Art Meets Science How Many People Are in This Painting? The Prado Museum Is Using A.I. to Find Out With the help of a tech start-up, the Madrid museum is enlisting technology to quantify large crowds in its artworks and boost visitor engagement Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: The Procession of Our Lady of the Sablon, Denis van Alsloot, 1616 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons As legend has it, the young woman who would become St. Ursula set out from her native England in the fourth century to journey across the European continent. The reasons for her travels—whether to marry a man at her father’s behest or to undertake a pilgrimage to Rome—are hazy. But one vivid, if unlikely, detail has endured: Her traveling companions were some 11,000 virgins. Despite their numbers, the journey was ill-fated. When the group of thousands arrived in Cologne, Germany, all perished at the hands of the Huns. Saint Ursula With the 11,000 Virgins, painted by an unnamed artist known as the "Master of the 11,000 Virgins" around 1490 Prado Museum Ursula’s legacy has lived on in sainthood. Her legions of virgins have lived on in the arts. One painting, St. Ursula With the 11,000 Virgins, created around 1490, was so striking that its unknown painter has been dubbed the “Master of the 11,000 Virgins.” But take a closer look at the painting, which hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid, and try to count all 11,000 virgins supposedly depicted. You’ll either lose count or be bitterly disappointed. The so-called “Master of the 11,000 Virgins” painted only 139. That tally is the result of the Prado’s new artificial intelligence-powered initiative: Called “Counting the Prado,” the program is a joint effort by the museum and Sherpa.ai, a Spanish A.I. start-up that has “developed an algorithm capable of identifying and counting objects and people in a selection of artworks,” according to a statement. For a painting like St. Ursula With the 11,000 Virgins, counting to 139 is not an impossible task for a focused human. But take a look at Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: Procession of the Guilds and Celebration of the Ommegang in Brussels: The Procession of Our Lady of the Sablon, both painted by the Flemish artist Denis van Alsloot in 1616. In a new survey created by the Prado, the museum asks its visitors which painting has more characters. At a quick glance, both feature large crowds. But with a headcount of 1,761, the Procession of the Guilds has more people. For the Prado, these puzzles are built for social media engagement, encouraging viewers to study details and quantities that our eyes would usually skim over, per Artdaily.“Parades, triumphal entries, landings [and] festivities” are precisely the kinds of events that its A.I. model is built to count, as Sherpa.ai explains it in the statement. The purpose of the project is “bringing the museum’s collection to life in a creative and universal way by identifying details in a selection of artworks where quantity, repetition or crowding are essential to the subject depicted.” For years, the Prado has been at the forefront of enlisting A.I. to increase the accessibility of its collections. In 2019, for instance, the museum began using A.I. to provide more background information about various artworks. Officials hoped these efforts would help non-expert viewers achieve “maximum comprehension” by creating a “multi-layered timeline” that could be personalized according to the viewer’s background knowledge, per a statement. Elsewhere, art historians are using A.I. for more experimental purposes, such as recreating lost masterpieces. In comparison, the Prado’s goals are rather straightforward. “Our brains are adept at subitizing, or rapidly and accurately perceiving the number of items in a set, but only up to a point,” Sarah Cascone writes for Artnet. “Why not ask A.I. to help?” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Evil Geniuses, the well-known esports organization and brand, has launched its Meesh AI chatbot in a partnership with Theta Labs. Evil Geniuses, the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) world champion, has launched the text-based chatbot that was built by Theta Labs, a provider of decentralized cloud infrastructure for AI, media, and entertainment. The new AI chatbot has been personalized to bring the loveable critter’s personality to life, allowing fans the chance to interact with Meesh in a variety of ways, including meme-worthy trash talk, trivia challenges, personalized interactions, and much more.  “EG has always been a pioneer in the AI space, starting around 2021 and 2022. We helped bring Moneyball to esports, using data scientists to build AI tools and advanced algorithms to scout talent across the globe and help define winning strategies,” said Chris DeAppolonio CEO at Evil Geniuses, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We won a Sports Business Journal award because of it in 2022 and have continued that work through our competitive teams, especially on Valorant.” Chris DeAppolonio CEO at Evil Geniuses. He added, “We’re always looking at ways we can utilize technology to empower champions every day, whether that’s our own players, whether that’s our fans, whether that’s the people here at EEG, and for us, you know, we it kind of all came together this this year because we also launched EEG’s first ever critter.” (Other people would call this a mascot). Meesh is a minion. “And every evil genius needs their own minion,” DeAppolonio said. “After extensive work with focus groups of our fans, we helped Theta create an IP, a critter Meesh, which is short for mischievous.” Meesh is fully integrated into Evil Geniuses Discord server and official website, giving fans the chance to ask them questions about all things Evil Geniuses, at all times of the day. Through Theta EdgeCloud, Meesh will use AI to answer community questions that include things like match schedule, team standings, roster information and history, player stats and past highlights, along with providing iconic EG esports moments on demand. Fans will also be able to participate in exclusive giveaways, community events, and find the latest news about the organization.  “Our team at Evil Geniuses worked directly with the Theta team to create an AI chatbot that is a true representation of the personality we envisioned for Meesh when we started imagining our digital pet ahead of their launch last year,” said Kayci Evans, head of marketing and global partnerships at Evil Geniuses, in a statement. “Now, with the help of Theta, that personality is on full display and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Our fans can now fully engage with Meesh to learn more about our history, ask what’s coming up for Evil Geniuses or simply chat with Meesh for a personal interaction.”  Kayci Evans, head of marketing and global partnerships at Evil Geniuses. Evil Geniuses Theta partnership is the first of more exciting partnerships to come for the organization as it puts an emphasis on finding new and unique ways for fans to become more immersed in Evil Geniuses happenings.  