Despite being one of the first companies to hop on the blockchain fever of the past couple of years, Sega now wants its major franchises to get off the crypto rollercoaster, as reported by Bloomberg yesterday. Co-Chief Operating Officer of Sega Japan Shuji Utsumi informed Bloomberg that it will keep Sega’s blockbuster franchises, such as Yakuza and Sonic the Hedgehog, away from any blockchain plans to avoid “devaluing” them. 

This follows the generally shattered dreams of a blockchain future in the industry at large, as initial experiments with the tech haven’t really provided gamers with anything that isn’t already there. Even when games have done ‘well’ they’ve still managed to stumble, such as Axie Infinity getting hacked to the tune of $600 million last year.

Other titles, such as Square Enix’s unpolished-looking NFT thing Symbiogenesis, haven’t exactly set the world on fire. NFTs have—mercifully—mostly been bullied out of mainstream gaming,…

I used to be perpetually unsatisfied with the speakers hugging my ears. Too tight, too grainy, not loud enough, annoying cord—I’d pretty much accepted that there’d always be something to hate about the headset I choose to spend my life with. Then I fell in love with the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro Wireless headset. It’s the wireless cousin of the reigning champ in our list of the best gaming headsets, and it’s currently at its lowest price for Prime Day at just $99.

What’s the big deal? For me, it’s the BlackShark’s exceptional sound quality and comfort. I’m getting the best clarity with games and music that I’ve ever had on a USB headset (and a wireless one at that). The simulated 7.1 audio is underwhelming (though I’ve never liked how fake surround sound sounds), but the Razer Synapse software lets you do your own audio mixing and set up profiles.

The thick cushioned fabric on the band and ears hug my big head without ever squeezing it, and the material brea…

ChatGPT is the big thing in AI development these days, but it soon won’t be the only game in town. Google announced today that it’s launching an AI chatbot of its own very soon, an “experimental conversational AI service” called Bard.

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in the announcement. “It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.”

Bard will be powered by a “lightweight” version of Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications, also known as LaMDA. That will enable Bard to support more users, and thus generate more feedback, whi…

Epic Games is adding a new feature to Fortnite that will give players the option to disable “confrontational” emotes in the game, so they won’t have to deal with excess taunting from other players.

The new “See Confrontational Emotes” option will give players the ability to select whether or not they want to see “certain emotes that are sometimes used in confrontational ways,” Epic said. Players who toggle them off will see other players using the offending emotes simply standing still, and there will be no emote sound.

The setting will apply to four emotes:

• Laugh It Up
• Take the L
• Whipcrack
• Make It Plantain

The default setting will make the emotes visible only from friends in your party, but can be set so the emotes are seen when used by any player, or switched off completely. It does not have any impact on your ability to use emotes.

“We want emotes to be a source of good vibes, but…

Stig Asmussen, the director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is leaving Respawn Entertainment “to pursue other adventures”.

Originally reported by Bloomberg, Asmussen’s departure was later confirmed by EA in a statement, explaining “Stig Asmussen has decided to leave Respawn to pursue other adventures, and we wish him the best of luck.”

Asmussen joined Respawn Entertainment in 2014, where he oversaw development of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order before helming its superior sequel. Prior to that, he spent a decade at Sony America, where he worked on the first three God of War games, serving as Creative Director on God of War 3.

Asmussen’s departure from Respawn is an interesting turn of events. Earlier this year, Asmussen expressed his desire to make the Star Wars Jedi series into a trilogy, an idea that was being discussed before Jedi: Fallen Order launched in 2019. “We were already talking about the second game,” Asmussen said in an interview with IGN. “Frankly, we were …

Less than two months after releasing The Callisto Protocol’s first (and last) story expansion DLC, developer Striking Distance Studios has laid off 32 employees.

As noted by VGC, the layoffs first came to light after numerous employees reported being let go by the studio. Striking Distance parent company Krafton later confirmed with IGN that a total of 32 employees had been terminated. That’s a not-insignificant percentage of the studio’s total headcount, which according to Striking Distance’s “about us” page currently sits as 144 employees in all.

