Spotify has once again drawn the ire of the music industry. The National Music Publishers' Association has called on the Federal Trade Commission to examine the streaming service's addition of audiobook content into all of its paid subscription plans. According to the group's FTC complaint, Spotify's recent actions are part of "a scheme to increase profits by deceiving consumers and cheating the music royalty system."
This requires some backstory. In November 2023, Spotify announced that it would include 15 hours of audiobook content as part of all its Premium subscription plans. A few months later, the company unveiled a new audiobook-only subscription, offering the same number of listening hours for $10 a month. The publishers' organization claims that Spotify's recent price increases are based on offering that extra audiobook content, and that paying customers are automatically being charged for a service they didn't choose and can't opt out of without switching to the free, ad-supported listening experience.
And the additional revenue from the higher Premium subscription costs may not go to the music composers. According to the FTC complaint, Spotify will pay about $150 million less in music royalties over the first year of these new bundled Premium plans.
The NMPA letter goes so far as to call the new audiobook-only plan "a sham" that "exists solely to allow Spotify to claim that audiobook content is a significantly and independently valuable aspect of its 'bundled' Premium Plan, as the Audiobook Access Plan costs only $1 less than the Premium Plan with the exact same audiobook content and music."
A Spotify spokesperson provided Engadget with the following statement:
“Spotify’s approach to expanding its offering and raising prices is industry standard. We notify users a month in advance of any price increases and offer easy cancellations as well as multiple plans for users to consider. In short, we categorically reject the NMPA’s baseless accusations and will continue to provide consumers incredible value and a best-in-class experience.”
At this early stage, it's hard to say whether this issue will impact Spotify's planned overhaul of its royalty model. Both artists and publishers have routinely criticized the streaming ecosystem at large and Spotify in particular for underpaying the creatives behind the music.
Update, June 13 2024, 3:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include Spotify’s statement on the NMPA’s claims.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/music-publishers-accuse-spotify-of-bait-and-switch-subscription-scheme-235255614.html?src=rss
It looks like the sun hasn’t quite set on Finn, Jake, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum and the rest of the post-apocalyptic gang. The iconic cartoon Adventure Time is coming back in a big way, according to a report by Variety.
Cartoon Network Studios is working on three new entries in the franchise, one movie and two TV shows. There are no plot details regarding the movie, which makes sense given the end of the show and those follow-up specials, but there’s a bunch of talented people behind the scenes.
Rebecca Sugar is back, who made many of the best episodes of the original run before creating Steven Universe. The same goes for Adam Muto, the showrunner throughout the latter half of the series, and Over the Garden Wallco-creator Patrick McHale. We don’t have any release date or platform information for the movie, but it’ll likely stream on Max.
Adventure Time: Side Quests is a kids' show that looks similar in theme to the early seasons of the OG series. It stars a younger Finn and Jake as they get their start in adventuring throughout the Land of Ooo. This won’t be a heavily serialized show. It’ll mostly be standalone episodes starring earlier versions of beloved characters, like The Ice King. Nate Cash, who was an animator on the original series, is attached to this one.
"ADVENTURE TIME: HEYO BMO" is in development at Cartoon Network Studios. The first-ever #AdventureTime preschool series follows little BMO as he approaches each challenge he faces with his unique brand of enthusiasm and a curiosity to learn and fill his database. #AnnecyFestivalpic.twitter.com/ifsOsNFbaz
Finally, there’s Adventure Time: Heyo BMO. This show won’t just be for kids, it’s being made for preschoolers. As the name indicates, it stars everyone’s favorite sentient portable gaming console, BMO. An early promotional still indicates that the animation will be some sort of riff on claymation. Adam Muto will also be involved with this project.
It looks like there’s something here for everyone. The movie should please adults who grew up on the show. Side Quests is for kids, like the original Adventure Time was at first, and Heyo BMO is for preschool-aged children. Also, Max recently greenlit the alt-universe spinoff Fionna and Cake for a second season. The adventure truly will never end! For the record, I’m here for it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adventure-time-is-coming-back-with-a-movie-and-two-spinoff-series-163357706.html?src=rss
Sony takes games seriously. That’s reflected in its tentpole releases, which are overwhelmingly gritty, adult affairs like Horizon, God of War and The Last of Us. It’s surprising, then, that its Summer Game Fest demo area replaced Sad Dads and apocalypses with cutesy Astro Bot figurines and Lego. Lots of Lego.
