Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Siege of Paris DLC Review IGNView Full Coverage on Google News
TechNews
The Amiga is the latest game system to get a mini retro remake
Commodore’s Amiga 500, a home computer that became a popular game system, is receiving a remake. The A500 Mini is being developed by Retro Games Ltd, which previously released a mini version of the Commodore 64.
The Amiga 500 was the most successful model in the Amiga family of PCs, which started to appear in the mid-’80s and drew a devoted following as gaming systems, particularly in Europe. While the A500 Mini is clearly based on the Amiga 500, Retro Games Ltd says it’ll also emulate the more powerful AGA graphics hardware from the Amiga 1200.
The list of games confirmed so far includes:
- Alien Breed 3D
- Another World
- ATR: All Terrain Racing
- Battle Chess
- Cadaver
- Kick Off 2
- Pinball Dreams
- Simon the Sorcerer
- Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
- The Chaos Engine
- Worms: The Director’s Cut
- Zool
There’ll be 25 included in total, and you’ll also be able to add more yourself with WHDLoad, an installation package for Amiga software. Other system functions include the ability to switch between 50Hz and 60Hz screen refresh rate, save states, a built-in CRT filter, and various scaling options.
The A500 Mini comes with a two-button USB mouse that is already making my hand cramp up with nostalgia, as well as a gamepad reminiscent of the one from the CD32, an ill-fated attempt to convert the Amiga into a traditional game console. The keyboard on the case is sadly not functional, but you can hook up your own over USB.
Retro Games Ltd will release the A500 Mini early next year. It’ll cost $139.99 in the US and £119.99 in the UK.
US Senators Ask Game Devs to Abandon Greedy Loot Box practices – IGN Daily Fix – IGN
- US Senators Ask Game Devs to Abandon Greedy Loot Box practices – IGN Daily Fix IGN
- Democrats Are Already Bungling New Call For Laws To Protect Kids From Loot Boxes Kotaku
- Congress turns its eye toward loot box regulation in letter to developers Gamasutra
- US Politicians Call on Developers to Reduce Predatory Game Design – IGN IGN
- Gaming companies should avoid predatory designs, lawmakers say The Verge
- View Full Coverage on Google News
PS5’s Abandoned Trailer a No Show as Blue Box Cites Technical Issues
The first full-length trailer for PlayStation 5 survival game Abandoned, purportedly slated to debut 10th August in the title’s previously released Realtime Experience app, has missed its release window. The game’s mysterious developer, Blue Box Game Studios, had promised that the footage would debut at 9PM CET – but over four hours after the fact it’s reported “technical issues”.
“We are working to get [the patch] live ASAP,” the team said. “We apologise for the inconvenience.” A couple of hours later, it added: “We are still working on it. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.” The idea, we think, was that the app would be updated on the PS5 so that fans could watch the trailer, rendered in realtime on their consoles.
There are two possibilities here: Blue Box Game Studios has realised that releasing a PS5 patch on a timetable is impossible – especially with the way Sony operates these days. Alternatively, it still doesn’t actually have a full-length trailer to show, and it’s simply buying itself some more time. This, after all, isn’t the first time the developer has missed a deadline.
It did show a brief five-second clip, presumably from the trailer, on Twitter earlier in the day. The hype builder simply shows a wooden floor and a man in a suit walking on it. As has become common for this game, engagement is through the roof: it’s attracted almost 10,000 likes at the time of typing – these are the kind of numbers that AAA blockbusters would be proud of.
Alas, as we write this, there’s nothing more to see other than apologies from the Dutch developer. Things may change overnight, and we’ll of course update you when we know more.
Abandoned PS5 Demo Delayed by Technical Issues
After announcing yesterday that a “Realtime Experience” patch would be available universally starting at 12pm PT / 3pm ET time today, Blue Box Game Studios announced that a demo for its upcoming project Abandonded has been delayed due to technical issues.
