Netflix has been experimenting with live sports over the last few months with golf and tennis exhibition events. The company has announced the biggest test for its livestreaming capabilities to date: a boxing match between YouTuber (and pro boxer) Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The fight is going to be a spectacle for a number of reasons. Both fighters bring star power to the table. There's a 30-year age gap between them. Despite his 9-1 record, Paul can hardly be described as an elite fighter. While Tyson is regarded as one of the best heavyweights of all time, he retired 19 years ago and has only fought in two matches since then. Paul's second match was on the undercard of Tyson's last bout, which was against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.
The battle will take place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It's bound to attract a decent audience through Netflix as well. Most major boxing matches are on pay per view, but Netflix's 260 million subscribers will be able to watch at no extra cost.
It’s JAKE PAUL vs. MIKE TYSON — yes, really! — in a LIVE BOXING event at AT&T Stadium you won’t want to miss. Airing live on Netflix Saturday, July 20 #PaulTysonpic.twitter.com/ULXVeCYeH6
Netflix hasn't released viewership figures for the Netflix Cup (its golf event) or the Netflix Slam (a recent tennis exhibition). Combat sports tend to deliver high viewership, though, suggesting that Netflix's infrastructure will have to handle more simultaneous streams than any of its other live events so far.
The company has dabbled with other live events over the last year or so, including a Chris Rock comedy special, the SAG Awards and a weekly cooking show with David Chang. However, the company has faced issues with livestreams in the past — it was forced to abandon plans for a live Love is Blind reunion due to technical issues.
Netflix has around nine months to make sure its livestreaming capabilities are in order before it embarks on its most ambitious sports (well, sports-adjacent) project yet. Starting in January, Netflix will be the home of WWE's live weekly shows in many markets, including the flagship program Raw in the US.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-real-fight-isnt-tyson-vs-paul--its-netflix-vs-its-livestreaming-infrastructure-190924232.html?src=rss
Netflix has been experimenting with live sports over the last few months with golf and tennis exhibition events. The company has announced the biggest test for its livestreaming capabilities to date: a boxing match between YouTuber (and pro boxer) Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The fight is going to be a spectacle for a number of reasons. Both fighters bring star power to the table. There's a 30-year age gap between them. Despite his 9-1 record, Paul can hardly be described as an elite fighter. While Tyson is regarded as one of the best heavyweights of all time, he retired 19 years ago and has only fought in two matches since then. Paul's second match was on the undercard of Tyson's last bout, which was against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.
The battle will take place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It's bound to attract a decent audience through Netflix as well. Most major boxing matches are on pay per view, but Netflix's 260 million subscribers will be able to watch at no extra cost.
It’s JAKE PAUL vs. MIKE TYSON — yes, really! — in a LIVE BOXING event at AT&T Stadium you won’t want to miss. Airing live on Netflix Saturday, July 20 #PaulTysonpic.twitter.com/ULXVeCYeH6
Netflix hasn't released viewership figures for the Netflix Cup (its golf event) or the Netflix Slam (a recent tennis exhibition). Combat sports tend to deliver high viewership, though, suggesting that Netflix's infrastructure will have to handle more simultaneous streams than any of its other live events so far.
The company has dabbled with other live events over the last year or so, including a Chris Rock comedy special, the SAG Awards and a weekly cooking show with David Chang. However, the company has faced issues with livestreams in the past — it was forced to abandon plans for a live Love is Blind reunion due to technical issues.
Netflix has around nine months to make sure its livestreaming capabilities are in order before it embarks on its most ambitious sports (well, sports-adjacent) project yet. Starting in January, Netflix will be the home of WWE's live weekly shows in many markets, including the flagship program Raw in the US.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-real-fight-isnt-tyson-vs-paul--its-netflix-vs-its-livestreaming-infrastructure-190924232.html?src=rss
After roughly a decade, multiple leadership changes and a regular spot in Apple rumor reports, the Apple Car project, internally known as Project Titan, could well be dead. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple has officially canceled the car, breaking the news to nearly 2,000 employees working on it.
Apple will reportedly move “many employees working on the car” to the company’s artificial intelligence division where they will focus on generative AI projects, which Apple is expected to share more about later this year.
