PS5 Pro signposts a disc-less future that few actually want | OpinionDigital games are an ever-growing market segment, but given a choice, consumers prefer to keep the physical option making the disc-less PS5 Pro a baffling decisionImage credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on Nov. 8, 2024 Sony's PS5 Pro is the only major hardware launch we're getting this year making 2024 into a bit of a damp squib when you consider that it was originally expected to bring a similar spec-bumped revision of the Xbox Series X and perhaps even the launch of Nintendo's Switch successor.It's rather telling that Nintendo letting the merest morsel of information about that upcoming device fall from the table the entirely unsurprising news that it will be backwards-compatible with the Switch has largely overshadowed the launch of the PS5 Pro.Sony has found a particular niche for its Pro consoles; they're a way to double-dip into hardcore enthusiasts' wallets midway through the cycle, and they may also serve a useful role in convincing holdouts on older hardware to finally upgrade. PS5 Pro's very high price tag means it'll probably do better in the former role than the latter, but either way, the market share it will ultimately pick up will be much like the PS4 Pro's respectable enough, but hardly exciting.Discussion of the precise benefits of the Pro console are in the realm of Digital Foundry, not mere mortals like myself whose eyes cross when trying to count pixels, and your interpretation of the value of those benefits and whether they justify the mid-cycle upgrade cost is an incredibly subjective judgement.What I'd argue is actually more interesting about PS5 Pro in a wider perspective isn't what Sony has done to the chips in the system it's what they've chosen not to include, and what it tells us about the decision-making process that's likely occurring for the company's future hardware.PS5 Pro doesn't have a disc drive. Anyone who wants to play disc-based games on the system will need to buy one of the add-on drives Sony started selling when the PS5 Slim model was released, adding further to the cost of the already very expensive device.To add insult to injury, Sony doesn't seem to have made any effort whatsoever to ensure that those drives are actually well-stocked for the launch of the Pro. I can only speak directly to the situation in Japan, where they've been out of stock at most major retailers for months and even second-hand units are being sold at three to four times SRP by scalpers. But asking around suggests that the situation isn't much better in other regions. That's a very rough welcome to PS5 Pro ownership for anyone upgrading who has a collection of games on disc.It's possible, of course, that Sony excluded the drive simply because its cost would push the Pro's price tag even higher. However, the incongruity of Sony's "Pro" console lacking the basic ability to play the games Sony sells at retailers all around the world is striking, and it's difficult to see the decision to accept that incongruity and the inconvenience it would inevitably cause for customers as anything other than strategic.Digital sales make up a bigger and bigger portion of the industry's revenues every year, but physical game sales are still a very big deal and physical games are products that fall outside the control of publishers and platform holders in a way that they have found increasingly irritating in recent years.People who buy physical games can sell them second-hand or lend them to their friends, retailers with physical games in stock can discount them or include them in bundles as they see fit... All of which is anathema to the executive minds that created our modern dystopia where consumers never actually own anything they buy. Only a decade ago, Sony made a very big deal of its commitment to the simplicity of physical media ownership, and basically won an entire console generation with a short video of Shuhei Yoshida handing a game to Adam Boyes. Now, the company has launched its top-end console without the ability to play physical media.The writing seems to be on the wall; if playing games from a disc is being labelled a non-"Pro" behaviour in this generation, it seems very likely that the next generation will attempt to drop discs entirely.That's a decision that would be far more popular in the boardroom than it would in the living rooms of the company's actual consumers. For all that consumers have embraced digital games the revenue figures prove that it's striking that they seem very ambivalent about digital-only consoles.The PS5's disc-less model was dramatically less popular than the disc-enabled one in every territory we have data for. Consumers are reasonably sophisticated on this issue; they like the convenience of digital games, but seem very nonplussed at the idea of having the option of physical media taken away from them.Figuring out just how strong the resistance to such a move would be is probably a major preoccupation for some people at Sony right now. If so, PS5 Pro is a pretty interesting test case, and right now feels like a botched job on this front it's frankly extremely damaging to the PlayStation brand that everyone who buys one of these new consoles and wants to play physical media is being driven into the arms of scalpers to try to get their hands on a disc drive.The writing seems to be on the wall; if playing games from a disc is being labelled a non-"Pro" behaviour in this generation, it seems very likely that the next generation