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
Toy Fair 2026 just wrapped earlier this week and while I would have liked to spend even more time there, I have my own kids (and all their toys and trinkets) to look after. That said, there were a ton of cool new products on display at the Javits Center in New York City that set the stage for the rest of the year, so here's a quick look at some of the most interesting releases from the largest toy show in the Western Hemisphere.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Transformers: The Movie, Hasbro is launching an apology tour to make up for traumatizing theatergoers with the death of the most beloved Autobot back in 1986. To kick things off, Hasbro is releasing a handful of new figures alongside re-releases for some popular bots including Astrotrain, Skywarp, Snarl and Shockwave. I want to give a special shout-out to the model for Kranix, which looks incredibly accurate, as if he just leapt off the movie screen. And even though his duck-billed spaceship alt-mode might look a bit awkward, I wouldn't have it any other way.
The crown jewel of the line might be a near-life-size version of The Matrix of Leadership, which measures more than 15 inches wide and even plays Stan Bush's iconic song "The Touch" with the push of a button. Unfortunately, the appeal of the Matrix is so powerful that it's already sold out, including at third-party retailers like Big Bad Toy Store, which thankfully is still taking pre-orders for the rest of the lineup after the initial stock from Hasbro dried up.
A collection of some of the new F1 Hot Wheels cars for 2026.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Hot Wheels has big plans for 2026 including a new line of Pantone-colored cars, Brick Shop models like the Elite Series Aston Martin (which comes with its own 1:64 scale car) and a Monster Truck Mutant Chaos set with actual slime. However, I'd argue the company's new F1 offerings are the cream of the crop. Not only are there a bunch of incredibly detailed 1:64 scale racecars with metal bodies, real rubber tires and accurate livery for all the big teams, there's also a new Downhill Circuit Race course that comes with three official vehicles (Mercedes, Haas and Ferrari) featuring multiple levels and the ability to overtake or crash into other cars. If you're like a lot of Americans who have recently fallen down the F1 rabbit hole due to Netflix's Drive to Survive, these new officially licensed miniatures are sure to hit the spot.
The first five-pack set of cars is available now, with more arriving later this spring before the Downhill Circuit Race course drives by sometime this fall.
Darth Vader's TIE fighter is an all-in-one set, which means it comes included with one of Lego's Smart Bricks, which isn't true for every kit.
Lego
We've been eagerly awaiting the first batch of playsets featuring Lego's nifty Smart Brick after it debuted at CES. But now that the company has detailed eight new sets featuring its latest innovation, we're even more intrigued. For me, the three standout kits are the Millennium Falcon, Luke's Red Five X-Wing and Darth Vader's TIE fighter because acting out the Death Star trench run complete with reactive lights and sounds will never get old. I also have a soft spot for the Ewok minifigs that come with the AT-ST set. Alternatively, the Mos Eisley Cantina kit seems like a great way to highlight the smart brick's ability to play music or kick out some rowdy droids. The one thing to look out for, though, is the tag on the set that says whether it's Smart Play compatible or if it's an all-in-one set, because the former will need Smart Bricks from other kits to deliver Lego's newfound interactivity.
Pre-orders for these are live now, with sets slated to ship on March 1.
All the new K-pop Demon Hunters toys
The HUNTR/X Battle Rumi Deluxe Fashion Doll (right) might be my favorite of the bunch.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Rumi, Mira and Zoey may have been the biggest breakout stars of 2025 and Mattel is looking to keep that momentum going with a ton of new toys and figures for everyone's favorite demon hunters. There are three new singing dolls that can belt out the trio's hit "Golden" at the touch of a button and a deluxe figure of Rumi complete with her Four Tiger Sword. There are also a ton of other dolls and miniatures showcasing HUNTR/X, the Saja Boys and more. The one downside is that these products aren't coming out until the fall, so you'll have to tide yourself over with other K-pop-themed products for now.
If Rosalina isn't careful, Yoshi will become the biggest draw of the new Mario movie.
Spin Masters
Yoshi seems poised to steal the spotlight from Rosalina in the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie and this release from Spin Masters is only reinforcing the lovable green dino's aura. From inside his shell, Yoshi can burst out with his signature yell. After that, you can pat his nose to make his eyes light up or get him to rock when he's really happy. But if you want one, you're going to have to be vigilant. Pre-orders are already sold out, so you'll need to keep a close eye on retailers like Walmart when he officially goes on sale on February 20.
Not only do the SolarFlowers look great, they're educational too.
Thames & Kosmos
Technically, these went on sale last month, but Thames & Kosmos' SolarFlowers caught my eye again at Toy Fair due to their combination of art and science. Available in four different styles, each kit features a model that you can build yourself or with your kids (recommended age 8+) that turns into a lasting showpiece. After putting the kinetic sculpture together, you can connect the included solar panel to bring the whole kit to life (no batteries required) and make the flowers spin for perpetual entertainment.
