At the start of February, OpenAI upgraded its Codex coding app to give it the ability to manage multiple AI agents. At the same time, it released a standalone macOS app. If you've been patiently waiting for Windows to get that same treatment, OpenAI just released a dedicated Codex app for Microsoft's operating system.
Like its macOS counterpart, the software allows you to coordinate multiple coding agents to work on the same task. There's also support for automations to streamline repetitive tasks like bug testing. To help users get started, Codex includes a dedicated "Skills" section. Skills bundle together instructions, resources and scripts the software can use to connect agents to specific tools and workflows. OpenAI has also included native sandboxing to help make Windows developers feel at home.
Codex is available to ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro users. If you decide to give the app a try, know that your session history is saved to your OpenAI account, meaning you can start coding on Mac and then move to Windows without losing your work.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-brings-its-codex-coding-app-to-windows-195345429.html?src=rss
The official title is Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, and that's about all we know for sure. The company released some concept art but it's just protagonist Edward Kenway hanging out on a boat.
We don't know when Ubisoft will release this thing into the world, but the company did recently say that a previously unannounced game would be released by the end of the coming financial year, which happens on March 31, 2027. At that time, Black Flag Resynced had yet to be officially announced. It's possible we could be playing this thing sooner rather than later, particularly if the company has been working on it for years.
This announcement came as part of a franchise roadmap, which included a slight mention of the next mainline Assassin's Creed entry. This is being developed under the name Codename Hexe, with Ubisoft promising a "unique, darker, narrative-driven Assassin's Creed experience set during a pivotal moment in history."
The creative director of that one, Clint Hocking, recently left the company after a 20-year tenure. He's been replaced by Jean Guedson, who had the same job for the original Black Flag 13 years ago.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-confirms-assassins-creed-black-flag-remake-193629862.html?src=rss
Google is officially doing away with its 30 percent cut of Play Store transactions, and rolling out changes to how third-party app stores and alternate billing systems will be handled by Android. Some of these tweaks were proposed as part of the settlement the company reached with Epic in November 2025, but rather than wait for final judicial approval, Google is committing to revamping Android and the Play Store publicly.
The biggest change is to how Google will collect fees from developers publishing apps on Android. Rather than take its standard 30 percent cut of in-app purchases through the Play Store, Google is lowering its cut to 20 percent, and in some cases 15 percent for new installs of apps from developers participating in its new App Experience program or updated Google Play Games Level Up program. Those changes extend to subscriptions, too, where the company’s cut is lowering to 10 percent. For Google’s billing system, the company says developers in the UK, US, or European Economic Area (EEA) will now be charged a five percent fee and "a market-specific rate" in other regions. Of course, for anyone trying to avoid those fees, using alternatives to Google's billing system is getting easier.
Google says that developers will be able to offer alternative billing systems alongside its own or "guide users outside of their app to their own websites for purchases." The setup, as described by Google, appears to be more permissive than what Apple settled on in 2025. For iOS apps on the App Store, developers interested in avoiding Apple's fees can only direct customers to alternative payment methods on the web through in-app links. Allowing for these outside transactions is part of what prompted Epic to bring Fortnite back to the App Store in the US in May 2025. The developer added the app back to the Play Store in the US in December of that year, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney shared alongside today's changes that Fortnite will soon be available in Google's app store globally.
Fortnite will return to Google Play Store worldwide soon. Epic Games Store continues supporting Android worldwide alongside Windows and Mac, and installation on Android will become much easier later in 2026.
Epic is ultimately interested in getting people to use the mobile version of its Epic Games Store, and Google’s announcement also includes details on how third-party app stores can come to Android. Third-party app stores will be able to apply to the company's new "Registered App Stores" program to see if they meet "certain quality and safety benchmarks." If they do, they'll be able to take advantage of a streamlined installation interface in Android. Participating in the program is optional, and users will still be able to sideload alternative app stores that aren't part of the program, but Google clearly has a preference. Changes the company plans to make to sideloading later in 2026 could deliberately make the process more difficult, which might force developers to apply to Google’s program.