Quick update: we are still working on it. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
— BLUE BOX Game Studios (@BBGameStudios) August 10, 2021
The Realtime Experience demo is available to download right now on the PlayStation Store. Launching the app loads the game up to where it prompts you to select a language, before displaying a message that notes that it is not a playable teaser but an introduction of what to expect. Yet, launching the demo now, you will be met with a “Check back soon…” message over a black background.
What the screen currently reads when launching the Abanonded Realtime Experience patch.
The delay of the Realtime Experience comes at an awkward time for Blue Box Game Studios, which previously postponed the reveal in late June. Abandoned has also been the subject of numerous rumors, most notably that the game is tied to Hideo Kojima and/or a new entry in Konami’s dormant franchise, Silent Hill.
Blue Box has denied rumors, stating that it has no relations with Konami or Hideo Kojima. Abandoned’s director, Hasan Kahraman, made a video on the studios’ Twitter account confirming he is not Kojima in disguise.
Developing…
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Democrats Are Bungling Call For Lootbox Laws Aimed At Kids
A group of Democrats have sent out letters to some of the biggest names in games publishing, asking them to voluntarily adopt rules soon to be implemented in the UK, designed, they say, to protect children from exploitative practices in video games. Except, that’s not what the UK code is about at all, making the entire effort extremely confusing.
Loot boxes—paid-for items in games whose contents are only revealed after paying—are now widely considered a form of online gambling, and have even been banned in some countries. However, they continue to be a prominent part of many major games, with perennial calls for better regulation. So this latest attempt isn’t anything new, but it’s certainly more strange.
As The Verge reports, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) have written a letter to twelve major players in gaming—including Epic, Activision, Disney and Microsoft—asking that they extend the UK’s new Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) regulation to American children, in order to protect them from loot box gambling and micro-transactions. Although they really do seem to be stretching beyond credulity what the UK code is covering.
Next month the UK brings in the AADC, meaning from September 2 the nature of data collected about children by games, websites and social media comes under far stricter regulation. While not a law, the regulations “set standards” across 15 categories, focusing on “high privacy by default,” not sharing children’s data, and keeping geolocation off by default. It goes further in requiring that “nudge techniques” not be used to coerce children into sharing further data, nor “weaken or turn off their privacy settings.”
However, the code explicitly mentions neither loot boxes nor in-game gambling, nor ever really even alludes to them. While the subjects of loot boxes and IAPs came up during the UK regulator’s research into “Detrimental use of data,” it’s not a factor of the final publication. It’s certainly a stretch to see how the content of the AADC relates to what’s raised in the letter sent to US publishers.
G/O Media may get a commission
While the AADC is about regulating the collection and monetization of children’s data from gaming and social media, the Democrats’ letter also drops in “exposure to violent content” and “online predators,” which absolutely have nothing whatsoever to do with the code they cite. (In fact, their footnotes reference entirely different Unicef publications.) The letter continues,
“The prevalence of micro-transactions—often encouraged through nudging— have led to high credit card bills for parents. Loot boxes go one step further, encouraging purchase before a child knows what the “bundle” contains— akin to gambling. Children are uniquely vulnerable to manipulation and peer pressure associated with in-game purchases and loot boxes. Experts suggest that Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings and parental controls are insufficient. The AADC represents a monumental step towards child centric design by default.”
Calling for better regulation protecting children from exploitative content such as micro-transactions and loot boxes seems immediately laudable, it’s more than a little odd that they are attempting to raise these issues via the AADC, which mentions neither. In fact, the code’s references to “nudging” are specifically about manipulative techniques designed to encourage children to volunteer out of data protection, while also suggesting such nudges instead be used to increase privacy, or even promote “health and wellbeing.” Certainly nothing to do with micro-transactions.
Again, the requests the Dems are asking for would mostly be benevolent. Their desire that games aimed at children be designed in their “best interests,” and not include manipulative techniques associated with micro-transactions and loot boxes, sound positive. But attempting to piggyback it onto a foreign regulatory code that has all but nothing to do with these subjects seems weirdly deceptive. Not least when the majority of the content of the AADC is already covered by the US’s COPPA.
