News Microsoft Was Both Xbox and PlayStation’s Top Q3 FY2025 Publisher by Pre-Orders and Pre-Installs Xbox saw a whopping 500 million-plus monthly active users across all of its games in the fiscal year's third quarter, which ran from January to February. Posted By Shubhankar Parijat | On 01st, May. 2025 Though Xbox’s own hardware marketshare has rapidly and consistently declined in recent years, Microsoft is continuing to see impressive growth. The company has fully transitioned into being a multiplatorm publisher, having released several major first-party Xbox titles for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch over the last year (the former in particular)- and is now reaping the benefits. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed (via Tom Warren on Twitter) in the company’s recent quarterly fiscal briefing that for Q3 of fiscal year 2024-25, which ran from January to the end of March, Xbox was the “top publisher” by pre-orders and pre-installs not only on the Xbox Store, but also the PlayStation Store. Having lined up the likes of Age of Mythology: Retold, Forza Horizon 5, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the PS5 in the early months of 2025, that doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Meanwhile, PC Game Pass also saw a 45 percent year-on-year bump in its revenue, while cloud gaming surpassed a collective 150 million hours played by its entire userbase, setting a record and marking the first time that it has seen those numbers. Significantly, across all first-party Microsoft titles on all platforms (so also including PlayStation, Switch, and mobile in addition to Xbox and PC), the company saw over 500 million monthly active users during the quarter. Tagged With: Atomfall Publisher:Rebellion Developments Developer:Rebellion Developments Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More Monster Hunter Wilds Publisher:Capcom Developer:Capcom Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More South of Midnight Publisher:Microsoft Developer:Compulsion Games Platforms:Xbox Series X, PCView More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! Microsoft Was Both Xbox and PlayStation’s Top Q3 FY2025 Publisher by Pre-Orders and Pre-Installs Xbox saw a whopping 500 million-plus monthly active users across all of its games in the fiscal year's third q... Shovel Knight Dig Launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on May 15 The Wicked Wish expansion, which will add new content for free, will also launch for new and existing platform... Codemasters is “Pausing Development Plans on Future Rally Titles” Codemasters says it has "reached the end of the road working on WRC," and that it has paused all future plans ... Borderlands 4 Adds 3 New Weapon Manufacturers, Licensed Parts, and Ordnance Slot Guns can now drop with components from multiple weapon manufacturers, leading to much more loot diversity than... Borderlands 4 Gameplay Showcases New Traversal Methods, Story Mission, and More New planet Kairos offers four large zones to seamlessly explore with side activities like Silos, dungeons, and... Assassin’s Creed Shadows Year 1 Roadmap Reveals New Quests, Difficulty Options, and New Game Plus May sees the addition of new parkour moves for Naoe, Photo Mode features, quality-of-life improvements, and mo... View More

Stencil Mailing His Own Damn Business Member Oct 30, 2017 13,315 USA I've never understood it. Tale as old as time, I know. I could probably just google it and find a dozen articles and previous threads about it, but I wanted to make my own thread about it. I remember never being interested in the series, I only had a PSX and then eventually a Gamecube. On PS1 I was playing JRPGs. But on Gamecube I wanted to try it all, it was such a quirky (and small) ecosystem of games. Twin Snakes really caught my eye, it looked cutting edge and I knew that people liked Metal Gear, so what the hell. I loved it! It made me want to try out the rest of the series! But then I read all these miserable gamers telling me how terrible it was, coupled with the fact that the *lore* of it all is just, immense, apparently, kind of soured me on continuing. So, in this day of our lord 2025, is Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes still as reviled as it was upon release? Was the hate undeserved? Should I try more MGS games? Enlighten me. edit: I see all you haters just plunking your little votes in. Come on, tell me why you hate it! I want to LEARN!  Threadkular Member Dec 29, 2017 2,653 I never played it, but I was on the old message board and Dennis Dyack was kind of… a lot. It led me to stay away from Silicon Knights games. He was sort of right about one console future though.  Wrexis Member Nov 4, 2017 28,923 Hate is a strong word. I dislike it. I feel the MGS2 enhancements make the game stupidly easy, and the cutscenes are insanely over the top. I can buy Snake chucking a grenade into a tank in MGS1, I can't buy him jumping on a missile from a Hind-D in Twin Snakes. I also prefer the dialogue from the original game, accents and original Ninja voice actor ftw.  Darkwing-Buck Member Oct 25, 2017 31,613 Los Angeles, CA The first person shooting made it super easy and the tone/cutscenes were anime-fied compared to the grounded original. I do get people preferring the OG. That said, I loved it too lol and I grew up with that version over the PS1 original which was more from my older brother's time.  Mandos Member Nov 27, 2017 38,804 Some think accepting it means they've admitted the whole series is camp instead of a serious deal(it's not, it's all camp! Taking it serious is silly in the first place) Tho there are some major presentation changes that definitely are gonna be taste dependent, but I've never managed to fully beat either so I'm not a full authority  Jonathan Lanza "I've made a Gigantic mistake" Member Feb 8, 2019 8,684 - Worse voice actors - Worse visuals - MGS2 controls do not work with the layout of Shadow Moses as it renders the game far too easy Simple as  UraMallas Member Nov 1, 2017 24,249 United States It's the only one I like because it clearly understands it a video game ass video game.   