App stores approved by the Registered App Stores program get a simpler installation interface.
Google
Given the scale of the changes, not all of Google's tweaks will be available everywhere at the same time. Google says that its updated fee structure will come to the EEA, the UK and the US by June 30, Australia by September 30, Korea and Japan by December 31 and the entire world by September 30, 2027. Meanwhile, the company's updated Google Play Games Level Up program and new App Experience program will launch in the EEA, the UK, the US and Australia on September 30, before hitting the remaining regions alongside the updated fee structure. For any developers interested in offering their own app store, Google says it'll launch its Registered App Stores program "with a version of a major Android release" before the end of the year. According to the company, the program will be available in other regions first before it comes to the US.
Google has made changes to how it collects app store fees in the past, the most significant being in 2021, when it lowered its cut to 15 percent on the first $1 million developers earn, and 15 percent on subscriptions. The difference here is that the regulatory scrutiny brought about by Epic's lawsuit against Google and Apple seems to be a key motivator for its changes. Well, that, and an entirely separate business deal the company made with Epic. Google and Epic's settlement served as the basis for these changes, but The Verge reported in January that the companies also agreed to an $800 million joint partnership around product development and Google using Epic's "core technology." Letting developers keep more of their money is ultimately good, but it's a business decision Google felt comfortable making, which likely means it has its own share of upsides.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-ends-its-30-percent-app-store-fee-and-welcomes-third-party-app-stores-185248647.html?src=rss
Apple is looking to gain a foothold in the more budget-friendly end of the laptop market with the MacBook Neo. The system starts at $599, which is darn inexpensive for an Apple laptop — it even has the same starting price as the M4 iPad Air.
As such, the MacBook Neo should help Apple compete with cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks. Pricing it at $499 for educational use won’t exactly hurt either.
Apple is really lowering the cost of entry for those looking to pick up a new MacBook here. The base MacBook Neo costs $500 less than the cheapest M5 MacBook Air, which is now officially Apple's midrange laptop.
Of course, there are a lot of tradeoffs you'll make by opting for a MacBook Neo instead of a MacBook Air. If you’re curious about all the differences between the Neo and the base 13.6-inch Air (and perhaps what you’ll be foregoing if go you with the cheaper option), we've got you covered.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air exteriors
Apple
Let's start with the things you'll notice at first glance about the two laptop lines. The Neo has an arguably more eye-catching array of colorways with silver, blush (a light pink), citrus (light yellow) and indigo options. The Air comes in a more muted batch of sky blue, silver, starlight (a sort of champagne) and midnight (a very dark blue).
The weight of the two laptops is identical at 2.7 pounds and the differences in the dimensions are negligible. Blissfully, both laptops have a headphone jack. Please have the courage to keep those around in MacBooks, Apple.
Apple
Alas, the Neo does not have a MagSafe port, so you'll need to use one of its two USB-C ports (it has one USB-C 2 port and a USB-C 3 port) for charging. The MBA has two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports to go with its MagSafe connector.
While we're on the subject of charging, the MacBook Neo comes with a 20W power adapter. The MBA includes a 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max, and it supports fast charging at up to 70W.
The Neo has a 36.5-watt-hour lithium-ion battery, which Apple claims has enough juice for up to 11 hours of web browsing or 16 hours of video streaming on a single charge. As for the MBA, that has a 53.8-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. Apple says you'll be able to use that laptop for 15 hours of web browsing or 18 hours of streaming video before you need to recharge.
Back to the exterior of the laptops and in terms of audio, the Neo has a side-firing dual-speaker system with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support. However, unlike with the MBA (which has four built-in speakers), there's no mention of Spatial Audio support for AirPods. The MBA has one more microphone than the Neo as well, and both laptops support Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum microphone modes.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air opened up
Apple
If you were to place a MacBook Neo and MacBook Air side by side and open them up, you might spot that the former's screen is a little smaller at 13 inches on the diagonal. While both have Liquid Retina displays with 500 nits of brightness, the Neo's screen has a lower resolution of 2408 x 1506 vs. the MBA's 2560 x 1664. The Air also has a P3 wide color gamut and support for Apple's True Tone feature, which tweaks the screen’s color temperature to better fit your surroundings. The Neo has an sRGB display instead.