Leaks over the years revealed the company’s ambitions to expand into a brand-new product category. At the beginning of the project in 2014, Apple wanted to build a fully self-driving car without pedals or a steering wheel, with a remote command center ready to take over for a driver. More recently, Apple pared down its ambitions, with the most recent reports suggesting Apple’s car would be a more standard electric vehicle.
Now, we may never know. Would you have bought an Apple car?
The Pokémon Company revealed the franchise’s latest Legends entry on Tuesday. Pokémon Legends: Z-A returns the series to Lumiose City, last seen as a region in Pokémon X and Y on the Nintendo 3DS. The Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer — an extended teaser — doesn’t show any gameplay footage, and its shots of Lumiose City use wireframe models to tease a city in mid-development, according to the announcement.
TikTok is being forced to take down more music from its platform. Universal Music Group (UMG) recently yanked recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok, including tracks from superstars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The standoff is now impacting songs published by UMG, with millions more tracks to be muted on TikTok by the end of this week. Due to an issue called split copyrights, if a Universal Music Publishing Group-contracted writer has contributed to a song, that track may have to be removed from TikTok. So artists who have collaborated with Taylor Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA may see their songs disappear from TikTok too.
Google has quietly struck deals with publishers to use new generative AI tools to publish stories. The deals, reportedly worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, are apparently part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a six-year-old program that funds media literacy projects, fact-checking tools and other resources for newsrooms. Adweek says publishers can use the beta tools to create aggregated content more efficiently, indexing recently published reports generated by other organizations, like government agencies and neighboring news outlets, then summarizing and publishing them as a new article.
Publishers in the program are apparently not required to disclose their use of AI nor are the aggregated websites informed that their content is used to create AI-written stories on other sites. Publications likeCNETandSports Illustratedhave been widely criticized for attempting to pass off AI-authored articles as written by human staffers.
After roughly a decade, multiple leadership changes and a regular spot in Apple rumor reports, the Apple Car project, internally known as Project Titan, could well be dead. A new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple has officially canceled the car, breaking the news to nearly 2,000 employees working on it.
Apple will reportedly move “many employees working on the car” to the company’s artificial intelligence division where they will focus on generative AI projects, which Apple is expected to share more about later this year.
Leaks over the years revealed the company’s ambitions to expand into a brand-new product category. At the beginning of the project in 2014, Apple wanted to build a fully self-driving car without pedals or a steering wheel, with a remote command center ready to take over for a driver. More recently, Apple pared down its ambitions, with the most recent reports suggesting Apple’s car would be a more standard electric vehicle.
Now, we may never know. Would you have bought an Apple car?
The Pokémon Company revealed the franchise’s latest Legends entry on Tuesday. Pokémon Legends: Z-A returns the series to Lumiose City, last seen as a region in Pokémon X and Y on the Nintendo 3DS. The Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer — an extended teaser — doesn’t show any gameplay footage, and its shots of Lumiose City use wireframe models to tease a city in mid-development, according to the announcement.
TikTok is being forced to take down more music from its platform. Universal Music Group (UMG) recently yanked recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok, including tracks from superstars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The standoff is now impacting songs published by UMG, with millions more tracks to be muted on TikTok by the end of this week. Due to an issue called split copyrights, if a Universal Music Publishing Group-contracted writer has contributed to a song, that track may have to be removed from TikTok. So artists who have collaborated with Taylor Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA may see their songs disappear from TikTok too.
Google has quietly struck deals with publishers to use new generative AI tools to publish stories. The deals, reportedly worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, are apparently part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a six-year-old program that funds media literacy projects, fact-checking tools and other resources for newsrooms. Adweek says publishers can use the beta tools to create aggregated content more efficiently, indexing recently published reports generated by other organizations, like government agencies and neighboring news outlets, then summarizing and publishing them as a new article.
Publishers in the program are apparently not required to disclose their use of AI nor are the aggregated websites informed that their content is used to create AI-written stories on other sites. Publications likeCNETandSports Illustratedhave been widely criticized for attempting to pass off AI-authored articles as written by human staffers.
Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie's remake, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of using AI to clone actors' voices in the new production in order to finish it before the copyright expired.
Hill said he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights to his original screenplay, which forms the basis of the new film. At that point, the rights were owned by Amazon Studios, as part of its acquisition of MGM, but were set to expire in November 2023. Hill alleges that once that happened, the rights would revert back to him.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios rushed ahead with the project anyway in order to finish it before the copyright deadline. Since it was stymied by the actor's strike, Hill alleges Amazon used AI to “replicate the voices” of the actors who worked in the 2024 remake. Such use violated the terms of the deal struck between the union and major studios including Amazon.
