Developer Shinen Multimedia has announced that it has been developing a game for the Nintendo Switch 2. Titled Fast Fusion, the game is an anti-gravity racer, and will be available on the Switch 2 as a launch title when the console hits store shelves on June 5.On the official website for Fast Fusion, Shinen Multimedia describes the title as being the fastest racing game you may have ever experienced! The game will be able to run at a smooth 60 FPS even at resolutions as high as 4K. It also supports HDR for better lighting thanks to a wider dynamic range.Playable in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, Fast Fusion will feature support for up to 4 players in multiplayer. The title also supports playing on a single Joy-Con 2 controller, which means that it will also likely support split-screen multiplayer for two players. Screenshots on the website indicate support for 4-player local split-screen multiplayer.Fast Fusion also makes use of other new features of the Switch 2, including the recently announced Game Sharing feature, which can be used with other nearby players, as well as over the Internet with friends that might be further away.The title will also feature support for the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, and will also make use of other Switch features including optional motion controls, customisable controls as well as HD Rumble for more immersive gameplay.The game will seemingly feature around 12 different race tracks, all with their own distinct themes. While not all of them have been detailed, the named tracks include Redwood Forest and Alpine Peaks. Other tracks will also involve racing through futuristic cities and other breathtaking landscapes.When it comes to unique features, Fast Fusion will allow players to mix-and-match their favourite vehicles. While we dont exactly know what this will entail in gameplay terms, the studio has stated that this will allow players for hundreds of different racing machines depending on the combinations that players pick.While the game doesnt yet have its own trailer, we did get to see some of its gameplay as part of one of the Partner Sizzle Reel videos that Nintendo has released shortly after the Switch 2 Direct. In the small clip, we get to see some of the high-speed racing action of Fast Fusion. We also get to see the use of some other elements commonly associated with this kind of racing game, including the use of speed boosts on tracks, as well as epic jumps.The last time we heard from Shinen Multimedia was back in 2022 when it announced side-scrolling game The Punchuin. Originally released on the Nintendo Switch, the game involved players taking on the role of a punching penguin as they try and figure out the mystery behind Punch Mountain in a bid to find the treasure that it is hiding.The studio has also previously worked on The Touryst an action-adventure game that has players exploring the Monument Islands. Players take on the role of a tourist, and during their exploration, can also partake in other activities, including beach parties and an arcade. The Touryst is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.We are happy to announce FAST FUSION forNintendo Switch 2, which will be available on launch day. More information in thread.#FastFusion #NintendoSwitch2 pic.twitter.com/boXgfaB1ps Shinen Multimedia (@ShinenGames) April 2, 2025

Image credit: Dfi Sport ArchitectureDfi Sport Architecture (DSA) recently hosted the latest edition of its annual fundraiser at the Bell Centre in Montreal in partnership with Owens Corning and Luxtec.On March 16, 2025, the architectural community was invited to participate in the fundraising event for the three schools of architecture in Quebec: lUniversit de Montral, Laval and McGill.The event also took place with the support of ACDF Architecture, CGC, ELEMA experts-conseils, MAGIL Construction and Solflex Canada. The core collaborators for the event were ACDF architecture, Enercorp, Kollectif, the Quebec Architects Hockey League (LHAPPPOQ) and Lemay Qubec.The DSA 2025 event aimed to be an opportunity to experience the thrill of NHL-style hockey at the Bell Centre and included the national anthem, music from the Bell Centre and its Jumbotron, the presence of Youppi, the official mascot for the Montreal Canadiens, ceremonial face-offs, and the presentation of the cheque to the three schools of architecture.A total of 66 players, including six women, competed in two friendly matches between teams consisting mainly of architects, and were joined by people from the construction industry and representatives of architecture student associations, in front of a crowd of 700 people.FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Anne-Marie Bourque (Dfi Sport Architecture), Michael Jemtrud (McGill Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture), Izabel Amaral (Universit de Montral School of Architecture), Richard Pleau (Universit Laval School of Architecture), Robert Martin (Dfi Sport Architecture), Salvatore Ciarlo (Owens Corning) and Martin Houle (Kollectif)This years edition also served as an opportunity to highlight the career of former Pittsburgh Penguins star, Michel Brire, about whom a documentary was made a few years ago. His son, architect Martin Brire, senior partner at BGLA architecture + urban design, had the opportunity to wear a Penguins jersey with his fathers number, 21, and play with his three sons during the second game.The event also provided attendees the opportunity to lace up their skates and hit the ice at the Bell Centre during one of the two scheduled free skating sessions.The events proceeds of $45,000 was distributed between lUniversit de Montrals School of Architecture, Lavals School of Architecture and McGill Universitys Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, as well as to their respective student associations, namely the Regroupement tudiant en architecture de lUniversit de Montral (RA), the Association des tudiants et tudiantes en architecture de lUniversit Laval (ASSTAR) and the McGill Architecture Students Association (ASA).The post Hockey fundraising event for Montreal-based architecture schools raises $45,000 appeared first on Canadian Architect.