The real red flag, however, is that “exposure to violent content.” It’s dropped in the opening paragraph of the letter, then never even alluded to again throughout. While unlike the US the UK has enforced age ratings on games, preventing their sale to children if classified a 12, 16 or 18, that too is a whole other subject, covered by a whole different set of regulations.
The letter concludes with a rather aggressive challenge:
“It is imperative that Congress acts with urgency to enact a strong privacy law for children and teens in the 21st century. As we work towards that goal, we urge you to extend to American children and teens any privacy enhancements that you implement to comply with the AADC. We also request responses to the following questions by August 26, 2021.
1. Do you intend to make changes to your product or service’s design or data collection and use to comply with the UK Age Appropriate Design Code?
2. Will you implement these changes for users in the United States? If not, why not? If yes, will these changes be reflected on a public-facing website or in your terms of service?”
Given the completely erratic nature of the letter, it might not take much for the recipients to quickly dismiss it. Which seems a big whiff.
How Apple’s email privacy update will change what’s in your inbox
Apple is changing the ability of advertisers and publishers to see whether consumers open emails — and it could mean big changes for the way email marketing looks going forward.
Apple announced several new features in June for mobile and desktop operating systems that will have major impacts for email.
The company will give its users the option to do away with tracking pixels, or small images that email marketers use to tell if you actually opened an email. There’s also a feature called “Private Relay” for subscribers to Apple’s iCloud storage service iCloud+ that would hide IP addresses. Finally, a feature called “Hide My Email” will let users share “unique, random” email addresses that can forward to their personal inbox, which they’re able to delete to control who contacts them.
Of course, not every email user uses Apple email products. But they do account for a large proportion: An analysis of 3 billion email opens in January through March from email marketing company Litmus found Apple on iPhone held the biggest share of email opens, at 38.9%. Google‘s Gmail came next at 27.2%, and Apple Mail (on desktop) at 11.5%. IPad email opens also accounted for a little more than a percent.
That means a significant portion of marketing emails that get sent out every day may be tougher for senders to get data on.
The changes, expected to arrive with software updates in the fall, are forcing marketers and publishers who use email to reach their subscriber base to rethink some of the ways they’ve measured, monetized or used email.
As a result, consumers might eventually notice a difference in the marketing emails they’re getting — and may see brands reaching them in other ways outside the inbox, like texting.
The great open rate rethink
The way a burrito chain or credit app emails consumers has often gone something like this: Marketers can use tracking pixels inside emails to give them an idea when someone actually opens that message. Under the new changes, users will be prompted to select whether they’d like to opt in to “protect” their mail activity by hiding IP addresses and privately loading remote content.
Open email rates have not been a perfect metric. In the email industry, the “open” of an email has been seen as a signal of interest or engagement. But if you’re someone who indiscriminately clicks to open emails just to mark them as read, that doesn’t mean much.
Going forward, emails to consumers who use Apple mail products and opt into “Mail Privacy Protection” will appear like they were read as soon as it was sent, meaning that information won’t be very useful for marketers.
For a company like Domino’s, email is of huge importance: The company uses email to communicate with tens of millions of customers, to update customers on where their order is, updating them about deals and offers, and more.
Domino’s VP of Digital Marketing Christopher Thomas-Moore said timing, for instance, in terms of when people are opening dinnertime emails has been helpful to send the right message when people actually want it.
“We potentially lose that data,” he said. “So we maybe are going to be a little less relevant now when we’re sending you information. Because we’re not hitting those times that are most important for you.”
Thomas-Moore said there may be an evolution for the company in figuring out how to do those types of functions without all the data it may have had before. He said there are still questions across the entire industry about what the real impacts will be, and he expects it will take some time to know.