The claim is complicated by the fact that Hill signed a "work-made-for-hire" deal with the original producer, United Artists. That effectively means that the studio hiring the writer would be both the owner and copyright holder of the work. Hill, however, dismissed that as "boilerplate" typically used in contracts.
The lawsuit seeks to block the release of the film, set to bow at SXSW on March 8th before (controversially) heading direct to streaming on Prime Video on March 21.
Amazon denies the claims, with a spokesperson telling The Verge that "the studio expressly instructed the filmmakers to NOT use AI in this movie." It added that if AI was utilized, it was only done in early versions of the films. Later on, filmmakers were told to remove any "AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors" for the final version. It added that other allegations are "categorically false" and that it believes its copyright on the original Road House has yet to expire.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-accused-of-using-ai-to-replicate-the-voices-of-actors-in-road-house-remake-054408057.html?src=rss
Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie's remake, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of using AI to clone actors' voices in the new production in order to finish it before the copyright expired.
Hill said he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights to his original screenplay, which forms the basis of the new film. At that point, the rights were owned by Amazon Studios, as part of its acquisition of MGM, but were set to expire in November 2023. Hill alleges that once that happened, the rights would revert back to him.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios rushed ahead with the project anyway in order to finish it before the copyright deadline. Since it was stymied by the actor's strike, Hill alleges Amazon used AI to “replicate the voices” of the actors who worked in the 2024 remake. Such use violated the terms of the deal struck between the union and major studios including Amazon.
The claim is complicated by the fact that Hill signed a "work-made-for-hire" deal with the original producer, United Artists. That effectively means that the studio hiring the writer would be both the owner and copyright holder of the work. Hill, however, dismissed that as "boilerplate" typically used in contracts.
The lawsuit seeks to block the release of the film, set to bow at SXSW on March 8th before (controversially) heading direct to streaming on Prime Video on March 21.
Amazon denies the claims, with a spokesperson telling The Verge that "the studio expressly instructed the filmmakers to NOT use AI in this movie." It added that if AI was utilized, it was only done in early versions of the films. Later on, filmmakers were told to remove any "AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors" for the final version. It added that other allegations are "categorically false" and that it believes its copyright on the original Road House has yet to expire.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-accused-of-using-ai-to-replicate-the-voices-of-actors-in-road-house-remake-054408057.html?src=rss
TikTok is being forced to take down more music from its platform as a royalties spat with Universal Music Group (UMG) rumbles on. UMG recently yanked recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok including tracks from the likes of superstars Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The standoff is now impacting songs published by UMG.
"We are in the process of carrying out Universal Music Group's requirement to remove all songs that have been written (or co-written) by a songwriter signed to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), based on information they have provided," TikTok said in a statement. "Their actions not only affect the songwriters and artists that they represent, but now also impact many artists and songwriters not signed to universal." TikTok added that it is still committed to "reaching an equitable agreement" with UMG.
Due to an issue called split copyrights, if a UMPG-contracted writer has contributed to a song in any way, that track has to be removed from TikTok. So artists who have collaborated with the likes of Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA will see their songs disappearing from TikTok and being muted on videos that currently use them. The move will prevent more artists from plugging their work on the most important platform for promoting music.
According to the BBC, UMG removed around three million songs from TikTok after an agreement over its recording catalog expired. UMG's deal with TikTok over its publishing catalog (which covers some four million songs) ends later this week, at which point all relevant tracks will have vanished from the short-form video service.
Update 2/28 3:30PM ET: Added confirmation that TikTok is removing songs by UMPG-contracted songwriters.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-is-muting-more-songs-amid-its-tussle-with-universal-music-161839190.html?src=rss
TikTok is being forced to take down more music from its platform as a royalties spat with Universal Music Group (UMG) rumbles on. UMG recently yanked recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok including tracks from the likes of superstars Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The standoff is now impacting songs published by UMG.
"We are in the process of carrying out Universal Music Group's requirement to remove all songs that have been written (or co-written) by a songwriter signed to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), based on information they have provided," TikTok said in a statement. "Their actions not only affect the songwriters and artists that they represent, but now also impact many artists and songwriters not signed to universal." TikTok added that it is still committed to "reaching an equitable agreement" with UMG.