Lego Horizon Adventures might not have generated the Summer Game Fest headlines that the new Doom and Assassin’s Creed games did, but in many ways its legacy may be more interesting. Co-developed by Guerilla Games (known for the Horizon and Killzone series) and the AAA support team Studio Gobo, it aims to bring the world of the Horizon games to a new generation — and a new platform, the Nintendo Switch.
Horizon Adventures isn’t the first Sony game on Switch. MLB: The Show routinely comes to both Nintendo’s console and Xbox, but that’s a licensed sports game, and Horizon is a key PlayStation franchise. It has a VR spin-off, a live-action adaptation confirmed for Netflix and an MMO heavily rumored in its future. Bringing the latest iteration of the series day one to Switch, then, is unusual.
“We’re trying to bring in as broad an audience as possible,” Guerilla Games narrative director James Windeler told Engadget. “The collaboration with Switch, that’s an incredibly unique opportunity … it will really help bring in a family-friendly audience.”
It’s also just a plain bigger audience. Nintendo’s console has been around since 2017, and the market for Switch games is over 140 million. (For context, there are around 58 million PlayStation 5s in the wild.) Lego titles are also in a tiny minority of non-Nintendo games to top the Switch retail sales charts.
The game itself, from the 30-minute demo I played, seems delightful. The world of Horizon translates well to Lego, with the robodinos in particular being a highlight. There is already a Forbidden West Tallneck Lego set and it would be extremely surprising if we don’t see Thunderjaws and Scrappers showing up in Lego stores soon. Combat is surprisingly faithful to the original games, with Aloy sneaking around tall grass to get a good angle on an enemy and using her Focus to spot weak points. Also faithful to the original games is that stealth can very quickly fall by the wayside in favor of frenetic dodging. Less faithful: I got through one tricky fight by repeatedly summoning a hot dog vendor to throw exploding franks all over the place. It is a Lego game, I guess.
Tone-wise, Guerilla is shooting for the Lego Movie-like cross-generational irreverent humor, which isn’t really my jam but I appreciate it. Windeler said Guerilla is trying to hit key elements of the first game without directly remaking it: “It's definitely not a one-to-one retelling, but neither is it a parody in the sense that you don't need to be a Horizon aficionado to really kind of respond to the humor. It's broader in that way.” The voice cast from the original games, including Ashly Burch as Aloy and JB Blanc as Rost, is back for Horizon Adventures and seemingly having a lot of fun. Burch’s delivery in particular is ultra wide-eyed and excited, more like her work as Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series or one of her many animated characters. It’s a fun spin on a traditionally stoic character.
Sony
Co-op is a big feature for Horizon Adventures. Local co-op is a drop-in, drop-out affair, which, as with most Lego games, enables an adult to easily help a kid get past a tricky area. But Lego games are also a lot of fun to play among consenting adults if you’re both into the particular franchise — I know plenty of grown-ups who live for Lego Star Wars. Away from the couch, there is online multiplayer, which is obviously more targeted at adults.
I am not a huge Horizon fan. Of all the open-world collect-a-thons, it’s one of my favorites, but it is very much not my genre. My partner is a fan, though, and we’re always on the lookout for middle-ground co-op games that can bridge the gap in our tastes. Maybe Horizon Adventures could be that, and I’ll become a real Horizon head because of it?
Finding new audiences is something Sony and Microsoft have been grappling with over the past couple of years. This Xbox-PlayStation generation has not seen as explosive growth as the last, and the kind of AAA experiences they typically shoot for are expensive to produce.
Microsoft seems to be committed to multiplatform releases for several established franchises it’s acquired, like Call of Duty, Diablo and Doom. It also ported four formerly exclusive titles — Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, Pentiment and Sea of Thieves — to rivals’ machines earlier this year.
Sony’s approach has, until recently, been to court PC players with ports of older titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. This year it also released Helldivers 2 on PC day one, which went very well until it didn’t. Company president Hiroki Totoki told investors in February that he “would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance” (what a gamer!) by focusing more on multi-platform releases. The assumption at the time was that he was solely referring to PCs, but the Switch release of Horizon Adventures seemingly opens this effort up to more platforms.