DeAppolonio said that Meesh gives fans another touchpoint to engage with the brand. The company has embued Meesh with a personality and built a storyline and lore around the creature as someone that fans can interact with. While Meesh isn’t so cutting edge as to be able to speak with fans, it can take typed questions from the fans and respond to them with text replies. Meesh is also animated in ways that make the character more believable. There are some Easter Eggs in the AI responses for passionate fans. Meesh is also integrated with the Discord community for Evil Geniuses. “We want Meesh to come to live for our fans, to really make Meesh feel alive and unique as they are,” DeAppolonio said. “As a character, Meesh is fairly non-verbal. Meesh speaks in sounds and squeaks, but can type. When fans type questions, Meesh can respond with dialogue.” Meesh’s personality is strong and replicates what we believe our fans connect with, their hobbies and their interests and all those things. In a demo, Kayci Evans, global head of marketing at Evil Geniuses, took me into the environment of Meesh’s lair, which is very artistic. the demo didn’t work so well at first but Meesh started responding after a bit. Meesh can answer questions like where will Evil Geniuses play next in its worldwide schedule and it can tell inside jokes that fans get. Evans said, “We updated and uploaded the profiles of all of our players into the AI to make sure that Meesh really felt like part of the team and could teach fans about what our team does in their free time. You can ask Meesh for advice and it can tell you about games or other lore about the brand. Meesh widget Evil Geniuses also had to make sure that Meesh wouldn’t write anything inappropriate. That’s not an easy thing to protect against, given that fans will no doubt probe for such vulnerabilities in Meesh. Theta had experience in working with other teams in the NHL to do similar systems that could handle toxicity. “It’s something we continue to monitor,” DeAppolonio said. “We created Easter Eggs for fans who want to engage in a different way, and lead them down a path of exploration and fun while getting to know the personality of our brand in a way that is really unique to us,” Evans said. “The most fun part has been getting to push our partner, Theta, in more creative directions. We have a great partner in theta who’s willing to explore how to make it more unique and creative.” This is all happening in a context where AI has been polarizing for the esports industry. Some view AI as something that could potentially take away people’s jobs, but the company sees this as empowering people to do their work in a more creative way. “AI has been a way to enhance our gameplay, enhance how we compete and scout talent across the globe, specifically because games are based on data, and we can get millions and millions of players and rate them and figure out who could be great, no matter what their background is and where they’re from,” said DeAppolonio. “This AI allows us to connect and engage with fans in a way we couldn’t on an everyday basis.” Evil Geniuses is a global esports organization at the intersection of gaming, sports, technology and entertainment. Founded in 1999, Evil Geniuses is the oldest North American esports organization with more than 180+ championships. Theta Labs is a provider of decentralized cloud infrastructure for AI, media and entertainment powered by a global network of 30,000 distributed edge nodes and a native blockchain. Backed by Samsung, Sony, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and CAA, Theta is among the top AI tokens on Binance.com and top 10 DePIN blockchains by market capitalization on Coingecko. Theta EdgeCloud is the first hybrid cloud-edge AI computing platform with over 80 PetaFLOPS of always available distributed GPU compute power. Evans said that costs for doing chatbots using AI have gone down significantly, enabling the company to do something with low cloud compute and storage costs. AI is a new frontier, but it’s one that Evil Geniuses believes in and wants to be a pioneer in,DeAppolonio said. “We want to make sure that we’re using technology to help improve our business and make informed decisions and provide engaging content for our fans, where we can while still embracing the creativity and opportunity for esports enthusiasts and creators to build on our platforms as well,” he said. As for the state of esports itself, DeAppolonio said, “I’m feeling a lot better about the industry these days. We’ve had continued growth on viewership for Valorant, which is the game we currently play. We won the world championship in 2023. From an EEG perspective, our merchandise sales are up significantly, 250% year over year. Our average video views are up 40% year over year.” He added, “We’re moving upwards. We’re seeing higher engagement rates, having much more conversations with brands now than we’ve had in the past few years. I wouldn’t say it’s pre-pandemic levels when esports was at its highest, but the esports winter feels like it’s starting to end.”

Steam to launch new tags to help disabled players "search for games based on accessibility features" "What we hope is a more positive experience on Steam for everyone," Valve says Image credit: Valve News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on April 24, 2025 Steam is introducing accessibility tags to help disabled players discover inclusive games by enabling developers to tag their games and "better describe the way their games support accessibility." Steamworks now boasts a new questionnaire for developers to describe the way their games support accessibility, such as gameplay options like adjustable difficulty and text size, color alternatives, high contrast, speech-to-text and text-to-speech, as well as custom volume controls, narrated game menus, and so on. Valve said that now as part of the "edit store" section for each game in Steamworks, game developers will find the new questionnaire to describe their accessibility support. Later this year, Steam will then enable users to search for games with specific accessibility features. Accessibility options will also be added to the sidebar on the right-hand side of the store page. "We've been working to gather valuable feedback from developers as well as gamers with disabilities to bring what we hope is a more positive experience on Steam for everyone by making it easier to find games that support Accessibility features," Valve said. "Guiding developers through the process of how to share this information about their games is the first step." The tags differ from those introduced by ESA's Accessibility Games Initiative, something blind gamer and consultant Steve Saylor acknowledged "could be confusing down the road." Earlier this month, UK technology secretary Peter Kyle slammed Valve's PC storefront, Steam, for hosting a sexually explicit visual novel in which the protagonist engages in non-consensual sexual contact, sexual violence, rape, and incest. Shortly thereafter, developer Zerat Games announced it would withdraw its visual novel from Steam after it was removed from sale in the UK, Canada, and Australia, saying: "We don't intend to fight the whole world, and specifically, we don't want to cause any problems for Steam and Valve."