KarmaCow Member Oct 25, 2017 10,007 The short of it is that the MGS2 mechanics are thoughtlessly added to the game and the cutscenes are too over the top ridiculous even for MGS. And yes, before anyone says it, I know Kojima is the one who pushed for the cutscene direction. I think especially now that PS1 graphics are in vogue as distinct artstyle, MGS1 holds up better.  Kard8p3 Member Oct 25, 2017 7,706 its the superior MGS1 tbh, as much crazy shit happens later on it fits right in   TechnoSyndro Member May 15, 2019 3,275 It's the perfect example of how just plopping new mechanics into an older game doesn't automatically make it "better."   Caracalamity Member Sep 19, 2024 63 USA The gameplay wasn't tuned or adjusted for the MGS2 style first person gameplay and it showed. The AI basically didn't even react while the player got a massive new way to stomp the game into the ground game and it felt very broken and incomplete from a mechanical point of view. Like you were playing an alpha where the enemies didn't react to half the things they should have. And the tradeoff was just to watch snake do really dumb michael bay stuff like doing backflips off of missiles that no one asked for.   DeliciousSunnyD! Member Oct 31, 2017 10,984 The original Metal Gear Solid was played mostly serious with a hint of goofiness. Twin Snakes is played mostly goofy with a hint of seriousness. I prefer the art, the gameplay, and the presentation of the original game by far. By far.   Transistor This isn't going to go the way you think Administrator Oct 25, 2017 41,372 Washington, D.C. Wrexis said: Hate is a strong word. I dislike it. I feel the MGS2 enhancements make the game stupidly easy, and the cutscenes are insanely over the top. I can buy Snake chucking a grenade into a tank in MGS1, I can't buy him jumping on a missile from a Hind-D in Twin Snakes. I also prefer the dialogue from the original game, accents and original Ninja voice actor ftw. Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is me.   intradictus Member Sep 17, 2023 554 Wrexis said: Hate is a strong word. I dislike it. I feel the MGS2 enhancements make the game stupidly easy, and the cutscenes are insanely over the top. I can buy Snake chucking a grenade into a tank in MGS1, I can't buy him jumping on a missile from a Hind-D in Twin Snakes. I also prefer the dialogue from the original game, accents and original Ninja voice actor ftw. Click to expand... Click to shrink... All this here, plus Dennis Dyack   PallasKitten Member Jul 11, 2022 1,738 I played it for the first time back in 2020. I didn't hate it, but it just felt like a worse version of MGS1. Sure, graphics are better, but the tone just feels... Off. Not to mention, I'm not sure if it was just me, but the game felt insanely dark (and there were no brightness options, if I remember correctly). As others have said already, it also just felt incredibly over the top, even for Metal Gear standards. Gameplay wise it also just didn't feel "right". Same for the voice acting, presentation, everything, really. There wasn't anything about it that made me prefer it to the original PS1 game, and I can't say I think I'll ever have the desire to revisit it, whereas I can see myself replaying the PS1 version again at some point.  Barrel Cannon It's Pronounced "Aerith" The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 11,041 Kojima had a heavy part to play in twin snakes being tonally the way it was. It never bothered me too much because I view it as a great alternative way to play the game instead of as a definitive way. It fumbled some things but improved it in so many ways that I'm able to accept its flaws.   Beary Jams Member Nov 5, 2017 494 Portland, OR I absolutely love Twin Snakes but I'm sure it's because I played it before the original. I do think people are weirdly overly critical of the choreography in the cutscenes. I'll give you that Snake back flipping off a rocket is pretty silly, but people act like it goes beyond the wacky shit Kojima would do when Kojima's next game MGS3 had a woman ride a motorcycle up a mans body. I get some of the criticism around music, and definitely dislike the lower usage of the Best is Yet to Come throughout the game, but my goodness the individual boss themes is such a big upgrade for me. Psycho Mantis and the Ninja for me greatly benefit from their fights having their own unique music. I'll also 100% stand by the voice acting in Twin Snakes being better than the original.   Ridley327 Member Oct 25, 2017 15,683 Georgia (the state, not the country) To be honest, TTS has been out of circulation for so long that you really can't get a definitive opinion on it anymore as there's just too few folks that can really go to bat or swing at it in the numbers to reach a consensus. This could eventually be solved if Konami works something out with Nintendo about possibly including it on a future collection with other Metal Gear titles or working out to have it included on GCN NSO on Switch 2 if the exclusivity still matters to them, but it's kind of stuck in limbo right now. Personally speaking, I found it to be a pretty underwhelming remake all around as it seemed to be a game that wanted to be as faithful as humanly possible but had a hard time really justifying being the ideal way to experience that story. Yes, it has better graphics on the whole and the MGS2 mechanics do make things play a bit smoother on average, but it just never snapped the way the PS1 original did and the design of MGS1 made it so that the MGS2 mechanics just never felt quite right for the game, on top of not being nearly as robust as they were in MGS2 since that was designed from the bottom-up around them. The response to the cutscenes always felt really silly in light of just how goddamned unhinged the series was starting to get anyway in that department (like, there's no one who can call the missile hopping in TTS absurd and then be perfectly fine with EVA's bike-fu or fighting a goddamned bee man in MGS3 later in the year), but I will say that the soundtrack and VO were both equally major downgrades from the original game that I don't think you'll find too many people disagreeing with. It doesn't help that it came off the heels of two supremely well received remakes in Resident Evil and Metroid: Zero Mission, which weren't afraid to update the gameplay on top of making bolder changes, so it was always going to come up short as a result of being too safe in comparison.  