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Tag: Video games

  • Battlefield 6 RedSec: How to Find and Use Mobile Redeploy Strike Packages – Our Culture

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    The February update kicks off the hotly anticipated Season 2 of Battlefield 6 RedSec, alongside introducing a massive tactical upgrade called the Mobile Redeploy Strike Package. Until now, if a squad member got wiped, you had to find a redeployment beacon somewhere in Fort Lyndon, trigger it, and hold your position while a siren literally invited every nearby squad to crash the party. With the new update, the devs have now made it easier to get your squad back into the fight.

    As the name might give away, the new Mobile Redeploy Strike Package works like a “mobile” redeployment beacon, letting you deploy your own temporary respawn point anywhere on the map, so your squad can respawn at your location. Here’s how to find and use a Mobile Redeploy Strike Package to revive your squad from anywhere in Battlefield 6 RedSec.

    Battlefield 6: RedSec: Where to Find Mobile Redeploy Strike Packages

    It’s never fun when your squad takes a hit, and if a teammate goes down mid-match, running toward a fixed redeploy tower can put you in a vulnerable spot since other teams are usually keeping an eye on them. Now, thanks to the Mobile Redeploy Strike Package in Battlefield 6 Season 2, you can set up your own respawn point and bring your squad back anywhere you want.

    You can find Mobile Redeploy Strike Packages in Battlefield 6 RedSec inside Ambulances, Tactical Armory Crates, Safes, MRAPVs, and as mission rewards.  Since they are considered high-value loot, they won’t appear consistently in every match. That said, the best place to find a Mobile Redeploy Strike Package is inside Ambulances, as they spawn every round, though you might need to check a few before you find one.

    Battlefield 6: RedSec: How to Use Mobile Redeploy Strike Packages

    There are two different mobile redeploy tools in RedSec: the Mobile Redeploy Strike Package and the standard Mobile Redeploy device. While both let you bring teammates back into the fight, they work in slightly different ways.

    If you get your hands on a Mobile Redeploy Strike Package, set it on the ground outdoors with a clear line of sight to the sky to start the respawn process.  Once placed, there’s a 45-second window before it becomes active, and it can be destroyed during that time. However, after it activates, it will call in a redeploy balloon that eliminated teammates can use to return to the fight.

    On the other hand, the standard Mobile Redeploy takes about 35 seconds for a teammate to redeploy and, when activated, releases thick purple smoke that not only reveals your position to nearby players but also lets you know when another squad is attempting a revive. If you see purple smoke nearby, some other squad is likely bringing a teammate back, so you might want to rush in and destroy the small radar on their device to stop their respawn attempt.

    For more gaming news and guides, be sure to check out our gaming page!

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    Shubhendu Vatsa

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  • Avowed: How to Unlock and Use Fast Travel to Get Around The Living Lands – Our Culture

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    While you’ll naturally want to explore every corner of The Living Lands and soak in everything it has to offer, fast travel in Avowed can be incredibly helpful once quests start sending you back across its large, segmented regions. The Living Lands is divided into distinct areas rather than one massive map, and as you move through each region, you’ll come across Fast Travel Beacons and Party Camps that permanently unlock as map points. Once activated, Avowed’s Fast Travel Beacons and Party Camps will let you jump between areas instantly through the map screen, saving you from covering the same ground again and again. So, here’s how to use fast travel in Avowed to get around The Living Lands.

    Avowed: How to Unlock and Use Fast Travel to Get Around The Living Lands

    The Living Lands is divided into large, self-contained regions, and while exploring them on foot is part of the appeal, fast travel in Avowed can save you from repeatedly crossing vast sections of the map, especially when quests start sending you between hubs.

    You can unlock fast travel in Avowed by finding Fast Travel Beacons scattered throughout each region. Standing as ornate torch-like structures adorned with a pink flame, Fast Travel Beacons are easy to spot from a distance and can be activated by simply approaching them. Once you’re close enough, the Beacon will activate automatically and permanently add itself to your map. Party Camps work pretty much the same way, and every camp you establish or discover will get added as a permanent location on your map.

    Now, to fast travel in Avowed, simply open your map and hover over any Fast Travel Beacon or Party Camp you’ve already unlocked. Once clicked, a “Travel Here” prompt will pop up at the bottom of the screen. Confirm the selection, and your character will teleport instantly.

    However, fast travel in Avowed won’t always be available. During certain main story moments or inside specific dungeons and restricted areas, the system is temporarily disabled. When this happens, you’ll see the Fast Travel icon marked with an X next to the compass in the top-left corner of the screen. If it appears, you’ll need to keep moving through the area on foot until fast travel is available again.

    And that does it for our how to unlock and use fast travel in Avowed guide. For more gaming news and guides, be sure to check out our gaming page!

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    Shubhendu Vatsa

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  • The Stop Killing Games campaign will set up NGOs in the EU and US

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    The Stop Killing Games campaign is evolving into more than just a movement. In a YouTube video, the campaign’s creator, Ross Scott, explained that organizers are planning to establish two non-governmental organizations, one for the European Union and another for the US. According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for “long-term counter lobbying” when publishers end support for certain video games.

    “Let me start off by saying I think we’re going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you’ve already paid for,” Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games.

    The Stop Killing Games campaign started as a reaction to Ubisoft’s delisting of The Crew from players’ libraries. The controversial decision stirred up concerns about how publishers have the ultimate say on delisting video games. After crossing a million signatures last year, the movement’s leadership has been busy exploring the next steps.

    According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry’s current controversial practices. In the meantime, the ongoing efforts have led to a change of heart from Ubisoft since the publisher updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode.

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    Jackson Chen

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  • Ukrainian drone pilot training program turned into video game so anyone can

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    London — Gamers around the world can now buy and play at home a pared-down version of a first-person drone training program developed and used by the Ukrainian armed forces. The game’s evolution — from battlefield training tool to home entertainment — is a notable first, and it is tied directly to Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to repel Russia’s four-year, full-scale invasion.

    “Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator” (UFDS) is available to buy online for about $30. It features the same ultra-realistic physics and piloting controls that have helped teach Ukrainian drone pilots to seek out and destroy Russian tanks, missile launchers and troops. The Full Simulator is available, for free, to all members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use.   

    Vlad Plaksin, CEO of the Drone Fight Club Academy, a facility that trains Ukrainian military drone pilots, was one of the lead developers and driving forces behind UFDS. The academy has trained more than 5,000 Ukrainian military drone pilots since it was established early in the war, and it collaborated last year with the U.S. Air Force for a training session at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

    Plaksin told CBS News one objective in turning the military program into a video game is to train young Ukrainians to fly drones, to “give them a possibility not to go to the trench with rifles.”

    A screenshot from the “Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator” video game shows the first-person view perspective of a player moments before the simulated drone impacts a Russian truck.

    Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator


    Interest in anything drone-related among young Ukrainians has soared during the war, thanks largely to the country’s military drone pilots, whom Plaksin said had achieved heroic status.

    “Most young people want to fly, want to hit [Russian targets], want to grow up in this new world of robotics,” he told CBS News.

    The game’s creators call it a “public adaptation of a leading ultra-realistic FPV [first person view] drone trainer, built on lessons from the Ukrainian front line,” offering players an opportunity to “learn to fly like a front-line pilot, take on real-world mission scenarios, and feel the rush of modern FPV warfare.”

    In hyperrealistic detail, it includes different types of drones to pilot on combat missions against Russian targets, with weather conditions and other variables that aim to provide an experience realistic enough for anyone to learn and practice the basics of drone warfare. 

    There are many games that offer similar FPV warfare experiences, including driving tanks, piloting fighter jets, and commanding submarines. But UFDS is the first to be developed directly from military software.

    Ethical concerns?

    While many games have likely been used by armed forces around the world as teaching tools, they have been developed as games first. UFDS flips that model around, bringing a real-world military training tool to screens in people’s homes. 

    Plaksin acknowledged ethical concerns around creating a game that allows young people to pretend they’re piloting deadly drones in such a realistic way, calling it “a very sensitive question,” but noting that the game is not unique in this regard.