Honorable mentions
Upcoming Masters of the Universe figures
Some upcoming figures from Mattel's line of Masters of the Universe figures.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
As someone who grew up during the 80s and 90s, I'm trying to be optimistic about He-Man's return to the big screen later this summer and Mattel's new line of figures is certainly helping. To help prime people for the movie, there's a big range of upcoming toys highlighting He-Man, Skeletor, Battle Cat and more, all of which I would have absolutely loved as a kid. Those will be available later this spring.
It's hard to gauge the excitement of toys aimed at one-year-olds when they can't read or get into Toy Fair. But as the parent of a toddler, I adore the partnership between Fisher-Price and Nintendo that has resulted in a line of Mario-themed Little People. All the big names are here, including Peach, Luigi and Bowser and there's even a couple of super cute playsets to go with them. But perhaps the best part is that a six-pack of figures and Bower's Airship costs under $25, which means your kid could be in for hours of fun without you spending a ton of money.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/here-are-my-favorite-things-from-toy-fair-2026-183356720.html?src=rss
Meta is reportedly gearing up to enter another segment of the wearables market. According to The Information, the company is planning to release its first smartwatch sometime this year. Meta has revived its smartwatch initiative internally called “Malibu 2,” The Information says, which will come with Meta AI and health tracking.
The same publication reported back in 2021 that Meta was working on a smartwatch powered by an open-source version of Android. Over the next year, more details of its possible features emerged, including reports that it had a detachable camera and that Meta was developing a model with up to three cameras. But in 2022, the company was believed to have put the project on hold to focus on other wearable devices.
The Information says the decision to pause its smartwatch project was made as part of a broader cut in spending in the Reality Labs division. If you’ll recall, Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs in January, because the division was hemorrhaging money. Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call after the layoffs started that when it comes to Reality Labs, the company was focusing most of its investment “towards glasses and wearables going forward.”
At the moment, Meta’s wearable products are comprised of virtual reality headsets and smartglasses. They include the Meta Ray-Bans, which are a hit in the US. Meta reportedly has four augmented reality and mixed-reality glasses in development, but it’ll take some time until we see them. Based on previous reports, it pushed back the unveiling of its next mixed reality headset model codenamed “Phoenix” to early 2027.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-reportedly-plans-to-release-a-smartwatch-this-year-121247838.html?src=rss
Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Wednesday in a high-profile jury trial over social media addiction. In an appearance that was described byNBC News as "combative," the Facebook founder reportedly said that Meta's goal was to make Instagram "useful" not increase the time users are spending in the app.
On the stand, Zuckerberg was questioned about a company document that said improving engagement was among "company goals," according to CNBC. But Zuckerberg claimed that the company had "made the conscious decision to move away from those goals, focusing instead on utility," according to The Associated Press. "If something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them,” he said.
The trial stems from a lawsuit brought by a California woman identified as "KGM" in court documents. The now 20-year-old alleges that she was harmed as a child by addictive features in Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok. TikTok and Snap opted to settle before the case went to trial.
Zuckerberg was also asked about previous public statements, including his remarks on Joe Rogan's podcast last year that he can't be fired by Meta's board because he controls a majority of the voting power. According to The New York Times, Zuckerberg accused the plaintiffs' lawyer of "mischaracterizing" his past comments more than a dozen times.
Zuckerberg's appearance in court also apparently prompted the judge to warn people in the courtroom not to record the proceedings using AI glasses. As CNBC notes, members of Zuckerberg's entourage were spotted wearing Meta's smart glasses as the CEO was escorted into the courthouse. It's unclear if anyone was actually using the glasses in court, but legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff reported that the judge was particularly concerned about the possibility of jurors being recorded or subjected to facial recognition. (Meta's smart glasses do not currently have native facial recognition abilities, but recent reports suggest the company is considering adding such features.)
The Los Angeles trial has been closely watched not just because it marked a rare in-court appearance for Zuckerberg. It's among the first of several cases where Meta will face allegations that its platforms have harmed children. In this case and in a separate proceeding in New Mexico, Meta's lawyers have cast doubt on the idea that social media should be considered a real addiction. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri previously testified in the same Los Angeles trial that Instagram isn't "clinically addictive."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-testifies-in-social-media-addiction-trial-that-meta-just-wants-instagram-to-be-useful-234332316.html?src=rss
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
Ticketing marketplace SeatGeek has announced a partnership with Spotify that will direct an artist's fans to its platform from the Spotify app. The integration is currently limited to a few participating venues for which SeatGeek is the primary ticket seller.
While SeatGeek is one of the largest online marketplaces for the secondary ticketing market, the company's announcement makes clear that this Spotify integration only applies to venues where it's the primary ticketing company. For now, that's just 15 US partner venues, primarily professional sports arenas like AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Spotify has experimented with direct ticket sales in the past, but now focuses on signing on partners to integrate into the streaming experience. The company currently lists 46 ticketing partners, including Ticketmaster, AXS and others. The app also allows users to follow specific venues to be notified about upcoming concerts and events.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-debuts-seatgeek-integration-for-concert-ticket-sales-162248870.html?src=rss
Netflix has been in the game adaptation business for a while now, but until recently most of its attention had been on adapting video games. That’s still very much happening, but the streaming giant is also now buying up rights for board game IP too, with the latest being Asmodee’s Ticket to Ride.