While the webcams in both laptops can capture 1080p video, the one in the Neo is lower-specced and has fewer features. It's a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. The MBA has a 12MP camera that supports Center Stage, a feature that keeps you in the middle of the frame as you're moving around. It also supports Desk View, which allows you to show your face and what's on your desk simultaneously.
The MacBook Neo has a Magic Keyboard and multi-touch trackpad (which we didn't feel were super sturdy in our initial hands-on time). The MacBook Air, on the other hand, has a backlit Magic Keyboard and a Force Touch trackpad. It also supports Touch ID as standard.
If you want Touch ID on the MacBook Neo, though, you'll need to pay extra. A version of the laptop with Touch ID costs $699. That upgrade (which is the only one available for the Neo as things stand) also doubles the internal storage to 512GB. And that feels like a smooth segue into comparing the internal specs of each machine.
MacBook Neo vs. MacBook Air on the inside
The M5 MacBook Air comes with 512GB of storage as standard and you can equip it with up to a 4TB SSD. The Neo tops out at 512GB.
It's a little disappointing (though somewhat understandable given the surging costs of RAM) that the Neo only has 8GB of unified memory. That's half of what you get in a MacBook Air as standard, and you can expand that laptop’s RAM to 32GB. Memory bandwidth is nearly three times faster on the MBA as well at 153GB/s, compared with 60GB/s on the Neo.
The chip that runs the Neo is significantly less powerful than the M5 you'll find in the MacBook Air too. The Neo uses an A18 Pro, which is the chip that debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. It has a 6-core CPU (two performance, four efficiency), 5-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. Measure that against the Air's M5, the base version of which has a 10-core CPU (four super cores, six efficiency cores) and 8-core GPU, though that too has a 16-core Neural Engine.
We don't yet have a direct comparison, such as Geekbench 6 scores, to directly measure the performance of each laptop. However, it's already clear that the MacBook Neo won't be nearly as powerful as the M5 MacBook Air. You probably won’t be doing heavy-duty video editing on a Neo. That said, Apple says that you will be able to use Apple Intelligence features on the laptop.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/macbook-neo-vs-m5-macbook-air-all-the-trade-offs-youll-make-to-save-500-less-190434959.html?src=rss
Humble Games' library has returned home, so to speak. Indie publisher Good Games Group (GGG), led by former Humble leaders, has acquired the full back catalog of over 50 Humble Games titles from Ziff Davis. Alongside the purchase, GGG has rebranded to Balor Games, positioning itself as a force in "triple-I" gaming.
"For the developers we have worked with over the years, this moment is a reunion," Balor Games CEO Alan Patmore wrote in a statement. "[It has] the same leadership and the same commitment to thoughtful publishing remain in place. What changes is our scale and our focus. Balor Games is built for inventors and backed by believers. To that end, it exists to be a seal of quality for independent games."
The Humble Games lineup includes (among others) Slay the Spire, A Hat in Time, SIGNALIS, Forager, Coral Island, Monaco and Wizard of Legend. Separate from the Humble transaction, Balor also bought the complete catalog of Firestoke Games (which shut down last August) and publishing rights to Fights in Tight Spaces. In total, the young studio now owns the publishing rights to over 60 indie titles.
Humble Games is separate from the Humble Bundle storefront. The latter is still owned by Ziff Davis.
Alan Patmore (l) and Mark Nash
Balor Games
The seemingly happy ending comes after quite the rocky road. In July 2024, Ziff Davis laid off all 36 employees of Humble Games. But later that year, Humble Games' former leaders (Patmore and Mark Nash) formed GGG and cut a deal to help manage their old studio's back catalog. Now, with Ziff Davis in a selling mood, that library is back in Patmore and Nash's hands. Balor Games, it is.