Erik Fialho, chief operating officer at LeftLane Sports, said the change makes it more difficult to do things like A/B testing subject lines to figure out which one is most successful in getting people to open. LeftLane is a parent company of outdoor-focused adventure travel and e-commerce sub-brands.
Fialho said his company already looks at other metrics outside email opens, like how many consumers click through the email, or how many are buying.
Some marketers use email open data to do “retargeting” of sorts that relies on whether someone opened an email and didn’t end up trying to make a purchase.
What email marketers are curious about is how email service providers will tweak how they do “deliverability,” or how they decide which emails make it through to your inbox, or which are doomed to the spam filter. Blasting emails at customers who continually don’t read them can hurt deliverability.
“You ultimately need your email to actually get delivered to somebody’s inbox and not to their spam for them to even react,” Fialho said. “And if the email service providers don’t take into account that suddenly a lot of these email marketers aren’t going to have one of their key rates to look at, of whether or not they should send an email to a customer and whether that customer is engaged or not, can be a challenge.”
It’ll also pose challenges for newsletter-based businesses. Myles Kleeger, president of customer engagement platform Braze, said companies that monetize audiences based directly in the content from emails are ones that are probably most affected by Apple’s changes, since they often charge based on open rates.
“A lot of them charge based on some of that granular detail that maybe you won’t be able to get any more,” he said.
But those companies will likely seek out other ways to drive readers to click and prove they were reading, whether it’s a survey or some “thumbs up” button to show they’re engaging somehow.
Future Plc, which has more than 180 media brands including Marie Claire and Golf Monthly, already uses metrics that rely on more first-party data, said Allison Markert, VP of B2B Advertising & Sales Operations. That’s especially important as increasingly more privacy-focused initiatives are happening in the industry.
One result of all this is that marketers will likely make a bigger push to ask consumers their permission to send them emails and to continue sending them emails, and relying on explicit permission rather than implying based on open rate data.
Inundating consumers with unwanted messages could not only get consumers to unsubscribe, but if consumers are turned off enough, they could turn to Apple’s “hide my email” feature when signing up, said Nirish Parsad, marketing technologist at Tinuiti.
Marketers are also grappling with a number of other privacy changes in the industry, including previous changes from Apple that gave users more transparency and control over apps that want to track them for advertising.
“My first reaction [to the email announcements] was ‘Here we go again,'” said Domino’s Thomas-Moore. “There are some assumptions that are kind of floating as to what the impacts are going to be. But we’re still so early in discovery and understanding that I expect that we’ll find ourselves moving to the center point as we continue to move forward.”
A move away from email?
All of this could also mean a shift to other means of customer communication.
“Ultimately, it’s just going to be more difficult over time to use email, in general,” Fialho said. “And it doesn’t necessarily mean that email is going to go away. It’s still a very profitable marketing channel. It’s still a very useful tool. But that’s one of the reasons that we started to look at other communication methods.”
LeftLane Sports has been making a big push to text messaging this year, he said.
Fialho said results on text have been positive in terms of click-throughs and conversions. But he notes they have to be texts the consumer would actually want. He gave the example of a consumer who has been interested in New Balance running shoes that have been out of stock, and shooting them a text when they’re back in stock with a coupon they can use.
“You definitely want to make sure that you’re not overburdening that customer with just pointless texts, so they have to really be personalized and important,” he said.
Samsung’s Exynos W920 chip is a giant leap for Wear OS smartwatches
TL;DR
- Samsung has announced the Exynos W920 chipset that’ll power the upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 series.
- It’s the industry’s first 5nm wearables processor and a huge upgrade for the Wear OS ecosystem.
Samsung has announced the new Exynos W920 chipset that’ll power its upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatches. The SoC is the industry’s first 5nm-based wearables processor and the first processor upgrade for Samsung watches since the original Galaxy Watch.
So why is the Exynos W920 a big deal? For starters, it’ll only be the third chipset capable of supporting the new Wear OS 3.0. It’s also a huge upgrade compared to Qualcomm’s 28nm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset that powers most Wear OS smartwatches right now. So if you’re someone who’s been using a Wear OS watch with the older Qualcomm chip, you should experience a drastic boost in performance.