    “There are many other simulators which do the same, and we are not opening something new,” he said.

    ukrainian-drone-game.png

    The view from a simulated drone just after it releases a bomb over a Russian trench, as seen in a screenshot from the Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator video game.

    Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator


    UFDS is not the first video game to be used as a pseudo recruitment tool by a military, either. 

    The “America’s Army” series, launched in 2002 and developed by the U.S. Army, is widely seen as the first overt use of video games to drive recruitment by a national military. While the series was nowhere near as realistic as UFDS, it served a similar purpose.

    Could Russia take advantage?

    Plaksin says the Ukrainian game, at its core, is a tool for people to gain “a basic knowledge for the drones, but also at the same time, we try to do it maximum safety, for not sharing the sensitive information.”

    To avoid revealing details that Russia’s military could potentially use to train its own pilots, there are significant differences between the publicly available version of UFDS and the version used at the Drone Fight Club Academy to train Ukrainian military operators.

    ukraine-drone-r18-octocopter.jpg

    Ukrainian soldiers with a drone unit from the 24th Mechanized Brigade prepare a Ukrainian-designed R18 octocopter UAV during a training exercise in eastern Ukraine, in early October 2023.

    CBS News


    Those differences are “mostly about tactics,” Plaksin told CBS News. “It gives you everything that you need, but it will not give you the tactics. I think it’s the main difference between the versions.”

    He said some of that just involves paring down what, for gamers, might be the more tedious parts of drone warfare. Gamers may not want to spend 30 minutes flying their virtual drone to reach an objective, for instance. So the gameplay is deliberately made more arcade-style, while maintaining highly realistic controls and user experience.

    This means that there is “less understanding of missions, less understanding of how to fly for a huge distance” which is a vital part of training drone pilots. 

    “When you fly on the [real] drones, you see the area and you need to read the map and compare it with what you see,” Plaksin said. “In missions, it’s very important. In arcade games, it’s not important, and we don’t put it inside because it will not be interesting for the players.”

    UFDS is still a very niche game, with only around 50 people playing online daily. Such detailed military simulation games often garner small but loyal followings, and rarely break into the wider gaming community. 

    But Plaksin is trying to change that, and broaden appeal. He’s helping to organize a championship he hopes will “maximise the level of people playing the game” and encourage competition between players. 

    In:

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  • The 10 Best Platformer Games of All Time

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    Dark Souls. Bloodborne. Sekiro. What do all of these ridiculously difficult throw-your-controller-at-the TV-screen games have in common? They’ve got NOTHING on old-school platformers. Were they video games or exercises in sadomasochism? As the decades pass since the platform genre’s creation, the answer still isn’t clear. Classic platformer games required the reflexes of a cat, the patience of a turtle, and the emotional composure of a full-grown capybara. Deviously difficult, half of these games could be described as “fun” in the same way the peanut butter could be described as “minty fresh,” which is to say: not at all. Veteran gamers know that platformers aren’t really games, but digital life-and-death scenarios meant to test one’s mental fortitude. And these platformers? They’re the greatest (and some of the most frustrating) of all time.

    Super Mario 64

    Mario standing in a castle foyer in "Super Mario 64"
    (Nintendo)

    Super Mario 64 was marketed to children, which, in retrospect, could be considered a crime. Don’t let pastel pixels of this happy-go-lucky plumber’s mushroom world fool you, Super Mario 64 is capable of childhood-trauma inducing levels of frustration and woe. The game is objectively a masterpiece, one where Mario must “whoopee” and “yahoo” his way through a menagerie of creative worlds to save Princess Peach from the turtle/dragon/dinosaur clutches of the evil Bowser. While the game’s first level, Bomb-omb Battlefield, lulled young players into a false sense of security, veteran gamers still speak with reverence about the horrors they experienced at later levels like Tick Tock Clock. Super Mario 64 set the bar for the modern-day platformer, and changed the face of gaming forever… by filling that face’s eyes with frustrated tears.

    Astro Bot

    A little robot flies above a desert planet in "Astrobot"
    (Sony)

    After witnessing the trauma that Super Mario 64 induced on a generation of gamers (myself included), the makers of Astro Bot evidently opted to spare a younger crop of gamers from the same fate. While Astro Bot features the same levels of whimsy that made old-school platformers so charming (and so deceptively difficult), this little robot’s adventure through the stars isn’t nearly as crushing. That’s a relief. You play as an adorable android who has to rescue his kin from a saucer-flying alien bully, and recover your beep-boopin’ buddies from the distant planets to which they’ve been scattered. Doctors should prescribe Astro Bot for lowering blood pressure and increasing emotional well-being, as it’s impossible not to crack a smile while embarking on this delightful romp through the cartoon cosmos.

    Banjo-Kazooie

    A bear rides in a flying saucer in "Banjo-Kazooie"
    (Nintendo)

    While traditionalist purists will call Super Mario 64 the Greatest Platformer Ever™, there exists a small sect of gamers who worship Banjo-Kazooie as the finest platformer that Nintendo has ever produced. Despite the franchise having only four games compared to Super Mario‘s bazillion and counting, Banjo-Kazooie was a history-making edition to the platformer genre—a bigger influencer than the kind you could find on 2016 Instagram. The game revolves around a match-made-in-heaven bear and bird pair as they try to defeat a Wizard of Oz-level evil green witch, who has kidnapped Banjo’s sister Tooty. The fearsome twosome leap across frostbitten peaks, gloopy swamps, and into the gullets of giant cyborg sharks to rescue Banjo’s kin, though Banjo and Kazooie’s bond runs far thicker than blood by journey’s end.

    Inside

    A boy in a carvernous space looks up at the ceiling in "Inside"
    (Playdead)

    While platformers are historically a horrifying genre for their difficulty alone, the creators of Inside decided to compound the terror by adding nightmare fuel to the frustration fire. You begin the game as a young boy, running from armed guards and into the arms of an industrial dystopia. Humans in this world aren’t simply oppressed, they’re outfitted with mind control devices and forced into robotic servitude— our adolescent hero doesn’t want to be one of them. Like it does for similarly clad Star Trek villains, death waits around every corner for the red-shirted protagonist. The only break this kid gets from head-scratching puzzles is a heart-pounding instance of life-or-death struggle. One of the most hair-raising games of all time, Inside will leave you traumatized not because it’s hard to play, but because it’s downright uncomfortable.

    LittleBigPlanet 2

    A group of sackboys shoot lasers in "LittleBigPlanet 2"
    (Sony Computer Entertainment)

    Emotionally scarred by Inside? Let LittleBigPlanet 2 coax your inner child out from hiding under the bed. One of the most adorable games ever made, LittleBigPlanet 2 lets you and your friends take control of Sackboys, little anthropomorphic guys made out of burlap! As you leap through smile-inducing cartoon worlds, you and up to three friends can co-op your way through obstacles and puzzles. No, the game isn’t particularly hard, and that’s the beauty of it. While frustrating co-op platformers like Super Mario Bros. can end friendships rather than deepen them, LittleBigPlanet 2‘s easy-going pace and grin-cracking antics can bring even gamers and non-gamers together. And with the ability to build your own levels and customize your characters, the possibilities are as endless as the deep, dark pools of your Sackboy’s shining eyes.

    Portal 2

    POV of a person holding a portal gun in a room with robots in "Portal 2"
    (Valve)

    Portal 2 is one of the greatest games of all time, a puzzle/platformer send-up of sci-fi robot horror like I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. You take control of Chell, a former test subject at the Aperture Science Enrichment Center who is tasked by a malevolent AI to complete a series of challenges with a portal gun, which does exactly what one would think. Able to create microscopic rips in spacetime, Chell leaps through dimensional anomalies to escape a decaying facility and the mad artificial mind at the center of it all. It’s one of the most satisfying puzzlers ever created, as confounding obstacles can be overcome with “a-ha!” moments of insight (and a lot of trial and error). Seriously, playing this game will have you feeling like Archimedes discovering water displacement, running around your house screaming “Eureka!” after solving a real head-scratcher of a level.

