.

It’s worth noting that YouTube already uses an older version of Veo for its Dream Screen background generation tool. However, Veo 3 is a fairly massive upgrade. It can generate full clips, with both video and sound, from prompts. It’ll be able to crank out YouTube Shorts that look mostly real but maybe sort of a bit off if you squint.

There’s an elephant in this AI-generated room. Veo 3 could easily be used to deepfake celebrities and pre-existing creators. The company is trying to get ahead of this by partnering with the talent agency CAA and creators to develop a tool that gives celebrities and other high-profile people control over their likeness on the platform.

Here’s another lingering question. Will current successful creators that actually make stuff want to share the wealth with people who spit a few words into a chat field? More than 25 percent of people enrolled in YouTube’s Partner Program make money from Shorts. This could scare some of them to rival services. We’ll keep an eye on how this Veo 3 integration impacts traffic metrics of the various short-form video platforms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/google-is-adding-the-veo-3-video-generator-to-youtube-to-slopify-shorts-155339183.html?src=rss