It’s unlikely that Sony will bring its giant AAA games to a rival console at launch. But it could be that Sony begins to treat the Switch much like Nintendo used to treat mobile devices. The mid '10s saw an influx of Nintendo games on iPhone and Android, including Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Mario Kart Tour. The strategy was pretty clear: Introduce Nintendo characters to a more casual audience, and convert a number of them over to the “full” experience. If Horizon Adventures goes well — and why would it not? — it’s easy to see Sony opening the floodgates and sending a bunch of its franchises to Nintendo’s mass-market console.
Lego Horizon Adventures launches 'Holiday 2024' on PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lego-horizon-adventures-might-be-sonys-most-important-game-of-the-year-160026354.html?src=rss
Pew Research and the Knight Foundation just put out a pair of lengthy reports on how Americans are experiencing news and politics on social media. There are a number of noteworthy stats in the research but, for me, it mostly underscores that news distribution is kind of a mess.
It’s not that news has disappeared from X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, but the way that most users are encountering news content is vastly different from platform to platform. And much of what people say they are seeing is not coming from journalists and media organizations but influencers other unconnected accounts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that most people aren’t on social media to follow news. A minority of TikTok (41 percent), Instagram (33 percent) and Facebook (37 percent) users reported that “getting news” was a “major or minor” reason they used the platform. X, as Pew points out, was a notable exception, with 65 percent of people reporting news as a reason they use the service.
That may not be especially surprising, given Twitter’s long-running reputation as a news source and Meta’s more recent shiftaway from the media industry. And even though majorities of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok said they didn’t seek out news, most people reported that they see some kind of news-related content on the platforms.
But when you dig into the kind of news participants say they see, the top categories were opinions and “funny posts” about current events. Look at the breakdown below: opinions and funny posts were significantly more prevalent than news articles or “information about a breaking news event” on every platform. (Again, the only exception was X, where people said they see articles at roughly the same rate as “funny posts” about the news.)
Pew research
It’s also striking to consider the sources for news-related posts reported by the study's participants. On every platform except X, the top source of news and news-related content is not journalists or media orgs. On Facebook and Instagram, it’s friends and family, and on TikTok it’s “other people.” The “other people” category is also quite high for X, with 75 percent saying they see news from these accounts. This suggests that much of the news content people see on X and TikTok is being driven by those platforms’ recommendation algorithms.
Pew Research
While Pew typically repeats the same sorts of studies at regular intervals, allowing readers to extrapolate trends over time, this study is brand new, so unfortunately, we don’t have historical data to compare all these stats to. But they do broadly reflect what many in the media industry have been experiencing over the last few years. Publishers are getting far less traffic from social media, and news is increasingly filtered through influencers, meme creators and random algorithmically-surfaced accounts. It’s also worth noting that for every platform, most people said that at least “sometimes” they see inaccurate news. And for X, which had the biggest share of news consumers and people seeing journalistic content, 86 percent of participants reported seeing news that “seems inaccurate.”
The report’s authors don’t draw a conclusion about what this all means in general, let alone in an election year when there is increasing anxiety about the spread of AI-fueled misinformation. But the report suggests that finding reliable and accurate news on social media is far from straightforward.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/news-on-social-media-is-a-fractured-mess-pew-study-indicates-140001507.html?src=rss
Thanks to X showing what its users "like" on its platform, politicians and public personalities have been caught looking at salacious and unsavory tweets in the past. Now, the platform formerly known as Twitter is making likes mostly private, and according to company chief Elon Musk, it's an important change so that people can "like posts without getting attacked for doing so." The company originally launched the ability to hide the likes tab as a perk for X Premium subscribers last year. "[K]eep spicy likes private," X said when it announced the new feature.
This week we’re making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.
– You will still be able to see posts you have liked (but others cannot).
– Like count and other metrics for your own posts will still show up under notifications.
In a new tweet, X's Engineering account has revealed that the social network is making likes private for everyone this week. Users will no longer be able to see who liked someone else's post, which means likes on the platform will no longer cause PR crises for public figures who like sexual, hateful and other unpalatable posts in general. They can still see who liked their tweets, however, along with their like count and other metrics for their own posts.
