The return of Gamergate is smaller and sadder
A group of gamers has mobilized a harassment campaign against a story consultant company, marginalized developers, and journalists in protest of what they see as ‘forced’ diversity in gaming.
A group of gamers has mobilized a harassment campaign against a story consultant company, marginalized developers, and journalists in protest of what they see as ‘forced’ diversity in gaming.
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I kinda love this not-Lego-brick model gaming rig, complete with build-it-yourself components including motherboard, RAM, “GeForce RTX” graphics card, power supply, and two SSDs. And RGB lighting, obviously.
There’s also a 90’s beige box PC kit with a tiny brick floppy drive and CD-ROM drive, as well as a little keyboard and mouse.
Plus, in this week’s Installer: how the Apple Car failed, a great Cold War doc, an AI texting app, and much more.
Xbox didn’t get Baldur’s Gate 3’s most recent updates due to a bug that caused the game to crash on the Series X / S. This prevented players from loading cross-saves on platforms with the update.
But now, Larian has announced that hotfixes #20, #21, and #22 are coming to Xbox, which should fix any issues with syncing game saves. The latest update also addresses some crashes and issues with Minthara’s dialogue.
He’s expected to show a new high-end AI chip dubbed the B100, Reuters reported last week; apparently the new server-grade Blackwell GPUs can consume 1,000 watts each. Nvidia’s GTC keynote kicks off at 1PM PT / 4PM ET — just 15 minutes after I first published the words you’re reading.
“I did not handle this situation well from top to bottom, and that is why I have been completely roasted on this app,” said Rep. Jeff Jackson, who posted an explanation of his vote to ban TikTok on TikTok.
He tried to clear up his vote by explaining he thinks a ban is unlikely, but some commenters are still livid.
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A24’s phenomenal new surrealist comedy feels like a story that only writer / director Julio Torres could pull off.
Live-action Star Wars show The Acolyte will bring the High Republic era of the franchise to TV for the first time on June 4th.
StarWars.com announced the show’s premiere date with this less-than-subtle bloody lightsaber poster, reading “In an age of light a darkness rises.” Spoooooooky. Also, the site says to expect the series’ official teaser trailer tomorrow.
As athletes increasingly cut out the media middleman, basketball stars LeBron James and JJ Redick are launching a podcast, reports The Athletic. But unlike so many other celebrity podcast deals, they are doing so independently and with no official sponsor. To be fair, it doesn’t seem like James or Redick need the money.
Update 6:20PM ET: Added YouTube embed for Mind the Game.
From March 21st to March 23rd, 100 cameras will be sold daily on a first come, first served basis for $1,999. ($400 more than the regular X100VI).
It’s already plenty hard to buy the “regular” X100VI — it’ll be even harder when there’s only 300 of them.
So far, the obvious giveaway phrases (“As of my last knowledge update in September 2021,” and “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic”) are appearing primarily in low-tier journals. But after Penis Rat, I am somewhat concerned about the quality of peer review.
[404 Media]
The NCAA’s March Madness Live app is also getting a new, swipeable vertical video highlights feed.
The “Vision Pro compatibility” means the iPad app, so you won’t get any “spatial” features, but at least it’s there (unlike, say, YouTube). What, did the Samsung Gear VR app not do well or something?
The NCAA also says it’s offering “expanded live game radio” for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
[NCAA.com]
Stardew Valley’s next update, due out on PC tomorrow, has added a very special, very specific feature: the ability to drink mayonnaise. ConcernedApe, the cozy farming sim’s developer, tweeted the news without context or explanation. There is no information on whether this was the fulfillment a long-asked for feature or something else.
The legendary Japanese composer wanted to record his final concert. So he asked his son, Neo Sora, to direct it.
If it’s been a while since you thought about Sofia Boutella in Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire as Imperium soldier Kora, there’s a solid chance Rebel Moon — Part Two The Scargiver’s new trailer will leave you more than a bit confused about what’s going on.
The movie hits Netflix on April 19th.
The automaker (parent company to Jeep and Dodge) announced a purchase of 8.3 million shares in eVTOL company Archer, in a deal roughly worth over $39 million. Stellantis already has a deal to manufacture Archer’s electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which are set to launch in 2025. Today’s open market stock purchase is meant to signal “Stellantis’ continued confidence in Archer’s plans” to bring its aircraft to market. Despite numerous layoffs, trade secret disputes, and company shutdowns, the eVTOL true believers are still racing to get something in the air to prove all this cash burn has been worth it.
The company credits the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) for the 164 percent increase in new iOS users it saw from March 5th to the 7th. Opera also saw significant user growth in specific countries, including a 402 percent spike in France and a 143 percent boost in Spain.
Apple started letting iPhone users choose their default browser as part of its compliance with the DMA earlier this month. Besides Opera, Brave and Firefox are also seeing more iPhone users in the EU.
On The Vergecast: what we do and don’t know about TikTok, why all the other apps are trying to be TikTok, and the photo scandal rocking the royals.
Minute Media, which operates an even less dangerous version of Medium for pro athletes called The Players’ Tribune, is picking up the contract to run Sports Illustrated after the previous operators published AI-written content, fired the CEO, laid off the entire staff, and said it would close the print magazine. This all really happened!
Anyway, Minute Media specializes in “short form sports content creation,” and its CEO Asaf Peled says tells the New York Times that SI will somehow continue to do in-depth journalism even though it is “an exception to our core strategy.” Sure.
[The New York Times]
The Information reports on GPT Store developers disappointed by a lack of customers for their ChatGPT-style products and limited analytics support. One developer claims his role-playing chatbot “could have gotten more traffic by partnering with a small influencer on TikTok” after being featured for two weeks.
Verge reporter Emilia David had questions about the value of the GPT Store after struggling to “find a use” for chatbots made by other users, and it’s not clear if there are any great answers yet.
[The Information]
You can easily watch most of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies on Disney Plus if the mood strikes you. But if you’ve been yearning to see Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland’s Peters Parker back on the big screen, you’ll have a shot at catching all eight of the past Spidey films in select theaters beginning April 15th.
Murthy v. Missouri could change how platforms deal with covid misinfo, election threats, and more.
After the bombshell reveal of the R3 and R3X earlier this month, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that the EV company also has high-performance versions of the R1T and R1S vehicles in the works. A member of the Rivian owners forum (flagged by Breaking News) noticed a trademark filing with the USTPO for “R1X,” which suggests there could be a Tesla Plaid-rivaling Rivian on deck.
[Rivian Forum – Rivian R1T & R1S News, Pricing & Order...]
There’s a lot in this Wall Street Journal profile of ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro. The switch to streaming; the Hulu for Sports plan; the battle over ever-more-expensive sports rights. But the undercurrent here is pretty clear: if ESPN can make all that work over the next couple of years, Pitaro might get Bob Iger’s office. (But that’s a really, really big if.)
You figured it was true, now we’ve got earnings-call data from the largest 500 companies to back it up, thanks to Factset. “AI” mentions began to spike in late 2022 just as OpenAI announced ChatGPT. Nvidia cited “AI” the most in Q4 2023 as it rode the brain-replacement wave to a record market cap. Apple — the company rumored to be partnering with Google or OpenAI — didn’t even make the top ten list.
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