The Verge

Image: Fisker Inc. iPhone-maker Foxconn has agreed to build electric vehicles for Fisker Inc., the eponymous EV startup of automotive designer Henrik Fisker. In a memorandum of understanding announced Wednesday, the two companies say Foxconn will build Fisker Inc.’s second vehicle, which has yet to be announced and is due out in late 2023.Fisker told The Wall Street Journal that the companies are considering building the car in the US and that there’s a “very good chance” it may happen at Foxconn’s factory in Wisconsin.That factory, which former president Donald Trump called the “eighth wonder of the world” at the 2018 groundbreaking event, was originally supposed to be used to build LCD panels. Foxconn had promised a $10 billion investment that would... Continue reading…

Electric bikes can transform the way we live by replacing car trips, encouraging cities to improve their infrastructure, and decreasing the amount of carbon we emit into the atmosphere. But e-bikes will be transformational only if people can afford them — and as of today, most e-bikes are prohibitively expensive.Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) wants to change this. The 72-year-old congressman from Portland has introduced a bill to help make e-bikes cheaper, and thus more accessible. Along with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Blumenauer helped author the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act, which would give a refundable tax credit of 30 percent on the purchase of a new e-bike.“The bottom line here is to fully... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile created a lot of buzz this week when it announced it was bringing back an unlimited plan without data throttling. In the age of data caps and deprioritization, that seems like a pretty nice deal — and it might be. But as always, there’s more at play here than T-Mobile just offering a better unlimited plan.T-Mobile says its new plan, Magenta Max, is truly unlimited. It includes 4K video streaming and high-speed data without deprioritization, where all other “unlimited” plans impose slowdowns once a user hits certain thresholds. T-Mobile chief marketing officer Matt Staneff confirmed in a call with The Verge yesterday that there are no strings attached to the deprioritization bit — it’s all-you-can-eat 5G data.T-Mobile says... Continue reading…

Image: YouTube YouTube is announcing “supervised experiences,” a new set of restrictions that allows parents to better control what content their children can access on the streaming video platform. According to a blog post, YouTube hopes the filters will help parents slowly introduce their older children to age-appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app. The program will launch first with an early beta, with a wider beta rolling out “in the coming months.”Parents have three levels of strictness to choose from, which determines the content a child is allowed to view on their account. There’s the “Explore” level, which YouTube says is “generally suitable” for kids nine and up’ “Explore More,” which is meant for kids 13 and up; and... Continue reading…

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. | Image: Ring Ring has announced the latest model in its line of video doorbells, the Video Doorbell Pro 2. The Pro 2 is a new top-of-the-line model that comes with a number of enhancements over its predecessor, including a taller field of view and enhanced motion detection capabilities. It is available to preorder for $249.99 starting today, with shipments expected to begin on March 31st, 2021.The most significant update for the Pro 2 is its new square video capture. First popularized by Google’s Nest Hello and adopted by many other video doorbells, this field of view makes it possible to see who is at your door from head to toe. It also makes it possible to see when packages are left on the ground in front of the doorbell. The Pro 2 captures a 1536... Continue reading…

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge HP has announced that it is acquiring gaming peripheral company HyperX for $425 million. The purchase will give HP a major foothold in the gaming accessory market.This transaction will result in HP buying the HyperX brand from Kingston, the current owner, but HP notes in the announcement post that “Kingston will retain the DRAM, flash, and SSD products for gamers and enthusiasts.”HP has been making strides to enter the gaming peripheral space for the last several years under the Omen brand, but it has not gained much traction compared to competitors such as Corsair, Logitech, and Razer.HP told The Verge that the Ngenuity companion app used for some HyperX accessories will continue to exist and will not be rolled into the Omen... Continue reading…