will attempt to drop discs entirelyI should clarify that I don't think there's any conspiracy behind the lack of availability of the drives Sony isn't trying to push people away from buying a drive by constraining supply, they've just been extremely poor at managing supply chains for peripherals and other devices in recent years, with other products like the PlayStation Portal and DualSense Edge controller also facing similar issues. For all that Sony remains very, very good at designing hardware, somewhere along the way it completely lost its once-legendary competence at managing supply chains and keeping retail channels stocked.That group of consumers who want to play physical media is no small fraction, by the way. It's bound to be almost everyone buying one of these consoles the Venn diagram of people willing to spend this much money on a fairly modest mid-cycle spec bump, and people whose passion for this medium is exhibited in part by their impressively large shelf of physical games, is probably more or less an entirely overlapping circle. This was very much the wrong part of the audience to start this experiment of digital-only consoles on.Physical media, for all that it's an annoyance to publishers and platform holders, is still a pillar of this business. It remains especially important to older generations of consumers who are the most likely to be able to actually afford the industry's increasingly expensive products.There's a solid reason why Nintendo remains so closely wedded to physical media the announcement that its Switch successor will be backwards compatible essentially confirms that it will continue to launch cartridge games for that console.For its part, Sony seems keen to move on to an all-digital future, with the otherwise baffling decision-making on PS5 Pro being a clear sign in that direction but the company may have grossly underestimated the strength of public affection for the option of physical media, and the value that the availability of that media creates for the console ecosystem as a whole.Perhaps the feedback to the Pro will give it pause as it finalises decisions on whether the PS6 should continue this grand experiment.

Palworld developer Pocketpair has shed more light on the specific patent infringement claims Nintendo levvied against it in September.At the time of the initial suit, the studio alleged it was unaware of what, exactly, Nintendo took umbrage with. Nintendo didn't list specific patents at the time, but not long after Palworld's release in January, said it would determine if the game infringed on its own popular Pokmon series.The three patentsall filed in Japan between May and July 2024draw similarities between Palworld and 2022's 2022's Pokmon Legends: Arceus specifically. Their descriptions concern game mechanics like "riding an object" or throwing a ball to capture and possess a character in virtual spaces.Patent art showing a player character picked up by a flying Pokmon..Pocketpair added that Nintendo wants 10 million Yen ($65,450 in USD) in damages, 5 million each for itself and The Pokemon Company, plus late fees and an injunction to block Palworld's release.What put Pocketpair on Nintendo's legal radarNintendo often takes legal action against companies it believes have infringed upon or threatened its work in some capacity. The situation with Palworld was thorny enough when it was simply "Pokmon with Guns," but its subsequent success and Pocketpair's clear desire to quickly capitalize on that further exacerbates the issue.Following the suit, analyst Serkan Toto noted that Nintendo may have gone after Pocketpair on both "highly, highly technical things," and the studio's Palworld push. He speculated the latter may have truly pushed things over the line, and that Nintendo "saw these guys are getting too aggressive."Pocketpair, meanwhile, has reiterated it will not speak with press on the matter unless the situation specifically calls for it, and will "continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings."

General er, President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) gets a lot bigger and redder in the new Captain America: Brave New World trailer that Marvel debuted at Disneys D23 Brazil event. The company also released a second trailer for Thunderbolts, the new superhero team movie that will end the MCUs phase 5.The Brave New World preview opens on Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) visiting one of the first supersoldiers, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), in prison after his attack on the president. Isaiah, who doesnt seem to remember the attack, warns Sam to be careful. The trailer then sets up some heavy tension and intrigue, using a fun splitscreen theme to build to a much more thorough reveal of Ross Red Hulk than Marvel did in July. Although it leaves the feeling that hes the movies main villain, it also suggests theres much more to the story than just Sam fights a Hulk. Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14th.Then theres the nearly four-minute-long special look at Thunderbolts, whichThe movies other main characters include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour), Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker / US Agent (Wyatt Russell). Oh, and Bob (Lewis Pullman), who seems like just a guy until you see him, injury-free despite a shirt that looks like its full of bullet holes that might have come from the dozen or so people pointing guns at him.Thunderbolts comes out on May 2nd.