This rollout kills one reason for getting a premium subscription, though. The company's advertising revenue took a nosedive last year, and it launched two new tiers for its subscription service to help solve some of its financial woes. The Premium+ tier costs users $16 per month and removes ads from their timelines, while the cheapest tier costs users $3 a month and doesn't come with the website's blue checkmark.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-officially-making-likes-mostly-private-for-everyone-035837613.html?src=rss
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was given a proper unveiling at Summer Game Fest, with an Ocean’s 11-style intro to the gang of heroes and fantasy character tropes that will make up your cadre. Bioware also invited me to a hands-off demo of Veilguard, where I got to briefly see the character creation setup and the opening chapter of the game, as you join the likes of Varric and other characters from Dragon Ages past.
It does look different, though. I’ve only dipped into the Dragon Age series in the past, but the character style of Dragon Age: The Veilguard (especially in the trailer) looked, initially, like some kind of League Of Legends-style spin-off or even a, gasp, mobile game. There’s undoubtedly a cartoonish spin on characters, although Solas, the primary antagonist (and sadsack elf), seems to be his miserable, mournful self.
The environments we saw during the demo are suitably fantastical. During parts of the game, several vantage points appear to show off all the mystical landmarks. Oh, and a large chunk of the opening chapter is a town under siege by dimensional beasts.
Other significant changes appear in combat. While you’ll still be able to pause to consider tactics and enemy targets in a controller-friendly move, unique attacks for your character can be launched from a quick launch menu while the battle continues around you. It appears that The Veilguard could be more fast-paced than its predecessors.
I watched several battles between Rook, your custom-made character, and allies, including crossbow-wielding Varrik, fan-favorite Harding the scout, and the frostmage (and detective?!) Neve. We weren’t able to issue commands to our allies, but you will be able to in the final game. We watched a rogue build in action, which combined bow attacks with close-quarters dagger moves. If you choose a warrior, expect to focus on defense and heavy strikes, while a mage seems to lean on ranged combat.
Enjoy this sneak-peek at tomorrow's Gameplay Reveal!
It’s an action RPG, though, and you’ll have to work with your party members to strip away armor and protection before doing damage. Parries seem to form the core defense mechanic for rogues, but Veilguard Game Director Corinne Busche noted that, alongside difficultly modes, there are custom difficulty settings you can make fast-twitch battle mechanics more forgiving.
While we only got a brief look at the character creation process, you’ll be able to choose from different voices, fantasy races, and even a cool triangular ‘build’ generator for the body of your character. The dadbod dwarf mage of your dreams is, finally, here.
For fans of the series, though, the latest installment is aimed at expanding the world you probably already love. Areas and spots mentioned in passing in previous games will open up for exploration later in the game, we’re promised. When crafting a character, you’ll be able to flesh them out with one of several back-stories, which will often tap into groups and organizations from the series’ past. They’ll also get referenced by both your companions and other characters in-game when relevant. Neve and our build of Rook had a connection through a group in Rook’s past.
The decision wheel is here, too. While the battles and the monsters and the dragons are a core part of Dragon Age, the series is best known for letting players take the story into their own hands, making decisions, forgiving enemies (or not) and more. That looks like it’ll be a core part again of Veilguard. As Rook reacts to Varrik’s approach to Solas, as he wields dimensional forces, you can say it’s a bad idea, and your companions will act accordingly. Was it a bad idea? You’ll have to wait for the release, which is sometime in fall 2024.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dragon-age-the-veilguard-is-a-fantasy-epic-filled-with-big-decisions-150030570.html?src=rss
Spotify first revealed its plan to roll out a high-fidelity option for music streaming some years ago, but that still hasn’t come to pass. This may finally be the year when the company’s HiFi streaming goes live, but you’ll likely need to pay extra for the privilege.
HiFi streaming is expected to arrive by the end of 2024 and it will be an add-on that costs users at least $5 more per month on top of an existing plan, according to Bloomberg. That's in addition to a Premium price increase that takes effect next month. As such, individual users who want to listen to high-fidelity music on Spotify may need to pay at least $17 per month, unless they're fortunate enough to be on the $6 student plan. It's not clear if the HiFi add-on will be available to those on the free tier.