Studios of all shapes and sizes have been struck down by the video game industry contraction of the last three years. Triple-A companies, small indies, and mid-sized studios founded by industry veterans have all laid off employees and canceled games in the face of modest declines of player spending and unrealized growth demanded by investors.That third group—the studios founded by former employees of companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Rockstar Games, Ubisoft, etc.—has been a particular punching bag for the thinkfluencers of LinkedIn. To be sure, working at a triple-A studio during the release of a game like World of Warcraft or Assassin's Creed Origins doesn't automatically make you ready to run your own company. But the rhetoric around these failures sometimes rises to the level of contempt—as though the investor class is angry at their own past faith in these developers and is now blaming them for their portfolio woes.However strange the discourse has become, it is true that around 2020-2021, investors poured millions of dollars into studios with these bona fides, and these studios have suffered in the years since. If you're a triple-A dev about to fundraise for your own company, or are at the helm of one now, what can you do to survive?Related:In our ongoing quest to answer that question, the folks at Stray Kite Studios—who are about to release their debut game Wartorn into Early Access—caught our eye. Stray Kite was co-founded by BioShock lead designer and Borderlands 2 creative director Paul Hellquist and former Robot Entertainment colleague Shovaen Patel. The pair met during their overlapping time at Orcs Must Die developer Robot Entertainment and jumped into business together after a 2018 layoff.It's that year "2018" that gave us pause. That's a 7 year run for a small team of former triple-A devs, the kind of feat many of their peers hoped for in the 2020-2021 funding boom. With Wartorn soon to launch, we wanted to ask them about their journey—and now that they're pivoting from co-development to original games, what they think the future is for themselves and the industry.Stray Kite Studios developed the Fortnite Creative game Prop HuntThe "games" tab on Stray Kite's website is slim at first glance. The team is only able to publicly talk about its work on Fortnite's Creative Mode and the Borderlands spinoff Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and Wartorn makes three. But it's been a busy seven years for Patel, Hellquist, and their colleagues. After starting Stray Kite, they dove into the world of co-development and Unreal Engine development, creating the original Fortnite Creative game Prop Hunt, now one of many islands that are part of the Unreal Engine Fortnite UGC system. They had the unusual task of not only trying to make games for Fortnite Creative, but also solving game design problems to create assets and workflows that Fortnite players could use in their own Fortnite Creative games.Related:"One thing we tried to do in Fortnite was to make games you can't easily make in Fortnite," Patel recalled a bit sheepishly. "There was a little bit of mixed goals when we were working on that stuff."After spending time with Epic, Stray Kite expanded its list of clients, eventually reuniting Hellquist with his former colleagues at Gearbox on Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Co-development allowed Hellquist and Patel to intimately see how different studios are run, offering a rare opportunity to compare and contrast different ways of making games and picking the ones that worked for their shop. "We've taken some [processes] we've liked from some places...and we've put some things to the side that we know we don't want to do," said Hellquist.When the COVID-era venture capital boom hit the video game industry, Patel said he and Hellquist deliberately chose to avoid that line of funding, continuing to "bootstrap" the company. "It would have been easy to go there," Patel said, also acknowledging the company wasn't "immune" to the layoffs and cost-cutting that started in 2022.Related:Despite those challenges, Patel and Hellquist decided it was finally time for Stray Kite to greenlight Wartorn. The pair said it's a product born of their loves of system-driven games to drive player agency. But peeking over their shoulder, you can see a bit of that Fortnite Creative energy still lingering on the product—because as the pair explained it, Wartorn mashes together genres, systems, and themes that don't work well together at first glance.Wartorn's real-time strategy and roguelike gameplayWartorn is a single-player strategy game as inspired by Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords as it is modern roguelikes like Slay the Spire. Players take on the role of two siblings building an army of fantasy creatures to lead a caravan across a war-ravaged country and reunite with their family. Hellquist says Stray Kite is releasing the game in Early Access not just for economic reasons, but because the game is a "genre blend" that needs player feedback in development to properly mix together."We know that we don't know everything we need to know," Hellquist said, accidentally invoking an infamous Donald Rumsfeld quote. "Having players be on that journey with us helps us understand what they need and what they want out of this kind of experience."Image via Stray Kite Studios.The pair explained that Wartorn balances their desire to push "player agency." Sometimes through familiar means, like a systems-driven elemental system that lets players experiment with cause-and-effect (and react to what goes wrong). Some of it is in conventional choice-driven narrative that balances the needs of the caravan against morality, evoking the mechanics of 11 bit studios' This War of Mine and Stoic Studios' The Banner Saga.But even if the pair want players to make their own choices and tell their own stories, they want those choices to take place against the backdrop of real-world struggles. The game's story of two young heroes fleeing a region racked by war is a personal one for Patel, who described how his parents fled Tanzania under the threat of violence. His mom had to abandon the dog that protected her from thieves and his father literally buried gold near his home in the hopes of one day returning to reclaim it.He never did. "There's some gold buried in Tanzania you can go get," Patel joked. "We've got this extremism that happened here, and it's personal to me...and it's personal for so many people in the world and throughout all of human history."Wartorn is a case study of where developers can rely on the "familiar" to experiment with something new. While Stray Kite pushes the boundaries on the game's setting and core gameplay, it's relying on familiar fantasy conventions and the popularity of roguelike progression to help players ground themselves. It's also an ambitious choice to tap the real-time strategy genre—though Patel said he prefers to think of it as "real-time tactics" given the smaller focus. "We've started calling this a real time tactics game, because it's a little closer to that," he said. "We're trying to distance ourselves from that expectation [that there will be] base building and managing people, gathering berries and things like that."One might wonder if blending a dormant genre with roguelike mechanics (something that's not really been done successfully, as Hellquist noted) is a wise choice for a small team trying to stay financially afloat. But the pair hope other developers can join them in making these unusual blends of games. "I'm afraid we as an industry are going to stagnate," Hellquist said. "We don't feel like we can explore in the triple-A space the way he used to. I'm not sure a game like BioShock could be made any more."Financial survival doesn't have to translate to taking the safest choices possible. Stray Kite Studios is trying to show the game industry that taking risks isn't just about fulfilling the creative spirit—when well-grounded, it can be what helps your team evolve and grow instead of remaining stagnant.