Zips Member Oct 25, 2017 4,040 It's... fine. I don't hate it, but I also don't prefer it over the original either. The cutscenes were just way too over the top, even by MGS standards.  Crossing Eden Member Oct 26, 2017 58,214 OP I believe it was because backporting MGS2's features into MGS1 sort of compromised a lot of the original game's challenges. And in general people didn't agree with the new cutscene director's choices even though Kojima hired the guy in the first place and encouraged him not to be faithful but to do what he's good at cinema wise. Darkwing-Buck said: The first person shooting made it super easy and the tone/cutscenes were anime-fied compared to the grounded original. Click to expand... Click to shrink...   spookyduzt Drive-In Mutant The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 11,828 It was made during a time when everyone thought Ryuhei Kitamura was hotshit, which was unfortunately before everyone realized he was just hot shit.   ThereAreFourNaan Member Nov 8, 2017 14,966 It's a bunch of sore losers who are AGAINST too human.   Vourlis Member Aug 14, 2022 5,757 United States The cutscenes, VA, and music, are just mostly a massive downgrade. The gameplay is far too easy. They needed to better balance the difficulty on it.  BasilZero Member Oct 25, 2017 39,746 Omni I wouldnt mind playing it again, hopefully it becomes playable in the future on modern hardware in some form whether its NSO GCN or ports/remasters. I love MGS2 - my favorite one in the series in terms of design, visuals and gameplay.  Silverhand Member Oct 26, 2023 2,923 I like it. I think it puts the game more in line with Kojima's desire for over-the-topness   Transistor This isn't going to go the way you think Administrator Oct 25, 2017 41,372 Washington, D.C. ThereAreFourNaan said: It's a bunch of sore losers who are AGAINST too human. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Better Late Than Never - Penny Arcade Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary. www.penny-arcade.com Too Human was trash  eraFROMAN One Winged Slayer Member Mar 12, 2019 3,454 Hating Twin Snakes is wasted energy, its a comedy version of MGS1 that you can play on GameCube It's completely fine and I really like it  Wrexis Member Nov 4, 2017 28,923 Beary Jams said: people act like it goes beyond the wacky shit Kojima would do when Kojima's next game MGS3 had a woman ride a motorcycle up a mans body. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ridley327 said: (like, there's no one who can call the missile hopping in TTS absurd and then be perfectly fine with EVA's bike-fu or fighting a goddamned bee man in MGS3 later in the year), but I will say that the soundtrack and VO were both equally major downgrades from the original game that I don't think you'll find too many people disagreeing with. It doesn't help that it came off the heels of two supremely well received remakes in Resident Evil and Metroid: Zero Mission, which weren't afraid to update the gameplay on top of making bolder changes, so it was always going to come up short as a result of being too safe in comparison. Click to expand... Click to shrink... So here's the thing - I don't like those scenes either. As the series went on the cutscenes got more and more crazier and I think they lost a certain feel that was present in MGS1 and MGS2. Do the Twin Snakes scenes fit the series? Sure. Do they fit MGS up until that point? No.  RagnarokX Member Oct 26, 2017 17,652 1. First person makes the game piss easy. 2. The voice acting is worse. 3. The music is worse. 4. The cutscenses are worse.  WhiteRabbitEXE Member Oct 25, 2017 14,818 Arizona Every time I see people complaining about how over the top it is, I'm like… … have you… … have you seen the rest of the franchise?  ShroudOfFate One Winged Slayer Member Oct 30, 2017 1,821 It's awful. It is the jumping the shark (or missile as it were) moment for the series. Is MGS 100% grounded? No but Snake/Big Boss aren't the ones riding missiles. That gets saved for the cyborgs which makes some sense. They went over the top and it's deeply stupid. From a gameplay standpoint, the new camera completely breaks the game. They didn't alter any of the enemy behavior to be able to counter the new controls and makes the game so much easier. It's nice to be able to see Shadow Moses in its heyday in higher fidelity though.  mute ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 25, 2017 29,205 I've tried starting games and just found it off putting for some reason. WhiteRabbitEXE said: Every time I see people complaining about how over the top it is, I'm like… … have you… … have you seen the rest of the franchise? Click to expand... Click to shrink... I mean I don't feel too great about it there either.   -JD- Avenger Oct 27, 2017 4,144 It's peak early 2000s post-Matrix cinematic excess. bullet time, extreme flips, missile jumping, etc   TechnoSyndro Member May 15, 2019 3,275 WhiteRabbitEXE said: Every time I see people complaining about how over the top it is, I'm like… … have you… … have you seen the rest of the franchise? Click to expand... Click to shrink... please name a similar feat solid snake performs in one of the other games to kick-flipping off of a missile   Timu Member Oct 25, 2017 18,344 Yeah I guess they compare it to the original for why it's hated. Funny enough it's the 1st MGS game I played.  Roliq ▲ Legend ▲ Member Sep 23, 2018 7,248 The arguments about the over the top cutscenes are funny now considering the shit Raiden does   Junker Member Oct 27, 2017 89 It was my intro to Metal Gear Solid because I never owned a PlayStation, only an N64. I was blown away and bought a PS2 soon after with my first paycheck from my first job to play MGS2 before Snake Eater came out. I played the original MGS eventually and yeah it's better but Twin Snakes holds a special place.   Extra Sauce Member Oct 27, 2017 6,972 if you could bottle what makes Hideo Kojima one of the most celebrated video game auteurs in the history of the medium and sell it, then Twin Snakes would be as beloved as the original Metal Gear Solid. but you can't.  