Photo by Dani Deahl / The Verge Still haven’t caught ‘em all Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Roleplaying games represent some of the most beloved titles ever created. Series like Final Fantasy or The Elder Scrolls are filled with huge, immersive worlds and deep lore to be explored. Yet, that scale and complexity can also make the genre seem overwhelming. What makes Pokémon stand out is its ability to attract a wide audience. It’s a perfect entry point for an otherwise intimidating genre.As the series turns 25 years old this year, the charm found in the first installments has been preserved and retained throughout the eight generations of the franchise. The format has stayed consistent; unlike typical RPGs with their elaborate and grandiose narratives, Pokémon maintains a very relaxed pace with a clear goal in mind.Each Pokémon... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has started to label some tweets with a warning about materials “obtained through hacking.” This new label is appearing on some news stories that Twitter believes are based on hacks and leaked documents, but Twitter users have found an easy way to hack a URL together to make it appear on any tweet.The new label appeared on a story from independent outlet The Grayzone this week. If you share the URL of this particular story, it will generate the warning. But Twitter also displays the warning if you trick it into doing so by using a specially crafted link to a genuine URL combined with the flagged one. This tricks Twitter’s card-based system into accidentally flagging tweets with this new warning.

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Microsoft is now allowing Word for web and OneNote users to embed Pinterest Pins into their documents. The new feature lets Pinterest users paste a URL of any Pin into a OneNote page or Word document to render it as interactive content. This adds a new way to create pages, sections, or notebooks full of Pinterest content in OneNote.The embeds also work in Word, but only on the web version right now. You can embed Pinterest content into a Word document online, and it will be displayed when you open the document on the mobile or web versions of Word. Image: Microsoft Pinterest integration in OneNote. Microsoft is targeting this new feature at schools and students, particularly the OneNote embeds for Pinterest.... Continue reading…

The new Show is the first smart display that can follow you around Continue reading…

Image: Nothing Swedish electronics house Teenage Engineering, best known for its range of beautifully designed audio products, is working with Nothing on its upcoming product releases. Nothing is the new consumer tech brand from ex-OnePlus exec Carl Pei. Pei says that Teenage Engineering is one of Nothing’s founding partners, and will drive the design aesthetic at his new company.Pei says that he’s already worked with Teenage Engineering to create a product roadmap “that’s unique and true to Nothing’s vision.” Nothing’s first product is a pair of wireless earbuds, due for release this summer. It’ll be curious to see what design cues they take from Teenage Engineering’s M-1 headphones. Image: Teenage Engineering Teenage... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok removed over 340,000 videos in the US for breaking the platform’s rules on election misinformation, manipulation, or disinformation, according to a Wednesday transparency report covering content from the second half of last year.A few months before the 2020 presidential election, TikTok announced that it would pair with fact-checking organizations as part of a broader effort to combat election and COVID-19 misinformation. At the time of the announcement, TikTok was under immense pressure by the Trump administration and lawmakers for its alleged ties to the Chinese government. Microsoft and Oracle were among some of the companies bidding for ownership over TikTok from ByteDance, a Chinese firm. A final deal between Oracle and... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon’s cloud-gaming service, Luna, is now available to try for free in the US on select Fire TV devices without an invitation, the company has announced. Luna launched in early access last year, as an invitation-only service. Originally, customers also needed an invite to buy the Luna Controller, but Amazon now says it’s available to everyone.Amazon’s FAQ says that users can get access to Luna on Fire TV by simply downloading the app. A list of Fire TV devices that are compatible with Luna is available on this Amazon support page. These include the Fire TV Stick Lite, Fire TV Stick (2nd & 3rd generation), Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV (3rd generation), Fire TV Cube, Toshiba Fire TV Edition, and Insignia Fire TV Edition.“If you don’t... Continue reading…

The Economic Security Project is trying to make a point about big tech monopolies by releasing a browser plugin that will block any sites that reach out to IP addresses owned by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon. The extension is called Big Tech Detective, and after using the internet with it for a day (or, more accurately, trying and failing to use), I’d say it drives home the point that it’s almost impossible to avoid these companies on the modern web, even if you try.Currently, the app has to be side-loaded onto Chrome, and the Economic Security Project expects that will remain the case. It’s also available to side-load onto Firefox. By default, it just keeps track of how many requests are sent, and to which companies. If you... Continue reading…

