Tag Archives: author_name|Matt Tate

It looks like we’re finally getting an Ocarina of Time remake

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After years of rumors and countless fan-made Unreal Engine tech demos of varying quality, it sounds like we might finally be getting a ground-up remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

That’s according to Nintendo insider NatetheHate, who said in the latest edition of his podcast that a remake of the seminal Nintendo 64 game would be coming to Switch 2 in the second half of 2026. The reliable tipster said he doesn’t know whether Nintendo is making a 1:1 remake of the original 3D Zelda entry, or something "that’s a little more free to explore design choices," adding that he was initially reluctant to share the information he’d received in case we ended up getting little more than an HD remaster. But it sounds like this is a more ambitious undertaking than that.

Ocarina of Time has of course been remastered before, with 2011’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS generally considered to be the best version of the game you can play today. The original 1998 game is also easily accessible via emulation through Nintendo Switch Online, but a modern remake for Switch 2 does make some sense.

For one, 2026 marks the series’ 40th anniversary, and if you asked every Zelda fan alive what their favorite entry is, you can bet that OoT would feature pretty high in the final rankings. We’re also getting that live-action Zelda movie next year, and Nintendo will no doubt want to make sure audiences have done their homework on the games that inspired it.

Of course, none of this is official, so have those grains of salt at the ready, but NatetheHate did also claim that anyone hoping for a new 3D Mario game to arrive in 2026 is going to be disappointed. That’s more likely to arrive in 2027. In better news, we’re apparently also getting a brand new "classic-style" Star Fox game this summer, which would mark the return of the spacefaring Fox McCloud after a decade spent in Nintendo’s unloved mascot closet.

This rumor seems logical after Nintendo’s surprise announcement that the anthropomorphic red fox is going to feature in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which arrives next week. He’s being voiced by Glen Powell, because of course he is.

NatetheHate’s information on all of the above has been corroborated by VGC, which says it lines up with what it's heard from its own sources. And in the case of the Ocarina of Time remake, that recent Lego set suddenly makes a lot of sense.

If indeed we do get the remake of Metacritic’s highest-rated game of all time later this year, physical collectors could have a difficult choice to make, after Nintendo announced that physical versions of first-party Switch 2 games are about to become more expensive than their digital counterparts. This adjusted pricing will come into effect when Yoshi and the Mysterious Book launches on May 21.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/it-looks-like-were-finally-getting-an-ocarina-of-time-remake-175546356.html?src=rss

The PS5 is getting more expensive… again

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It was only last August that Sony raised PS5 console prices in the US, blaming a "challenging economic environment" at the time. Today it has slightly tweaked the phrasing to "continued pressures in the global economic landscape," but the outcome is the same: price rises across the board, this time even affecting the PS Portal handheld.

Starting April 2, the price of the standard PS5 (that’s the one with the disc drive) is going up to $650. That’s a whopping $100 hike, or $150 if you go back to before the August price increases. The Digital Edition is getting the same increase, up to $600 from $500 since August.

But the most eye-wateringly huge bump goes to the PS5 Pro, which will now cost you $900, $150 more than its (already very high) previous $750 MSRP. If you managed to pick up a Pro during last year’s Black Friday sale, when its price was slashed to $650, then you’re probably feeling pretty smug right now.

Even the PlayStation Portal is getting a $50 increase, up from $199 to $250. The Portal has gotten a lot more capable in the last 12 months, but $250 for a device that can’t run any games natively might make a purchase harder to justify for a lot of people.

In a blog post, Sony acknowledged the impact of prices increases on its audience, but said after "careful evaluation" that it was "a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide."

Global economic turbulence is affecting the entire games industry right now. Valve has already pushed back the launch date for the Steam Machine, while the ongoing RAM crisis could also be to blame for Steam Deck stock shortages. 

Microsoft also raised Xbox prices twice last year, and earlier this week Nintendo announced that some of its physical first-party Switch 2 games will soon be more expensive than purchasing the game digitally. While Nintendo has experimented with this kind of pricing structure before, it might point to the increasingly prohibitive costs of making and shipping products right now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-ps5-is-getting-more-expensive-again-133141514.html?src=rss

Dispatch is coming to Xbox this summer

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Dispatch was one of 2025’s standout titles and one of the best narrative games in years, which made its no-show on Xbox all the more puzzling. Luckily, that’s being rectified this summer.

Announced during today’s Xbox Partner Preview broadcast, Dispatch is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud later this year. It will also be an Xbox Play Anywhere title at launch, so you can play it on your console and continue on your PC or Windows handheld, or vice versa.