TheWooniestWoona Member Oct 27, 2017 7,271 I think the PS1 original looks better. Yeah it's not better on a technical level, but I find it more pleasing to look at.  Ridley327 Member Oct 25, 2017 15,683 Georgia (the state, not the country) TechnoSyndro said: please name a similar feat solid snake performs in one of the other games to kick-flipping off of a missile Click to expand... Click to shrink... I mean, he literally opens MGS2 by jumping off of a bridge in near hurricane-level amounts of downpour onto a moving tanker and manages to hit a perfect hero pose once he lands, survives said tanker being ripped apart when a giant robot escapes, and ends the game ripping off his handcuffs with nothing but his own determination to jump one more time after said robot in the middle of an ocean, and somehow manages to make it back to NYC to give Raiden a pep talk. Like, I get you guys like Snake as a protagonist and all that, but he's always been incredibly anime.  Crushed Member Oct 25, 2017 8,139 One of the things that never gets brought up is that they did actually change some of the standard enemy AI: the riot guards that appear on an alert are far more aggressive and honestly more threatening than nearly every other regular guards in the series because you barely have any more movement options to avoid them and they're more lethal in a head on fight. Extreme is genuinely really hard, like European Extreme levels! Another big reason is that, beneath genuine complaints about broken boss battles, or the funky cutscenes, or the music changes, is that Sony console warriors circa 2003/04 were fucking furious that a Metal Gear game wasn't coming to PlayStation, and would openly complain that they were owed it and Kiddy Kidtendo was stealing it from them for their Kiddy LameCube   Mr. Keith Member Oct 31, 2017 1,971 I adored it when I first played it, and it wasn't until I started reading comments on the internet that I found out people thought it was a bad remake. People go and say MGS: Twin Snakes is too anime and then in the same breath worship the ground MGS4 walks on.  Quinton Staff Writer at TheGamer Verified Oct 25, 2017 23,025 Midgar, With Love I don't like its sterility. I don't care for its approach to cutscene choreography.   SolidSnakex Member Oct 25, 2017 27,682 Ridley327 said: I mean, he literally opens MGS2 by jumping off of a bridge in near hurricane-level amounts of downpour onto a moving tanker and manages to hit a perfect hero pose once he lands, survives said tanker being ripped apart when a giant robot escapes, and ends the game ripping off his handcuffs with nothing but his own determination to jump one more time after said robot in the middle of an ocean, and somehow manages to make it back to NYC to give Raiden a pep talk. Like, I get you guys like Snake as a protagonist and all that, but he's always been incredibly anime. Click to expand... Click to shrink... He bungee jumps off the bridge and uses the reverse momentum to kick himself onto the tanker View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpRCSU0lXZ0 Yeah, it's obviously over the top. But there's a huge difference between that and kickflipping a missile.  Caracalamity Member Sep 19, 2024 63 USA Mr. Keith said: People go and say MGS: Twin Snakes is too anime and then in the same breath worship the ground MGS4 walks on. Click to expand... Click to shrink... ehhh. By MGS4 a lot of people thought the franchise had gotten really stupid and weren't happy with the direction it went. People who didn't like them backporting the tone of the newer metal gears into solid generally were not big MGS4 fans.  Transistor This isn't going to go the way you think Administrator Oct 25, 2017 41,372 Washington, D.C. Mr. Keith said: People go and say MGS: Twin Snakes is too anime and then in the same breath worship the ground MGS4 walks on. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't like Twin Snakes and I don't like MGS4   Belphegor Member Sep 24, 2021 1,371 It was okay. the hate is overblown. some of the hate is probably console warrior stuff for being a GC exclusive at the time.   ThereAreFourNaan Member Nov 8, 2017 14,966 Ridley327 said: I mean, he literally opens MGS2 by jumping off of a bridge in near hurricane-level amounts of downpour onto a moving tanker and manages to hit a perfect hero pose once he lands, survives said tanker being ripped apart when a giant robot escapes, and ends the game ripping off his handcuffs with nothing but his own determination to jump one more time after said robot in the middle of an ocean, and somehow manages to make it back to NYC to give Raiden a pep talk. Like, I get you guys like Snake as a protagonist and all that, but he's always been incredibly anime. Click to expand... Click to shrink... IMO it's giving the game away to frame it as "show another example where he is this unrealistically acrobatic" because I think everyone is aware that if we broadened that to "show another example where he is this unrealistic" it's trivially easy to find them.  Zebesian-X Member Dec 3, 2018 24,966 I think it'd be easier to appreciate as an alternate take now that MGS1 is widely available everywhere. Hopefully Konami doesn't ignore it in the Master Collection   colorboy Member Apr 5, 2025 98 It's the most metal gear game of the metal gear games.  

The Forever Winter is far and away one of my favorite games I’ve played in 2025. Since publishing my review in March, Fun Dog Studios has continued to roll out several quality of life improvements and content additions. A recent update includes several new character animations, map variants, and a new unlockable questline designed around a powerful weapon.But when I think back on the hundreds of hours I’ve put into playing The Forever Winter so far, it’s the core visual elements that continue to draw me back in. I love the game’s overall look and character design. It’s all a byproduct of an exquisite mash-up of influences, drawing from Japanese anime, kitbashed model kits, military sci-fi novels, and apocalyptic landscape portraiture. The result is an aesthetic that at once pays homage to its forebearers while looking unlike anything else in gaming.Riloe, a YouTuber and video essayist who specializes in breaking down the mechanics of extraction shooters (and whose videos first put