HiFi audio is already factored into Apple Music ($11 per month for individuals) and Amazon Music Unlimited ($11 per month for those without Prime). It was a key selling point for Tidal at the outset of that service, which also now costs $11 per month. That places Spotify, which said in 2021 it would roll out its HiFi plan that year, well behind its rivals on that front.
That said, the so-called "Supremium" add-on is said to include other features, like an option to spin up custom playlists in a flash based on specific activities, dates and times of the year. Bloomberg reports that Spotify's tech will adjust playlists based on a user's behavior and eventually automatically create playlists without any input from them.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotifys-hifi-plan-could-finally-arrive-this-year-but-you-may-need-to-pay-extra-141610374.html?src=rss
Thrasher, which its developers describe as a "mind-melting arcade action odyssey," will be available for the Meta Quest and the Apple Vision Pro on July 25. The SteamVR version will follow at a later date. Thrasher was first announced at The Game Awards last year as a new project by Brian Gibson, who was the artist and composer behind the nightmare-inducing rhythm game Thumper. For Thrasher, Gibson teamed up with Mike Mandel, known for working on games like Rock Band VR and Fuser, who took charge of the coding and research and development.
The player takes control of a space eel in Thrasher, which they have to guide with "fast-paced gesture controls" through unsettling landscapes, so that it can evolve and defeat a cosmic baby god by the end of their journey. Based on the images and teasers the developers have released so far, the game's environments truly do look mind-bending with their psychedelic neon colors and their geometric patterns. Even the eel's powers sound trippy: Players can fight bosses with a rainbow spray of bullets or bulldoze environment elements in a blaze of color and light.
The developers said that Thrasher's "music, visuals, and gameplay mesh into one transcendent experience" for the player. While the virtual reality version offers the most immersive option for gamers, Thrasher is also expected to be available for consoles and PC in the future
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-the-psychedelic-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-arrives-in-july-133026724.html?src=rss
Spotify has launched a new campaign that's meant to make users' audio streaming experience on the platform even more personalized. The "My Spotify" initiative will show users home page banners and personalized messages within the app that contain information about their listening habits, along with links to mixes that they'd presumably enjoy based on those habits. In one of the examples above, for instance, Spotify presented a user with a banner that links to a Doja Cat mix, because they've listened to the rapper's tracks 58 times over the past month.
The service showed the user a banner that links to a DJ mix of Go Gina in another example, demonstrating how the messages can be personalized for every listener. A My Spotify banner or message could also link to the "Made For You" hub, where users can find personalized playlists, podcasts, features and recommendations based on their activity on the app.
My Spotify gives the service a way to present users with data of their listening habits around the year, outside of Wrapped. The company's year-in-review feature only goes live during the holiday season, and it takes over social media when it does. It's not quite clear if users will also be able to share their My Spotify messages and banners on social networks. Spotify also didn't say whether it'll make its way to everyone on the app in the future — it only announced that the feature "will appear first" in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand over the next several weeks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-will-start-showing-you-personalized-banners-and-messages-based-on-your-listening-habits-130007917.html?src=rss
If you think Just Dance would be a great addition to your library of virtual reality games and experiences, then mark this date: October 15. 2024. Ubisoft is launching Just Dance VR: Welcome to Dancity that day for the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3. You'll be able to customize your avatars for the game and choose your own body shape, facial expression, skin color, hair and outfit. Once you're done creating a virtual version of yourself, you can enter the Dancity social hub to meet other players.
You'll also have your own "apartment" in game, where you can dance with up to six players or do other interactive activities with the group, like play basketball. The game will let you send emote stickers to players who aren't in your friends list, but you can do voice chats with dancers who are. Welcome to Dancity features 360-degree environments and what Ubisoft describes as an "all-new gameplay with two-hand scoring."
You'll be able to dance to 25 hit and original songs at launch, including Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, Bad Liar by Selena Gomez, Starships by Nicki Minaj and Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. As UploadVR notes, the game was supposed to be exclusively available to Pico headsets. However, after the ByteDance-owned company laid off a big portion of its workforce, Ubisoft started working with a new partner (Meta) to develop the game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/just-dance-vr-is-coming-to-meta-quest-headsets-in-october-043151830.html?src=rss