Fry’s Electronics, one of the last big brick-and-mortar electronics store chains in the United States — and a Silicon Valley institution in particular — is permanently closing nationwide, local broadcaster KRON4 has confirmed, following a report from Bill Reynolds and another from Matthew Keys.The company’s Facebook page is also gone and its Twitter feed has been set to private — it was public earlier this evening, though it hadn’t tweeted in quite some time.If you’ve ever visited a Fry’s anytime in the past two to three years, none of this will come as a surprise.Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the family-owned business had been pushed to the brink of extinction by online retailers like Amazon, Newegg and more. Initially, the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge A new Oculus Quest feature expands the headset’s Guardian mode by letting you mark your real couch as an object that’ll show up in VR. The Guardian is an Oculus safety feature that lets you draw lines around your environment that act as a virtual boundary and appear in VR when you get too close to the edges; this couch mode is the first time that the Guardian has worked as more than just a simple measure of floor space.UploadVR reports that you can mark out your couch or chair by touching one side and dragging out a virtual blue rectangle across it to define the correct size. Once you’ve done that it’ll appear as a 3D-modeled couch in the Oculus Home menu environment, or as the same blue rectangle when using the Guardian feature in an... Continue reading…

Image: LG LG tonight announced that the company’s webOS smart TV platform will soon be found on TVs from other brands. RCA, Ayonz, and Konka are some of the companies that have already signed on. “This has the potential to reshape the TV business for both technology and content providers while significantly growing LG’s presence and prominence in the global home entertainment market,” LG said in a press release.The news comes after LG revealed a significantly overhauled version of webOS at CES in January. On LG’s 2021 TVs, the slide-up “blades” interface has been ditched entirely in favor of a more traditional scrolling home screen. I’ve seen a wide range in opinions from LG’s existing TV customers; some like the new look since it resembles a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Net neutrality died a horrible death in 2017, but things have just turned around: California’s landmark net neutrality law — erected in 2018 but immediately blocked by lawsuits from Trump’s Department of Justice and the telecom industry — can finally be enforced.That’s the verdict from Judge John Mendez today, who declined to grant the telecom industry the preliminary injunction it had requested. The case might not be over, but the law can go into effect — and the judge doesn’t think the telecom industry is likely to win.According to MLEx journalist Mike Swift and The Hollywood Reporter’s Eriq Gardner, each of whom had been following the decision live, Judge Mendez believes it should be up to Congress to say whether net neutrality... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge GameStop CFO Jim Bell has resigned, and will be leaving the video game retailer for good on March 26th. That’s just over a month from now. GameStop also announced a “succession plan,” just in case it can’t immediately find anyone suitable to accelerate a mall-based video game retailer’s transformation into the post-pandemic future. We can only speculate on the reasons for his departure, but let’s just come out and say what everyone is thinking: STONKS!It’s not like he had a falling-out with the company: “Mr. Bell’s resignation was not because of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices, including accounting principles and practices,” writes GameStop in this SEC filing.W... Continue reading…

Image: ConcernedApe Stardew Valley has been adapted into board game form and is available to purchase now for $55, according to the game’s developer Eric Barone (ConcernedApe). Stardew Valley got its start as a popular, indie-take on farm sim classic Harvest Moon, but now the video game will finally exist in physical form (without the need to go out and actually learn how to farm).Stardew Valley: The Board Game was developed over two years by Barone and board game designer Cole Meideros. The game aims to adapt the gameplay from the video game like farming, foraging, mining, and romance, into a customizable, but less open-ended form that you can actually finish in one sitting. The game is also designed for one to four players, meaning that just like the... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Solax Archive on YouTube If you’ve spent the day playing through Persona 5 Strikers and noticed the voice of the in-game digital assistant sounded familiar, it’s likely because it’s played by the original voice of Siri (via Kotaku). Susan Bennett originally provided the voice for Apple’s digital assistant, and now she’s playing EMMA, the in-game AI.You can hear what she sounds like in the role in the video below, around the 9:44 mark.If you ask your iPhone for directions to the nearest camping store, though, you may notice that its response doesn’t exactly sound like the game. That’s because, while Bennett was the original voice for Siri when it debuted with the iPhone 4S running iOS 5 (though technically Siri existed with Bennett’s voice before it was ever... Continue reading…

Image: USPS The United States Postal Service (USPS) has revealed its new mail truck after a years-long competition. The new truck will be built by Wisconsin-based defense contractor Oshkosh and can be fitted with both gasoline and electric drivetrains. But it won’t hit the road until 2023.Oshkosh winning the contract is a potentially major blow to commercial electric vehicle startup Workhorse, which was one of the three remaining bidders. The company’s stock price plummeted following the announcement, and trading was halted multiple times.The USPS has been looking to replace its existing mail trucks for years now, and it started taking solicitations for new designs back in 2015. The need for new trucks is urgent. The ones currently on the road are... Continue reading…

Image: Disney WandaVision’s seventh episode started to answer some of the biggest questions of the series, and — in line with its sitcom trappings — the show dropped one of its biggest reveals yet in a very spoiler-y retro-style theme song.Since the episode was released, the track has exploded in popularity to the point that Disney seems to have noticed by dropping the official soundtrack on services like Spotify and Apple Music a few days ahead of the planned release on Friday, February 26th.Spoilers for WandaVision episode 7 ahead.That’s right, you can now stream the official version of “Agatha All Along” to your heart’s content. The song, like WandaVision’s other sitcom themes, was written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (best known... Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images LinkedIn is back up after a worldwide outage affecting users on both mobile and desktop. The Microsoft-owned social network first started experiencing issues around 2PM ET, and LinkedIn confirmed things were back to normal at 4:21PM ET.The company didn’t give a specific reason for the outage, though did jokingly suggest the issues may have been due to a WandaVision character.

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Square has just made another colossal investment in bitcoin, more than tripling its last investment in the cryptocurrency with a $170 million purchase of tokens. The digital payments company, which is run by vocal bitcoin advocate and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, disclosed the investment in its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday.The company purchased about 3,318 bitcoins at an average price of $51,236, which signals remarkable confidence in bitcoin as it reaches record heights and invites renewed skepticism about its stability.“Aligned with the company’s purpose, Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung is extending the return period for its newest foldable phones to 100 days, the company announced on Tuesday. That means buyers of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G and Z Flip 5G can purchase either device, use it for more than three months, and return it for a full refund. Samsung is calling this new program “Buy and Try,” and it’s the first time the company has launched a return initiative as generous as this for its mobile phones. The prior return window was 15 days.“This new initiative will help consumers try and see if a foldable device is right for them, as part of Samsung’s commitment to making foldable devices more accessible for everyone,” a Samsung spokesperson said in a statement. Samsung says the program is launching today for... Continue reading…

Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images You know, when I think about the stock market, I don’t really think about Michael Bolton. But I guess Public — which refers to itself as “the investing social network” — was envious that Robinhood was getting all the press attention, so it hired Bolton to revamp his 1989 hit “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” The new version is a lament about payment for order flow, which was recently the subject of Reddit outrage and a point of inquiry in a House hearing.Make no mistake, Public is taking aim at RobinhoodBolton is absolutely solemn in the beginning — almost to the point of convincing me that this is a hostage proof-of-life video. But his voice is as lovely as ever as he launches into song. It’s not the first time he’s lampooned... Continue reading…