The Forever Winter on my radar), recently released a new video dedicated to analyzing the game’s character design. Even if you’re not an ardent convert to The Forever Winter’s macabre universe or a seasoned scav, you’ll undoubtedly get something out of watching Riloe’s discussion. They dig into the aesthetics and history behind the game, giving fans of worldbuilding, speculative design, holistic art direction, and creative craftsmanship a lot to enjoy.Throughout the near half-hour video, Riloe does a fantastic job of drawing connections between the disparate influences behind The Forever Winter’s design, from the stylized works of Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!) to the gritty, rough ’n tumble aesthetic of Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 and Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men. It’s difficult to hone in on just one favorite section of Riloe’s breakdown, but I personally was particularly fascinated with the story of how Fun Dog Studios found the right tonal balance for the game’s dark yet grimly hilarious worldbuilding. That, and hearing about the sheer amount of care put into the industrial design of the helmets of Europa, one of the three major factions of The Forever Winter’s universe.The Forever Winter’s 0.4 update, released in April, introduced a slew of new systems and improvements, including a new cooperative weapon system in the form of a powerful railgun capable of taking down enemies that were previously invincible. That builds on a “night mode” variant for the Stairway region added back in March, as well as paid cosmetics for the Scav Girl, Shaman, and Bag Man characters. Something that hasn’t changed is Fun Dog Studios CEO Miles Williams commitment (made back in August 2024) to feature no pay to win solutions in the game; new map regions, weapons, and missions will be added to the game free of charge during its early access period. New characters are also included in this, but optional skin packs will be sold, with all proceeds going directly to the game’s character team to create additional skin packs in the future.See More:

Menu Home News Hardware Gaming Mobile Finance Deals Reviews How To Wccftech EVFinance Tesla Board Had Begun Searching For Elon Musk’s Replacement Earlier This Year As Political Fallout Mounted, And Tesla’s Head Of Battery Architecture Just Quit Rohail Saleem • Apr 30, 2025 at 10:36pm EDT This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy. Elon Musk was long considered a critical asset for Tesla, so much so that his leadership continually accrued a sizable valuation premium for the high-momentum stock. Now, however, it seems Musk has become a liability for Tesla, if the Wall Street Journal's latest report is anything to go by. To wit, WSJ is now reporting that Tesla's board actively started searching for a CEO candidate earlier this year to replace Elon Musk, going so far as to reach out to several firms that specialize in executive placements. The board had apparently also laid down the proverbial gauntlet, demanding that Musk prioritize his role at Tesla over his DOGE-related activities. By all accounts, Elon Musk appears to have complied by publicly declaring during the recent Q1 earnings call that his DOGE work was "mostly done," and that he would spend a lot more time at Tesla from May onwards. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is unclear if Elon Musk's earnings call declaration was sufficient to assuage the Tesla board's concerns. For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Elon Musk's overt political role at the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spawned a material backlash and introduced partisanship into Tesla's sales calculus in the US. Moreover, Elon Musk also alienated a large segment of the German population by vigorously supporting the far-right AfD party in recent elections. Nonetheless, at the recent earnings call, the EV giant's CFO attempted to underplay the supposed brand damage to Tesla from Elon Musk's political activities, asserting that the "unwarranted hostility" only had an impact in certain markets. Elon Musk then further clarified that "absent from macro issues, we don't see any reduction in demand." TESLA'S HEAD OF BATTERY ARCHITECTURE VINEET MEHTA DEPARTS - THE INFORMATION — First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) April 30, 2025 Meanwhile, today's report from the WSJ came just hours after the departure of Vineet Mehta, the head of battery architecture at Tesla. This back-to-back adverse reporting is currently taking a toll on Tesla's share price, with the stock declining over 3 percent on Robinhood's overnight trading platform. Subscribe to get an everyday digest of the latest technology news in your inbox Follow us on Topics Sections Company Some posts on wccftech.com may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com © 2025 WCCF TECH INC. 700 - 401 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

أطلقت TCL تلفزيونها الذكي الجديد 85″ Q5K QLED، والمتوفر الآن في الولايات المتحدة عبر Best Buy بسعر تنافسي. يتميز الجهاز بدعم Dolby Vision وDolby Atmos، مع انتقال إلى نظام Google TV بدلاً من Fire TV، مما يجعله خيارًا حديثًا وبأسعار معقولة ضمن فئة تلفزيونات 4K.يُعرف الطراز برقم 85Q5K، ويتشابه مع سابقه 85Q550F الذي أُطلق في 2024، يتميز Q5K بشاشة 4K LED بمعدل تحديث أصلي 60 هرتز وإضاءة خلفية LED مباشرة. تشمل الميزات تقنية QLED لألوان زاهية، Motion Rate 240 مع تقنية MEMC لتحسين الحركة، ودعم Dolby Vision، HDR10+، وHLG، مما يضمن تجربة مشاهدة غامرة، الاختلاف الرئيسي عن الجيل السابق هو استخدام Google TV، مما يتيح الوصول إلى تطبيقات البث مثل Netflix، Apple TV، وDisney+، مع دعم Google Assistant وAmazon Alexa للأوامر الصوتية. يدعم التلفزيون أيضًا Google Chromecast لعكس الشاشة لاسلكيًا عبر Wi-Fi 5 أو Bluetooth 5.2،  يحتوي على ثلاثة منافذ HDMI (أحدها بتقنية eARC)، منفذ LAN، وUSB-A، بالإضافة إلى مكبرات صوت مدمجة تدعم Dolby Atmos وDTS Virtual:X. يتميز بإطار معدني رفيع لمظهر بدون حواف، يُباع TCL 85″ Q5K حاليًا في Best Buy US بسعر 749.99 دولار، مقارنة بسعر مستقبلي متوقع يبلغ 1,199.99 دولار، مما يوفر للعملاء 450 دولارًا،  لا توجد معلومات واضحة حول توفر أحجام أخرى، لكن الطراز يُعد خيارًا جذابًا مقارنة بمنافسين مثل Samsung Q8F (يبدأ من 1,997.99 دولار للحجم 85 بوصة)، خاصة مع سعره الاقتصادي ونظام Google TV المرن. يُظهر Q5K التزام TCL بتقديم تقنيات متطورة بأسعار تنافسية في سوق التلفزيونات الذكية لعام 2025.المصدر:

Senior Tax Manager – U.S. Tax ComplianceXsollaLos Angeles, United States2 hours agoApplyABOUT USAt Xsolla, we believe that great games begin as ideas, driven by the curiosity, dedication, and grit of creators around the world. Our mission is to empower these visionaries by providing the support and resources they need to bring their games to life. We are committed to leveling the playing field, ensuring that every creator has the opportunity to share their passion with the world.Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Berlin, Seoul, and beyond, we partner with industry leaders like Valve, Twitch, and Ubisoft to clear the paths for innovation in gaming. Our global reach spans over 200 geographies, offering more than 700 payment methods in 130+ currencies.Longevity Opportunity Vision Enjoy the game!ABOUT YOUWe are seeking a seasoned and strategic Senior Tax Manager – U.S. Tax Compliance to lead our U.S. tax compliance operations. This position will manage tax provision, compliance, and reporting while actively supporting transfer pricing, international tax issues, and indirect taxes. Ideal candidates will bring a robust background in corporate tax—especially within the IT or Fintech industries—and a passion for operational excellence, collaboration, and process improvement.Key ResponsibilitiesOversee global tax compliance, including U.S. federal, state, and international income tax filings.Manage and review U.S. federal and state income tax returns, estimated payments, and extensions.Review and approve tax-related journal entries and account reconciliations.Drive U.S. international tax compliance, including foreign tax credit calculations.Manage transfer pricing strategies and documentation, ensuring compliance with U.S. and global requirements.Lead property and business tax filings.Monitor U.S. and international tax developments to ensure compliance with evolving tax laws.Partner with Legal, FP&A, Accounting on tax planning, and regulatory compliance.Develop tax strategies to reduce liability, improve compliance, and mitigate audit risks.Lead income tax audits, manage tax notices, and support responses to tax authorities.Manage external tax advisors and ensure timely, accurate deliverables.Lead or support special projects and continuous improvements to the tax function.QualificationsBachelor’s degree in Accounting or Business (Master’s in Tax or LLM preferred).CPA; strong preference for candidates with public accounting experience.10+ years of progressive experience in tax compliance and reporting, with exposure to U.S. and international taxation.Deep expertise in U.S. corporate income tax law, ASC 740, and related tax accounting principles.Knowledge of GAAP, IFRS, and global tax concepts (transfer pricing, international structuring).Excellent communication and project management skills; ability to collaborate across functions and lead initiatives.Proven ability to manage relationships with auditors, regulators, and external tax advisors.Familiarity with NetSuite ERP is preferred.Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:Xsolla is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by law.We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with the Fair Chance Act.Criminal History Consideration:For the Growth Marketing Manager, we will conduct a background check that may include the following:Criminal history checkEmployment verificationEducation verificationCredit history checkProfessional license verificationRelevance to Job Responsibilities:The background check is relevant to this position because the following role responsibilities include creating assets for branding, and accessing confidential company data.Rights Under the Fair Chance Act:Applicants are encouraged to inquire about their rights under the Fair Chance Act. If you have questions regarding our hiring practices, please contact careers@xsolla.com. Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

I can already feel how much sleep I’m about to lose when Balatro becomes one of the free monthly games for PlayStation Plus in May. The 2024 GOTY contender and viral high score chase sensation is only a year old and about to win over a whole new group of converts to its Joker-worshipping cult. Suggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most Played Games On Steam Deck: February 2024 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most Played Games On Steam Deck: February 2024 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: February 2024 EditionBalatro will become free to download on PlayStation 4 and 5 for paying PS Plus subscribers starting May 6. Ark: Survival Ascended, the remaster of the long-running sci-fi dino survival sim, is also arriving that day along with the excellent boomer-shooter-inspired FPS Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. A decent month for base level PS Plus members indeed (subscribers have until May 5 to download the current batch of games including RoboCop: Rogue City). For anyone unfamiliar with Balatro, the deck-building roguelike has you trying to reach certain point thresholds by making poker hands. Simple enough, except a bunch of ever-shifting Joker modifiers, multipliers, and other twists augment your scoring capability. You purchase new cards or upgrades between rounds in order to get a deck that delivers scores high enough to beat a revolving circus of mini-bosses. It’s a remix of poker that borrows from Diablo, Slay the Spire, and more to craft a “one more turn” machine that’s hard to dislodge from.I poured dozens of hours into the PC version when it launched on Steam in February 2024, and later dabbled a bit with the mobile version which is particularly insidious in how it makes random pockets of time throughout the day completely disappear. Based on that you’d probably think I wouldn’t be downloading the PS Plus version, and I wish you were right. I can already hear the siren call of that Platinum trophy though. Balatro is a perfect right-before-bed challenge for streaming on the PS Portal or smartphone, at least until “right before bed” turns into birds chirping outside the window at 4:00 a.m. .