Netflix will look to greenlight a number of projects spanning TV, film and "additional formats," it wrote in a press release. The first of these will be a feature film written by Ben Mekler and Chris Amick. Ticket to Ride creator Alan R. Moon will serve as an executive producer on the project, which will be the game’s first on-screen adaptation. Exactly what it will look like is not yet clear, but the internet already has plenty of theories.
Ticket to Ride is a train-themed turn-based strategy and route-building game first released over 20 years ago. Since then it has gone on to ship more than 20 million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages. It’s also been given the video game adaptation treatment before.
This is actually the second of Asmodee’s IP that Netflix has acquired the rights to, after announcing last year that Catanwill also be making its way to screens in various forms. And it isn’t just interested in scripted TV and movie opportunities. In early 2025, the company also signed a deal with Hasbro to adapt Monopolyinto a TV game show.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/netflix-is-adapting-the-board-game-ticket-to-ride-180505164.html?src=rss
Web designers of the world: The Automattic-owned WordPress.com is further embracing AI on its platform. On Tuesday, it expanded its one-off AI site builder into a persistent AI assistant for editing and media creation.
In the site editor, the AI assistant can help with site-wide structure and design choices. For example, you can ask the chatbot to "give me more font options that feel clean and professional or “change my site colors to be brighter and bolder." It also includes image generation and writing assistance, such as "rewrite this to sound more confident." (Who needs learning when you have automation!)
The assistant can also now be integrated into your site's media library. It can generate new images or make prompted edits to your existing ones. Examples include "update this image to be black and white" or "replace this stack of pancakes with waffles." (Just don't fake that if your business sells breakfast food, okay?) WordPress says the assistant understands your website's look and brand and can tailor the media accordingly.
WordPress also added the AI assistant to the platform's team chat, Block Notes. You can summon the chatbot from within your team chat threads.
The tool is available for WordPress.com's Business or Commerce plans. (Or, if you made your site using the AI builder, it's enabled by default, no matter which plan you use.) The feature works best with the platform's block themes; it's much more limited with classic ones. You'll find the toggle to activate the AI assistant in your site settings under the "AI tools" section.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/wordpress-adds-an-ai-assistant-174719676.html?src=rss
Fans of The Mandalorian and his tiny green apprentice Grogu are getting their best look yet at the duo's upcoming theatrical adventure, set for release this spring. It’s hard to believe that it's been just over six years since the last Star Wars movie was released in theaters, followed by wall-to-wall coverage of so-called Star Wars Fatigue.
The newest trailer, released today, clocks in at just over two minutes long and offers some new footage and details to sink our teeth into. Picking up after the events of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, the Empire has collapsed and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu are tasked with taking out a bevy of baddies from gangsters to war criminals for the New Republic. Colonel Ward, new to the Star Wars universe and played by Sigourney Weaver, tells Djarin, "This isn't about revenge, it's about preventing another war."
Jeremy Allen White will also star in the film, as Rotta the Hutt, Jabba's son, who we briefly see battling Din Djarin in a colosseum of sorts. Notably, at one point we see Djarin on his knees before Jabba sans helmet, so we'll definitely be getting some moments of Pedro Pascal unfiltered by Beskar. Like any Star Wars adventure, we see flashes of some new creatures that our heroes will face. Most importantly, we see Grogu being downright adorable, playing with buttons on the ship, commandeering a flying bassinet, and snacking on a cookie.
The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on May 22 and, according to the trailer, was shot at least in part for IMAX.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-first-full-trailer-for-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-is-here-164244117.html?src=rss
Bloober Team has revealed Layers of Fear 3 following a Valentine's Day countdown that started at the beginning of 2026. The new chapter will include not only a game but a novel and music, the company said in a press release.
The developer revealed the new IP via a live-action teaser, with an actor reading lines from William Blake's poem, The Sick Rose. A painting then fell from the wall, and the actor then turned over an hourglass with red sand, with a tagline stating "The door won't stay closed." No gameplay or other information like the release date was revealed.
What Bloober did say, though, is that it would launch new Layers of Fear non-game content, including a novel by horror writer, poet and vocalist Marta Bijan. The company also announced that it would release the soundtracks for Layers of Fear,The Medium and Cronos both in digital and physical (CD and vinyl) editions.
The new title is likely to be eagerly anticipated given Bloober's form of late. The company recently released its Silent Hill 2 remake, Cronos: The New Dawn and a new Switch 2 Layers of Fear 2 version called Layers of Fear: The Final Masterpiece Edition. The original Layers of Fearcame out back in 2016 and is considered one of the better horror titles of recent years, thanks to an expertly crafted narrative and psychedelic thrills and chills. The sequel moved to a creepy ocean liner and was equally well-received.
Update Feb. 16, 2026 at 3:06PM ET: The headline was updated with the correct game name.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/layers-of-3-revealed-via-a-mysterious-trailer-and-poem-153021903.html?src=rss