Benjamin, the last captive thylacine. | Photo by John Carnemolla / Corbis via Getty Images There was some excitement online yesterday as word spread that a family of thylacines was potentially caught on camera. The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was declared extinct decades ago, so a confirmed sighting would certainly be cause for celebration. Unfortunately, wildlife biologist Nick Mooney at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) reviewed the photos and determined “the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines, and are most likely Tasmanian pademelons,” according to a spokesperson.This isn’t the first time a possible thylacine has turned out to be a pademelon or a mangy fox. While there have been reported sightings of thylacines, none have been confirmed since 1936. According to TMAG, the museum... Continue reading…

Image: Techland In 2018, game development studio Techland announced it would be developing a sequel to its survival horror hit Dying Light. The game was previously slated to release in the spring of last year, but it would go on to be delayed indefinitely, with no clear release date or launch window yet announced as of January 2020. With the silence surrounding Dying Light 2 for over a year now, a pressing question is what might be causing the game to endure such a troubled development.A recent report by TheGamer’s editor-in-chief Kirk McKeand gives us some long-awaited answers, detailing the struggling state of the studio’s work environment and shining a light on many issues likely impacting the development of the Dying Light sequel. The report... Continue reading…

Image: Anker Anker has released a new MagSafe-compatible battery pack that can attach directly to your iPhone to offer charging without the need for a cable, 9to5Google reports. The Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K Wireless Power Bank will launch on March 3rd for $39.99, beating Apple’s own rumored MagSafe battery product to market — with one big caveat.The PowerCore Magnetic 5K Wireless Power Bank sports a 5,000mAh battery and Anker’s usual power bank design, including an LED indicator light to let you know how much power is left in the device. The device also features USB-C output for charging with a cable as well. An extra 5,000mAh is a meaningful boost, especially for the smaller iPhone 12 mini, but it’s limited by the device’s lack of MagSafe... Continue reading…

Image: Alex Moukala While the Nintendo Wii might be most famous for ushering in an era of motion-based controls for console games, one of its most lasting legacies is the fantastic music in some of its system apps. Remember the Wii Shop Channel song? It’s still so good. And over the past day, producer and composer Alex Moukala has kicked off a trend celebrating another one of the system’s famous songs by making funky remixes of the Mii Channel music.Here’s the original version if you haven’t heard it in a while:Now listen to Moukala’s phenomenal take:

Qualcomm Haptic feedback on Android phones running the Snapdragon 888 chipset might get noticeably better starting in the second half of 2021. Qualcomm recently announced (via 9to5Google) that it’s working independently with a company called Lofelt to enhance haptics through software, not hardware.That initially read as a puzzling decision, since hardware — not software — seems to play the bigger role in the quality of the vibration. But this actually sounds very clever, definitely more clever than Lofelt’s Basslet vibrating wearable that it launched on Kickstarter in 2016.Outside of some high-end LG phones, most Android phones deliver muddy or rattling vibrations that don’t feel that great. Even the best ones can’t compete with Apple’s Taptic... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Konami’s Frogger game series is apparently getting turned into a game show, set to be streamed on NBC’s Peacock. The show’s contestants will apparently have to go through “physically demanding” obstacle courses and will be asked to “dodge treacherous traffic, leap over snapping gators and hop over hungry hippos to conquer the course.” One would hope those are simulated using foam and rubber. Otherwise, there could be some liability issues.The show promises longer episodes than normally expected from a game show: according to a promotional email, they’ll be an hour long (currently, 13 have been ordered). To be fair, I’ve definitely played over an hour of Frogger before without even thinking about it, and as fun as the game is, it’ll... Continue reading…

Here’s the ThinkPad T14s Gen 2. | Lenovo Lenovo has announced a number of updates to its ThinkPad line. We’re getting upgrades to the lightweight ThinkPad X13 and convertible X13 Yoga, as well as the high-end T-Series, the budget-oriented L-Series, and the P-Series of mobile workstations.The biggest news is that all of these models have gotten spec bumps. Each series includes models with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 mobile processors as well as Intel’s 11th Gen vPro chips. They’re also getting connectivity upgrades, including some options for Wi-Fi 6E on the Intel systems and Wi-Fi 6 for the AMD ones. Some models support 5G as well.The news I’m personally most excited about is that the X13 i (Intel), X13 (AMD), and X13 Yoga (Intel) are getting 16:10 displays. Manufacturers across the... Continue reading…