The Exynos W920 also promises an upgrade over the Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus that’s based on the 12nm process and features Cortex A53 CPU cores compared to its newer Cortex A55 cores.
Samsung claims you should get a 20% performance boost compared to its previous Exynos 9110 chipset that resides in the Galaxy Watch 3. The graphics performance is apparently ten times better with the Mali-G68 GPU.
Related: What is an SoC? chipsets explained
The Exynos W920 also houses a dedicated low-power Cortex M55 processor that’ll be solely responsible for handling the Always-On Display functionality of the Galaxy Watch 4. Samsung says it’ll help reduce the power requirements of the display compared to its previous Exynos model.
For connectivity, the Galaxy Watch 4’s Exynos W920 processor will come with a 4G LTE modem and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for tracking speed, distance, and elevation during outdoor activities.
All in all, it’s good news for fans of Wear OS watches. Performance has been one of their biggest complaints and the new Samsung processor combined with a fresh software experience should make the Galaxy Watch 4 a pretty powerful smartwatch.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series finally breaks cover on August 11. The wearable line will debut alongside its foldable phone companions. You can hit the button below to reserve the next Samsung flagship.
The new Parallels 17 officially lets you run Windows 11 on your Mac
Windows 11 is coming to Macs, even those without Boot Camp. Parallels Desktop 17 will allow Mac users to experience Microsoft’s next version of Windows in a window on their Mac desktop. Parallels supports both Intel and M1 Macs (though there’s a catch for those running Arm-based machines), and can even be used to run the Windows 11 preview for those who can’t wait.
The catch for M1 users is the same as when Parallels first added support for Apple’s latest machines — you’ll only be able to emulate Arm-based operating systems, which means you’ll be limited to Windows on Arm. While it does seem possible to install a Windows 11 preview for Arm machines, you’ll probably want to proceed with caution. Windows on Arm’s x86 emulation has been a bit of a rocky road, and the x64 app emulation is still a work in progress. Basically, if you’re looking to run a virtualized version of Windows on your M1, you’ll still have to deal with the same caveats that would come with running Windows on any other Arm machines.
While M1 users have to deal with Windows on Arm, they also get some performance improvements if they’re coming from Parallels 16: Parallels says that the new version will let M1 Macs get up to 28 percent better DirectX 11 performance, and up to 33 percent faster start times for Windows 10 on Arm Insider Preview VMs. This comes alongside the up to 25 percent faster 2D graphics and up to 6 times faster OpenGL performance that Parallels says will be coming to Windows VMs on all supported Macs, Intel and M1 alike. M1 users will also be able to use BitLocker and Secure Boot thanks to a virtualized TPM.
There are other under-the-hood improvements with Parallels 17 (for example, it’s now a universal app, which should make IT departments’ lives easier), and it’s also getting support for macOS Monterey — the virtualization software will be able to run on macOS 12 computers, as well as create virtual ones.
If you want the regular version of Parallels Desktop 17, you have the choice of getting a subscription for $79.99 a year, or a perpetual license for $99.99. If you had a perpetual license for a previous version of Parallels, you can upgrade to 17 for $49.99. There’s also Pro and Business editions that cost $99.99 a year. Parallels sells the software on its website, but before you plunk down any cash, it may be worth waiting until Windows 11 launches (potentially in October) to see how well it fares on Parallels — or if Windows 11 is even worth jumping to in the first place.
Apple Says It Won’t Let Governments Co-Opt CSAM Detection Tools
After facing a whole lot of criticism, Apple has doubled down and defended its plans to launch controversial new tools aimed at identifying and reporting child sex abuse material (or CSAM) on its platforms.