We talked to Hades II creative director Greg Kasavin about how to develop a game for the Nintendo Switch 2.Read More

Nintendo has gone seven years without a new game console, and now it is unveiling the Switch 2 for a low low price of $80 for games and $450 for platforms.Read More

Roblox adds three new features to parental control settingsParents and guardians can now block and report users on their child's friend listImage credit: Roblox News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on April 3, 2025 Roblox continues to update its parental controls, adding three new features to improve child safety on the platform.Parents and guardians can now block and report anyone on their child's friend list, which in turn prevents direct messaging from blocked contacts.Specific games and experiences can also be blocked, whereas previously parents could only review or change the content maturity level.In addition, Roblox has provided deeper insights into what experiences children are playing. Parents and guardians can see the 20 experiences their child has spent the most time on in the last week. If there are experiences they don't want their child to have access to, it can be blocked.They can also set spend limits to their child's account and manage their child's privacy settings."Providing tools blocking specific friends and Roblox experiences, along with visibility into how long their child is playing Roblox games, enables parents to better support their children's safe use of the platform," says ConnectSafely CEO Larry Magid."Roblox has consistently provided parents with tools that enable their children to enjoy the platform, while helping protect them against online risks.These new friend and experience blocking tools provide parents with even more ways to help ensure their children are using it safely."Roblox's overhaul of parental controls was announced in October 2024, and implemented in November. These included the introduction of remote parental controls, updated communication settings, and the addition of content labels to experiences.The firm also added moderation for unrated experiences, restricted access to social hangouts, and free-form user content.

Yesterday's Nintendo Direct came out swinging with a surprise direction for the Nintendo Switch 2. In a break from recent tradition, Nintendo showcased only few unique hardware advancements and instead focused on a field it's been historically reluctant to dive into: online multiplayer.The mysterious "C" button, it turned out, wasn't some button that unlocked magical hardware capabilities, but instead quickly brings players into a feature called "GameChat." GameChat appears to be a slimmed-down version of social platforms like Discord that acts as an all-in-one hub for group multiplayer, video calls, private game streaming, and more, all run through the Nintendo Switch 2.In other words, the company that rolled out a mobile app to support voice chat on Nintendo Switch has gone all-in on a console-based micro social network.Why would the normally multiplayer-shy Nintendo dive deep into online multiplayer this way? Well in a world where players are asking developers "can I play with my friends?", the company seems to have picked up on a growing game industry trend: a future where playersespecially younger oneswant to play together at all times.Nintendo thinks it can finally make "safe" online spacesIn a follow-up presentation at a media event held during the Nintendo Direct, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser seemed to tip the company's hand as to why it seems to have finally committed resources to robust online features. He spoke of how players of all ages can now "safely connect" and play games with friends and family.Related:"Safety" has been the watchword for Nintendo's hesitance to jump feet-first into online play. The company has long prioritized family-friendly games, building an audience of young players that isn't as present on competitors like the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Unfortunately as platforms like Roblox have demonstrated, the slightest flaw in content and player moderation can expose children to dangerous situations.Wired's Megan Farokhmanesh pressed the company on this topic in a roundtable Q&A during Nintendo's preview event. Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta explained GameChat is an online system built around the Nintendo Friends list instead of random game lobbies. Parents monitoring their children's online activity through the parental control app will be able to personally approve any friend requests they receive, reducing the odds of encountering a stranger in the wild. He didn't address the topic of safety measures for minors whose parents aren't monitoring their activity through the parental control app.Related:Image via Nintendo.Nintendo touts GameChat as a feature that lets people "play together, anywhere," painting a picture of friends or family seated in a family room across great distances.. It's also a strange echo of the mantra "together, apart" you sometimes heard in the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an "Ask the Developer" interview posted by Nintendo, producer Kouichi Kawamoto said GameChat's streaming feature (which lets players stream gameplay to each other, a popular feature on Discord) was "born from" Nintendo's experience developing games in 2020-2021."Back then, we were using a video conferencing system to check the software we were developing with our team, but the screen-sharing function built into the video conferencing system only allowed us to share one gameplay screen at a time," he stated. "So we had each person place their game screen in front of their camera instead of their faces. When we did that, it felt like we were all in the same place, each bringing our own console to play the game together, which was a lot of fun."That's an experience many players had in the pandemic, to the point that much has been made about how young players spend their time in Roblox hanging out and goofing around. Developers everywhere are describing how it's shaping multiplayer design. At DICE, Owlchemy Labs boss Andrew Eiche and Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill both described how their upcoming games create spaces for players to just hang out and chat, and not automatically force them into head-to-head gameplay.Related:Some third-party-published games shown in yesterday's Nintendo Direct like Survival Kids and System Era Softworks' Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions seemed particularly designed with this concept in mind.What first-party game is Nintendo using to showcase this kind of social gameplay? Unexpectedly, it's Mario Kart World. In hands-on time with the game at the preview event, players had the opportunity to drive around a large open world that hosted elements of the game's many tracks. It was only after I saw a few of the other 24 players driving across the track I was zooming on that I realized I could go off course, and the experience revealed a fun open lobby perfect for players to goof around in.In the Nintendo Direct, the company explained that the open world won't just be an empty sandbox, but an area filled with opportunities for exploration. It was easy to imagine friends logging in not to race, but to just drive around and play bumper cars.Online multiplayer is a big business opportunityLook, let's get brass tacks about all this, with a socially-designed Switch 2, Nintendo can cash in big time on multiplayer.Gating communication behind a Nintendo Switch Online subscription? $20 a year. Adding in the expansion pack? $50 a year. The most they charge for online play is $80 a year for a full family plan.Those prices are low compared to subscription plans on Xbox and PlayStation, but up until this point its offerings were relatively light. A robust suite of social tools is more likely to convince a bunch of dedicated Switch users to make the jump.Image via System Era Softworks/Devolver Digital.The Switch 2 also now has a clear hardware feature that sets ahead of other handhelds. To set up comparable multiplayer services on say, an ROG Ally, players need to download an app like Discord and calibrate it to fit with their playstyle before they can chat with friends. With the Nintendo Switch 2, players can start talking with the push of a button.Then there's the mysterious but ever-present concept of "brand loyalty." Nintendo isn't short on loyal players, but its scaled-back social systems have created an exit vector for players to leave its ecosystem. Now, in a very Apple-like fashion, Nintendo can support voice chat and screen sharing without pushing users to another service (and with the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, it can also eliminate the need to buy non-Nintendo hardware).The runaway success of the Nintendo Switch certainly raised expectations for the Switch 2's sales performance. While the multiplayer tools themselves may not propel the system to over 150 million units sold in its lifetime (Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods might do a lot of heavy lifting), it sets the table for more monetization opportunities down the line.However the Switch 2 performs, its multiplayer-centric hardware shows Nintendo is keeping an eye on changing trends. Multiplayer has long been a domain into which Nintendo barely treads, so its choice to go all-in on the technologyespecially in lieu of drastically new physical hardware featuressignals the weight of its strategic shift.