Reviews of Intels new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 200S-series processor have been lackluster, specifically when it comes to gaming performance, but Intel says thats not the end of the story. Its new chips should be performing better, and the company will have an ETA on getting them there soon, according to Robert Hallock, Intels VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, in a new interview with HotHardwares Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta.Intel was up-front in saying these new chips wouldnt beat AMDs chips for gaming. But reviewers findings have been unexpectedly poor. Despite some efficiency gains like those noted in Tom Warrens Verge review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, the new chip seems to lag behind even Intels earlier Raptor Lake chips in gaming. Thats to say nothing of its performance versus AMDs very good Ryzen 9800X3D.RelatedIntels Arrow Lake chips bones are solid, Hallock said during the interview. Still, the company has identified factors that can combine to produce some pretty wild unintended effects. Hallock was also clear that the new Arrow Lake performance issues are strictly Intels responsibility, and not the fault of Microsoft or anyone else. As for when Intel will provide an ETA on fixes, Hallock said Intel hopes to give a comprehensive update on what the chips issues are and whats causing them by the end of November or early December. The good news is that the fix will be easy, according to Hallock, who called it a flash the BIOS and update Windows kinda situation.

Since the Unity run-time fiasco which caused a massive developer backlash, that lead to most of the leadership team being removed from the company. In May Unity hired a new CEO, ex-Zynga executive Mathew Bromberg, who promised extensive changes to the way the company would operate. Most recently that effort has borne fruit with the removal of the Unity Run-Time Fee. A few days back, Unity made their first earnings call under the new CEO and there were several interesting revelations about the direction at Unity.Details from the Unity Q3 2024 Shareholder letter:To Our Shareholders: Its a privilege to address you once again on behalf of my colleagues around the world. We are at the beginning of a period of meaningful and productive change at Unity. The enthusiasm and excitement generated thus far, both inside and outside the Company, has been enormously encouraging. We saw real progress on our plan during the third quarter, and are looking forward to the transformational work ahead.Unity is the only company we know of that can deliver value to developers of games and interactive experiences across the entire lifecycle, from prototyping to live service operation right through user acquisition and monetization. That capability, and its connection to the 3B monthly downloads of applications created with Unity, positions us well to become the global platform of choice. As we continue to improve our ability to leverage data to provide measurable increases in stability, speed, efficiency, innovation, and ROI to our customers, we believe Unity will continue to prosper.Last quarter, we told you wed focus on fostering a culture of execution and discipline, accelerating the pace of product innovation, and strengthening the bond with our customers and community. And thats just what we did. The cancellation of the Runtime Fee for gaming customers, the reversion to a subscription-based model, and the introduction of price increases that customers could embrace has unblocked renewals and accelerated new relationships. Then we delivered Unity 6, the best performing, most stable version of Unity weve ever shipped, and outlined a new upgrade philosophy which is designed to enable customers to upgrade to new features without sacrificing stability. The combination of a new approach, new pricing, and new software has begun to change the decision calculus. When developers choose Unity, theyre potentially building a business on top of our platform for decades and were dedicated to making that choice easier every day.We also told you that adding world class talent to the team was going to be critical. In October we announced the hiring of a new Chief Technology Officer, Steve Collins, who brings decades of experience in game development (he was CTO at King, the studio behind hits like Candy Crush); engines (he was the co founder and CTO of Havok, the pioneering physics engine that helped define modern gaming); and marketing technology (he was the CTO of Swrve, a real time marketing automation cloud for mobile apps). Today, were equally excited to announce that weve hired a new Chief Financial Officer, Jarrod Yahes, who begins full time with us on January 1. Jarrod joins Unity from Shutterstock, where he has served as CFO for the past five years, helping to drive the companys portfolio expansion into 3D content, data monetization, and digital advertising while emphasizing revenue growth and profitability. Steve and Jarrod join a new management team that has the quality and depth of experience to carry us through the exciting work ahead.Finally, we talked last quarter about embarking on a fundamental rebuild of our machine learning stack and data infrastructure designed to enhance the return on investment were able to deliver to our advertising customers. Were happy to report great progress on that work, which is already in testing on live data. Were very encouraged by the early results were seeing. We believe that our new data platform will not only drive performance improvements in user acquisition and monetization, but also surface insights critical to game production and live service management, where understanding consumer behavior is core to being able to build and operate great games. These investments are core to our vision of a unified platform that can deliver for our customers across the full lifecycle of game developmentKey LinksUnity Shareholder Letter (PDF)Unity Investor Call Transcript on Motley FoolYou can learn more about Unity development priorities and future direction in the video below. This video was sponsored by TechSmith the makers of Camtasia (which is what I use to create all of my videos). You canlearn more about Camtasia hereand use code GAMEFROMSCRATCH at checkout for 15% off.