Image: NBC In mid-2020, Friends moved to HBO Max exclusively. On January 1st, 2021, The Office made a similar move, leaving Netflix to stream solely on Peacock. The shows, whose moves cost a combined $1 billion roughly, were designed as anchors for the new streaming platforms: they would bring subscribers in and keep them subscribed.Neither WarnerMedia nor NBCUniversal has given hard insights into how much Friends or The Office have driven subscriptions or retention, but new data from research firm Antenna provides some interesting context about the latter show. Here are the basics: The Office arriving on Peacock drove more signups than the nationwide launch, including a notable uptick in people signing up for the $10-a-month premium plan that... Continue reading…

The most powerful companies on the internet have never been less popular in Washington, and industry-wide regulation has never seemed so close. So on March 1st at 2PM ET, The Verge is hosting an event about regulating the internet — from antitrust to privacy to the many proposals for changing Section 230.Like a lot of things in 2021, we’ll be holding this event remotely, meeting over video and taking live audience questions online. It’s free, and you can register online right now.The event will kick off with a keynote from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), one of the sponsors of the SAFE TECH Act, as she discusses how she’s approaching tech regulation across a variety of issues as well as her agenda for the next congressional term.After... Continue reading…

The view of NASA’s Perseverance rover looking up at its parachute, which reads “Dare Mighty Things” in a hidden code, while zooming through the Martian atmosphere before landing. | Image: NASA / JPL The parachute that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars last week unfurled to reveal a seemingly random pattern of colors in video clips of the rover’s landing. But there was more to the story: NASA officials later said it contained a hidden message written in binary computer code.Internet sleuths cracked the message within hours. The red and white pattern spelled out “Dare Mighty Things” in concentric rings. The saying is the Perseverance team’s motto, and it is also emblazoned on the walls of Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the mission team’s Southern California headquarters.

Tony Hawk in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2. | Image: Activision The very good remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 is hitting next-gen consoles and the Nintendo Switch this year. The game will launch on the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S on March 26th, but there’s no specific release date for the Switch release beyond “2021.” The game was first released last year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.On next-gen consoles, you’ll be able to play the game at 120fps at a 1080p resolution or at 60fps in 4K, according to a blog post. (The PS5 and Xbox Series X can run at a native 4K, while the Xbox Series S version can run at 1440p and upscale to 4K.) The next-gen version will also offer spatial audio.

The Google Maps app is getting a true dark mode, at least on Android. The company announced today that it is finally widely releasing the dark theme option that it’s been testing in the app since September 2020.The dark mode, which takes things much further than the previously available night mode color option, will be accessible in the app’s settings menu, under “theme.”Google announced the dark mode rollout as part of a batch of new features coming to Android, including some updates to Android Auto. In addition to custom wallpapers, Android Auto is now going to feature games as well. Trivia Crack, Jeopardy!, Song Quiz, and Google’s own Are You Feeling Lucky? will be available. The games can be accessed through the assistant by... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge | Images: Dominion Energy The race is on to build them Continue reading…

Image: Q Games PixelJunk Raiders is the next exclusive coming to Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service. The title, a third-person rougelite that sees you battle through procedurally generated alien environments, will release on the Stadia platform on March 1st. It’ll sell for $19.99 (€19.99), and it will be included free with a Stadia Pro subscription. An announcement trailer bills PixelJunk Raiders as “Only on Stadia,” suggesting this isn’t a timed exclusive like Crayta.The announcement notes that PixelJunk Raiders supports Stadia’s State Share feature, which has previously been used with the Hitman games to let players to share specific parts of missions with one another. In PixelJunk Raiders, the feature allows your “placed turrets, traps and... Continue reading…

The Atari arcade cabinet game Race Drivin’ was ported to the Atari ST in the summer of 1991, and then ported again to the SNES a year later. It was the sequel to 1989’s Hard Drivin’, and while it boasted numerous improvements over its predecessor — it could model a car with four wheels, as opposed to Hard Drivin’s two — it was still not particularly fast.The SNES console port ran at a slideshow-y 4 frames per second. And when the Genesis port arrived in 1993, Electronic Gaming Monthly’s January 1994 issue gave the game a capsule review. It reads in full:

With two-way charging, the Ioniq 5 could supply power for a full range of electrical devices Continue reading…

2021 is a big year for competitive Valorant, with developer Riot kicking off an ambitious, yearlong esports circuit called the Valorant Champions Tour. But the company is also looking to make the scene more diverse with a separate competition called VCT Game Changers, which it says will “create competitive opportunities for women and marginalized genders within Valorant.”The program will include a series of “top tier” competitions throughout 2021, but perhaps more important is an academy series designed to foster new talent. Here’s how Riot describes it:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony is planning to bring more of its PlayStation games to PC. First up will be Days Gone this spring, Sony president and chief executive officer Jim Ryan told British GQ. Developer Bend Studio also confirmed the news via Twitter, adding: “Stay tuned for more details.”In the past, Sony has shown reluctance to port games to PC, though it notably eased its stance last year when it announced Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn would receive a PC port, which launched last August. Asked why the company seems to have changed its tune, Ryan told the publication that there are a few factors at play.

Sony is encouraging PS4 and PS5 owners to stay at home during the pandemic by bringing back its “Play At Home” initiative, allowing PlayStation owners to redeem free games starting in March and concluding in June.Starting March 1st at 8PM PT / 11PM ET until March 31st at 8PM PT / 11PM ET, both PS4 and PS5 owners will have the chance to redeem 2016’s Ratchet and Clank at no cost; PS5 owners previously had access to a free version of the game via the PlayStation Plus Collection.Sony originally announced the Play At Home initiative last year, when the company offered PS4 owners free digital copies of Journey and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. Unlike the free PlayStation Plus games that are available each month, you do not need... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony’s PlayStation 5 (alongside the Xbox Series X and S) has been nearly impossible to buy since its launch back in November. Those shortages will likely continue for a bit longer, according to Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. But stock should pick up in the second half of the year, he says.The news comes from a series of interviews with Ryan from The Washington Post and the Financial Times, where the PlayStation boss reflected on the past several months since the PS5’s launch and the road ahead for the next-generation console.“Demand was greater than we anticipated,” Ryan said, explaining the ongoing stock issues for the console. “That, along with the complexities of the supply chain issues, resulted in... Continue reading…

RODE Rode has released a sequel to its Wireless Go mobile microphone system, the Wireless Go II, which is meant to offer an easy way for video creators to record audio from two people at once.Like its predecessor, the Go II is a compact wireless microphone pack designed for the creator who wants a lighter gear bag in the field (or is on a budget), while still being able to use a dedicated off-camera audio system. With this next generation, the Go II now offers dual channel recording for two sources, an extended wireless range for a more stable transmission, and on-board recording capabilities as a failsafe alternative.For dual channel recording, Rode includes two separate clip-on transmitters in the box — both with an on-board... Continue reading…

Image: Sony The next entry in Polyphony Digital’s long-running Gran Turismo franchise has been delayed to 2022, GQ reports. In a statement, Sony said Gran Turismo 7 has been impacted by “COVID-related production challenges,” which means its planned 2021 release date has been shifted to 2022.“With the ongoing pandemic, it’s a dynamic and changing situation and some critical aspects of game production have been slowed over the past several months,” the statement reads. “We’ll share more specifics on GT7’s release date when available.”“We’ll share more specifics on GT7’s release date when available”News of the game’s delay came on the same day that Sony announced a new next-gen virtual reality headset for the PS5. Although it’s yet to reveal an... Continue reading…