Though the last season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended on a perilous note, when the Paramount Plus series returns, its going to lean into the whimsical energy that made the original 60s show feel fun.Ahead of Strange New Worlds season three premiere, Paramount Plus has dropped a new trailer teasing how the USS Enterprises crew are going to find themselves trapped in some kind of anomaly that transforms them into the stars of a kitschy sci-fi program meant to give audiences a reflection of their own world through the lens of fantasy.Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley), Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and Number One / Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) dont exactly seem to know that theyve been cast in a practical effects-filled sendup of the Enterprises adventures.But they all seem very game to play along with the silliness of their situation, and the trailer spotlights how those kinds of vibes are going to be a big part of this season. In addition to getting caught up in a Clue-style whodunnit, the Enterprises crew are going to find themselves outfitting their ship with analog telephone receivers under commander Pelias (Carol Kane) guidance. …Read the full story at The Verge.

Shares of Apple, Amazon, and other tech stocks are getting walloped on Thursday as the markets digest the impact of President Donald Trumps new round of tariffs announced on Wednesday evening.Shares of Apple were down about 9 percent on Thursday morning, which would mark the biggest drop in about five years if it holds until the close, according to CNBC. Amazon shares dropped about 7 percent.Both companies rely heavily on imports from other countries, like China, on which Trump plans to impose a 54 percent tariff beginning April 9th. Apple also manufactures some products in countries like Vietnam, on which a 46 percent tariff was announced.The tariffs, if they arent walked back, could mean increased prices on electronics for consumers or slimmer margins for companies like Apple and Amazon if they choose to eat some of the costs. Apple has typically had a gross margin, the amount of cash it gets to keep after it sells stuff, of around 38 percent, though it has been higher. Wall Street is likely concerned about lower demand if Apple has to increase the price of Macs, iPhones, iPads, and other products.Other big tech companies were impacted as well. Shares of Nvidia were down more than 4 percent on Thursday morning while Tesla stock was also down about 4 percent, giving up most of its Wednesday gains. Shares of Meta are down about 7 percent.