Last week, the company announced several pending updates, outlining them in a blog post entitled “Expanded Protections for Children.” These new features, which will be rolled out later this year with the release of the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, are designed to use algorithmic scanning to search for and identify child abuse material on user devices. One tool will scan photos on device that have been shared with iCloud for signs of CSAM, while the other feature will scan iMessages sent to and from child accounts in an effort to stop minors from sharing or receiving messages that include sexually explicit images. We did a more detailed run-down on both features and the concerns about them here.
The company barely had time to announce its plans before it was met with a vociferous outcry from civil liberties organizations, who have characterized the proposed changes as well intentioned but ultimately a slipper slope toward a dangerous erosion of personal privacy.
On Monday, Apple published a response to many of the concerns that have been raised. The company specifically denied that its scanning tools might someday be repurposed to hunt for other kinds of material on users’ phones and computers other than CSAM. Critics have worried that a government (ours or someone else’s) could pressure Apple to add or change the new features—to make them, for instance, a broader tool of law enforcement.
However, in a rare instance of a corporation making a firm promise not to do something, Apple said definitively that it would not be expanding the reach of its scanning capabilities. According to the company:
Apple will refuse any such demands [from a government]. Apple’s CSAM detection capability is built solely to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud Photos that have been identified by experts at NCMEC and other child safety groups. We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands. We will continue to refuse them in the future.
G/O Media may get a commission
During a follow-up Q&A session with reporters on Monday, Apple further clarified that the features are only being launched in the U.S., as of right now. While some concerns have been raised about whether a foreign government could corrupt or subvert these new tools to employ them as a form of surveillance, Apple said Monday that it would be carefully conducting legal evaluations on a country-by-country basis before it releases the tools abroad, to ensure there is no chance of abuse.
Understandably, this whole thing has confused a lot of people, and there are still questions swirling as to how these features will actually work and what that means for your privacy and device autonomy. Here are a couple of points Apple has recently clarified:
- Weirdly, iCloud has to be activated for its CSAM detection feature to actually work. There has been some confusion about this point, but essentially Apple is only searching through content that is shared with its cloud system. Critics have pointed out that this would seem to make it exceedingly easy for abusers to elude the informal dragnet that Apple has set up, as all they would have to do to hide CSAM content on their phone would be to opt out of iCloud. Apple said Monday it still believes the system will be effective.
- Apple is not loading a database of child porn onto your phone. Another point that the company was forced to clarify on Monday is that it will not, in fact, be downloading actual CSAM onto your device. Instead, it is using a database of “hashes”—digital fingerprints of specific, known child abuse images, which are represented as numerical code. That code will be loaded into the phone’s operating system, which allows for images uploaded to the cloud to be automatically compared against the hashes in the database. If they aren’t an identical match, however, Apple doesn’t care about them.
- iCloud won’t just be scanning new photos—it plans to scan all of the photos currently in its cloud system. In addition to scanning photos that will be uploaded to iCloud in the future, Apple also plans to scan all of the photos currently stored on its cloud servers. During Monday’s call with reporters, Apple reiterated that this was the case.
- Apple claims the iMessage update does not share any information with Apple or with law enforcement. According to Apple, the updated feature for iMessage does not share any of your personal information with the company, nor does it alert law enforcement. Instead, it merely alerts a parent if their child has sent or received a texted image that Apple’s algorithm has deemed sexual in nature. “Apple never gains access to communications as a result of this feature in Messages. This feature does not share any information with Apple, NCMEC or law enforcement,” the company said. The feature is only available for accounts that have been set up as families in iCloud, the company says.
Despite assurances, privacy advocates and security experts are still not super unimpressed—and some are more than a little alarmed. In particular, on Monday, well-known security expert Matthew Green posited the following hypothetical scenario—which was contentious enough to inspire a minor Twitter argument between Edward Snowden and ex-Facebook security head Alex Stamos in the reply section:
So, suffice it to say, a lot of people still have questions. We’re all in pretty unknown, messy territory here. While it’s impossible to knock the point of Apple’s mission, the power of the technology that it is deploying has caused alarm, to say the least.