In recent years, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology has gained significant traction, transforming industries ranging from healthcare to customer support. However, achieving accurate transcription across diverse languages, accents, and noisy environments remains challenging. Current speech-to-text models often face issues like inaccuracies in understanding complex accents, handling domain-specific terminology, and dealing with background noise. The need for a more robust, adaptable, and scalable speech-to-text solution is evident, especially as the demand for such technology rises with the proliferation of AI-driven applications in day-to-day life.Assembly AI Introduces Universal-2: A New Speech-to-Text Model with Major ImprovementsIn response to these challenges, Assembly AI has introduced Universal-2, a new speech-to-text model designed to offer significant improvements over its predecessor, Universal-1. This upgraded model aims to enhance transcription accuracy across a broader spectrum of languages, accents, and scenarios. Assembly AIs Universal-2 leverages cutting-edge advancements in deep learning and speech processing, enabling a more nuanced understanding of human speech even in challenging conditions like poor audio quality or heavy background noise. According to Assembly AI, the release of Universal-2 is a milestone in their journey toward creating the most comprehensive and accurate ASR solution in the industry.The Universal-2 model has been built on top of the previous version with substantial refinements in architecture and training methodologies. It introduces enhanced multilingual support, making it a truly versatile ASR solution capable of delivering high-quality results across various languages and dialects. One of the key differentiators of Universal-2 is its ability to maintain consistent performance even in low-resource settings, meaning that the model doesnt falter when transcribing under less-than-ideal conditions. This makes it ideal for applications like call centers, podcasts, and multilingual meetings where speech quality can vary significantly. Additionally, Universal-2 is designed with scalability in mind, offering developers an easy integration experience with a wide array of APIs for rapid deployment.Technical Details and Benefits of Universal-2Universal-2 is based on an ASR decoder architecture called the Recurrent Neural Network Transducer (RNN-T). Compared to Universal-1, the model employs a broader training dataset, encompassing diverse speech patterns, multiple dialects, and varying audio qualities. This broader dataset helps the model learn to be more adaptive and precise, reducing the word error rate (WER) compared to its predecessor.Moreover, the improvements in noise robustness allow Universal-2 to handle real-world audio scenarios more effectively. It has also been optimized for faster processing speeds, enabling near real-time transcriptiona crucial feature for applications in sectors like customer service, live broadcasting, and automated meeting transcription. These technical enhancements help bridge the gap between human-level understanding and machine-level transcription, which has long been a target for AI researchers and developers.The Importance of Universal-2 and Its Performance MetricsThe introduction of Universal-2 is a significant step forward for the ASR industry. Enhanced accuracy and robustness mean that businesses can rely on transcription services with increased confidence, even when dealing with complex audio environments. Assembly AI has reported a notable decrease in the word error rate of Universal-2a 32% reduction compared to Universal-1. This improvement translates into fewer transcription errors, better customer experiences, and higher efficiency for tasks such as subtitling videos, generating meeting notes, or powering voice-controlled applications.Another critical aspect is Universal-2s enhanced performance across different languages and accents. In an increasingly interconnected world, the ability to accurately transcribe non-English languages or handle strong regional accents opens up new opportunities for businesses and services. This broader applicability makes Universal-2 highly valuable in regions where language diversity poses a challenge to conventional ASR systems. By pushing the envelope on multilingual support, Assembly AI continues to make strides in democratizing access to cutting-edge AI technologies.ConclusionWith Universal-2, Assembly AI is setting a new standard in the speech-to-text landscape. The models enhanced accuracy, speed, and adaptability make it a robust choice for developers and businesses looking to leverage the latest in ASR technology. By addressing previous challenges, such as the need for better noise handling and multilingual support, Universal-2 not only builds upon the strengths of its predecessor but also introduces new capabilities that make speech recognition more accessible and effective for a wider range of applications. As industries continue to integrate AI-driven tools into their workflows, advancements like Universal-2 bring us closer to seamless human-computer communication, laying the groundwork for more intuitive and efficient interactions.Check out the Details. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. If you like our work, you will love ournewsletter.. Dont Forget to join our55k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. Listen to our latest AI podcasts and AI research videos here