Asset Bundles are archive files containing assets for your game. They are used to split your game into logical blocks, allowing you to deliver and update content on demand while making your game build smaller. They’re also commonly used to deliver patches and DLCs for your game. Asset Bundles can contain all sorts of assets, such as Prefabs, Materials, Textures, Audio Clips, Scenes, and more, but they can’t include scripts.Previously, it was necessary to build Asset Bundles manually, marking each asset accordingly, then tracking and resolving dependencies by yourself at runtime. Nowadays, all of this is taken care of by the Addressables system, which will build Asset Bundles for you based on the Asset Groups you define, as well as loading and handling dependencies transparently.While there are a lot of guides on how Asset Bundles work, I’d like to cover some lesser-known aspects of the system, with a focus on game performance, memory runtime usage, and general compatibility.Whenever you attempt to use an asset contained within a bundle, Unity ensures the corresponding bundle is loaded into memory, then in turn loads the asset in memory.While it’s possible to partially load specific assets within an Asset Bundle, the opposite is not allowed. This means that as soon as an asset within an asset bundle is loaded, it can only be unloaded if the entire group of assets is no longer needed.As a result, if your bundle structure is not ideal, you will often see increasing runtime memory usage as the game goes on, leading to deteriorating performance and potential crashes. For this reason, it’s best to avoid bundles with a large amount of assets in it, as it will end up taking up a lot of runtime memory and turn into a bottleneck for your game. Instead, aim to pack assets based on how frequently they are going to be loaded and used together.Asset Bundles are generally forward compatible, so bundles built with older versions of Unity will in most cases work on games built on newer versions of Unity (assuming you do not strip the TypeTree info, as covered later). The opposite is not true, so bundles built on a version of Unity that’s newer than the one used for your game build are unlikely to load correctly.As the difference in version between the bundle and the engine used for the game build increases, compatibility becomes less likely. There are also cases where the bundle might still be loaded, but the objects contained within the bundle cannot be loaded correctly in the new version of Unity, likely due to a change in the way the objects are serialized, thus creating issues. In that case, you’ll need to rebuild your bundles to maintain compatibility.There’s also a performance cost in loading bundles from a different version of Unity, as covered in the TypeTree section below.For these reasons, it’s recommended to test thoroughly whenever you update the Unity version of your game build against existing Asset Bundles, and to also update them whenever possible.Asset Bundles do not generally offer cross-platform support. While in the Editor, you will be able to load bundles from another target platform, however on-device this will fail.This is still true for bundles that contain assets that are not necessarily platform-specific.The reason for this limitation is that data might be optimized or compressed in ways that only work for the target platform. Also, bundles can contain platform-specific data that should not be shared between different platforms, so this prevents leaking content that is not intended for another platform.The Loading cache is a shared pool of pages where Unity stores recently accessed data for your Asset Bundles. This is global, so it’s shared between all Asset Bundles within your game.This has been introduced fairly recently, I believe on Unity 2021.3, then backported to 2019.4. Before this, Unity relied on separate caches for each Asset Bundle, which resulted in significantly higher runtime memory usage (covered below in “Serialized File Buffers”).By default, this is set to 1MB, but it can be changed by setting AssetBundle.memoryBudgetKB.The default cache size should be enough in most cases, although there are some scenarios where changing it might bring benefits to your game. For example, if you have bundles with a lot of small objects contained within, increasing the cache size might lead to more cache hits, improving performance for your game.Along with your game assets, Asset Bundles include a bunch of extra information and headers, used by Unity to know which assets to load and how, as well as a dedicated cache (depending on the Unity version you are using).A map of the assets in a bundle. It’s what allows you to lookup and load each individual asset in the bundle by name. Its size in memory is normally not a concern, unless you have exceptionally large asset bundles containing thousands of objects.The Preload Table lists the dependencies of each asset contained within your bundle. It’s used by Unity to correctly load and construct assets.This can become quite large if the assets contained in your bundle have a lot of explicit and implicit dependencies, as well as cascading dependencies coming from other bundles. For this reason (and many others), it’s a good idea to design your bundles to minimize the dependency chain.TypeTrees define the serialized layout of the objects contained in the Asset Bundles.Their size depends on how many different types of objects are contained within the bundle. For this reason, it’s a good idea to avoid large bundles where objects of many different types are mixed together.TypeTrees are necessary to maintain compatibility when upgrading the Unity version of your game build while still trying to load Asset Bundles built on older versions of the engine. For example, if the format or the structure of the object have changed, they allow you to do a Safe Binary read so Unity can attempt to load it regardless. This has a performance cost, so in general it’s recommended to update bundles whenever possible when you update the engine.It can optionally be disabled, by setting the BuildAssetBundleOptions.DisableWriteTypeTree flag when building your bundles. This will make your bundles and the related memory overhead smaller, but it also means that you’ll need to rebuild all your bundles whenever you update the engine version of your game build. This is especially painful if you rely on bundles built from your players for user-generated content, so unless you have a very strong reason to do so, it’s recommended to keep TypeTrees enabled.One case where TypeTrees can normally be safely disabled is for bundles included directly in your game build. In this case, upgrading the engine would require making a new game build and new Asset Bundles anyway, so its retrocompatibility aspect isn’t relevant.Each bundle has their own TypeTrees, so having multiple small bundles containing the same type of objects will slightly increase the total size on disk. On the other hand, when loaded, TypeTrees are stored in a global cache in memory, so you won’t incur a higher runtime memory cost if multiple asset bundles are storing the same type of objects.Note: Since Unity 2019.4, this has been replaced by a global, shared Loading cache, as described above.When an Asset Bundle is loaded, Unity allocates internal buffers to store their serialized files into memory.Regular Asset Bundles contain one serialized file, while Streaming Scene Asset Bundles contain up to two files for each scene contained in that bundle. The size of these buffers depends on the platform. On Switch, PlayStation, and Windows RT it will be 128KB, while all other platforms have 14KB buffers.For this reason, it’s best to avoid having a large amount of very small asset bundles, since the memory occupied by these buffers might become significant compared to the assets they actually provide.A CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is used to do checksum validation of your Asset Bundles, ensuring the content delivered to your game is exactly what you expect. CRCs are calculated based on the uncompressed content of the bundle.On consoles, Asset Bundles are normally included as part of the title installation on local storage or downloaded as DLCs, which makes CRC checks unnecessary. On other platforms, such as PC or Mobile, it’s important to do CRC checks on bundles downloaded from a CDN. This is to ensure the file is not corrupted or truncated, leading to potential crashes, and also to avoid potential tampering.CRC checks are fairly expensive in terms of CPU usage, especially on consoles and mobile. For these reasons, it’s normally a good compromise to disable CRC checks on local and on cached bundles, enabling them only on non-cached remote bundles.By default, Unity offers three ways to lookup assets within bundles:Project Relative Path (Assets/Prefabs/Characters/Hero.prefab)Asset Filename (Hero)Asset Filename with Extension (Hero.prefab)While this is convenient, it comes at a cost. In order to support the last two methods, Unity needs to build lookup tables, which can consume a significant amount of memory for large bundles.In addition, loading assets using a different method than Project Relative Path will incur a performance cost, again because of the table lookup required.For these reasons, it’s recommended to avoid using those methods. You can even disable them when the Asset Bundles are built, which will improve loading performance for your asset bundles, and runtime memory usage.To do that, you can set these two flags when building your bundles:BuildAssetBundleOptions.DisableLoadAssetByFileNameBuildAssetBundleOptions.DisableLoadAssetByFileNameWithExtensionTo learn more about asset management, share feedback, or engage with the community and Unity staff, check out the Asset Management forum.