The first time I met Jon Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research at Microsoft, was in 2019 when he was spearheading a new open approach to design at Microsoft to make its hardware and software look like it came from one company. That’s a largely successful work in progress, so these days Friedman has, like a lot of Microsoft employees, been focused on AI.I spoke to Friedman last week, ahead of the redesigned Microsoft 365 Copilot app announcement, to get a better understanding of the impact AI is having on human designers and creators. “The change is quite dramatic, and the opportunity is quite dramatic,” says Friedman. “The job changed for us. The entire industry and Microsoft were trying to figure out what we can do with this new material that helps adapt computing to people, and it turns out you can do a lot and you can do a lot fast.”In recent months, Friedman’s own job has changed because of AI, so he’s focused on the content as well as its design. ”Suddenly the design job is how do you edit,” says Friedman. “Even my job over the past 6–8 months has become an editor-in-chief job of the product, not just the design leader.”As Microsoft attempts to build personalized AI agents or AI-powered apps, the design system has to adapt to the very real challenges of meeting this vision, and the tools to build that system are constantly changing, too. Whether it’s Adobe apps or Figma, AI features are increasingly being built into creative tools that push designers into an era of editing and using AI as a tool, rather than having to create everything from scratch.The fear and uncertainty around how AI will impact human creativity has resulted in a very real backlash against the use of generative AI in advertising, movies, video games, and elsewhere. While it was initially obvious when an artist or designer used AI to create art, the tools are advancing so quickly now that it’s becoming far more difficult to spot “AI slop.” Microsoft’s visual design team has been experimenting with using generative AI tools as part of their production process since 2022, and the team revealed this week that it recently made a Surface ad with generative AI. Designers created several top-down stills of a Surface device being used in different locations, and then fed them into generative AI tools like Hailuo and Kling to add motion for the video.The result is a 55-second ad for the business versions of the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro, which has been available on YouTube for two months without anyone in the comments spotting Microsoft’s use of generative AI. Microsoft says it turned to AI for the ad due to “an immensely tight deadline alongside various resource and budget constraints.”Friedman, like many working in tech, believes that AI will increasingly be used like this, as another tool for creators and designers instead of something that will simply replace them. He used DALL-E to illustrate his son’s book about managing childhood anxiety last year, and recently used a variety of AI tools to edit videos and create a website. ”As a maker, I loved it. I have this intent, and I don’t have all the capabilities, but I have a lot of the capabilities, and sometimes, I want to sit there and move pixels around, and other times, I want to get a big idea out,” says Friedman. “I think there’s this thing that’s going to happen in the world where disciplines are going to meld together in new ways. A creative maker’s strength is not just going to be in their specific skill set, but their ability to think big and creatively and then take that creative thinking and drive towards better outcomes in the world.”Friedman thinks that engineers will eventually have their own AI designer and designers will have their own AI engineer, so that these two disciplines will overlap in different ways.I’ve been experimenting with a variety of AI tools and models for months, and while I’m a relatively competent writer, I’ve found that AI tools can often help in the early stages of a project or a pitch. I don’t use AI tools to help me write articles, but that’s something I’m skilled at, so I don’t need AI for help there. I have used AI tools to help me edit my personal photos and videos though, because I’m not fully confident at that.I do feel a sense of guilt using AI tools, though. I’m still unsure exactly where I stand in the use of generative AI debate. As a technology enthusiast, it’s exciting to see what AI can unlock, but as a journalist, I’m as nervous about the future of AI as artists and designers are. I’m unsure whether my job will even exist in 10 years. As a young child I also witnessed my father’s career disappear when the print presses rapidly moved to digital. Back then, you either had to re-skill and learn digital imaging tools like Photoshop or get left behind. “I think what we’re going to see is resistance at first because people fear what it means for them on some level,” says Friedman. “I think there’s a little bit of it’s hard to get over the hump of what it means for you, but then once you see it as another tool in your toolbox, it’s really powerful, for both the things you love to do and the things you may not love to do. For me, it supercharged my makership.”I’m hopeful AI will supercharge human creativity, but at the same time Microsoft is preparing for a world of automated AI agents that it dreams of being “digital colleagues.” The line between AI as a tool and AI as a replacement for skilled human jobs looks like it’s about to be tested, leaving us all to wonder what comes next.The pad:Microsoft 365 Copilot redesigned with new search, image, and notebook features. Microsoft is launching a newly designed version of its Microsoft 365 Copilot app soon. The app has mainly been used by businesses as a hub for accessing Office documents, but Microsoft has been gradually pushing people to use its AI tools over the past year. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app will soon have an updated AI-powered search, a new Create feature for generating images using OpenAI’s GPT‑4o model, and Notebooks that operate like miniature AI projects.Bethesda officially reveals Oblivion Remastered, available now. The worst kept secret in gaming was finally made official this week: Oblivion Remastered. After developer Virtuos leaked images of the game earlier this month, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered got shadowdropped on Tuesday for Xbox Series X / S, PS5, and PC. It’s already proving popular on the Steam charts, as fans of The Elder Scrolls series jump in to play a remastered version of the nearly 20-year-old title. When the world connected on Skype. Microsoft is shutting down its Skype service next month, after more than two decades. Rest of World has put together a list of stories from readers about how Skype helped them stay connected to friends and family. Skype really did help change the way we communicate.Microsoft’s Xbox app is now available on LG smart TVs. If you want to play Xbox games on your LG TV, but you don’t own an Xbox console, there’s now an app for that. The Xbox TV app is now rolling out to select LG smart TV models, including LG’s 2022 OLED TVs, select 2023 smart TVs, and newer models and smart monitors that are running webOS24 or higher. You’ll need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, a compatible LG TV, and a Bluetooth controller to start streaming Xbox games to your TV.You can now run Windows 11 on an iPad if you’re in the EU. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has opened the door to allow emulation apps to run on iPadOS, and YouTuber NTDev has demonstrated how you can now run things like Windows 11 on an M2 iPad Air.Windows for the Game Boy, with a playable version of Minesweeper. RubenRetro has created a version of Windows for Nintendo’s Game Boy. It even has an MS Paint app that works with the Game Boy Printer, a playable version of Minesweeper, and a built-in media player. I love it.Microsoft Copilot can now ‘see’ what’s on your screen in Edge. Microsoft is making Copilot Vision, the AI feature that can interpret what’s on your screen, available free to use within the Edge browser. You can ask Copilot Vision to compare items you’re looking at on a webpage, help with recipes, or even use it for cover letter brainstorming. The more powerful mobile version of Copilot Vision still requires a Copilot Pro subscription, but this screen viewing experience is now available free of charge.Xbox will soon let you purchase games in its mobile app. Xbox is finally rolling out the ability to purchase games and DLC, as well as sign up for Game Pass directly from its mobile app. To be able to offer this, Microsoft has had to remove remote play within the Xbox mobile app, in order to comply with app store restrictions. Microsoft originally wanted to offer both the ability to buy a game and stream it immediately inside its Xbox mobile app for Android, thanks to a court ruling. But Google appealed the ruling, leaving Microsoft to have to adapt its Xbox mobile app while it waits for a final decision.Xbox has some new Doom Slayer accessories. We’re just a few weeks away from Doom: The Dark Ages, and Microsoft is preparing for the launch of this new Xbox game with not one, but two special edition Xbox controllers. You can pick up a regular Xbox controller with the Doom Slayer’s armor for $79.99, or go for a transparent red top Xbox Elite 2 controller for $199.99. There’s even a $54.99 Xbox Series X wrap, too.Microsoft provides a progress report on its security initiative. Security has been the number-one priority for nearly a year now at Microsoft, and the company is now providing an update on its progress with the Secure Future Initiative (SFI). Microsoft is now using a “Secure by Design UX Toolkit” that has been tested by 20 product teams and rolled out to 22,000 employees to help build more secure products. Microsoft also says its latest policies, investigation methods, and behavioral-based detection models have prevented $4 billion in fraud attempts. New Copilot Plus PC features are now being tested. With Recall’s imminent launch, Microsoft is now turning its attention to improving Click to Do on Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs. Two new text actions are currently being tested, with a reading coach that will help you practice reading out loud and an immersive reader that creates a distraction-free zone around any text you select on your screen.How secure is Microsoft’s Recall feature? Security researcher Kevin Beaumont has been trying out the version of Recall that’s about to be released, and he’s found that it’s greatly improved this time around, but there are still some concerns. Microsoft says Recall requires a fingerprint or facial recognition to use it, but Beaumont found you can open Recall using the four-digit PIN unlock option with Windows Hello. The sensitive data filtering also doesn’t appear to work reliably, which is something I’ve witnessed myself. I’m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at notepad@theverge.com if you want to discuss anything else. If you’ve heard about any of Microsoft’s secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I’m tomwarren.01. I’m also tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d prefer to chat there.Thanks for subscribing to Notepad.See More:

Today there are several announcements of interest to Unity game developers. First and foremost, the biggest announcement today is the release of Unity 6.1. Additionally, there are several game development bundles of interest to Unity developers that just launched. There are two new Unity bundles from Leartes on Gumroad, the 15 environments SpaceNova Bundle (use code SN70 for an additional $70 off) as well as the 5 environment StarNova bundle (use code SN40 for $40 off). There are also SpaceNova and StarNova Unreal Engine bundles as well as a StarNova Godot engine bundle (both using the SN40 and SN70 discount codes as well!). Finally Unity have just released a free 150 page PDF e-book titled UI Toolkit for advanced Unity developers (Unity 6 edition). As the title suggest, this book covers the newly released UI Toolkit in quite some depth. What’s new in Unity 6.1 Unity 6.1 builds on the stability and performance shipped in Unity 6.0 LTS to enable you to deliver to more platforms, with better graphics, more efficiently. Here are some highlights available in this Update release: Get the best performance on any device Unity 6.1 offers significant performance optimizations to help your games run smoothly across a wide range of hardware: Deferred+ – Build richer worlds with the Universal Render Pipeline’s (URP) new deferred rendering path, which accelerates GPU performance using advanced Cluster-based light culling for more lights, with support for GPU Resident Drawer for more objects. Variable Rate Shading – Improve GPU performance with minimal impact to visuals. Set the shading rate of custom passes within URP/HDRP, and generate Shading Rate Images (SRIs) from textures and shaders. Get access to powerful workflows Project Auditor for static analysis – Analyze scripts, assets, project settings, and builds. Learn how to resolve issues