Due to an issue called split copyrights, if a UMPG-contracted writer has contributed to a song in any way, that track has to be removed from TikTok. So artists who have collaborated with the likes of Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Ice Spice, Elton John, Harry Styles and SZA will see their songs disappearing from TikTok and being muted on videos that currently use them. The move will prevent more artists from plugging their work on the most important platform for promoting music.
According to the BBC, UMG removed around three million songs from TikTok after an agreement over its recording catalog expired. UMG's deal with TikTok over its publishing catalog (which covers some four million songs) ends later this week, at which point all relevant tracks will have vanished from the short-form video service.
Update 2/28 3:30PM ET: Added confirmation that TikTok is removing songs by UMPG-contracted songwriters.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-is-muting-more-songs-amid-its-tussle-with-universal-music-161839190.html?src=rss
No one is suggesting that Microsoft should stop making video game hardware. What we've been considering, here in the dark and twisted Engadget Slack channels, is whether Microsoft should keep making generationally distinct consoles in the traditional hardware cycle. Basically, does Xbox need a box? Microsoft has been busy building the foundation of a platform-agnostic, cloud-first future for video games, and it consistently falls behind both Sony and Nintendo in the console race. So why are executives trying to get us excited about a superpowered 10th-gen Xbox?
Maybe Microsoft is hesitant to reveal a drastic ecosystem change after the chaos around the Xbox One and its always-on DRM features in 2013. After an outpouring of negative feedback at the idea of a persistently online console, Xbox had to rapidly reverse its launch plans, while Sony took the PlayStation 4 on an early victory lap. This fumble set the stage for the next decade of console sales, and it's a lesson that would stick with any studio — especially one that's trying to make streaming and cloud gaming the norm.
That's understandable, but it doesn't change the fact that accessible, affordable (and probably handheld) hardware makes a lot of sense for Microsoft's current vision and investments. More than an expensive console, at least.
This week's stories
A delicious Elden Ring entrée
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will come to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on June 21. This one has been a long time coming: FromSoftware announced the DLC in February 2023, leaving plenty of time for players to get super psyched for more masochism. A new, three-minute trailer for Shadow of the Erdtree shows off sprawling locations and epic bosses inspired by chaotic combinations of animals, insects and elements. The expansion costs $40 and pre-orders are live now.
Borderlands by Cate Blanchett
I’m just gonna come out and say it: I think Cate Blanchett makes a great Lilith. The first trailer for this summer’s Borderlands movie is out and it looks like Mad Max meets Guardians of the Galaxy — which is Borderlands in a nutshell anyway. The film stars Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Ariana Greenblatt, it’s directed by Eli Roth, and it’s due to hit theaters on August 9.
Xbox should exit the console business
Last Thursday, Xbox executives made it clear that they weren’t about to abandon the traditional hardware market, and they teased a next-generation console that will represent “the largest technical leap you will have ever seen.” That’s cool, but considering Microsoft’s position in the industry, it doesn’t feel like Xbox needs to be making consoles any more.
After acquiring half of the industry, Microsoft is now a mega-publisher of games, with over 30 in-house studios. Many of these development teams are world-renowned, with rich, multi-platform histories. It’s also the operator of one of the largest game subscription services in the world, Game Pass.
Game Pass grew wildly during the pandemic, but subscriptions have stagnated. In court documents from April 2022, Microsoft revealed it had 21.9 million Game Pass subscribers and 11.7 million Xbox Live Gold members across its consoles, for a total user base of 33.6 million. Last week, Microsoft revealed Game Pass has 34 million subscribers, which includes PC Game Pass and Game Pass Core, the new name for Xbox Live Gold. Even assuming PC Game Pass had zero subscribers in 2022, this means Game Pass subscriptions grew just 1 percent over the past 22 months. The more likely scenario is that the total number of subscriptions actually shrank over this period — though it’s at least possible that more people are paying for the full-price service than before.
Microsoft’s plan for this console generation was clear for all to see: Sell hardware and upsell a subscription service populated by its own games. Turns out, it’s tough to sell Game Pass to someone without an Xbox, and not enough people are buying Xboxes. Microsoft stopped reporting hardware numbers during the Xbox One era, but analysts peg the combined sales of the Xbox Series consoles at around 25 million. Meanwhile, Sony has sold more than 50 million PS5s, and Nintendo has sold around 140 million Switches. This gap appears to be growing every day, and it’s far more pronounced in Japan and Europe than in the United States. If Microsoft wants to grow Game Pass, it seems like it’ll have to be on platforms outside of Xbox.