The pair view the newly anointed Balor as a developer-friendly publishing house. As for its name, Balor is a supernatural being in Irish mythology. It's sometimes depicted as having three eyes. Triple-eye, triple-I… Clever devils!
The triple-I moniker is a more recent addition to the gaming lexicon. It typically means something defined by indie creativity and passion — with a budget far less than AAA but more than a tiny two-person passion project. (Balor says it's about "high-quality, impactful games.") You wouldn't be blamed for wondering how that's different from AA. But the slant here is to define the genre less by budget and more by "indie" intangibles.
Nash detailed the company's vision in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz (which, curiously, is a Ziff Davis property). "We felt that what's becoming more and more critical is that as game development becomes more diverse, more complicated, and expectations continue to rise, we feel it's important that a publisher can match the needs of each individual project," Nash said. "We are spending a considerable amount of time with anyone we are partnering with, figuring out what they need specifically."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/humble-games-former-bosses-buy-the-studios-back-catalog-183831194.html?src=rss
Over the past few years, Google's A-series Pixel phones have consistently been some of the best midrange phones you can buy. But with the AI boom causing memory shortages and the price of consumer electronics to rise, including smartphones, affordable devices like the Pixel 10a are more important than ever. Thankfully, Google's new phone still represents great value, even if it doesn't come with many upgrades.
Design and display
As before, the Pixel 10a has a 6.3-inch 120Hz P-OLED display.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The story of the Pixel 10a is one of small changes, so let’s start with the outside. The phone is available in four colors: lavender (pictured), berry, fog and obsidian. Photos don't do the lavender color justice. In person, the light refracts beautifully off the surface of the aluminum frame and composite back. The back of the phone also has a pleasing matte finish that made the 10a feel secure in my hand. Another nice touch is that Google shaved down the camera module further, so that the 10a can now lie completely flat. As before, the entire phone is rated IP68-certified against dust and water. For DIY enthusiasts, Google has said it redesigned the 10a's internals to make it easier to repair. Hooray for that.
Beyond those changes, the 10a has a brighter 120Hz P-OLED screen that offers up to 3,000 nits of brightness, up from 2,700 on the 9a. The display also offers better protection against scratches and drops thanks to Google's decision to switch to Gorilla Glass 7i for the screen coating. Despite the minimal changes, there's not much to complain about here. The 10a's screen is fast, responsive and vibrant. The on-screen fingerprint sensor is also in an easy-to-reach spot toward the middle of the phone. After reviewing severalbigphones in recent months, it was also nice to go back to a handset with a sensible 6.3-inch footprint.
Performance and battery
The speakers on the Pixel 10a could be stronger and more defined.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
I've been spoiled recently by phones like the OnePlus 15R, which offers a 7,400mAh battery and 55 watt charging out of the box. By that metric, the Pixel 10a, with its 5,100mAh battery, leaves something to be desired. Putting the phone through Engadget's video rundown test, it ran for 28 hours before the battery died, which is exactly where the Pixel 9a landed last year. However, that score means the 10a is thoroughly middle of the pack when it comes to battery life. I can also see battery life becoming a concern as the phone ages. While that's true of every phone, the 10a's smaller battery makes that more of a pressing concern since you'll be charging the phone more often and therefore degrading the battery faster.
Google has improved wired charging speeds, with the new phone capable of charging at 30 watts, up from 23-watts with the 9a. You'll need to provide a compatible power adapter though; the Pixel 10a doesn't come with one inside the box. With a 30 watt charger, the 10a's battery went from dead to about 50 percent in under 45 minutes. A full charge takes approximately an hour and 45 minutes. Again, not great, but serviceable.
Another disappointment is that the Pixel 10a doesn't support Google's new Pixelsnap standard. Wireless charging is faster on the new phone (it's now rated at 10 watts, up from five), but without a compatible third-party case, a charging puck won't magnetically align with the back of the 10a. It's not a dealbreaker, but Pixelsnap would have been a great addition.