and optimize the quality and performance of your game. Build Automation – Accelerate iteration cycles with cloud builds, with Build Automation now integrated directly into the Editor. Reach the widest audience of players globally Create for the latest supported platforms and devices to maximize your player reach: PC and console – Improve CPU performance, PSO caching, and ray tracing with enhanced DirectX 12 support Large screens and foldables – Access enhanced support for large screens and foldables with the latest Android APIs Unity for Web – Run your Unity games anywhere the web exists, including mobile browsers. Experiment with the latest WebGPU graphics API integration and unlock compute acceleration for web browsers Android XR and Meta Quest – Save time and streamline the build process with the ability to create multiple build configurations for release and development builds Instant Games on Facebook and Messenger – Streamline building, optimizing, and uploading instant games to Facebook and Messenger Key Links Unity 6.1 Release Blog Unity Space Nova Bundle (Use Code SN70) Unity Star Nova Bundle (Use Code SN40) The Supreme Unreal & Unity GameDev Humble Bundle [Learn More] Unity Variable Shading Rate Demo Project GitHub Variable Shading Rate Explained Unity Forward+ Rendering Explained Project Auditor Package Documentation You can learn more about the Unity 6.1 release, as well as about the new free UI Toolkit e-book and multiple Unity asset bundles in the video below. Using links on this page to purchase the bundles helps support GFS (and thanks very much if you do!)

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s shadow-drop release on April 22 took the internet by storm, but indie developers who planned to launch their game on that same day were left reeling.Jonas Antonsson, co-founder of indie publisher Raw Fury, took to social media to explain how “massive” shadow-drops from huge games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered can cause everything else coming out at the same time to get “buried.”“I loved (when younger) and still absolutely love Oblivion and I’m personally excited to see it get a breath of new life and being introduced to a whole new generation of players,” Antonsson began.“But from the perspective of indies and indie publishers, this is the problem with these sort of massive shadow drops. Everything more or least gets buried. We don’t have the cash nor muscle to throw around, so everything is carefully planned. Including when to release, based on other releases etc - to try to maximize the chances of getting attention.”PlayAntonsson then pointed to Red Soul Games’ Post Trauma, which Raw Fury published on April 22. It’s a puzzle horror game inspired by PS2 era classics where you “navigate environments, tackle threats, and meet other lost characters in the depths of the Gloom.”“Love the game that dropped but feel the pain for our team and especially the developer we’ve worked with for years - who has poured his heart and soul into his game,” Antonsson said.Raw Fury had tweeted sarcastically on April 22: “Thank god Post Trauma was the only notable release of today and nothing else happened!”PlayFrom Bethesda and parent company Microsoft’s point of video, the Oblivion Remastered shadow-drop has been a big success. The game enjoyed an impressive start on Steam, and it’s dominated online discussion as players celebrate the return of funny character faces, old bugs, and memes.Even other games Microsoft itself has pushed hard in marketing terms are running up against Oblivion Remastered. This week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive acknowledged the 'Barbenheimer' energy of releasing the same week as Oblivion Remastered. Both games launched straight into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.As for Raw Fury, when it set the Post Trauma release date it couldn’t have known Oblivion Remastered was waiting to steal the show. It may gone down as just one of those things.We've got a comprehensive guide to everything you'll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

This article contains spoilers for You season 5. For five seasons, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) in You has literally gotten away with murder, and his list of victims has only continued to grow. In the show’s final season, however, the past finally catches up to Joe as Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) ends up being the key to putting him behind bars. So, how does that work, considering she was heartbreakingly killed by Joe at the end of season one? Well, it’s thanks to his new love interest, Bronte, whose real name is Louise (Madeline Brewer), and help from some familiar faces. It’s revealed in season 5 episode 6 that Louise actually knew Beck and has been catfishing Joe under the name Bronte with her friends in hopes of catching him, seeking justice for her and Dr. Nicky, who was framed for her murder. The only problem is that while getting to know Joe, she has fallen under his spell and is now questioning her previous suspicions. With it being the last season, it’s only fitting that one of Joe’s survivors helps Bronte see who Joe really is. What makes it feel more final is who they chose to give this task to: Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle). Considering all that the mother has to lose if she gets involved with Joe again, her coming back alongside Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), who freed and helped her trick Joe in season four, shows the audience just how close to the end we truly are. In what is one of the most powerful and important scenes of the entire series, Marienne speaks at her most vulnerable about how men like Joe catch you off guard, expressing how when the “bad stuff happens” you force yourself to believe “they’re not actually bad” because “if you got fooled by this guy, you are not as smart as you thought you were. You’re one of those women,” who you “deep down, think you’re smarter than.” Her speech hits Bronte and the audience hard, especially as she begins to list off the names of Joe’s past love interests, herself and Louise included. But she then insists that Bronte is not stupid and that “as long as you are alive, it’s not too late.” It’s a message many women need to hear.  It’s also the push Bronte needs to finish what she started. She goes on the run with Joe, ready for answers about what he really did to Beck, and while holding him at gunpoint, she demands the truth. In a narration, Joe sums up perfectly why it all had to come back to Beck: She’s “the one I can’t outrun.” Bronte forces him to redact himself from Beck’s book, pointing out that him finishing and rewriting her words meant that he not only took her life but her voice as well.  