27 Equations Every Data Scientist Needs to Know 0 like November 9, 2024Share this postAuthor(s): Julia Originally published on Towards AI. This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Everybodys talking about AI, but how many of those who claim to be experts can actually break down the math behind it? Its easy to get lost in the buzzwords and headlines, but the truth is without a solid understanding of the equations and theories driving these technologies, youre only skimming the surface. Think you can just rely on the tools and libraries available today? Think again. If you want to truly innovate and stay ahead of the curve, you need to master the math that powers AI and data science. In this article, well dive deep into the fundamental concepts that most people ignore and why theyre absolutely crucial for anyone serious about working in AI.Photo by ThisisEngineering on UnsplashGradient Descent is a fundamental optimization algorithm used in machine learning to minimize a function by iteratively moving in the direction of steepest descent. Its particularly useful in training models with large datasets, as it efficiently finds the minimum of a cost function. The algorithm updates parameters in the opposite direction of the gradient of the function at the current point, with the size of the step Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

Why Every Health Data Scientist Should Know About OMOP CDM 0 like November 9, 2024Share this postAuthor(s): Mazen Ahmed Originally published on Towards AI. Standardising Healthcare DataThis member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Image by AuthorA large issue I struggle with at work is standardising healthcare data.I gather data from hospitals around the world in an attempt to produce a centralised and unified database for participating hospitals and researchers to benefit from.Each hospital seems to have its own way of recording healthcare data. There are many standards out there which hospitals follow but there is no universal agreement on how healthcare data should be recorded.There are many domains in medicine, each of which have specific variables that need to be collected. For example cardiology data collection requires the collection of different variables than oncology or endocrinology. These domain-specific requirements adds a layer of complexity to standardisation, not only do we need to align general health data such as age, sex and BMI, but we must also ensure that the needs of each speciality is sufficiently met.Disparate Hospital Data Sources produced in CanvaProducing a data model that has the ability to accurately capture information from every healthcare domain is an immense challenge. However, if this challenge is met and the resulting model is widely adopted this would lead to a scalable and interoperable Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

At D23 Brazil, Marvel release a brand new trailer for Captain America: Brave New World that gives fans their best look yet at Harrison Ford's Red Hulk.The trailer starts off with Sam Wilson talking to Isaiah Bradley after his surprising attack on Harrison Ford's President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross. We get a good glimpse at the action to come on February 14, 2025, but perhaps none of the footage was as exciting as the end where we get to see Ross become Red Hulk and getting ready to fight Wilson. PlayThis trailer follows the last one that not only blew up the White House, but also confirmed that the origin of adamantium in the MCU is from the body of Eternals' Celestial Tiamut from the middle of the ocean. Marvel also shared a new poster that shows Cap and Red Hulk facing off, and you can check it out below.For more, check out who Giancarlo Esposito is playing in the film and the latest Thunderbolts* trailer that reveals who bought Avengers Tower.Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

This article contains spoilers for Arcane Seasons 1 & 2.After a two year wait, Arcane Season 2 has arrived. Well, at least the first three episodes. Thanks to the popularity of the series, Netflix is dropping the final season of the show in three three-episode acts, the first of which debuted on Nov 9. Picking up directly where the critically acclaimed last season ended, we rejoin Vi (Hailee Steinfeld), Caitlin (Katie Leung), Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), Jinx (Ella Purnell), Mel (Toks Olagundoye), and the rest of the cast of the steampunk video game adaptation right where we left them. They're struggling in the wake of a deadly Hextech attack by Jinx that, as we quickly learn, left multiple members of Piltover's ruling council dead, including most shockingly Caitlyn's mother, Cassandra Kiramman (Abigail Marlowe). The first three episodes left us with more questions than answers, so we're here to dig into the return of the highly-anticipated series and our biggest questions as we wait for Act 2. PlayWill Caitlyn and Vi Ever, Ever Get (Back) Together? While we finally get their first very sensual kiss, the first act leaves us once again in the wake of a furious split between the pair, making us wonder if they're ever going to get their version of a happily ever after, especially now that war with the Undercity is all but certain. The pair's slowburn, star crossed romance has been at the heart of what made many fans fall in love with the show. But it feels likely that we'll see the pair struggling to come together as they both try to work out where they stand in the face of the coming war, and the reality that Vi and Jinx are still connected and will feel for each other no matter what. The separation between Caitlin and Vi will make their inevitable reunion more powerful, though who knows how long it'll last. With all of that said, the creators of the series have hinted that we'll get more hot and heavy action like the now infamous Jayce/Mel sex scene in Season 1. So we'd bet that we'll see Vi and Cait finally get to have their moment in the saucy sun before the second season and series as a whole ends. Arcane Season 2 Acts I and II GalleryWhat is Ambassa's Plan? Ever since she first appeared in Arcane Season 1, Ambassa has been more like a force of nature than a council member's mother. As Act 1 ends, we see that her arrival in Piltover with hopes of getting Hextech was actually hiding a deeper agenda. After the attack on the council, Ambessa plans to take advantage of the power void to bring her Noxian army to help "take down" Zaun, though it feels like she could have her sights set on taking control of Piltover completely as the war takes over and she gets to flex her warlord muscles through the chaos. Of course, she'll have a fight on her hands as both Mel and Jayce are likely to resist her warmongering, especially now that Jayce is down in the Undercity with Heimerdinger (Mick Wingert) and Ekko (Reed Lorenzo Shannon) gaining even more empathy for its inhabitants and connections with the Firelights and his old mentor. Mel has never been a fan of her mother or her appearance in Piltover. But seeing as the rest of the city and the Enforcers seem eager to embark on the war after the Chem Baron's latest attack, it feels like Noxia will be welcomed into Piltover for now. That could give Ambessa even more power than Mel expects. PlayWhat Happened to Viktor? After almost dying during the lab explosion in Season 1, Jayce finds that his best frenemy Viktor has also survived and decides to use Hextech to save him. Completely submerging him in Hextech goo does manage to extend Viktor's lifespan, but it also changes him forever. After the events of the first act, we see that the scientist has essentially become a piece of living Hextech, with only a few pieces of his human body left. This is far closer to the "Machine Herald" version of Viktor that players know from League of Legends, who has fused his body together with science and steel, and presents as more of a classic robot/cyborg. Where we leave him after Act 1 is inline with the popular video game version too. We see the origins of Viktor's "glorious evolution" in the third episode as he transforms Huck (Bill Lobley) from a shimmer-wrecked broken man into a half-Hextech/half-human being, inspiring the rest of his shimmer-crew to follow Viktor into whatever dark future he has planned for the Undercity. It's likely we'll see him trying to create an army of Hex-humans going forward as a way to raise the Undercity and its inhabitants up in the face of Piltover's reign. Who is Vi's New Drinking Buddy?After falling out with Caitlyn again, Vi heads out on a bender and ends up with her head in a fountain, lamenting her war-starting family drama. But she's not alone. We meet a bearded burly giant who takes interest in the fact that Vi is being called up to join the Enforcers. Soon the pair are both in the Enforcers on Caitlyn's special team for heading into the tunnels. We know very little about him, don't hear his name, and he's not an obvious analog for any Champion from the games, but it's clear he's going to become a key part of the cast for the next few episodes.Interestingly, as quick as he was to join the Enforcers, he doesn't seem to be a fan of Ambessa and her plan for war. That means he could be a veteran or even someone familiar with Noxia and Ambessa's version of leadership. His stormy response to her authoritarian behavior likely hints that he'll be an ally to Vi as the more morally complex of our heroines rather than Caitlyn, who is now in charge of the Council. It'll be interesting to see how he plays into the greater war and potentially setting up future spinoffs. Arcane Season 2 September 2024 Trailer StillsWhat Did Jinx and Sevika Release into Piltover? The big cliffhanger at the end of this act is that we see Jinx and Sevika (Amirah Vann) accomplish their plan to reverse the filtration system that protects Piltover from the dangerous substance known as the Gray, seemingly flooding the city with a strange overpowering smoke. But it doesn't appear like the Gray as we've seen it depicted before, instead looking more akin to the brightly colored shades of Shimmer or Hex than the obviously gray-tone of the Gray. So the big question is, what did they actually release? It does seem like a Jinx-coded plan to release Shimmer and get a bunch of Piltovians get addicted to the drug. Or potentially some kind of Hex-poison, like we've been seeing impact the Firelight's tree.Whatever the answer, it's going to be a huge source of conflict going forward, especially as it once again moves Jinx away from a possible redemption and reconnection with Vi and Caitlyn. And it's one more reason for Caitlyn and Ambessa to go to war against the Undercity and the Chem Barons that rule it, setting the stage for an epic final six episodes. When Is Arcane Season 2, Act 2?Now that youve finished the first three episodes of the season, heres when you can watch the other two acts of Arcane Season 2.Arcane Season 2 Act 2 releases November 16Arcane Season 2 Act 3 releases November 23Season 2 of Arcane is the final season of the Netflix series.