This week, Xbox confirmed plans to bring four formerly exclusive games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, and for years executives have been pitching an ecosystem where Xbox — and Game Pass — is playable on anything with a screen. Microsoft has a powerful cloud network that even Sony uses for game streaming, plus it owns more than 30 studios. Long-term, Microsoft is positioning Xbox to be a platform-agnostic, software-publishing powerhouse with the industry’s most stable streaming network at its back.
In this landscape, it’s surprising to hear Xbox talk about building a hyper-powered console for the next generation. I’m not advocating for Microsoft to ditch the hardware market — it makes sense for the company to focus on handheld devices and affordable streaming boxes that support Game Pass and cloud play. Xbox is working toward a future where its games and Game Pass are available everywhere, which raises a clear question about its current plans: Why bring an expensive next-gen console to a war that is actually about software, subscriptions and streaming?
Bonus Content
Sony president Hiroki Totoki told investors last week that the company would be more aggressive in bringing its PlayStation titles to PC.
Xbox has confirmed which of its games are coming to other consoles: Grounded and Pentiment will come to PlayStation and Switch, while Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush will only arrive on PS5. Both Sea of Thieves and Grounded will support crossplay across all platforms.
Now for a totally different port: The Pokémon Company has scheduled an anniversary stream for next Tuesday at 9AM ET. It might be a bit early for a gen-10 reveal, but a Switch remake of Black & White seems like a safe bet.
Now Playing
If you’re a Switch or PlayStation player curious about all of these Xbox games coming to your consoles, I have one easy and clear recommendation: play Pentiment. Obsidian’s narrative-driven, tapestry-looking game is a surprise and a delight, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing it on Game Pass recently. It's out now on PS4, PS5 and Switch, and I’m sure it’s just as great on those platforms.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lets-talk-about-xbox--this-weeks-gaming-news-151608942.html?src=rss
In the big Nintendo Direct presentation yesterday, we learned of two of the four Xbox titles Microsoft said would appear on “the other consoles.” One of them is Pentiment, coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5, well, today.
The critically acclaimedPentiment has been an Xbox, PC and Xbox Cloud exclusive since launch in late 2022. It has an eye-catching animated historical art style — and is delightfully niche. The game’s director, Josh Sawyer, said creating and launching a game like this would never have been possible without Game Pass, which, as Kris Holt notes, makes it an unusual pick to be transferred to other platforms. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said earlier this month the titles hopping platforms had all been on Xbox and PC for at least a year and had hit their “full potential” on those platforms.
The other game coming to other consoles is Grounded — pretty much Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the game — and will land April 16. Microsoft also later confirmed that Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thievesare coming to PlayStation 5.
There’s a Borderlands movie coming out, and we have our very first teaser trailer. This footage gives us a glimpse of all of the major characters. Cate Blanchett is taking a nice fat paycheck starring as the famously short-tempered Lilith, who’s searching for a mysterious vault. Comedian Kevin Hart portrays the mercenary Roland, and Jamie Lee Curtis plays the scientist Dr. Tannis, who featured in all three games. Also, you can’t have a video game adaptation without Jack Black, it seems.
Apple has launched a new iPhone app, offering real-time stats for a number of major sports leagues. Once you’ve installed Apple Sports, you can set your favorite team and get a trove of data on your lock screen in the live activities box when the team is playing. The app is free and available in the US, UK and Canada for basketball, hockey and soccer. The company said other sports, including baseball and football, will debut when new seasons kick off.
Staff disregarded Musk’s directive to provide outsiders with “full access to everything.”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded Elon Musk ordered Twitter (now X) employees to take actions that would have violated FTC rules on consumer data privacy and security. Twitter security employees “took appropriate measures to protect consumers’ private information,” likely sparing Musk’s company from government repercussions. FTC chair Lina Khan wrote: “Ultimately, the third-party individuals did not receive direct access to Twitter’s systems, but instead worked with other company employees who accessed the systems on the individuals’ behalf.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-these-are-the-first-xbox-exclusive-games-heading-to-switch-and-ps5-121538895.html?src=rss