    Rayman Legends

    A group of cartoon cahracters shoot at at sea serpent in "Rayman Legends"
    (Ubisoft)

    Rayman Legends is legendary, a platformer of mythic proportions. The game begins in (sort of) the same way that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does, with a century-long nap. Rayman and his buddies open their sleepy eyes to discover that the evil Magician has split himself into five “Dark Teensies” and has subjected the five realms of the world to his tyranny. Through the use of Looney Tunes physics, Rayman and his pals platform their way through worlds twice as vibrant as a Van Gogh painting, and twelve times more dangerous. With its set-piece-sized bosses and scores of punchable enemies, Rayman Legends features some of the best platformer combat ever created. And the best part? You and up to three friends can experience it in couch co-op.

    Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

    A young man and an ocelot look out over an island village in "Jak and Daxter"
    (Naughty Dog)

    If the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario franchises ever decided to have a baby, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy would be their adventure-platformer lovechild. Before the series evolved into a grimdark fantasy Grand Theft Auto, Jak and Daxter‘s story began on a sunny island paradise powered by a life energy called Eco. Eager to learn about the substance’s origins and its relationship to the ancient Precursors, Jak and his ocelot pal Daxter set out on a platforming adventure across the land. While leaping through distant mountains, primeval forests, and ancient ruins, the pair uncover a plot hatched by evil siblings Gol and Maia to harness a mutated form of Eco and use it to take over the world. Combining Breath of the Wild environments with Uncharted-style archeological mysteries, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy feels far deeper than your average platformer, but no less high-flying.

    Celeste

    A young woman looks up at a mountaintop in "Celeste"
    (Maddy Makes Games)

    One of the best queer parables in all of gaming, Celeste is the story of Madeline, a girl who decides climb a mountain to beat her anxiety. While platforming her way up the summit, she runs into a parallel version of herself called “Badeline,” who pressures her to give up. Considering the game’s ludicrous difficulty, many players will be convinced to do exactly that. Running, jumping, dashing, wall-climbing, wall-jumping, mid-air dashing, players will be forced to master a variety of complex maneuvers to reach the summit. An allegory for the trans experience, Celeste‘s challenging gameplay mirrors the difficulties that many trans people face while undergoing the transition process. Learning to accept oneself can feel like climbing a mountain, but once you make it to the top, the journey feels worth it.

    Crash Bandicoot

    A bandicoot turns to the camera and smiles in the jungle in "Crash Bandicoot"
    (Naughty Dog)

    One of the brutal 3D platformers ever conceived, Crash Bandicoot is Indiana Jones if its protagonist were an extremely fragile marsupial. On an archipelago off the Tasmanian coast, mad scientist Doctor Neo Cortex mutates the local animal population to create a world-dominating army—but a bandicoot named Crash didn’t get the totalitarian memo. After escaping Cortex’s clutches, Crash must platform his way through jungles and ruins to stick it to his creator, Frankenstein-style. With its breakneck-paced worlds, adrenaline-pumping boss battles, and seamless transitions from 3D to 2D environments, Crash Bandicoot is an infinitely creative adventure-platformer that will give you a newfound respect for the eastern barred bandicoot—one could argue it’s the unofficial mascot of the platformer genre.

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    Sarah Fimm

    Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.

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    Sarah Fimm

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  • Hytale: How to Find the Forgotten Temple and Unlock Memories – Our Culture

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    As you explore Hytale’s world, you’ll quickly encounter new creatures, yet nothing will get recorded at first. To start logging those encounters, you’ll first need to find the Forgotten Temple, which will unlock the Memory system and let you track new creature sightings. As the name suggests, Memories in Hytale act as a running record of every creature you come across, much like a bestiary that fills out as you explore. So, to unlock Memories and start building out your log, here’s how to find the Forgotten Temple in Hytale.

    Hytale: How to Find the Forgotten Temple and Unlock Memories

    Memories are one of the most important progression systems in Hytale, even if the game doesn’t fully explain them at first. They act as a living record of the wildlife you come across while exploring, gradually filling up as you move through different biomes and zones.

    To unlock Memories in Hytale, you’ll need to find a Forgotten Temple. There are several spread across the map and each one will be marked on your compass with a vortex icon. Simply head toward the marker until you reach a cross-shaped stone building with a statue outside. Head inside the building and take the stairs down behind the altar. Underground, you’ll encounter an earthen golem guarding a blue portal.

    The golem isn’t especially difficult, but you don’t actually have to fight it. You can run past it and jump straight into the portal, which is usually quicker anyway. Walking through the portal will take you to the Forgotten Temple itself. Head into the central area, where you’ll see a glowing statue. Simply interact with the statue to unlock Hytale’s Memory system, which will give you permanent access to the Memories menu.

    Once Memories are unlocked, recording them is pretty easy. Any time you get close to a creature you haven’t encountered before, a notification will pop up in the bottom-right corner of the screen, marking it as discovered. However, Memories in Hytale are not retroactive, so anything encountered before unlocking the system will not be counted.

    From there, exploring the world will naturally start filling your Memory tab, which can be found next to your avatar in your Inventory. However, you’ll need to return to the Forgotten Temple and interact with the statue to turn them in. As you restore more Memories, you unlock milestone rewards. The first Memory tier will unlock Eternal Seeds, with bigger rewards like teleporters, morph potions, crafting components, and a backpack upgrade unlocking as you restore more Memories.

    For more gaming news and guides, be sure to check out our gaming page!

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    Shubhendu Vatsa

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  • Crypto startup ZBD raises $40 million to power video game payments | Fortune

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    Gamers have long bought and sold digital items like swords, jewels, and spaceship parts. Cryptocurrencies, which are inherently digital, seem like an obvious tie-in. In a bid to make good on that combination and build blockchain payments rails for video games, the Bitcoin payments startup ZBD has raised $40 million in a Series C fundraise.

    Based in New Jersey, the company sells access to video game payments software that can process a variety of transactions, including Bitcoin ones. Blockstream Capital, a crypto investment firm connected to early Bitcoiner Adam Back, led ZBD’s most recent funding round and put in $36 million, Simon Cowell, the startup’s cofounder and CEO, told Fortune. He declined to name the other investors and at what valuation ZBD raised its most recent round.

    “We’re talking about a payment solution for the entire industry that actually really enables them to have a direct financial relationship to the player,” Cowell added.

    Zebedee

    ZBD’s fundraise comes amid a climate of growing pessimism regarding the integration of crypto into video games. Long hailed as one of blockchain’s most obvious use cases, the combination hasn’t achieved the same mainstream adoption that boosters promised during crypto’s bull cycle in 2021 and 2022, when advocates said that NFTs were a clear evolution of in-game collectibles.

    ZBD, though, has never been in the business of NFTs or crypto-based gameplay, and the startup is piggybacking off a crypto use case that has seen adoption: payments. Especially with the rise of stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar, blockchains as payments rails have become a talking point from big fintechs like Stripe and even big banks like JPMorgan Chase.

    It’s apt, then, that Cowell’s background is in financial services, not games. Spending most of his career in asset management, he began working in 2016 for NXMH, a family office that would eventually acquire the crypto exchange Bitstamp. Three years later, the U.K.-native Cowell decided to team up with his other cofounders André Neves and Christian Moss to launch ZBD–named after a character called Zebedee from a French cartoon show. “It didn’t really mean anything,” Cowell said of the company’s name, adding that they just liked the sound of it.

    Rather than stablecoins, the trio focused on Bitcoin and built a company that lets games pay out users in the world’s largest cryptocurrency. But ZBD’s chief strategy officer, Ben Cousens, stressed that crypto payouts aren’t the company’s only area of expertise. Instead of relying on fintechs like Stripe, developers can integrate ZBD’s tech to let gamers more directly send money to each other as well as earn loyalty rewards for repeatedly loading up a video game, he added. “You retain that user because you don’t need to send them out to a third party, because we’re providing the rails,” said Cousens.

    While ZBD’s cofounder Cowell said the startup wasn’t yet profitable and declined to disclose revenue figures, he did say they’ve achieved traction among mobile game developers. The startup of 70 employees worked with 55 games in 2025, he said. And the $40 million the team raised will help it roll out a broader suite of payments products over the next year. “Where we’re moving to is expanding into a more fulsome payment suite,” said Cowell.

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    Ben Weiss

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  • CD Projekt Co-Founder Buys Steam Rival GOG

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    CD Projekt, the Polish video game developer behind massive franchises like The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, has sold off its video game storefront, GOG.

    Michał Kiciński, the co-founder of both companies and a major stakeholder in CD Projekt, has acquired 100% of GOG for about $25 million. CD Projekt said on Monday that the sale will allow the company to fully focus on its upcoming slate of video games. Until now, GOG had operated under CD Projekt for nearly two decades.

    “With our focus now fully on an ambitious development roadmap and expanding our franchises with new high-quality products, we felt this was the right time for this move,” said CD Projekt co-CEO Michał Nowakowski in a press release. “We would like to thank the GOG team for years of fruitful cooperation and wish them all the best.”

    He added that GOG is going into “very good hands,” and that with the support of Kiciński, “its future will be full of great projects and successes.”

    GOG first launched in 2008, under the name Good Old Games, as a video game storefront that doesn’t use digital rights management technology. Being DRM-free allows customers to do more or less whatever they want with their purchases, including backing up games and playing them offline without fear of being locked out or constantly prompted to prove ownership. Unlike its rival Steam, GOG focuses on a curated selection of games that includes AAA titles, indie releases, and classic games. The platform also runs a game preservation program that updates older titles and ensures they remain playable on modern systems.

    In an FAQ posted today, GOG said the deal won’t change much for existing customers, who will retain their libraries, offline installers, and the same DRM-free ownership of games.

    Despite the split, the two companies have signed an agreement that includes plans to release future CD Projekt games on GOG.

    “GOG and Michał Kiciński are aligned by a shared belief that games should live forever,” said GOG Managing Director Maciej Gołębiewski. “In a market that’s getting more crowded, more locked-in, and forgets classic games at an increasing pace, we’re doubling down on what only GOG does: reviving classics, keeping them playable on modern PCs, and helping great games find their audience over time.”

    For his part, Kiciński said both companies still share the same roots and values: “freedom, independence, and a genuine sense of ownership.”

    “I believe that CD Projekt, with its exceptional AAA games, will stand, as always, behind the GOG offering — making GOG the best place on the planet to purchase The Witcher and Cyberpunk games, both existing titles and the new ones we all anticipate so much,” said Kiciński.

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    Bruce Gil

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  • “Call of Duty” co-creator Vince Zampella dies after crash on Los Angeles highway

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    Vince Zampella, a video game developer known for pioneering iconic franchises including “Call of Duty,” has died at 55, gaming company Electronic Arts said. Zampella died Sunday in a car crash on the Angeles Crest Highway in Los Angeles. 

    The crash happened at around 12:45 p.m. near mile marker 62 in an unincorporated area part of the county close to Altadena, according to the California Highway Patrol. Officers were alerted to the crash by an emergency services request from an Apple device via satellite, according to their incident log. 

    In a news release, CHP officers said that for unknown reasons, a car “veered off the roadway” and struck a concrete barrier, which caused it to burst into flames. The driver was trapped inside following the impact and was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the vehicle was ejected, police said. They died after being taken to a nearby hospital, officers said. 

    Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment in 2010 and was the former CEO of Infinity Ward, the studio that develops the “Call of Duty” franchise. 

    “As one of the founders of Infinity Ward and Call of Duty, you will always have a special place in our history. Your legacy of creating iconic, lasting entertainment is immeasurable,” a statement from Infinity Ward said.

    Electronic Arts, which acquired Respawn Entertainment in 2017, shared a statement with CBS Los Angeles on Zampella’s death. 

    “This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work. Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching,” the statement said. “A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world.”

    Zampella helped develop an extensive list of successful games throughout his career, which began in 2002 with “Medal of Honor: Allied Assault” and continued with the first “Call of Duty” game in 2003. 

    In recent years, he helped produce the “Star Wars Jedi” series. His Respawn Entertainment studio has produced games like “Titanfall” and “Titanfall 2,” as well as “Apex Legends.” He was also leading a team at DICE LA, which is an EA studio based in Playa Vista, according to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. 

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  • Russian Ban on Roblox Stirs Debate About Limits of Censorship

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    MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) – A Russian ban on U.S. gaming platform Roblox has ‌fuelled ​debate among some children and parents about censorship and ‌the utility of bans in a world where children can bypass limits with a few clicks.

    Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor ​said on December 3 it had blocked access to Roblox because it was “rife with inappropriate content”, spread extremist and LGBT propaganda and was popular with paedophiles.

    In wartime Russia, censorship is ‍extensive and Moscow blocks or restricts social media ​platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube while presenting its own narrative through social media and Russian media.

    But the ban on Roblox has hit a nerve, ​leading to a small ⁠rally in the Siberian city of Tomsk at which protesters held banners reading “Hands off Roblox” and “Roblox is the victim of the digital Iron Curtain”.

    A Roblox spokesperson said in an emailed comment to Reuters that the company was ready “to temporarily limit communication features in Russia and to revise our content moderation processes to address the legal requirements necessary to restore our community’s access to the platform.”

    “Roblox intends to continue dialogue with Roskomnadzor as access to the platform is restored, including ‌discussions around additional compliance measures that may be considered over time,” the spokesperson said.

    Roblox says on its website that it provides “rigorous built-in protections to ​help ‌keep users safe” and seeks to “create a ‍secure, age-appropriate environment for every ⁠user.”

    ‘A WINDOW ON A WORLD OF GAMES’

    Russian officials, at odds with the West over the war in Ukraine, say censorship is needed to defend against a Western “information war” and what they cast as decadent Western culture that undermines “traditional” Russian values.

    For many young Russians, Roblox was a window onto a vast world of games and potential friends around the globe. The Kremlin, without providing details, says it has received correspondence about the Roblox ban from many young people.

    “I don’t consider it’s worth blocking Roblox,” 14-year-old Polina Gerina told Reuters in Moscow. “It was so much fun.”

    Her sisters, 11-year-old Darya and seven-year-old Yekaterina, also said they played on the Roblox platform.

    “I think children will still find a way around,” Darya Gerina ​said. “There have been blocks on other apps, and we have found a way around to use them, so I think children will find a way around and continue playing.”

    Many Russians use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to get around digital censorship. Hundreds of VPNs have been banned this year but new ones appear, prompting some young Russians to ask why authorities ban apps or sites that can be easily accessed, and why there are few Russian alternatives to them.

    CONCERNS OVER ‘CIRCUMVENTION OF BLOCKAGES’

    Some proponents of tough limits on what can be accessed by children also have concerns about both the security of VPNs and the impact of widespread circumvention of state rules.

    “How many children have downloaded a three-letter app (geocoding system) in the last few days after the game was banned?” asked Yekaterina Mizulina, director of the Safe Internet League censorship organisation.

    Mizulina, who has had sanctions imposed on her by the European Union for enforcing Russian censorship, said some young people wanted to leave Russia because of the Roblox ban.

    She said “the mass ​circumvention of blockages also forms a generally dismissive attitude towards government decisions.”

    Maria Gerina, whose three daughters played on the Roblox platform, said she did not back a ban but would like assurances over the monitoring of apps for inappropriate content and contacts, and that there should be alternatives.

    “If it will be controlled somehow and people will follow what is going on specially, then I would feel calmer as a mother when my ​children are playing,” she said.

    “But I do not think a full ban will resolve the problem – if there is no Roblox, then there will be something else.”

    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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    Reuters

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  • Gift Guide 2025: Gifts for the person who has everything

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    There’s something so tricky about finding a gift for that person who seems to have it all and want for nothing. We’ve got you covered. Here are some super cool gifts that are fun, interesting, unique, and indulgent… just because.

    The next evolution of Nintendo Switch systems, the Nintendo Switch 2, is here! With powerful processing speeds and a bigger, brighter screen, players can enjoy enhanced visuals, either with some of the new Nintendo Switch 2 games or compatible games from their existing Nintendo Switch libraries. The reimagined Joy-Con 2 controllers snap on magnetically and can even function as a mouse in compatible games, adding a new level of precision and play. And with GameChat, you can stay connected like never before. 

    The Brother P-touch PT-N10 Personal Handheld Label Maker is designed to help anyone easily personalize their world and organize practically everything in it. With a full QWERTY keyboard, typing personalized messages is familiar, fast, and fun, and the easy-to-read 12-character display screen lets you preview label text before you print. Plus, this convenient handheld label maker is battery operated so you can transport it wherever your labelling needs take you. 

    Who doesn’t dream about taking to the skies and being a pilot? Now you can with AviaSim, a one-of-a-kind simulation experience. Sit in a real cockpit alongside a professional flight instructor, take off from one of the 24,000 departure and arrival airports, and take in the incredible 180-degree views from thousands of feet in the air.

    The Epson Lifestudio Pop Plus Projector brings families together and is a great investment for the entire household. It comes with a built-in Google TV, sound by Bose technology, and a 4K PRO-UHD picture. The whole family can have a legendary watching experience as they cuddle up on the couch to watch holiday movies on over 10,000 streaming apps. From casual, cozy evenings to festive family gatherings, it transforms a simple wall into a big-screen cinematic moment (both indoors and outdoors).

    The Philips Sonicare Compact Flosser 1000Oral Irrigator is all about effective flossing in just 60 seconds. It’s fast, effective, and ready to take anywhere, and removes up to 99.9% of plaque from between your teeth and along your gumline in just one minute.

    The new Guinness World Records Gamers Edition is out and is the perfect gift for just about anyone. From the crew of Mass Effect to the Creepers of Minecraft, see where the biggest and best characters ranked. You’ll find timeless icons like Nintendo superstars Mario and Link, beloved Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft, and heroes whose stories transcend time and reality. Explore their incredible stories, groundbreaking achievements, and fan-favourite moments.

    Another universally great title is Guinness World Records 2026. From yellow giant objects to spooky ghost towns, jaw-dropping nature and human heroes, the new edition of the Guinness World Records brings you the brightest, biggest, and loudest in record-breaking.

    The Yankee Candle 3 Pack Holiday Mini Gift Set comes with three seasonal scents: Balsam & Cedar, Sparkling Cinnamon, and Christmas Cookie. It’s a charming gift that brings warmth and comfort to any space, whether you’re hosting or simply enjoying quiet moments at home. 

    For the person who has it all (or the family that loves to watch together), Fubo offers an unbeatable mix of live sports, entertainment, and news, all in one place. From exclusive coverage of the Premier League and Serie A, to live action from the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB, there’s always something to cheer for. And when it’s not game time, viewers can enjoy popular channels like CBC, HGTV, and Food Network. Subscribers can stream on any device, anywhere, with unlimited DVR, 4K resolution, and Multiview on Roku, making it a seamless experience for every fan. 

    The LEGO Creator 3 in 1 Retro Camera Toy transforms from a toy camera to a retro video camera to a retro TV set – that’s three retro toys in one box. Kids and kids at heart can build and rebuild three different pieces of vintage technology using the same set of bricks. 

    Ravensburger puzzles are great for anyone to enjoy, either by putting it together on their own or as a family. Their Christmas Slopeside Spirit puzzle by artist Greg Paprocki creates a beautiful and magical holiday scene everyone will love.

    Stranger Things: Catalyst is an immersive VR experience that stars Matthew Modine as Dr. ‘Papa’ Brenner and allows fans to step inside the global phenomenon series in an all-new immersive chapter that puts you at the heart of Hawkins’ darkest secrets. Become Dr. Brenner’s test subjects and explore the sinister halls of Hawkins Lab, the eerie glow of the Rainbow Room, the shadow-haunted woods of Mirkwood, and the nightmarish Upside Down. Fight like Eleven using your incredible telekinetic powers to hurl objects, crush obstacles, and fight back against supernatural threats like Demobats, Demodogs and even the terrifying Demogorgon. You’ve binged the show, now brave the Upside Down.

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    By: Jennifer Cox The Suburban

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  • Nintendo’s secret to becoming a design powerhouse? Developers who have stayed at the company for decades | Fortune

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    Nintendo is home to some of the most beloved characters in the video game industry—Mario, Pikachu, Kirby, and many others. But inside the company itself is another cast of beloved characters—the army of developers that has stuck with Nintendo for most of their careers. 

    “It’s almost impossible for any developer who is now of working age to have grown up without at least some influence from Nintendo,” says Keza MacDonald, author of the forthcoming book Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play, based off years of reporting on the company as a games journalist. “It is still, to this day, making games differently from everyone else.”

    Indeed Nintendo has largely sidestepped the graphics arms race that has bedeviled both its hardware and software competitors, instead focusing on what Game Boy designer Gunpei Yokoi affectionately termed “withered technology”: Using well-established technology and focusing on making something fun instead. That strategy has also allowed Nintendo to avoid the high costs and constant retraining that are hamstringing its  competitors. 

    Courtesy of Penguin Random House

    The Japanese game developer embraced “the principle of finding a playful way to design things that aren’t necessarily at the cutting-edge,” explains MacDonald, who currently writes about gaming for The Guardian. “That’s been a part of Nintendo’s philosophy since before it was even making video games.”

    The Japanese company has what MacDonald deems a “slightly conservative” approach, ensuring that it maintains healthy profit margins and builds up large reserves of cash. “Nintendo always operates with an understanding that its next product might not be a hit,” she says. 

    Nintendo released the Switch 2, its latest video game console, earlier this year. While a few commentators griped that Nintendo’s latest version was just more powerful (and more expensive) than the last, gamers seem to have flocked to the new device. The company now expects to sell 19 million Switch 2 units by March 2026, the end of its fiscal year. The company reported 1.1 trillion Japanese yen ($7 billion) in revenue between March and September, more than double what it generated the same period a year ago. It also earned 199 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in profit, an 83% jump. Shares are up 46% for 2025 so far.

    Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a company making playing cards and eventually moved to making toys in the 1960s. It shifted to video games in the 1970s, and had its first hit with Donkey Kong, developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who eventually designed beloved franchises like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. 

    The game industry is known for its churn: Studios expand and contract according to changing demand. Around 10% of developers reported being laid off last year, and over 40% said they felt the effects of layoffs, according to a survey from the Game Developers Conference. “What that does is it robs companies of not just the knowledge, but also the security that helps people do their best work,” MacDonald says. 

    Nintendo, on the other hand, has sidestepped this boom and bust cycle. The company revealed earlier this year that its Japan-based employees had an average tenure of 15 years.

    “The people who first made Nintendo’s hits are still working at the company,” MacDonald says. “For the last 50 years, these people have been passing down knowledge and training up a new generation of Nintendo creatives.” 

    She adds that the company also rejects hierarchy when it comes to design. “It’s not like the oldest guy gets to decide what’s a good idea and what isn’t. Everyone puts ideas in.”

    Not all of Nintendo’s experiments work. Take the company’s Wii U console, released in 2012. Unlike its predecessor, the wildly successful Wii, the Wii U was a flop, selling barely 14 million units. Yet Nintendo took some of the design lessons from this failure and put them towards the Nintendo Switch—which, at 154 million units sold, is close to being the top-selling console of all time. 

    That’s just one of the things that MacDonald thinks that other companies—and not just those in the gaming industry—can learn from Nintendo. 

    “A failed idea is often a step towards the next hit you’re going to have.”

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    Nicholas Gordon

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  • 5 Great Games You Might Have Missed This Year

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    It’s hard to keep track of every game launch. While a handful of titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, or Death Stranding 2: On the Beach are sure to top the year’s Best Of lists, many more will go unrecognized for their brilliance, fun, or sheer absurdity.

    The good news is we’ve got you covered. Whether you’re stuck at home for the holidays and itching for something to play, or you just want to make sure you don’t let any hidden gems slip under your radar, here are five games from this year’s slate you should not miss.

    Blippo+

    Courtesy of Yacht; Telefantasy Studios; Noble Robot

    If you’re in the mood for something a little out there, start with Blippo+. First released in May on the handheld Playdate console, the game arrived on PC and Switch in September.

    At first blush, it’s a game about channel surfing. You browse different broadcasts, each of which feature bizarre, retro, live-action transmissions about a minute or so long, from nightly news and soap operas to quiz shows and fuzzy softcore. Every channel runs according to a schedule, which means you’ll need to decide which broadcasts to watch as they run live, and which to try again the next night. The more you watch, the easier it becomes to piece together the overall strange, sci-fi story of Blippo+, which plays out across these endearingly weird channels. Think ‘80s TV show Max Headroom, but with those vibes sprinkled into everything—including the retro soundtrack by Jona Bechtolt of Yacht and the composer Rob Kieswetter.

    Blippo+ is one of the year’s most original games, so much so that it almost defies explanation. The less you know, the better. Best to embrace its absurdity by diving directly in.

    Buy for $15: PC, Nintendo Switch, Playdate ($10)

    Blue Prince

    Dogubomb’s Blue Prince (a play on “blueprints”) is for puzzle lovers. In House of Leaves fashion, players explore a mansion whose rooms are constantly changing in search of Room 46. Things are made even more difficult by the fact that, to start, you’ll only be able to take 50 steps per day, and your path will be redrafted anew every cycle depending on which rooms you choose to explore.

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    Megan Farokhmanesh

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  • What Mikey Day Watches (and Reads) With His Son

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    Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images (Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan, Will Heath/NBC), Everett Collection (Geffen Pictures, Paramount, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros.), Toei Animation, Supercell, Roblox, MrBeast via YouTube

    Ask a kid who Mikey Day is and they won’t rattle off his SNL bona fides or call out his recent guest spot on Abbott Elementary. They won’t cite his work as the Dollar Rental Car spokesperson or the fact that he penned 2021’s Home Sweet Home Alone alongside longtime writing partner Streeter Seidell. Instead, they’ll point to just one thing: his role as the host of Netflix’s hit baking series Is It Cake?

    “If I meet a kid and they’re between the ages of 4 and 9,” Day says, “I know they’ll have watched Is It Cake? A lot of SNL hosts with kids that age have even come to me and said, ‘I’ve got to get a picture with you at some point, because my kids love your show.’ It’s crazy.”

    And it’s because of kids, Day thinks, that Is It Cake? has been able to soldier on. “I think that after season one, adults would have been like, I get the concept, I’m ready to move on. But when kids like something, they’re all in, so that’s great,” he says. “That means we get to keep doing it.”

    With new holiday-themed Is It Cake? episodes hitting Netflix today — just in time for family movie nights and Thanksgiving baking marathons — we asked Day what he’s watching, playing, and reading with his 13-year-old son, Abbott.

    Photo: Warner Bros./Everett Collection

    Everything’s so different now with the internet and streaming. I don’t know if my son has ever watched a regular TV show like how I used to. His mother and I have made a point of showing him classic movies. We’ll announce them, though, like “It’s movie night on Sunday and we’re all going to sit down for two hours and watch something,” because kids are so used to the internet and YouTube that the idea of committing to something for two hours can seem astronomical to them.

    We’ve shown Back to the Future, Gremlins, The Princess Bride, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Back to the Future went over the best and we ended up showing him the entire trilogy. It’s my favorite movie so I think he was a little biased going into the first one, but he really liked it. Weirdly, though, he did say the third one was the best — I think because he liked the flying train.

    I’ve also shown him clips from movies like Spaceballs, just because I mentioned it, and then he wanted to watch that.

    Photo: Universal Pictures/Everett Collection

    My son is really into the Jurassic Park franchise now, too, mostly because he saw Rebirth after getting into the commercials this past summer. He wants to watch all of them, but I’m trying to show them to him in the order of how good I think they are, so we started with the original after we saw the most recent one, then we went over to Jurassic World. But slowly, I think we’re going to watch them all.

    Photo: Toei Animation

    My son really likes this anime called One Piece, which he found independent of me. I try to sit with him to watch stuff like that, but it’s intense. It’s just very loud. Like all the people he watches playing video games online, they just scream all the time.

    I kind of missed the whole anime thing as a kid. I’m sure if I’d done it, I’d be more into it now, but he loves it.

    He’s been One Piece characters for Halloween a few years in a row, too, which I love because that’s how I was with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I did try to show him the ’90s TMNT movie, which changed my life as a kid because I was so enraptured by it, but I think I tried to do it a little too young because he was pretty unimpressed. Maybe if we came back to it now he’d like it.

    Photo: MrBeast via YouTube

    My son is super into YouTube. So much so that he’ll ask, like, “When is Josh Plays Minecraft X1 or whatever going to host SNL?” One time, MrBeast was backstage at SNL and so I briefly introduced myself to him when I walked by. When I came home, I was like, “You know who I met? MrBeast.” On SNL you meet a lot of famous people, but for my son, when I said I met and talked to MrBeast for 30 seconds, that’s what he thought was super exciting.

    Photo: Supercell

    We play games together sometimes, but I play a lot of console games and he’s more into mobile games. I’ve played some Roblox with him and there are certain games that I like more on there than others, but I try. We used to play Lego Ninjago together, but now he plays mobile stuff like Brawl Stars, and I’m not as into that. I feel like I’m constantly like, “Want to play this game I found?” Like there’s this one called Split Fiction, and he’ll be nice about it, but he’s also like, “I’m good.” Like, “Yeah, maybe this weekend!” He just politely puts me off.

    I guess it’s understandable. He’s 13. I don’t know if I was watching a lot of stuff with my dad when I was in eighth grade.

    Photo: Golden Books

    There’s this Sesame Street book called There’s a Monster at the End of this Book that I loved as a kid that we’d read to my son all the time when he was little. I loved that.

    We also had a storybook version of Back to the Future that I read him long before he saw the movie.

    I tried to get him into Harry Potter, even though I never really read that as a kid, but I think we did it too early because it was just too dense. It was like “Dad, I’m 4. I’m checking out.” Maybe if we’d done it when he was a little older we might have captured his imagination, but we missed the sweet spot.

    He does love to read, though. He just finished all the Hunger Games books, so that’s cool.

    Photo: Paramount/Everett Collection

    I used to show my son clips from Airplane! all the time, so eventually I got to the point where it was like, “All right, I’ve got to just show him the whole movie,” which he loved. He thinks it’s so funny.

    There’s this other Albert Brooks movie, Defending Your Life, which I think is criminally underrated. We showed him that, which was fun, because he really liked it and it’s one of my favorite films of all time.

    I think when he gets old enough, I’ll show him the British Office, which is my favorite piece of media of all time, but I don’t want to hit it too early. Maybe when he’s in high school.

    Photo: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images

    Because of where I work, he’s been exposed to some sketches from SNL, but he doesn’t actively seek it out. Sometimes he’ll sit down and watch stuff, but it’s not appointment viewing. I’ll make a point of showing him stuff sometimes, like years ago we did a Mario Kart sketch with Pedro Pascal that he thought was pretty funny, and during election years he’ll watch a little more because his mom gets really into it and talks about the election a lot so he’ll know all the players involved, but I think it just hits different for him.

    I used to tape Saturday Night Live off Comedy Central as a kid, when they’d show the episodes edited down to an hour and I’d be confused because at good nights people would be dressed as things that I hadn’t seen in the episodes. My son has been to the studio and everything, but I think for him, the show is just Dad’s job, and that’s fine with me.


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    Mikey Day,Marah Eakin

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  • Why Game Engines Are Becoming A.I.’s Most Important Testbeds

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    With games teaching models to act, the future of creative technology is being prototyped in virtual worlds. Unsplash+

    When Electronic Arts (EA) announced its partnership with Stability AI, it promised more than slicker workflows in game development. The announcement confirmed that video games are evolving into the world’s most dynamic laboratory for artificial intelligence. The truth is, what happens in gaming today often sets the cultural and technical standards for every other creative field tomorrow. For decades, creative revolutions followed their tools. Cameras gave rise to cinema. Synthesizers redefined sound. Game engines turned code into story. Now generative A.I. is the next medium, and the engineers designing its frameworks are shaping how imagination itself gets scaled.

    Why gaming leads the way

    Games bring together physics, narrative and design inside interactive systems that mimic the complexity of real life. They are, in effect, real-time simulations of cause and effect. A.I. needs games as much as games need A.I. A model trained within a game world learns context, decision-making and feedback loops that are far richer than static datasets can offer. Simulated interactive environments have been shown to dramatically accelerate multi-agent coordination, behavioral prediction and synthetic data generation. From DeepMind’s AlphaStar learning strategy inside StarCraft II to the recent wave of experiments in Minecraft-based agent learning, games have already become benchmark environments for reasoning and planning. 

    When EA describes its goal as building “systems that can previsualize entire 3D environments from a few prompts,” it signals more than a productivity upgrade. It frames a new design philosophy. If models can generate, analyze and iterate at scale, developers begin to function less like sketch artists and more like orchestra conductors. Humans define intent; models execute infinite variations.

    The new creative hierarchy

    This shift points to a deeper cultural truth. Influence no longer lies solely with artists or storytellers but increasingly with those who design the systems of creation. A new breed of “meta-creators” emerges: engineers and architects shaping the boundaries within which others build. Their code becomes the stage; their parameters, the palette.

    In gaming, this transformation is visible: the player, the developer and now the model all share authorship. The economic data underlines this shift too. The sector is projected to exceed $4.13 billion in 2029, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.2 percent, a rate rivaling the early mobile-gaming boom.

    But the numbers only tell part of the story. What matters more is the creative literacy being formed inside these ecosystems. Millions of gamers, modders and indie developers are learning to collaborate with algorithms as peers, not just tools.

    From content-economy to framework-economy

    I often frame this transition as the move from a content economy to a framework economy. Historically, value sat in the final output—games, films, assets. However, value no longer resides solely in what’s produced, but in what enables production at scale: engines, toolkits, A.I. pipelines and structured worlds. Unreal Engine’s ascent from a shooter-specific engine to the backbone of architecture, automotive design and Hollywood virtual production is the clearest precedent. The same principle extends to A.I.: whoever builds the scaffolding of imagination—foundation models, simulation layers, constraint systems—shapes the flow of creativity across industries.

    The implications reach far beyond entertainment. Game engines already power architectural visualization, advanced robotics simulations, digital twins for urban planning and surgical training environments. As A.I. models learn inside those interactive systems, they gain an embodied understanding of spatial logic and cause-and-effect. A recent paper, for example, presents a framework that generates action-controllable game videos via open-domain diffusion models, an early step toward agents that can “understand” environments rather than just render them. In other words, games teach machines not just to see, but to act.

    The boundary between play and progress blurs

    The same physics engine that governs a racing game can teach an autonomous vehicle to respond to real-world variables. The same dialogue system that trains NPCs to interact can be repurposed for virtual educators or A.I. companions. Every advance in player immersion is also an advance in machine intuition.

    Yet, a cultural reckoning is unfolding. If frameworks become the new frontier of creation, who governs them? The promise of democratization could just as easily turn into concentration, where a few corporations set the parameters of imagination itself—its physics, its cultural defaults. Without deliberate design, “democratized creativity” could turn into centralized control over the engines of imagination. The task ahead is to keep the sandbox open: design architectures where creativity remains decentralized, auditable and human-aligned.

    Human intent remains vital

    That doesn’t mean resisting automation. It means defining it ethically. Games have always been rule-based systems with feedback loops, essentially laboratories of governance. They show us how to balance structure and freedom, how to create environments that encourage exploration without chaos. These are precisely the principles we need as we integrate A.I. into broader creative and industrial workflows.

    When EA says humans will stay “at the center of storytelling,” it isn’t nostalgic; it’s a necessity. Models can approximate texture, light and tone, but they still can’t dream or empathize. The human imagination remains the compass even as the landscape changes. The creative act is not solitary anymore; it’s a dialogue between cognition and computation.

    What’s striking is how natural this feels to a generation raised inside interactive worlds. For them, co-creation with algorithms isn’t a threat but a mode of play. They already understand the interplay between rules and imagination, constraints and emergent behavior. This is the generation that will design how A.I. creates.

    The rehearsal space for the next creative era

    Through this lens, gaming becomes the rehearsal space for the next century of creativity. Every tool first tested in virtual worlds—procedural generation, emotion-aware agent, adaptive simulations—will migrate into film, architecture, education and governance. Games remain humanity’s most advanced simulation of itself, and now they’re teaching our machines how to imagine, interact and build alongside us.

    So when we talk about the future of A.I., perhaps we shouldn’t look to labs or boardrooms but to game studios, modding forums and virtual worlds where the next breakthroughs are quietly being debugged. That’s where intelligence learns empathy, context and play. And that’s where the next renaissance of creativity is already underway.

    Why Game Engines Are Becoming A.I.’s Most Important Testbeds

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    Ilman Shazhaev

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  • Activists Are Using ‘Fortnite’ to Fight Back Against ICE

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    SteveTheGamer55 is live on YouTube. He’s streaming a session to his 4.6 million subscribers of GTA 5 RP, a Grand Theft Auto 5 mod that allows people to role-play with other players. “Really wanna show you guys some real-life scenarios,” he says, offering a little background on his character, a man headed to his job while on a work visa.

    His character doesn’t get far before an SUV swings onto the sidewalk in front of him; masked ICE agents spill out of the vehicle. “Stop right there,” one of the uniformed players says. It isn’t long before SteveTheGamer55 is surrounded by agents. He hands over his ID while bystander players yell at the agents and demand his release. “Why are you harassing people?” one says, before the worker is finally let go. Later in SteveTheGamer55’s play session, he stands in front of a large iron gate reminiscent of those in ICE detention centers seen in cities like Chicago. More in-game ICE agents have gathered. He records from his phone. Just in front of him, a player in a red suit demands to see a warrant for his client.

    The “special event” held on November 20, where players took on different roles that reflect real-life ICE raids, was the first initiative by New Save Collective, a baker’s dozen of gamers with backgrounds in activism and organizing, whose goal is to educate gamers and teach people about their rights when dealing with ICE in real-world situations. On November 21, at 7:30 pm ET, gamers will gather in Epic’s massively popular battle royale, Fortnite, to hold a closed scavenger hunt that will serve as a more casual educational opportunity. The group is working with several immigration advocacy groups, as well as collaborating with content creators, to spread their message online.

    Online gaming spaces have long appealed to the right as a place to push conservative or even extremist ideologies. The US military has been open about its attempts to use games as a recruitment tool, and immigration authorities are no different. In October, the Department of Homeland Security posted an image aping marketing for the Halo series. “Finishing this fight,” the agency’s official account tweeted—a reference to Halo 3’s tagline—alongside an image with the text “Destroy the Flood” slapped over a blurry depiction of the game’s supersoldiers; the Flood are Halo’s alien antagonists. DHS has also riffed off of Pokémon’s “gotta catch ‘em all” tagline,” going as far as to post a video of ICE agents destroying property and arresting people, interspersed with the show’s opening.

    A spokesperson previously told The Hill that the DHS “will reach people where they are with content they can relate to and understand, whether that be Halo, Pokémon, The Lord of The Rings, or any other medium.” But where movements like Gamergate peddled in harassment, hatred, and exclusion, New Save Collective’s goal is to foster a community that is kind, authentic, and oriented towards doing good.

    “Most of us are immigrants, or children of immigrants, or children of refugees,” says one organizer who goes by PitaBreadFace online. (The organizer requested WIRED not use his name out of safety concerns.) “We’re here at this stage in the political climate to cultivate some belonging, but also move people towards a shared purpose that everyone seems pretty hungry for.”

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    Megan Farokhmanesh

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  • This Quest 3S Bundle Is $50 Off and Includes a Game and Gift Card

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    If you’ve been dreaming of getting into virtual reality but you’ve been holding out for a good deal, this may be your moment. I spotted a Meta Quest 3S bundle at Best Buy that not only knocks $50 off the normal price, but also includes Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and a $50 Best Buy digital gift card. That’s quite the deal on a product that doesn’t often see major discounts, and you can use that gift card to accessorize your new headset.

    Courtesy of Meta

    Meta’s lineup of stand-alone headsets has slowly improved over the last few years, with frequent updates adding functionality and growing the library of games. You don’t need a computer or console to power them, which makes it easy to just toss the headset on and start playing without any extra steps. With object and hand tracking, sometimes you don’t even need controllers, and the pass-through camera lets you blend the real world and the virtual one for awesome mixed reality experiences.

    While the Quest 3S is the more budget-friendly offering in the current generation of headsets, the compromises aren’t as major as you might be thinking. The screen is slightly lower resolution, and the pass-through isn’t quite as sharp, but otherwise the Quest 3S plays the same games and experiences as the more expensive Quest 3. Both headsets suffer from limited battery life, so don’t expect more than a couple of hours of play at a time.

    I haven’t had a chance to play the included game, Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, but it’s described as a survival action game set in a zombie-ridden version of New Orleans. You’ll have to make tough decisions about how to deal with other survivors, and it looks like there are plenty of opportunities to slay zombies. My vibe is usually more mini-golf than shotgun-wielding, but the game has overall positive reviews, and scary stuff can be a lot of fun in VR.

    If you’re ready to pull the trigger on this deal, make sure to swing by my guide to the best Meta Quest games. I’ve got some picks over there that can help you calm down after a long day of swinging your axe at zombies.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • GameStop ‘Trade Anything Day’ set for Dec. 6: What to know about the holiday deal unlike any other

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    If it sounds like an April Fool’s Day joke, guess again!

    GameStop, the video game retail giant, is hosting a “Trade Anything Day” on Saturday, Dec. 6, where people can bring in almost anything to trade in for a store credit.

    There are a few ground rules, however.

    For one, the company says the item must fit in a 20-by-20-by-20 box.

    So, if you were hoping to trade in your retro Sony Trinitron CRT TV from the ’90s, you’re out of luck (although you may find another customer willing to buy it).

    GameStop also says you can only receive store credit on one traded item.

    It’s not yet clear how the approximate trade value of each item will be determined… but consider us intrigued, and willing to give just about “anything” a try!

    See below for additional details.

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    WABC

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  • What’s On The Table For GameStop’s Trade In Day

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    Wondering what is on the table for GameStop’s Trade Anything Day? See what you can and can’t trade.

    GameStop, a retailer best known for turning used video games into a form of alternative currency, is leaning all the way into the joke—and the marketing opportunity—with its newly launched Trade Anything Day. The concept is as simple as it is amusing: bring in almost anything, and GameStop will give you store credit for it. Yes, really….so what’s on the table for GameStop’s Trade in day?

    The company has encouraged customers to dig deep into junk drawers, forgotten closets, and emotional baggage. And based on early reports, people certainly are.

    RELATED: Marijuana Pops Up In These Popular Video Games

    While GameStop still gives the most value for electronics and games, the store’s guidelines indicate Trade Anything Day truly stretches the imagination. Here are some examples of what is eligible:

    ✔ Old phones
    Have a Samsung Galaxy from 2013 sitting in a sock drawer like a retired pet? Bring it in.

    ✔ Floppy disks
    Finally—your stash of Windows 95 startup disks can serve a purpose other than confusing Gen Z.

    ✔ Things your ex left at your house
    That hoodie, that DVD they never picked up, that mug they insisted was “decorative”—GameStop will take it. Unsurprisingly, they do not provide emotional compensation.

    ✔ Old board games
    Dusty Monopoly sets, incomplete Trivial Pursuit boxes, and that Risk board missing half the armies are all fair game.

    ✔ Taxidermy
    Yes, you read that right. GameStop’s quirky trade-in policy has reportedly welcomed the occasional mounted deer head or a scene of dancing mice —because one person’s trophy is another person’s store credit.

    ✔ DVDs, CDs, gadgets, cables, controllers
    If it once plugged in, lit up, or made a noise, odds are they’ll consider it.

    ✔ Random household items
    Reports include kitchen utensils, lava lamps, garden gnomes, and at least one singing fish plaque. The company says the item simply needs “resale or recycling potential,” which is corporate for “we’ll figure something out.”

    Items You Cannot Trade—No Matter How Hard You Try

    Yes, there are limits. GameStop specifically excludes anything that could cause legal, sanitary, or moral dilemmas. For example:

    ✘ Weapons – No swords, no nunchucks, and definitely no crossbows.
    ✘ Food or perishables – Even if it’s “collectible cereal.”
    ✘ Live animals – This includes but is not limited to snakes, hamsters, or that goldfish you won at a carnival.
    ✘ Hazardous materials – Batteries are fine; uranium is not.
    ✘ Anything illegal – If you need to ask if it’s allowed, the answer is no.

    RELATED: Can Microdosing Marijuana Help You

    The promotion is clearly designed to drive foot traffic and social buzz, jumping off GameStop’s reputation for quirky customer interactions. It’s also a clever recycling and re-use initiative: one person’s abandoned Walkman is another person’s retro treasure.

    GameStop hasn’t released data on the most common or strangest accepted items yet, but judging by social media, the competition is fierce. If you’ve ever wanted to trade your way into a new game using only the contents of your junk drawer, this is your moment.

    Underpinning Trade Anything Day is more than just marketing bravado — it’s part of a broader effort led by Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s executive chairman-turned-CEO, to completely reinvent the company. Since taking the helm, Cohen has driven a ruthless cost-cutting strategy, shutting hundreds of underperforming stores and tightening the company’s expense structure around “extreme frugality.”

    Simultaneously, he has pivoted GameStop’s core business toward high-margin collectibles and trading cards, striking a partnership with PSA to grade cards in stores — a move that has helped fuel a significant boost in the company’s profitability. GameStop has also made bold capital allocation decisions: under Cohen’s direction, the company now has the authority to use its cash stockpile to invest in public markets, including buying Bitcoin as a treasury asset. The overall goal, Cohen says, is to transform GameStop from a declining brick-and-mortar video game retailer into a lean, liquid, and digitally savvy business — one that can survive long term, even in the fast-moving world of gaming and collectibles.

    Bring what you can, don’t bring what crawls, and may the store credit gods be ever in your favor.

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    Anthony Washington

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  • Razer’s Cobra HyperSpeed Is Not Your Standard Gaming Mouse

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    Breaking open the mouse requires only four screws: two covered by one of the mouse’s adhesive feet, and two underneath the removable puck. Covering two of the screws with an adhesive panel limits repairability, since it will slowly lose stickiness over time. After removing the screws, there are two plastic clips up front and two in the back that need to be released. Like any plastic clip, you risk breaking them during disassembly.

    Inside the mouse is a single-sided printed circuit board that houses the sensor, micro switches, and the mouse wheel. The overall design is simple; with replacement parts and some soldering skills, repair should be straightforward. The battery is attached to a removable section on the top shell of the mouse using a rubbery adhesive. This adhesive panel stretches and sticks to itself when removed, making it nearly impossible to reuse with a new battery, but it leaves no residue on the actual plastic of the mouse. A new battery should be easy to install using double-sided tape.

    The Cobra HyperSpeed’s simple internal design has nothing unnecessary, and no added confusion or failure points. While some other models, like the Logitech MX Master 4 or the Razer Basilisk 35K, boast a lot of premium features (with added complexity), it’s always refreshing to see something only as complex as it needs to be.

    Alongside the $100 Cobra HyperSpeed, Razer also offers the $35 Cobra and the $130 Cobra Pro. Compared to the Pro model, the HyperSpeed’s slightly less responsive sensor and scaled-back RGB aren’t huge hits to performance or usability, and the HyperSpeed’s lower weight is a distinct advantage. Compared to the standard wired model, the addition of wireless is a major benefit to both performance and usability. The HyperSpeed’s optical scroll wheel is a definitive improvement over its siblings.

    Overall, this mouse is a solid workhorse for gaming and general browsing. It’s fast, comfortable, and compact. The simple yet robust build will stand up to normal day-to-day use. While it doesn’t push the limits of performance or functionality like some of the more expensive esports-focused mice available today, the Cobra HyperSpeed is a great option for someone who doesn’t need cutting-edge specs but wants a mouse that gets things done.

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    Henri Robbins

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