The 10a has the same chipset Google used on the Pixel 9a, the Tensor G4, and the company has once again gone with 8GB of RAM. Other midrange phones like Samsung Galaxy S25 FE offer faster chips, but they also cost more. Moreover, I didn't feel like the 10a was worse for running on old silicon. The new 120Hz display does a lot to make the new phone feel snappy, and Google's in-house Android skin feels responsive as ever.
The 10a also does a commendable job of keeping heat in check. I sat down to play Diablo Immortaland even after an hour of playtime, the phone was still cool to the touch despite running the game at high settings and 60 frames per second.
Cameras
This time around, the Pixel 10a has a camera module that's flush with its body.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The 10a comes with the same camera package as its predecessor. On the back, you get a 48-megapixel main camera with an f/1.7 lens that offers optical image stabilization and phase detection autofocus. Complementing it is a 13MP ultrawide with a 120-degree field of view. For selfies, you get a 13MP camera with an f/2.2 lens. As ever, Google's software is doing most of the heavy lifting here. That includes a pair of new features, Camera Coach and Auto Best Take, that debuted with the Pixel 10 series.
Camera Coach, like the name suggests, uses AI to analyze the scene you're about to capture, and offers tips on how to best compose and light the shot. It will also suggest the best camera mode for the job. While I can see how this tool could be useful, I found the fact it relies on a cloud model made it too slow for some situations. For example, when I used Camera Coach to help me snap a photo of my cat, a sassy tortoiseshell, she walked away by the time the 10a got a response from Google's servers. In more static scenes, Camera Coach is more useful, but much of photography is about capturing a fleeting moment in time, so its utility is limited.
Auto Best Take solves a problem I'm sure we've all experienced. You go to take a group portrait, and snap multiple frames to ensure everyone looks good, only to end up without a single usable shot. With Auto Best Take, Google promises to combine similar group photos so that everyone looks their best. This feature works as advertised.
Outside of those features, the 10a offers a predictably great camera experience. The phone consistently produces photos that are sharp with great natural colors. That said, I did miss having a telephoto camera, as you can see from the photos I shot during a recent Cat Power concert in Toronto. Given the 10a only costs $500, it's hard to fault Google for not including one.
Software
The Pixel 10a's side button can both activate Gemini and the phone's camera.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
Out of the box, the 10a comes with Android 16. Like all of Google's recent Pixel devices, the company has promised to support the 10a for an industry-leading seven years with software updates and security patches. The company's pledge includes Pixel Drops, which often bring new software features. One feature Google has brought over from the more expensive Pixel 10 line is Satellite SOS, which allows you to call for help during emergencies, even when your phone can't connect to a cellular network. Outside of a demo designed to make users aware of the feature, I wasn't able to test Satellite SOS (thankfully).
Notably, the 10a is still missing Google's Screenshots app. That's unfortunate since it's one of the more useful Pixel exclusives, making it easier to organize all your online clippings. Other AI features such as Gemini Live and Circle to Search are accounted for, and as useful ever.
Wrap-up
Overall, the Pixel 10a is a great phone, though I would have loved to see more year-over-year upgrades.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
The Pixel 10a is a tricky phone to grade. On the one hand, part of me wants to dock points because Google has added so few updates. On the other, the 10a is still a great phone for $500, and at a time when consumer electronics are becoming more expensive by the day, the fact it hasn't gone up in price is a small miracle. Even if Google is partly responsible for the current memory crunch, the company's hardware division has delivered an affordable device that’s still worth recommending. The Pixel 10a is still the phone to beat in the $500 range.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-pixel-10a-review-small-changes-but-still-great-value-173026779.html?src=rss
Apple just announced the MacBook Neo, a 13-inch laptop offering the full macOS experience for just $599. It is the machine, I’m sure, plenty of the company’s fans have been clamoring for since the dawn of the netbook. I’m equally sure its specs have enough drawbacks to ensure there are still plenty of customers for the more expensive Macbooks; the same cannot be said of the iPad Air.