As expected, when he realizes that Bronte has turned on him, he attempts to kill her too. While he is chasing her, she manages to dial the police, who hear the entire struggle, including him saying, “You want to know how I killed Beck? I’ll show you,” before strangling her, demonstrating to the audience just how full circle this entire story has been. While Beck’s murder happened off-screen, Joe did have a vision in the second season of her with bruises all over her neck that seemingly confirmed he strangled her to death.  When Bronte fights back and gets away, he then tries to drown her, but she manages to survive that as well. She later finds him in the woods, Joe begging her to kill him as the police grow closer and closer. She refuses, and while she does shoot him, it’s not fatal, and he is arrested. Bronte reclaims the name Louise, concluding that her life “doesn’t boil down to before and after” Joe and that she cannot wait to find out who she wants to be now. She is no longer simply Joe’s “You” of the season.  According to Louise, Joe Goldberg was “made to see all of himself.” She shares that “the trial was messy, the evidence horrific, and the truth undeniable.” He was convicted for the murders of both Love and Beck, but that’s not all. Allegations then turned into more convictions, including Benji and Peach. He will never be free again. Louise pulled all of Joe’s “contributions” out of Beck’s book and published the redacted version, honoring her, even though Beck will never “get the chance to make what she wanted to make of her life.” This final season goes beyond getting justice for Joe’s victims, it makes them the source of his downfall. Bringing back Marienne and Nadia to say their piece directly to Joe is necessary because not all of his victims could do so, Beck being a prime example. Thankfully, they found different ways to include the majority of them, ensuring justice was served, and while every single one was important, it all needed to come back to Beck to be a satisfying ending for those who have watched since the beginning. As for Joe’s ending, he will now live the rest of his life alone in a cage. What’s more full circle than that? All 10 episodes of You season 5 are available to stream on Netflix now.

Poland is set to power up its first full-stack quantum computer this year, following a deal with Helsinki-based startup IQM. IQM, Europe’s best-funded quantum hardware company, will install the machine at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (WUST) in Poland.  Named “Spark,” the device is a superconducting quantum computer. This means that it uses superconducting circuits to create and manipulate quantum bits or “qubits” on quantum processors. Machines like Spark can only function at temperatures near absolute zero, making them some of the coldest places in the known universe.  “This is the first quantum computer in our country and Eastern Europe using low-temperature superconducting qubit technology,” said Professor Wojciech Bożejko, head of WUST’s faculty of ICT.  Researchers at WUST will use Spark for computer science research. “The system will offer students in Poland direct access to the actual quantum computer for practical programming in quantum computing,” said Bożejko. “Our goal is to conduct research and educate IT specialists.” Getting scientists quantum-readyThe 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Spark only has 5-qubits — the lower end of the scale — and doesn’t have the computing power to outperform classical computers. However, it still provides an important testbed to familiarise researchers with quantum mechanics and prepare them for quantum utility. That’s the point at which quantum computers provide practical advantages over classical computers in solving specific real-world problems. IQM — whose CEO is speaking at TNW Conference on June 19 — is targeting quantum utility as early as next year, through some much larger machines with many more qubits than Spark. It’s also developed an entire business based around getting scientists and corporations ready for quantum utility right now. Founded in 2018, IQM has raised $210mn to date, making it Europe’s second best-funded quantum computing company after Quantinuum. According to Bloomberg, the startup is also in talks to raise over $200mn in fresh capital, which would bring its total funding to over $400mn. Located in Finland’s thriving quantum startup ecosystem, IQM has built over 30 full-stack quantum computers to date at its facility in Espoo, west of the capital, Helsinki. This site also houses Europe’s only private quantum chip factory.   If you want to catch the talk from IQM CEO and co-founder Jan Goetz at TNW Conference — or anything else on the packed agenda — we have a special offer for TNW readers. Use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off your ticket. Story by Siôn Geschwindt Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehic (show all) Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehicles, he's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. He has five years of journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. When he's not writing, you can probably find Siôn out hiking, surfing, playing the drums or catering to his moderate caffeine addiction. You can contact him at: sion.geschwindt [at] protonmail [dot] com Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

Joining the ongoing price drops we spotted yesterday on the black Apple Watch Ultra 2, today’s best Apple deals are kicking off with even lower prices across the M3 MacBook Air lineup with new Amazon all-time lows landing on various configurations, alongside Apple’s upgraded 24GB M4 MacBook Air at the $1,272 low and models starting from $910. We also spotted a pair of Twelve South accessories deals, including its Find My-equipped PlugBug wall charger and its metal/walnut wood HiRise Pro monitor stand to join some solid offers on monitors, charging gear, and more. All of that and more awaits below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break. We just spotted a new Amazon all-time low on the 13-inch 256GB M3 iPad Air at $829 shipped. While only the Blue and Starlight models are marked down this low – the Purple model is out of stock and the Gray is selling for $849, this is a regularly $899 configuration now down at a new Amazon all-time low. Deals on the M3 iPad Air, much like we saw with the M2 right through