Microsoft launched several new “open” AI models on Wednesday, the most capable of which is competitive with OpenAI’s o3-mini on at least one benchmark. All of the new pemissively licensed models — Phi 4 mini reasoning, Phi 4 reasoning, and Phi 4 reasoning plus — are “reasoning” models, meaning they’re able to spend more time fact-checking solutions to complex problems. They expand Microsoft’s Phi “small model” family, which the company launched a year ago to offer a foundation for AI developers building apps at the edge. Phi 4 mini reasoning was trained on roughly 1 million synthetic math problems generated by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model. Around 3.8 billion parameters in size, Phi 4 mini reasoning is designed for educational applications, Microsoft says, like “embedded tutoring” on lightweight devices. Parameters roughly correspond to a model’s problem-solving skills, and models with more parameters generally perform better than those with fewer parameters. Phi 4 reasoning, a 14-billion-parameter model, was trained using “high-quality” web data as well as “curated demonstrations” from OpenAI’s aforementioned o3-mini. It’s best for math, science, and coding applications, according to Microsoft. As for Phi 4 reasoning plus, it’s Microsoft’s previously-released Phi-4 model adapted into a reasoning model to achieve better accuracy on particular tasks. Microsoft claims that Phi 4 reasoning plus approaches the performance levels of R1, a model with significantly more parameters (671 billion). The company’s internal benchmarking also has Phi 4 reasoning plus matching o3-mini on OmniMath, a math skills test. Phi 4 mini reasoning, Phi 4 reasoning, and Phi 4 reasoning plus are available on the AI dev platform Hugging Face accompanied by detailed technical reports. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 BOOK NOW “Using distillation, reinforcement learning, and high-quality data, these [new] models balance size and performance,” wrote Microsoft in a blog post. “They are small enough for low-latency environments yet maintain strong reasoning capabilities that rival much bigger models. This blend allows even resource-limited devices to perform complex reasoning tasks efficiently.”

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More By now, many enterprises have begun exploring AI agents and determining whether deploying them is a viable option for their business. But many still equate agents with something most companies have had for years: automation.  Automation pioneer UiPath sees agents and orchestrating the entire ecosystem — a little differently.  The company announced its new UiPath Platform for Agentic Automation. However, it made clear that agents are not a new version of robotic process automation (RPA); rather, they are another tool that enterprises can integrate with RPA to complete workflows.  Daniel Dines, UiPath founder and CEO, told VentureBeat in an interview that agents cannot be fully automated as they are built today. “The big problem with LLMs today is that they are nondeterministic, so you cannot run them directly in an autonomous fashion,” Dines said. “If you look at most implementations of agents, these are actually chatbots. So we’re moving from chat in, chat out to an agent that is data in, action out, where we orchestrate between agents, humans and robots.”  Key to UiPath’s offering is its AI orchestration layer, Maestro. It oversees the flow of information from agents to the human employee to the automation layer. UiPath described Maestro as a centralized supervisor who “automates, models and optimizes complex business processes” and monitors performance.  Breaking down agents and automation Maestro takes user prompts and breaks down the process into manageable steps to complete it. Instead of allowing agents to access information indiscriminately, Dines said Maestro has three steps. First, the agent takes the prompt, analyzes it, and recommends how to complete the query. Next, a human user approves of the recommendation. Then, an RPA tool will execute on that recommendation, completing the request.  Dines said Maestro makes the workflow more transparent and accountable because a human remains in the loop and a rules-based RPA finishes the task. For UiPath, separating agents that take in data to make a recommendation from the automation that acts upon that recommendation ensures enterprises don’t let agents have unfettered access to their entire system.  “I think it’s a very powerful way for enterprises to adopt agents. And look, in many discussions with clients, I think they resonate very well because they are really concerned about the unlimited agency of agents,” Dines said. UiPath also integrates with the orchestration framework provider LangChain to offer open, multi-agent frameworks. The Platform for Agentic Automation also works with Anthropic and Microsoft frameworks, with UiPath being part of Google’s Agent-to-Agent protocol.  Not every agent is automation Dines insists that thinking about agents as a complete stack solution, where the agents read the data and then take action,  “Agents being nondeterministic in nature are transactional; they create effects on the underlying systems. No client I know will take risks on this,” Dines said. “Transactions should be 100% reliable, and only automations can offer this type of reliability. So our solution is the best of those worlds.” He added that “maybe in some future” agentic AI “will become more reliable, and some actions you can you can delegate to agents, but it should be a progression.” Others in the industry believe that agents are the next evolution of automation. In fact, the entire premise of agentic AI is to have a system that does things on the user’s behalf. A secondary goal for many is to have “ambient” agents, where AI agents run in the background, proactively act for the user and alert people to any changes that need their attention.  UiPath, however, still needs to make a case that its approach to agents is more effective than all-in-one agent offerings and cuts through the hype surrounding agents that do everything for users.  Companies like ServiceNow, Salesforce, Writer and Microsoft have all released agentic platforms aimed at enterprise users. Writer’s new platform relies on self-evolving models for autonomous agents.  Enterprises also showed excitement around the idea that AI agents could streamline much of their work and automate many manual tasks in companies.  Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.