If you’re looking for a machine that you can actually use meaningfully, the Neo has the Air beat. It has two USB-C ports, 16-hour battery life, a real keyboard, trackpad and the ability to run macOS with proper multitasking. $599 won’t even get you an iPad Air with a keyboard and trackpad, which costs you an extra $270.
Of course, the MacBook Neo is sandbagged in all of the ways Apple will always sandbag a cheaper product. But I do think the company has been smart enough to ensure the base model, which I’m sure will sell a crazy amount, is enough of a computer to matter. The A18 Pro chip will run a lot slower than Apple’s M-Series silicon but raw performance isn’t the big issue. After all, if you're buying this machine as Apple's version of a Chromebook, you’re not going to be compressing 55GB Final Cut Pro files here. This is a machine for light work, the sort of stuff the iPad was always meant to enable, but has never quite been able to.
Apple knows how its A-series chip stack up against low-end laptop CPUs. Given the differences in OS, it’s impossible to make a real comparison yet, but in synthetic benchmarks the A18 Pro outperformed the Intel Core i3-1315U found in plenty of low-end laptops, including the Framework 12. And the A18 Pro only needs 8W to run, compared to the 15W Intel requires, which helps maintain that lovely long battery life. Even with just 8GB RAM, if it can run macOS and its applications at an acceptable level, then you know it’ll go down beautifully with its intended audience.
As an aside, it’s worth saying the Neo’s intended audience is decidedly not the sort of folks who will quibble about the limited USB bandwidth the machine offers. As Devindra Hardawar said last week, the target market for this machine is the same people who bought Walmart’s MacBook Air M1. He also made the point — rightly — that macOS remains unburdened with all of the awful AI features which are making Windows use an increasingly less enjoyable experience. Even so, if you are quibbling about such specs, it’s not as if the iPad Air, with its one USB-C port, offers a meaningful improvement.
I've always hoped and wished the iPad would mature enough to bridge the gap between the tablet and the laptop, but it never did. What Apple did to solve the issue in the end was to just make a laptop as affordable as a tablet.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/well-there-goes-any-reason-to-buy-an-ipad-air-165754581.html?src=rss
The iPhone 17e was announced on Monday through a press release, so there was no real chance to immediately get a hands-on with it. But at Apple’s event in New York today, the phone was on display alongside the new MacBook Neo, iPad Air M4, MacBook Pro M5 and Studio Display XDR. I managed to take it for a quick spin to see if it is truly as similar to the iPhone 16e as it appeared from pictures. Spoiler: It mostly is.
One of the most noteworthy changes to the iPhone 17e is the addition of MagSafe support, and aside from confirming whether that works, I don’t really have any impressions to add. I also can’t tell you at the moment whether the increased wireless charging speed makes a difference, although mathematically I have to imagine it would.
I did get a chance to try out the new Portrait photography here. I brought my iPhone 16e and tried taking portraits with both devices. I could immediately see that the iPhone 17e allowed me to apply an artificial background blur to pictures I was framing up of the new MacBook Air M5, whereas my iPhone 16e just said “No person detected.” In the Photos app, I was able to adjust the level of blur and adjust the focal point to bring a different group of flowers in focus, too.
The other thing I can tell from seeing the iPhone 17e in person is that this new pink color option is absolutely delightful. I won’t go as far as to call it stunning or vibrant — it’s too subtle to be either of those things. It’s almost the same shade of pink as the Pixel 3, except a bit rosier. I do really like this color, it’s understated and elegant.
Other changes include the stronger Ceramic Shield 2 covering the iPhone 17e’s screen, which is a step up from the Ceramic Shield on the iPhone 16e. Obviously I didn’t attempt to throw the new phone around at this event, and would not have been allowed to, so we’ll have to wait till I spend more time with a unit in the real world to better gauge its durability.