“Striking Distance Studios and Krafton have implemented strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success,” Krafton said. “Unfortunately, these changes have impacted 32 employees. Honoring the invaluable contributions of each departing team member with material support in the form of outplacement services and meaningful severance packages is our top prio…

One thing I really appreciate about Fanatec’s sim racing equipment is how modular it is. You can buy a base, wheel, and basic pedal to start off, then upgrade each bit as and when you can afford to. Which might come sooner than you think with this Black Friday Fanatec deal.

That’s part of the reason I really like the company’s CSL DD base, as mentioned in my Gran Turismo DD Pro review. You can pick up the base for around $350, or bundle it with a wheel for $480, and pick up some basic pedals for as little as $80. That’s $560 for the foundations of a high-end sim racing rig.

That’ll do for plenty of racing sim hours. I would know, that’s exactly what I have to hand. Admittedly I mostly spend my time in whichever F1 game is current at the time, and thus don’t have much need for the clutch pedal.

• We’re curating all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here.

But to take that sim racing setup to …

Update 1/7/24: In the days following this story, Wizards of the Coast acknowledged that the Magic: The Gathering promo image was indeed made using AI tools. You can read our latest story on the controversy and its aftermath.

Original Story: In December, Wizards of the Coast committed to not using AI art in Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, saying it requires its artists, writers, and other creative contributors “to refrain from using AI generative tools” to create its products. Despite that, MtG fans are accusing the company of using AI to create the backdrop for a promotional image of new cards—something WotC flatly denies.

Wizards shared the image on Twitter on January 4, writing, “It’s positively shocking how good these lands look in retro frame.” And frankly, I think it does look pretty good: The Edison bulbs, the old-timey pressure gauge, the out-of-focus books and pipes and stuff on the walls in the background&md…

Nvidia’s latest RTX 40-series graphics card launches today, January 5. Announced during CES 2023, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is a $799 graphics card with some fairly lofty 1440p and 4K performance to offer. I just hope we’ll see prices actually sticking around that price tag for a decent amount of time today—early listings would suggest that $799 price tag will be hard to come by, however.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Nvidia 40-series launch, you’ll know that the RTX 4070 Ti is one and the same with the RTX 4080 12GB that was originally announced by Nvidia only to be pulled from the roster pre-launch. The RTX 4070 Ti is the exact same card, only now comes in at $100 cheaper.

We’ve already published our Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC review, so take a look if you’re still not entirely sure whether you want to drop $799 or more on one today. In summary, it’s likely the card to buy around this price range, especially with DLSS Frame Generation, but it’s not quite a…

If you’re looking for new ways to scratch your Baldur’s Gate 3 itch, and can get to London somehow next May, then the recently announced Symphony of the Realms concert is worth knowing about. The game’s soundtrack, composed by Borislav Slavov will, for the first time be performed live in concert at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on May 4, 2024.

“Let yourself be charmed by the captivating music” and “you ABSOLUTE-ly need to be there,” reads the Game Music Festival’s punny announcement.

The soundtrack will be performed by the Philharmoina Orchestra and Hertfordshire Chorus, with Robert Kurdybacha as conductor. The show is a part of the 2024 Game Music Festival which also includes a Last of Us concert.

The Southbank Centre’s website describes the BG3 event as “a night of ballads and bards as we enjoy Slavov’s work orchestrated live in concert, for the very first time.” It’s no surprise to see such beloved gaming soundtracks take t…

Whether you’re a little stumped and looking for a clue to point you in the right direction, a guide to show you how to make every day a Wordle winner, or simply want to see today’s answer with the minimum amount of fuss, you’ll find all the help you need for the January 24 (584) Wordle right here.

The trio of yellows I’d unearthed in my opener made me feel confident I’d have this by the third go: vowels here, consonants there, done. It didn’t work out that way, and for a guess or two, I found myself with the dreaded gap—one missing letter with more valid ways to fill it than I had attempts remaining. Luckily I found the right one before I reached the bottom, but only just. 

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Tuesday, January 24

To find out the total number of objects or people around you, you would _____ them. Today’s answer is also a title once used by European nobility: Dracula was one of these. There are two vowels to find t…