Author Archives: Kris Holt

Palworld suddenly arrives on PS5

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There have been murmurings for some time that Pocketpair was planning to bring Palworld, one of the biggest games of the year, to PlayStation 5. However, it was a bit of a surprise to find out during Sony's State of Play stream that the action-adventure game is available for the console today.

Palworld (which is often described as "Pokémon with guns") landed on Xbox and PC in Early Access in January and was an immediate hit, selling over a million copies in just eight hours. Within a month, it had reached more than 25 million players. According to Microsoft, it had the biggest ever debut for a third-party title on Game Pass. 

However, it quickly emerged that The Pokémon Company was investigating Palworld. Fast forward eight months, and the company and Nintendo filed suit against Pocketpair in Japan. In a post on X, the developer said that the PS5 version of the game is now available in 68 countries and regions around the world, but Japan isn't one of them. The release date for the country has yet to be decided. 

"This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," Nintendo said after filing the suit last week. Pocketpair's CEO said the game "cleared legal reviews" and the studio said it would "begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement."

So it's not exactly ideal timing for Palworld to land on PS5. But hey, if you're willing to buy a game that could potentially be forced to shut down in a few months or years due to a lawsuit, you can now do that on your PlayStation.

Update, Sept. 25, 2024, 3:13AM ET: Added information that Palworld for the PS5 is not yet available in Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/palworld-suddenly-arrives-on-ps5-224601245.html?src=rss

Palworld suddenly arrives on PS5

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There have been murmurings for some time that Pocketpair was planning to bring Palworld, one of the biggest games of the year, to PlayStation 5. However, it was a bit of a surprise to find out during Sony's State of Play stream that the action-adventure game is available for the console today.

Palworld (which is often described as "Pokémon with guns") landed on Xbox and PC in Early Access in January and was an immediate hit, selling over a million copies in just eight hours. Within a month, it had reached more than 25 million players. According to Microsoft, it had the biggest ever debut for a third-party title on Game Pass. 

However, it quickly emerged that The Pokémon Company was investigating Palworld. Fast forward eight months, and the company and Nintendo filed suit against Pocketpair in Japan. In a post on X, the developer said that the PS5 version of the game is now available in 68 countries and regions around the world, but Japan isn't one of them. The release date for the country has yet to be decided. 

"This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," Nintendo said after filing the suit last week. Pocketpair's CEO said the game "cleared legal reviews" and the studio said it would "begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement."

So it's not exactly ideal timing for Palworld to land on PS5. But hey, if you're willing to buy a game that could potentially be forced to shut down in a few months or years due to a lawsuit, you can now do that on your PlayStation.

Update, Sept. 25, 2024, 3:13AM ET: Added information that Palworld for the PS5 is not yet available in Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/palworld-suddenly-arrives-on-ps5-224601245.html?src=rss

Lego Horizon Adventures hits PS5, PC and Switch on November 14

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Lego Horizon Adventures is one of a very few first-party games that Sony is releasing this year, and now we have a release date, thanks to the State of Play the company aired on Tuesday. The kid-friendly spin on the Horizon series is coming to PlayStation 5, PC and Switch on November 14.

The soonish release date isn’t a huge shock, since the game was already lined up for a holiday 2024 slot. However, Sony jumped the gun by accidentally revealing the arrival date on the PlayStation website’s a few weeks back. Whoops!

We had the chance to try out Lego Horizon Adventures at Summer Game Fest in June and came away with positive impressions. It's generally faithful to the combat of the mainline Horizon games, with Aloy sneaking around for optimal angles from which to attack enemies and using her Focus to find weak spots on giant dinosaur-like machines. However, that's aligned with the kind of offbeat humor you'll find in many other Lego games rather than the broadly stoic seriousness of Horizon Forbidden West. Local and online co-op will also be available for the first time in a Horizon game.

This is a chance for Sony to bring the series to a whole new audience. Until now, the Horizon series has only been available on PlayStation consoles and PC (and PS VR2 in the case of Horizon Call of the Mountain). This could also be a bit of a test run for Sony to see if some of its older games might find new digs, and many more players, on Nintendo systems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lego-horizon-adventures-hits-ps5-pc-and-switch-on-november-14-223756234.html?src=rss

Lego Horizon Adventures hits PS5, PC and Switch on November 14

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Lego Horizon Adventures is one of a very few first-party games that Sony is releasing this year, and now we have a release date, thanks to the State of Play the company aired on Tuesday. The kid-friendly spin on the Horizon series is coming to PlayStation 5, PC and Switch on November 14.

The soonish release date isn’t a huge shock, since the game was already lined up for a holiday 2024 slot. However, Sony jumped the gun by accidentally revealing the arrival date on the PlayStation website’s a few weeks back. Whoops!

We had the chance to try out Lego Horizon Adventures at Summer Game Fest in June and came away with positive impressions. It's generally faithful to the combat of the mainline Horizon games, with Aloy sneaking around for optimal angles from which to attack enemies and using her Focus to find weak spots on giant dinosaur-like machines. However, that's aligned with the kind of offbeat humor you'll find in many other Lego games rather than the broadly stoic seriousness of Horizon Forbidden West. Local and online co-op will also be available for the first time in a Horizon game.

This is a chance for Sony to bring the series to a whole new audience. Until now, the Horizon series has only been available on PlayStation consoles and PC (and PS VR2 in the case of Horizon Call of the Mountain). This could also be a bit of a test run for Sony to see if some of its older games might find new digs, and many more players, on Nintendo systems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lego-horizon-adventures-hits-ps5-pc-and-switch-on-november-14-223756234.html?src=rss

Warner Bros. Discovery teams up with Google to generate captions using AI

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Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has agreed a deal with Google Cloud to use the latter's Vertex AI to generate captions for programming across a variety of platforms. WBD claims that its Caption AI system can significantly reduce production time and costs while improving the accuracy of captions for US-based viewers.

The tech will be used for unscripted programming at the outset, which could include news, sports and reality TV across the likes of Max, CNN and Discovery+. WBD claims the system can reduce the time it takes to create captions by up to 80 percent and captioning costs by up to 50 percent. There will still be a level of human review for quality assurance, and the company claims this approach will help refine and train Caption AI's workflow to improve it over time.

However, captioning requires a lot of skill, especially for live TV where transcribers have to keep up with what's being said as accurately as possible. Unscripted programming also tends to include a lot of overlapping chatter and it's unclear just how effective AI will be at transcribing that accurately. However you slice it though, relying more on AI-generated transcriptions will mean less work for people in the space.

It'll be interesting to see whether WBD expands this tech to subtitles for scripted programming. Subtitling (something I admittedly used to do for a living) is a skilled art. Among other things, it involves accurately capturing sound effects, music cues and non-verbal utterances; properly explaining idioms for localization purposes; and making sure subtitles are timed properly. There's a ton of nuance involved, and it would be difficult for AI to get it right.

It's hardly surprising that WBD is looking at Caption AI as a way to save money. The company has been aggressively cutting costs (and trying to bolster its revenue) since it formed in 2022 with the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/warner-bros-discovery-teams-up-with-google-to-generate-captions-using-ai-161345238.html?src=rss

Behaviour Interactive snaps up Darkest Dungeon developer Red Hook Studios

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It’s been a topsy turvy year for Dead by Daylight maker Behaviour Interactive, which has released two spin-offs, laid off dozens of workers and shut down a studio that was working on another offshoot of its tentpole project. Now, Behaviour is bringing another developer into the fold, as it has bought Darkest Dungeon developer Red Hook Studios.

The Vancouver-based outfit will continue to operate as a “fully independent studio,” albeit under Behaviour’s umbrella. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but Red Hook likely won’t have come cheap — nearly seven million copies of the Darkest Dungeon games have been sold to date. Behaviour has also kept on Red Hook’s entire 29-strong staff.

"Earlier this year, we established an ambitious goal for our future as a publisher — to make Behaviour synonymous with horror, and surround Dead by Daylight with a library of similarly exceptional horror games,” Behaviour CEO and co-founder Rémi Racine told GamesIndustry.biz in a statement. “Our acquisition of Red Hook is another emphatic step towards this objective, with more to come."

This is the fourth studio Behaviour has snapped up in the past two years, following SockMonkey Studios, Codeglue and Fly Studio. It also opened a new studio in the UK last year and forged partnerships with third-party developers such as Supermassive, which made the recently released The Casting of Frank Stone.

However, things haven’t been entirely plain sailing for the publisher. It fired around 140 workers this year across two rounds of layoffs amid restructuring efforts.

Last week, Behaviour canceled Project T, a co-op shooter set in the DbD universe. It also closed the studio that was working on the game, Seattle-based Midwinter Entertainment, two years after buying it. All Midwinter workers were offered roles at Behaviour’s studios in Canada.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/behaviour-interactive-snaps-up-darkest-dungeon-developer-red-hook-studios-142036727.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals include three free months of Amazon Music Unlimited for new users

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Amazon is hoping to get more people hooked on Music Unlimited with a pre-Prime Day offer. Those who haven't tried the service before can get three months of access for free. The offer is even better for Prime members who haven't checked out the music-streaming platform. They can use it for four months at no extra cost. Music Unlimited typically costs $11 per month without Prime and $10 per month for Prime members.

The company isn't leaving existing subscribers entirely out in the cold. Those with an individual Amazon Music Unlimited plan can upgrade to the Family Plan at no extra cost for two months.

Amazon Music Unlimited includes more than 100 million songs, many of which are available in high definition and/or spatial audio. The service also includes ad-free versions of many popular podcasts.

While it may not be the first music streaming service that springs to mind for most folks, Amazon Music Unlimited may be worth checking out. The HD music selection is particularly notable, since Spotify has yet to offer that feature.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/prime-day-deals-include-three-free-months-of-amazon-music-unlimited-for-new-users-184228736.html?src=rss

Sony’s next State of Play stream is set for September 24

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With the Tokyo Game Show taking place this week, major publishers have lined up showcases for the coming days. Sony is getting the jump on its rivals as it will run its next State of Play on September 24 at 6PM ET.

The company plans to shine the spotlight on more than 20 PS5 and PS VR2 games during the stream, which is set to run for over 30 minutes. You'll be able to watch the showcase on YouTube and Twitch in English or Japanese.

It seems very likely that we'll get a release date for Horizon Lego Adventures, the final first-party game that Sony currently has on its slate for the rest of the year. We'll surely get another look at the Until Dawn and Silent Hill 2 remakes before they arrive in early October too. There's also chatter that there are remasters of Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone on the way, so Sony might spill the beans on those. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Marvel's Wolverine are among the other upcoming titles that could make an appearance.

Here's hoping for a major surprise or two. Hardware news seems unlikely given that the PS5 Pro is coming soon. However, it's a good opportunity for Sony to remind everyone about those dope PS1-style 30th anniversary editions of the PS5 consoles and controllers. (For what it's worth, Sony may reveal the prices of those at the State of Play.)

Meanwhile, let's not forget that September 26 is The Last of Us Day. If we don't hear anything about that franchise at the State of Play, Sony will certainly have something to say about it then. A release date for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is possible, though we should at least get an update on season two of the HBO adaptation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sonys-next-state-of-play-stream-is-set-for-september-24-171708006.html?src=rss

How to watch Meta Connect 2024

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It's Meta's turn to step up to the plate and host a developer conference. This year's Meta Connect takes place on September 25 and 26. While the bulk of the event will focus on how developers can get the most out of Meta's products, most of the actual news is likely to come from the opening keynote and developer keynote, which run back to back on September 25 starting at 1PM ET.

You'll be able to watch the keynote live on Facebook on the Meta for Developers page. There's also the option to drink in the keynote in Horizon Worlds, in "a virtual experience inspired by the Meta campus in Menlo Park." Meta has also shared the keynote on its YouTube channel in previous years, but only after Connect is over, so it's unlikely to livestream the event there.

The Connect keynote will feature Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing advancements in mixed reality, AI and wearables. The company is also promising a look at new products and features. Those may well include a pair of augmented reality glasses codenamed Orion that executives have been teasing for quite some time.

We're also expecting to see a less-expensive version of the Quest 3, dubbed the Quest 3S. Leaks suggest that this could sell for $300, which is significantly less than the $500 Quest 3. The Quest 3S could make it easier for Meta to finally ditch the Quest 2, which debuted in 2020 and is significantly less powerful than the Quest 3.

Elsewhere, Meta may announce an update for the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at Connect. Meta and Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica recently renewed their partnership, so there's more to come from that pact, either now or in the future.

In addition, there will likely be lots of talk about AI in the developer keynote starting at 2PM ET. It's likely that we'll learn more about how it's being used across Meta's headsets and smart glasses. As a result, the open-source Llama large language model is expected to be a topic of discussion.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/how-to-watch-meta-connect-2024-163643686.html?src=rss

The Google Pixel 8a falls to a new record low of $379 for Prime Day

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Google's A-series Pixel phones are a great option for those looking to upgrade without spending a ton of money. Now thanks to Prime Day deals, you can get the Pixel 8a for the best price we've seen. It's down to $379, which is $120 off its usual price.

The Pixel 8a is our pick for the best midrange smartphone you can buy right now. We gave it a score of 90 in our review in May. It has some excellent hardware for a phone in this price range, including terrific cameras, a 6.1-inch OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and great battery life (it lasted for 20 and a half hours on our video rundown test).

What’s more, the Pixel 8a runs on the Tensor G3, which is the same chipset found in the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. As such, it can run the same AI features as the flagship handsets, including Magic Eraser and other camera trickery, web article summaries and narration via Google Assistant, wallpaper generation and faster Face Unlock.

Elsewhere, features like IP67 dust and water resistance are very welcome. On the downside, the bezels are a little thicker than some may like. Qi wireless charging is slow too at a rate of 7.5W. Still, those are minor quibbles for an otherwise great midrange phone.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-8a-falls-to-a-new-record-low-of-379-for-prime-day-144717301.html?src=rss