ICYMI last year, the game is pitched as a superhero workplace comedy by developer AdHoc Studio, which was founded by a group of ex-Telltale developers. You play as the excellently named Robert Robertson, a recently out-of-work superhero who’s talked into reluctantly taking a 9-5 desk job that involves him dispatching other heroes.

Dispatch is an episodic game, which rolled out gradually on PS5 and PC last year but will presumably be available in its entirety straight away when the Xbox version arrives. Gameplay is divided between interactive narrative segments that will feel familiar to anyone who played Telltale’s previous titles, and the management sim-like dispatch missions.

Both are very well done, but I was shocked by the quality of Dispatch’s writing and animation when I played it on PS5. It’s essentially a prestige animated superhero show that you participate in, and I genuinely agonized over loads of decisions. It helps that the star-studded voice cast, which features Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey and Jeffrey Wright, is bringing its A-game across the board. The game was a big hit with the wider Engadget team too, making it into our best games of 2025 list.

Dispatch has also since made its way to Switch, but that port was highly controversial after it emerged that some of the game’s content had been censored. I would assume that all nudity and explicit content will be present and correct in the Xbox version, which will cost $30 or $40 if you want the Deluxe Edition, which includes four digital comics and a digital artbook. A firm release date was not announced in the stream.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/dispatch-is-coming-to-xbox-this-summer-183735998.html?src=rss

The EU is investigating Snapchat over possible child protection breaches

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The European Union has opened a formal investigation into whether Snapchat has breached Digital Services Act (DSA) regulations regarding the safeguarding of children using its app. 

Regulators say that the company, whose audience demographic has always skewed young, may not be doing enough to protect minors from grooming and "recruitment for criminal purposes." The EU is also looking into whether Snapchat’s younger users are too easily accessing information on how to buy illegal drugs and age-restricted products.

Brussels argues that while Snapchat requires users to be at least 13 years of age to sign up for an account, its self-declaration age assurance system may not be an adequate means of ensuring those younger than the minimum age can’t engage with the platform. The European Commission also says the current measures fail to assess whether users are younger than 17 years old, which it says is necessary for an "age-appropriate experience." It also alleges that adults are able to exploit the current system to lie about their own age and impersonate minors.

Investigators believe that the app itself doesn’t allow for other users to report accounts they suspect are being used by people younger than the minimum age requirements. Moreover, they argue that reporting illegal content found on the app is not easy enough, and that Snapchat may not be informing its users about "possibilities for redress.”

Other issues being looked at by the European Commission include child and teen accounts being recommended to other users by Snapchat’s Find Friends feature and insufficient guidance on available account safety features. 

The investigators are now in the process of gathering evidence, sending out interview invitations and requesting information from Snap. The Commission says the investigation is based on analysis of the last three years of risk assessment reports filed by Snapchat, as well as an information request it sent on October 10 in 2025.

"The safety and wellbeing of all Snapchatters is a top priority, and our teams have worked for years to raise the bar on safety," a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement to Engadget. "Snapchat is designed to help people communicate with close friends and family in a positive, trusted environment, with privacy and safety built in from the start - including additional protections for teens. As online risks evolve, we continuously review, strengthen, and invest in these safeguards." 

The company added that it has acted proactively and transparently in its efforts to meet the DSA’s requirements, and said it would fully cooperate with the Commission throughout its investigation.

Snap is one of a number of social media companies currently facing increased scrutiny regarding the safety of minors using its platform. In 2023, the company added new features designed to make it harder for teenagers to connect with strangers. One of these measures involved increasing the amount of mutual friends users must have before appearing in search and suggested accounts.

Along with TikTok, the company recently settled a lawsuit that accused its platform of causing social media addiction. The case was brought by a 20-year-old woman who said she’d been harmed by addictive features on Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap as a child. This week, a jury ruled against Meta and YouTube in the trial, with the companies ordered to pay the woman, who was named as K.G.M in official documents, $6 million in damages.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-eu-is-investigating-snapchat-over-possible-child-protection-breaches-174722759.html?src=rss

HBO Max finally launches in the UK and Ireland

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It’s been a long wait, but HBO Max has finally arrived in the UK and Ireland, rounding off the streaming service’s European expansion. Oscar-winners One Battle After Another and Sinners are both available to stream at launch, alongside Max Original shows like The Pitt. Season three of Euphoria arrives in April, and HBO Max is also home to mega-franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, both of which are celebrating their 25th anniversaries in 2026.

Starting today, March 26, UK audiences can choose from three plans. Basic with Ads costs £5 per month, and offers all HBO shows and select Warner Bros. movies at 1080p, with movies that first stream on HBO Max after their theatrical release excluded. Then there's Standard with Ads for £6 per month, which includes those straight-from-theaters releases and 30 downloads at the same resolution. Both can stream on two devices at a time.

For an ad-free experience you can purchase a Standard or Premium plan. The former has all titles available on two devices, up to 30 downloads and, obviously no ads. Finally, the most expensive £15 per month Premium plan allows streaming on four devices in up to 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos. You also get 100 offline downloads on this tier. 

Eligible Sky TV customers will automatically have HBO Basic with Ads rolled into their packages at no extra cost, thanks to an expanded partnership between Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery. This extends to NOW Entertainment subscribers, who will find HBO Max integrated into the NOW app. HBO Max is also now home to TNT Sports in the UK, which streams over 50 matches in the Premier League, as well as being home to the UEFA Champions League and various other sporting competitions, including MotoGP and the Tour de France.

HBO Max launches in the UK as Warner Bros Discovery sets a date for the shareholder vote on its merger with Paramount Skydance, which was finally agreed last month. Netflix was paid a $2.8 billion fee for breaking up its initial well-documented deal to buy the historic studio.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/hbo-max-finally-launches-in-the-uk-and-ireland-133406342.html?src=rss

Here’s your first look at For All Mankind spinoff Star City

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Apple’s excellent For All Mankind might be wrapping up after its recently confirmed sixth season, but as one big-budget alt-history sci-fi show departs, another is born. Apple TV has just dropped the first teaser for Star City, which focuses on the reimagined space race of the 1960s from the Soviet perspective.

ICYMI, For All Mankind has been running for nearly five seasons now (the fifth arrives later this week), with its debut season in 2019 asking, "what if Russia had beaten America to the moon?" For All Mankind has jumped a number of decades ahead since then, but Star City returns us to that initial premise, taking us behind the Iron Curtain to see how the Soviet Union orchestrated its fictional historical triumph.

The brief teaser doesn’t show us much in the way of plot, but you straight away get what vibe the streamer is going for with a show it describes as a "propulsive paranoid thriller." We also get a look at some of the cast, which includes House of the Dragon’s Rhys Ifans, Anna Maxwell Martin and Agnes O’Casey.

Interestingly, Star City’s two-episode premiere lands on Apple TV on May 29, right after the finale of For All Mankind season 5, which takes place in the 2010s. That could make for a pretty jarring backwards time jump if you watch both seasons back to back, but nobody can say that Apple isn’t serving its sci-fi audience.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/heres-your-first-look-at-for-all-mankind-spinoff-star-city-174359587.html?src=rss

Stephen Colbert is writing a new Lord of the Rings movie

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It’s been quite a while since we visited Middle-Earth on the big screen (anime prequels aside), but it looks like Lord of the Rings fans have plenty to look forward to in the coming years. We already knew that Andy Serkis’ The Hunt for Gollum was in the works — and by all accounts is progressing nicely — but another Rings-related film is in development too, and it’s being co-written by none other than Stephen Colbert.

The announcement came from Peter Jackson himself, in a video posted by Warner Bros. to coincide with Tolkien Reading Day. The director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy provided a quick update on Serkis’ film (the British actor is both directing and reprising his role as Gollum), before introducing "very special partner" and diehard Tolkien fan Colbert on a video call.

With The Late Show nearing its end, its host was seemingly going to be out of work in the summer. Colbert is working with his son Peter as well as screenwriter Philippa Boyens (who co-wrote the original film trilogy). They'll adapt some early chapters of Fellowship of the Ring that never made it into Jackson’s 2001 film. The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is actually set 14 years after the events of Return of the King, and will see Sam, Merry and Pippin retrace the first steps of their famous adventure.

So while the new film is inspired specifically by Fellowship chapters III (‘Three is Company’) through VIII (‘Fog On The Barrow-Downs’), it sounds like we’re actually getting a sequel of sorts, in which we’ll also see Sam’s daughter Elanor make a huge discovery that puts her on her own quest.

Colbert and his son had been scribbling away at their idea for several years before plucking up the courage to show what they had come up with to Jackson, but the legendary 64-year-old filmmaker was clearly a fan. And given the timing of the announcement, Colbert will soon be able to commit all of his energy to the project, which has not yet named any cast members. Will Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan be dusting off their hobbit attire? Only time will tell, but the time jump would presumably make it possible.

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past doesn’t have a release date, but its announcement coincides with the 25th anniversary of Fellowship of the Ring, which has already been marked by the whole trilogy returning to theaters earlier this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/stephen-colbert-is-writing-a-new-lord-of-the-rings-movie-143004743.html?src=rss

Three new Gemini features come to Google TV

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Google has announced a trio of new AI-powered features for its Google TV platform, after showing off smarter Gemini integration at CES back in January.

Google TV can now provide "richer visual help" when you ask it a question. Request the current sports scores, for example, and Gemini will bring up not only a live updating scorecard, but also where you can watch the game. If you’re looking for a recipe, it’ll pair its results with a video tutorial where possible.

If you’d rather learn something new than binge away at your latest Netflix fix, Google TV can also now do visual "deep dives" on topics that interest you. If there’s an economic trend, scientific phenomenon or technological innovation that’s on your mind, Gemini will create a "custom, interactive walkthrough" on the subject in question, allowing you to ask follow-up questions afterwards.

The idea is that the feature lets you turn "passive viewing into meaningful screen time." It would appear that even your TV is now telling you off for watching too much TV. 

When you ask about a topic, you can either click "Dive deeper" to learn more, or navigate to the Gemini tab at the top of your home screen and select the "Learn" option.

The last new addition is Gemini-powered sports briefs, which function in the same way as the news briefs Google introduced last year, but strictly for sports. Designed as an alternative to checking your phone, you can ask your AI-assisted TV for "timely, narrated overviews" of the latest goings-on in any league you might follow. Already, the feature supports the NBA, NCAA basketball, NHL, MLS and NWSL, and it will live in the Gemini tab.

Deep dives and sports briefs are initially limited to those with Gemini-enabled devices in the US, with Google promising wider device support later in the spring. Richer visual help is rolling out today in the US and Canada, and Google has also announced that its various Gemini Google TV features are coming to more countries in 2026, starting with Australia, New Zealand and the UK in the coming months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/three-new-gemini-features-come-to-google-tv-175724155.html?src=rss

Bandsintown integration for concerts is coming to Apple Music

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The live music discovery platform Bandsintown’s partnership with Apple goes way back, but iOS 26.4 brings the deepest integration between the two companies to date. Concert listings from Bandsintown will now appear in Apple Music, allowing you to find out when either a band you already love, or one you’re discovering for the first time, is next playing live.

Artists who use Bandsintown to advertise their tour dates can promote upcoming shows in a number of ways through Apple’s app. A new Concerts tab will live within Search, allowing subscribers to search for shows by their genre, location and date, while participating artists can also connect their Bandsintown dashboard to their Apple Music artist page. By doing this, their tour dates will automatically appear in an "Upcoming Concerts" section within 48 hours of connecting the two services.

Apple Music users can tap listed events to see more details about a show and will be able to buy tickets through direct links to sellers. If you follow artists, you can also set up push notifications for their announced shows.

Bandsintown’s platform is already built into a number of other Apple apps and services, with the likes of Shazam, Apple Maps, Photos and Spotlight Search all able to pull through live event data. The new Apple Music features will be available on devices running iOS 26.4 when it leaves beta.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/bandsintown-integration-for-concerts-is-coming-to-apple-music-170034229.html?src=rss

Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed is officially set in ancient Rome

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Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed show has entered production and will officially be set in Rome in the year 64AD, confirming previous reports.

The upcoming adaptation, then, will return to the setting of 2010’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, although the latter’s story took place more than 1,000 years after the events we'll see in Netflix's show. Ubisoft confirmed in a press release that the Netflix series will tell an original story centered on a war between the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood, who each have very different ideas on how the future of mankind should look.

The full ensemble cast has also now been announced. Sandra Guldberg-Kampp (Foundation), Youssef Kerkour (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Mirren Mack (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple), and Louis McCartney (Broadway production Stranger Things: The First Shadow) have all been cast as recurring characters. Netflix previously announced Lola Pettigrew (Trespasses) and Toby Wallace (Babyteeth) as possible leads, along with a number of other series regulars.

Roberto Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, The Killing) are serving as creators, showrunners and executive producers on the show, which is primarily filming at Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios. No release date has been announced.

Assassin’s Creed won’t represent the first time that Netflix has adapted a Ubisoft property. 2023’s Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix was based on a Far Cry 3 expansion, and last year Sam Fisher made his TV debut in the broadly well received Splinter Cell: Deathwatch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflixs-assassins-creed-is-officially-set-in-ancient-rome-171533234.html?src=rss