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Today’s Storystream

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Twitter
Embracer CEO discusses ‘painful’ backlash.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Lars Wingefors said he’s been “taking a lot of hits and criticism” over Embracer Group’s restructuring efforts that have led to studio shutdowns, layoffs, and the gaming conglomerate being split into three separate companies.

“We can’t make all the games we wanted to make three years ago, but we need to adapt to it. We will still make games, we still have one of the biggest, if not the biggest, pipeline of games in the industry. And we have great plans over the coming years or decades.”


Sony’s own car is coming to Gran Turismo 7, for free, at 11PM PT / 2AM ET.

The Sony Afeela prototype is part of GT7’s free update. “Before the real vehicle is released, we would like as many people as possible to ride it in-game. Please enjoy it,” writes Sony Honda Mobility.

You also get a Škoda Vision Gran Turismo concept “created exclusively for the game,” and a ‘70 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 Sport Coupe.


Image: Sony
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External Link
Garry’s Mod has to take down all its Nintendo-related material.

The team behind the sandbox game posted that “the takedowns came from Nintendo,” and continued:

Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is up to them. They don’t want you playing with that stuff in Garry’s Mod - that’s their decision, we have to respect that and take down as much as we can.

The post asks contributors to help by deleting “Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again.”


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External Link
Metal legend Fenriz “leveled by EMAILS.”

We stan a relatable king. Who hasn’t had their whole day leveled by emails?

“Sunscreen, shades, ZZ Top’s Degüello album and beer is INCOMPATIBLE to emails! Natural adversaries!”


Apple will likely ‘Let Loose’ new iPads at its May event

OLED iPad Pros, a big iPad Air, and new accessories (oh my?).

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Youtube
“Yarp.”

Why does the villain in this Knuckles series sneak peek look familiar to me? Is it because he was in Game of Thrones and Slow West? Nope, didn’t see those. Season of the Witch? No, he had a bit part.

It seems the only role I’ve seen Rory McCann play is Michael Armstrong, aka the “yarp” guy, in Hot Fuzz. Anyway, Knuckles starts streaming Friday on Paramount Plus.


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The Verge
The PS5’s Community Game Help feature has arrived.

You can update your console now to gain access to the feature, which offers community-generated hints for supported games like Granblue Fantasy: Relink and the upcoming Stellar Blade.


An update on how Threads is doing.

The app now has 150 million monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday during Meta’s earnings call. There were almost 100 million monthly Threads users in October.

The metric I’d really like to see, however, is daily users. Meta is juicing the visibility of Threads posts in the Instagram feed, and I’ve heard that a lot of user growth has been coming from that drive-by traffic. If it really wants to kill X, Meta still needs to build a sticky experience that more people come to daily.


Framework won’t be just a laptop company anymore

It started with notebooks, but that wasn’t the master plan.

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Youtube
Ron Howard’s Jim Henson documentary looks like a tearjerker.

Jim Henson Idea Man, Ron Howard’s new Disney Plus documentary about the man who dreamt up the Muppets, is obviously going to have its lighthearted moments. But the doc’s first trailer makes it feel like a sentimental tearjerker that will have people putting on their favorite Henson productions after it debuts on May 31st.


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External Link
Nvidia buys GPU-management software company Run:ai.

Run:ai’s software lets users share computing power and easily manage GPUs running on cloud and on-premises data centers. It will be part of Nvidia’s DGX Cloud platform, which sells access to Nvidia’s GPUs for a monthly fee. TechCrunch reports the deal cost $700 million.


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External Link
Researchers find text-reading exploits across popular Chinese keyboard apps.

The Citizen Lab analyzed Chinese keyboard apps from Baidu, Honor, Huawei, iFlytek, Oppo, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi. It found that each of these apps — except for Huawei’s — has an exploit that can “reveal the contents of users’ keystrokes in transit.” The research group estimates these vulnerabilities impact up to 1 billion people.


Bringing Fallout’s gritty retrofuturism into the real world

Production designer Howard Cummings talks glass houses, Red Rockets, and how Fallout became a verb.

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External Link
Prosecutors want to put Binance’s former CEO behind bars for three years.

In a filing on Tuesday, the DOJ says Changpeng Zhao’s alleged crimes “warrant meaningful prison time” and that the three-year term will “not just send a message to Zhao but also to the world.” Zhao’s lawyers followed up with a filing shortly after, saying he should just be sentenced to probation.


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External Link
Ralph Nader roasts Wirecutter.

Ralph Nader complained that his favorite pens were drying out too fast. (Those of us who have favorite pens also have strong feelings about them.) Wirecutter sent him some of their recommended pens. “He was not a fan,” reports Annmarie Conte.


Why is Windows 11 so annoying?

Show yourself, coward. I will never finish setting up my PC.

Nathan Edwards
What to do when Metroid Prime 4 still isn’t out.

What’s it like to play Metroid Prime Hunters in an Apple-approved emulator for iOS — Delta, in this case — on a Vision Pro?

Well, since nobody asked, I’ll tell you: it’s unexpectedly playable. Emulated Nintendo DS touchscreen aiming works well if you pinch and hold while looking at the upper screen. Sure, you could use buttons to aim in Hunters, but why would you?


DoorDash adds SNAP/EBT payments at Walgreens.

After expanding SNAP/EBT payments to more stores earlier this year, DoorDash has announced that users can now use their SNAP/EBT cards when ordering from Walgreens.

More delivery services and online retailers are adding support for SNAP/EBT. Amazon has launched an unlimited delivery program available to EBT customers, while Uber Eats will start accepting food stamps as payments sometime this year.


Image: DoorDash
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External Link
Google Maps Live Activities when.

Some lucky early testers are starting to see Live Activities pop up while using Google Maps on iOS. In a few shots posted to X and reddit, Maps navigation appears in Live Activities on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island. It seems to be in very limited testing and I, for one, can’t wait until I have glanceable transit directions on my lock screen.


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External Link
It’s a cloudy day for SunPower.

One of the biggest residential solar companies announced today that it’ll lay off 1,000 people. It’s also shutting down its direct sales business and residential installation locations.

“We need to achieve financial viability, which includes simplifying our business structure, transitioning away from areas where we have been unable to sustain profitable operations, and improving financial controls,” SunPower Executive Chairman Tom Werner told employees.


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TikTok
Watch TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s response to the new law that could oust it from the US.

Chew said that the bill, which requires China-based owner ByteDance to divest TikTok within a year to keep operating in the US, is in fact a ban.

“Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” Chew says. “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”