until the new model released earlier this year, haven’t been quite as deep as we have seen elsewhere across the latest Apple devices. But again, if it goes anything like the previous M2 model, it likely won’t see giant deals at all, but instead slowly creep down to the $50 and $100 off range through the year until we might see something closer to $120 off like we did on the M2 for the holidays. The iPad Air is arguably the most universally appealing iPad in the lineup – it’s not nearly as expensive as the M4 iPad Pro and is the only other current-gen Apple tablet that runs on the M series chips. One might suggest the latest iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip that can run Apple Intelligence is a more popular pick-up and that might be true, but if you want to get into the M chips the Air is where it’s at. The only notable option we can find for less on the 13-inch 256GB model is the Best Buy open-box model at $807.99 in “excellent” condition with a full Apple warranty. This is $91 off the asking price and the best deal we can find from a dealer with this sort of reputation, units in this condition, and with a full warranty – it just depends on whether or not you’re willing to go for an open-box unit over a brand new one for $21 in savings. Now let’s take a look at the rest of the configurations in the lineup for folks not interested in the 13-inch 256GB and for price comparison reference – alongside the 13-inch 256GB above, we are now tracking new lows on the 11-inch 256GB and 512GB models: 11-inch M3 iPad Air 128GB from $554 (Reg. $599) 11-inch M3 iPad Air 256GB from $642 (Reg. $699) 11-inch M3 iPad Air 512GB from $829 (Reg. $899) 11-inch M3 iPad Air 1TB from $1,027 (Reg. $1,099) 13-inch M3 iPad Air 128GB from $738 (Reg. $799) 13-inch M3 iPad Air 256GB from $829 (Reg. $899) 13-inch M3 iPad Air 512GB from $1,047 (Reg. $1,099) 13-inch M3 iPad Air 1TB from $1,229 (Reg. $1,299) Scope out our launch coverage on the new M3 iPad Air for a closer look. Apple’s upgraded 24GB M4 MacBook Air just hit the all-time low at $1,272 (Up to $139 off), more While yesterday we spotted the 15-inch models and the entry-level variant dropping to a new all-time low at Amazon, this morning we are focused on the best price ever for the 13-inch 24GB M4 MacBook Air. Prices have been slowly falling below the MSRP across the lineup, but the new 13-inch 24GB model with the new 512GB SSD is now starting at $1,272 shipped. Regularly $1,399, this is $127 off the going rate, a new all-time low, and the best price we can find in new condition online. While the best price available right now on this particularly configuration lands on the Midnight model – this colorway is seeing notable prices and new all-time lows on all of the 13-inch variants available on Amazon starting from $911.42 right now, you will also find the 13-inch 24GB model in the Sky Blue treatment at its best price to date as well down at $1,286 shipped. This upgraded 13-inch model that typically sells for $1,399, which is still currently sitting at full price over at Best Buy where an open-box unit will cost you nearly as much at $1,259.99, or $139 off, with a full Apple warranty attached, is not only at its best price ever but it is also delivering the deepest deal we have tracked to date on brand-new condition M4 MacBook Airs. Now let’s scope out the entire configuration lineup at Amazon, as many of the prices have dropped (again) from yesterday’s mentions – the base model is touch less much like the model featured above, and the entry-level 15-inch is now $100 off at a new all-time low. 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/256GB from $911 (Reg. $999) 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB from $1,099 (Reg. $1,199) 13-inch M4 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB from $1,272 (Reg. $1,399) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/256GB $1,099 (Reg. $1,199) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 16GB/512GB $1,279 (Reg. $1,399) 15-inch M4 MacBook Air 24GB/512GB $1,459 (Reg. $1,599) Apple’s new 11-inch iPad (A16) returns to Amazon lows today from $320 Twelve South’s Apple Find My PlugBug USB-C Wall Charger returns to Amazon all-time low at $43 (Reg. $70) Twelve South’s metal/walnut wood HiRise Pro monitor stand with storage hits $80 Amazon all-time low Skip the Apple tax: Your M4 Mac Mini will love LG’s UltraFine 4K monitor at $230 (Save $120) Your M4 Mac mini will love Samsung’s M8 Smart Monitor with onboard webcam at $300 off Today’s accessories and charging deals: Amazon brings back one of its best prices of the year on all black Apple Watch Ultra 2 models at $730 Amazon is bringing back the black Apple Watch Ultra 2 deals, and now undercutting the spring sale price from last week. You’ll now find all three of the stock satin black titanium configurations that debuted last fall down at $729.99 shipped, including the Black Ocean Band, the Black Trail Loop, and the Dark Green Alpine Loop models. Now within $1 of the lowest price we have tracked on new-condition units all year on Amazon, you’ll want to head below for more details. There were some offers in the $719 range on the black Ultra 2 at Amazon for Black Friday and the holidays last year, but anything under $740 since then has been notable. While we were recently tracking some notable open-box listings at Best Buy to nab these same configurations for less, those deals have come and gone now with most of them landing at prices higher than Amazon’s new listing we are featuring above. You will find some “good” and “fair” condition units there for less, but we tend to only recommend going for the “excellent” condition Best Buy open-box units – it’s sort of hard to justify spending $600 or more on something that might come scratched or dented, even if you can barely see it. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to make its worldwide debut this fall alongside the next-generation iPhone, and we wouldn’t blame you for just holding off until then. But for me, Apple Watch, and especially the Ultra models are really more of a multi-year investment and there’s frankly no telling what pricing or deals might look like through the end of 2025 on the latest series 3 models. Either way, you’ll want to scope some of our coverage on 9to5Mac before you make a final decision on any of this: AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are $79 off today (Best Buy certified refurbished) Tested: Arc’s aerospace-grade metal Pulse AirPods Pro 2 case – it really is as gorgeous as it looks Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel