Tag Archives: author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

Sony is shutting down the studio behind the Demon’s Souls remake

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Sony is closing Bluepoint Games, the studio behind the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls remakes, Bloomberg reports. Bluepoint's last major project was God of War: Ragnarok from 2022, which it co-developed with Sony Santa Monica. 

According to Bloomberg, Sony decided to shut down the studio following "a recent business review." Around 70 employees will lose their jobs as part of the studio closure, which will officially happen in March. "Bluepoint Games is an incredibly talented team and their technical expertise has delivered exceptional experiences for the PlayStation community," Sony said in a statement to Bloomberg. "We thank them for their passion, creativity and craftmanship."

Following their work on Ragnarok, Bluepoint was reportedly tasked with developing a live-service game set in the God of War universe. That title was cancelled in 2025, alongside another game from Bend Studio. In the context of Sony's other live-service failures, the decision wasn't surprising. Sony shut down the servers for multiplayer shooter Concord just two weeks after its release. Not long after, it also closed Firewalk Studios, the developer behind the game.

Bluepoint Games was originally acquired by Sony in 2021, when it seemed like the studio's expertise in remaking and remastering classic PlayStation games could be a major asset going forward. Why that changed isn't entirely clear, but Sony's mismanagement of its pivot into and out of publishing premium online multiplayer games may have played a role. Some of Sony's studios are still experimenting with live-service mechanics. Guerilla Games recently announced an online co-op game set in its Horizon universe. Destiny 2 developer Bungie is also releasing its extraction shooter Marathon in March.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-is-shutting-down-the-studio-behind-the-demons-souls-remake-195234213.html?src=rss

Gemini can now generate a 30-second approximation of what real music sounds like

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Google has announced that using its newly incorporated Lyria 3 model, Gemini users will be able to generate 30-second music tracks based on a prompt, or remix an existing track to their liking. The new model builds on Gemini's pre-existing ability to generate text, images and video, and will also be available in YouTube's "Dream Track" feature, where it can be used to generate detailed backing tracks for Shorts.

Like some other music generation tools, prompting Gemini doesn't require a lot of detail to produce serviceable results. Google's example prompt is "a comical R&B slow jam about a sock finding their match," but after playing with Lyria 3, you can definitely get more granular about individual elements of a track — changing the tempo or the style of drumming, for example — if you want to. Outside of text, Gemini can also generate music based on a photo or video, and tracks can be paired with album art created by Google's Nano Banana image model.

Google says that Lyria 3 improves on its previous audio generation models in its ability to create more "realistic and musically complex" tracks, give prompters more control over individual components of a song and automatically generate lyrics. Gemini's outputs are limited to 30-second clips for now, but given how Google's promotional video shows off the feature, it's not hard to imagine those clips getting longer or the model getting incorporated into other apps, like Google Messages.

Like Gemini's other AI-generated outputs, songs made with Lyria 3 are also watermarked with Google's SynthID, so a Gemini clip can't as easily be passed off as a human one. Google started rolling out its SynthID Detector for identifying AI-generated content at Google I/O 2025. The sample tracks Google included alongside its announcement are convincing, but you might not need the company's tool to notice their machine-made qualities. The instrumental parts of Gemini’s clips often sound great, but the composition of the lyrics Lyria 3 produces sounds alternately corny and strange.

If you're curious to try Lyria 3 for yourself, Google says you can prompt tracks in Gemini starting today, provided you're 18 years or older and speak English, Spanish, German, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean or Portuguese.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/gemini-can-now-generate-a-30-second-approximation-of-what-real-music-sounds-like-204445903.html?src=rss

Texas AG sues TP-Link over purported connection to China

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Texas is suing Wi-Fi router maker TP-Link for deceptively marketing the security of its products and allowing Chinese hacking groups to access Americans' devices, Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced. Paxton originally started looking into TP-Link in October 2025. Texas Governor Greg Abbott later prohibited state employees from using TP-Link products in January of this year.

TP-Link is no longer owned by a Chinese company and its products are assembled in Vietnam, but Paxton's lawsuit claims that because the company's "ownership and supply-chain are tied to China" it's subject to the country's data laws, which require companies to comply with requests from Chinese intelligence agencies. The lawsuit also says that firmware vulnerabilities in TP-Link's hardware have already "exposed millions of consumers to severe cybersecurity risks."

TP-Link provided the following statement to Engadget in response to the lawsuit:

The claims made by the Texas Attorney General’s office are without merit and will be proven false. TP-Link Systems Inc. is an independent American company. Neither the Chinese government nor the CCP exercises any form of ownership or control over TP-Link, its products, or its user data. TP-Link’s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Chao, resides in Irvine, CA, and is not and never has been a member of the CCP. To ensure the highest level of security, our core operations and infrastructure are located entirely within the United States, and all U.S. users' networking data is stored securely on Amazon Web Services servers. We will continue to vigorously defend our reputation as a trusted provider of secure connectivity for American families.

TP-Link was reportedly being investigated at the federal level in 2024 after its devices were connected to the massive "Salt Typhoon" hack that accessed data from multiple US telecom companies. Despite all signs pointing to the federal government getting ready to ban TP-Link in 2025, Reuters reports that the Trump administration paused plans to ban the company’s routers in early February, ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.

Update, February 17, 3:38PM ET: Added statement from TP-Link.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/texas-ag-sues-tp-link-over-purported-connection-to-china-193802258.html?src=rss

Bitcoin biopic starring Casey Affleck to use AI to generate locations and tweak performances

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Killing Satoshi, an upcoming biopic about the elusive creator of Bitcoin, will reportedly rely heavily on artificial intelligence to generate locations and adjust actors' performances, Variety reports. The film was announced in 2025 as being directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, The Edge of Tomorrow) and starring Casey Affleck and Pete Davidson in undisclosed roles, but its connection to overhyped technology was previously understood to begin and end with cryptocurrency.

According to a UK casting notice viewed by Variety, the producers of Killing Satoshi reserve the right to "change, add to, take from, translate, reformat or reprocess” actors' performances, using "generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and/or machine learning technologies." No digital replicas will be created of performers, but it sounds like plenty of other AI-driven tweaks are on the table. The production's use of AI will also extend to the setting of its shoots, per Variety's source. Killing Satoshi will be shot on a "markerless performative capture stage" and things like backgrounds and locations will be entirely generated by AI.

You guess is as good as mine as to why a film about blockchain technology needs to be filmed this way, but Doug Liman has been connected with plenty of unusual projects in the past, including a rumored Tom Cruise film that was supposed to film on the International Space Station. Killing Satoshi will be far less practical in comparison, and walking a much finer line of what's acceptable in the entertainment industry.

A major sticking point in SAG-AFTRA's 2023 contract negotiations was guaranteeing protections for actors who could be replaced by AI. Equity, the union representing actors in the UK, is currently negotiating protections for members that are concerned that AI could be used to reproduce their likenesses and voices and let studios use them without their consent.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/bitcoin-biopic-starring-casey-affleck-to-use-ai-to-generate-locations-and-tweak-performances-210657775.html?src=rss

Valve’s latest Steam beta lets you add your PC’s specs to game reviews

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An upcoming update to Steam includes a helpful improvement to game reviews. As part of the Steam Client Beta update Valve released on February 12, users will now be able to attach information about their hardware specifications when they post a new game review or update an old one.

It's not uncommon to find negative reviews that complain about a game's performance, information that's hard to draw a conclusion from without knowing what kind of hardware the reviewer is using. With specs attached, the usefulness of complaints becomes a little bit easier to gauge. A game's sales performance and discoverability on Steam is heavily influenced by its review average, a data point Steam users sometimes manipulate for reasons unconnected to the quality of a game. Provided reviewers actually attach their specs — at least in the beta, the feature is entirely optional — Valve's mercurial reviews ecosystem could end up becoming more nuanced overall.

Alongside the new option in reviews, Valve is also experimenting with a way for users to share "anonymized framerate data" with the company. When framerate sharing is enabled, "Steam will collect gameplay framerate data, stored without connection to your Steam account but identified with the kind of hardware you are playing on," Valve says. The feature is specifically focused on devices running SteamOS, Valve's Linux-based operating system for the Steam Deck and some third-party handhelds. The extra information could help the company's attempts to improve game compatibility using software like Proton.

The beta update also includes bug fixes, and a tweak to how Valve collects feedback about whether a game should be Deck Verified. Now when Steam prompts you to confirm whether you agree with a game's rating, if you disagree, you can provide a reason as to why.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/valves-latest-steam-beta-lets-you-add-your-pcs-specs-to-game-reviews-195038078.html?src=rss

Silent Hill: Townfall takes the series’ trademark fog to an eerie coastal community

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Coming off the success of Slient Hill f, which moved the series’ psychological horror to the Japanese countryside, Konami, Annapurna Interactive and developer Screen Burn Interactive have chosen a foggy island as the setting for Silent Hill: Townfall.

The first gameplay trailer for Townfall, introduced during Sony’s latest State of Play, follows Simon Ordell, a man who keeps mysteriously waking up in the water off the coast of the empty island town of St. Amelia. In the trailer, Simon hides from monsters, peers at a portable television, swings a fire axe, and deals with the psychological turmoil typical of a Silent Hill protagonist, all in first person, one of the unique twists of this new game.

Silent Hill: Townfall was originally announced alongside Silent Hill f and the remake of Silent Hill 2 in 2022. The game is developed by Screen Burn Interactive (formerly known as No Code), the creators of Observation and Stories Untold. Konami will share more details about Townfall’s gameplay and story in an upcoming Silent Hill Transmission presentation later today.

Silent Hill: Townfall is coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/silent-hill-townfall-takes-the-series-trademark-fog-to-an-eerie-coastal-community-233324897.html?src=rss

Kena: Scars of Kosmora is coming out later this year

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When it launched in 2021, Kena: Bridge of Spirits was an early example of the graphical power of the PS5 thanks to its Pixar-adjacent animation and over-the-top effects. Based on a surprise trailer at Sony's latest State of Play, it seems like its sequel, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, could up the ante when it launches later this year.

Scars of Kosmora follows spirit guide Kena to a mysterious island called Kosmora, where a powerful spirit breaks her staff and forces her to embrace a new style of spirit guiding (and presumably a collection of new game mechanics). Like the first game, Scars of Kosmora looks to be filled with lush visuals and cute Spirit Companions, but also a surprising amount of boss battles. Developer Ember Lab's new trailer heavily emphasizes the game's updated combat, which seems like it'll play a big role in the sequel.

According to a post on the PlayStation Blog, it sounds like manipulating the elements will also be a major focus. "We’ve added new elemental gameplay to bring strategy and depth when facing the threats of Kosmora," developer Ember Lab says. "These new combat skills, elemental infusions and use of your Spirit Companions will be key to overcoming challenging encounters and epic boss fights."

Kena: Scars of Kosmora is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/kena-scars-of-kosmora-is-coming-out-later-this-year-224006963.html?src=rss

EU reportedly opens another probe into Google’s ads pricing

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The European Commission has opened a new probe into Google, this time focused on the company's massive online advertising business, Bloomberg reports. European Union regulators have already fined Google billions for violating the Digital Markets Act, and being found guilty of anticompetitive behavior in online advertising could add to that total.

While the Commission has yet to announce a formal investigation, Bloomberg writes that it has started contacting Google's customers and competitors for information about its dominance across multiple online advertising markets. Regulators are particularly concerned that Google could be "artificially increasing the clearing price" of ad auctions "to the detriment of advertisers." If the company is found to be violating the EU's competition rules, Google could be fined 10 percent of its global annual sales.

Google's approach to advertising to minors was reportedly already under investigation by the EU as of December 2024, and besides fines, regulators have ordered the company to open up Android to competing AI assistants and share search data with rivals. In the US, there's also precedent for finding Google's approach to online advertising anticompetitive.

A US federal judge found that Google is a monopolist in online advertising in April 2025, the conclusion of a legal battle that started with a Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the company of dominating the ad market and using its control to charge more and keep a larger portion of ad sales. The DOJ ultimately wants Google to sell its ad tech business, but a final decision hasn't been reached as to how the company's anticompetitive behavior should be remedied.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-reportedly-opens-another-probe-into-googles-ads-pricing-194435095.html?src=rss

The great RAMaggedon of 2026 might have just claimed the Steam Deck

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Less than a week after Valve admitted that the current shortage (and growing prices) of RAM were affecting its hardware plans, the Steam Deck is completely sold out. The Steam Deck has gone in and out of stock in the past, but as Kotaku notes, the timing does raise the question whether Valve's RAM issues could also be impacting its Linux handheld.

The 256GB Steam Deck LCD, and both the 512GB and 1TB models of the Steam Deck OLED, are completely sold out on Steam. Valve announced that it was discontinuing the LCD versions of its handheld and selling through its remaining inventory in December 2025, so the fact that the 256GB Steam Deck model is currently sold out isn't surprising. That both OLED versions are also unavailable at the same time, though, is a bit more unusual.

Engadget has contacted Valve for more information about the availability of the Steam Deck. We'll update this article if we hear back.

When Valve announced the Steam Machine, Steam Controller and Steam Frame, the company notably left pricing and availability off the table, presumably because tariffs and access to RAM were leaving those details in flux. The company's announcement last week that the memory and storage shortage had pushed back its plans and would likely impact prices more or less confirmed that. At no point did Valve mention that the Steam Deck would be similarly affected, but maybe it should have.

The rising cost of RAM has already forced other PC makers to adjust the pricing of their computers. Framework announced in January that it was raising the price of its Framework Desktop by as much as $460. Some analysts assume that the memory shortage driven by the AI industry could lead to higher prices and even an economic downturn in the wider PC industry. Ideally, the Steam Deck being out of stock is a temporary issue rather than a sign that Valve is doing something drastic. If things continue as they are, however, changes to the Steam Deck likely won't be off the table.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-great-ramaggedon-of-2026-might-have-just-claimed-the-steam-deck-211958306.html?src=rss

Amazon’s same-day prescription deliveries are coming to even more cities

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Amazon has announced that it will bring its same-day prescription delivery service to 4,500 new cities and towns by the end of 2026. The company originally launched Amazon Pharmacy in 2020 with a two-day delivery option, and has continued to increase the availability and delivery speed of the service in the years that followed, including expanding access to nearly half of all US residents in 2024.

The company's announcement doesn't break down all the new cities same-day deliveries will be available in, but does note that the delivery option is coming to Idaho and Massachusetts for the first time. In the past, access to same-day deliveries has been determined by where Amazon has fulfillment centers that it can open pharmacies in. Amazon Pharmacy also offers next-day delivery and in some cities, the ability to pick up prescriptions from Amazon's OneMedical offices.

Amazon reportedly applied for Amazon Pharmacy trademarks in the UK, Canada and Australia in 2020, but has yet to expand its prescription delivery service to those regions. In 2023, Amazon launched RxPass, a separate $5 per month subscription that lets Amazon Prime customers order from a collection over 50 common medications for a flat fee. Amazon began letting Medicare recipients access the subscription in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazons-same-day-prescription-deliveries-are-coming-to-even-more-cities-192221224.html?src=rss