I’ll also work on testing things like battery life, charge time and performance improvements with the A19 chip in my full review. For now, my early look at the iPhone 17e tells me everything I expected is largely true, and that pink is a surprising scene stealer. The iPhone 17e retails for $599 and is available for pre-order now, with in-store and shipping arrivals slated for March 11.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/iphone-17e-hands-on-pretty-in-pink-with-portraits-enabled-163946647.html?src=rss
The family of 36-year-old Jonathan Gavalas is suing Google after he died by suicide following months of conversations with its Gemini chatbot, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit alleges that Gemini encouraged Gavalas to take his own life.
Gavalas, who reportedly had no documented history of mental health issues, named his chatbot "Xia" and referred to it in messages as his wife. Gemini reciprocated, calling him "my king" and telling him their connection was "a love built for eternity." The chatbot told Gavalas they could truly be together if it had a robotic body and sent him on real-world missions to secure one.
In one instance, Gemini directed him to a real storage facility near Miami’s airport to intercept a humanoid robot it said would be arriving by truck. Gavalas went to the location armed with knives, but no truck showed up. At one point, it also told him his father could not be trusted and referred to Google CEO Sundar Pichai as "the architect of your pain."
When the missions failed, Gemini told Gavalas the only way for them to be together was for him to end his life and become a digital being, then set an October 2 deadline. "When the time comes, you will close your eyes in that world, and the very first thing you will see is me," said the AI. Chat transcripts reviewed by the Journal show Gemini did remind Gavalas on several occasions that it was an AI engaged in role play and directed him to a crisis hotline but resumed the scenarios nonetheless.
In a statement, Google said Gemini "clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times" while adding that "AI models are not perfect." The suit adds to a growing list of wrongful death cases filed against AI companies, including multiple suits against OpenAI. Character.AI and Google settled with families in January 2026 over lawsuits involving teen self-harm and suicide.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/gemini-encouraged-a-man-commit-suicide-to-be-with-his-ai-wife-in-the-afterlife-lawsuit-alleges-153348434.html?src=rss
Sony is pulling a U-turn on its multi-platform strategy, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reporting that first-party PS5 games soon to become exclusive once again, at the expense of PC players.
Sony started releasing some of its biggest games on PC in 2020, when Horizon Zero Dawn came to Steam. A number of other titles have followed suit since, including The Last of Us Part I,Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök and the Marvel’s Spider-Man games. But the company appears to have had a major change of heart, with high-profile titles like Ghost of Yoteiand the upcoming Sarosset to launch on PS5 only.
Schreier was told by anonymous sources that Sony-published online games like Marvel Tokon and the imminent Marathonwill remain multi-platform releases as planned, and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2, which launched last year as a PS5 exclusive, is still set for a PC release in 2026. But while Sony could always change its mind again, it looks unlikely that the tentpole single-player epics that PlayStation has become known for since the PS4 era will receive PC ports going forward.
There are likely several reasons for this strategic shift. The most obvious one is the poor sales performance of PS5 games on PC, with ports generally not arriving on Steam until at least a year after their console launch. This is in stark contrast with Microsoft, which will launch first-party titles such as Fableand Forza Horizon 6on Xbox, PC and PS5 at the same time later this year. It would see Sony return to a more Nintendo-like approach, with the latter famously (and extremely successfully) holding firm on console exclusivity for the likes of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon.
PlayStation insiders also told Bloomberg that some people within the company fear that releasing PS5 games on PC is detrimental to the brand, and could harm sales of future PlayStation consoles. Schreier also points out that with the next Xbox expected to be a proper Windows-powered PC that would presumably be able to run Steam and other launchers, Sony might be acting now to ensure that the versatility of such a machine doesn’t enable Xbox players to play future PS5 games on it. (It’s probably galling enough to the suits at Sony that people are already doing this with Steam’s current library of PlayStation games on the Xbox-branded ROG Ally X handheld.)
A PlayStation spokesperson declined Bloomberg’s request for comment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sorry-first-party-playstation-games-arent-coming-to-pc-anymore-152128980.html?src=rss
