A portrait of Henry VIII, based on an original by Hans Holbein the Younger Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsIn 1534, Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, declaring himself supreme head of the Church of England. He expected his nephew, James V of Scotland, to follow suit, but James did not. When Henry scheduled a meeting with James in northern England in 1542, James blew it off.This breakdown in relations between the kingdoms set the stage for what historian Gervase Phillips has called one of the most extraordinary battles ever fought between English and Scot: the Battle of Solway Moss, which took place on November 24, 1542.Henry had broken with Rome in a bid to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and become his kingdoms ultimate religious authority. In response to James disobedience, he first sent English troops up to Scotland to sack and burn a few towns and villages along the eastern marches, as the borderland was then known. James then sent his own troops to raid the western marches along the English side of the River Esk.A great army of Scotland, numbering 18,000, entered these marches, wrote William Musgrave, a sheriff who fought at Solway Moss, in a letter to an English courtier. The River Esk in North Yorkshire, England, near the site of the Battle of Solway Moss Andrew Smith via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0A comparatively paltry number of local English troops could be mustered on short notice3,000 at the most, Musgrave reported.Thomas Wharton was in charge of the English troops, and he was well aware of this disparity and the apparent disadvantage it offered the English. To enter into battle while knowing the slim odds would almost certainly be folly.But Wharton was a borderer, Phillips notes. He fought best on horseback with lance or sword and trusted his countrys defense more to walls of flesh and bone than stone.As the Scottish army crossed the River Esk at dawn, Wharton sent out light cavalry troops to penetrate the advancing line. The Battle of Solway Moss was underway.The English army moved quickly on the offensive, darting back and forth, advancing, retreating, attacking, and escaping in rapid, frustrating succession. They forced the Scots into an awkward position between the Esk and Solway Moss, a boggy, treacherous mire that hindered the movement of Scotlands cannons and heavy troops, now rendered useless in the face of the nippy English horsemen. James V of Scotland and his wife, Mary of Guise Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsTo make matters worse, Phillips writes, the Scots were effectively leaderless since their monarch himself was too ailing and weak to participate in the battle himself. The man technically in charge, Robert Maxwell, Fifth Lord Maxwell, was locked in a power struggle with the Scottish kings favorite courtier, Oliver Sinclair.In the confusion, the Scots withdrew softly, Musgrave recalled. The English troops set on them and struck down many, and the rest fled over Esk.Whartons men pursued the Scots deep into their own territory, taking 1,200 prisoners and lots of Scottish artillery. When the battle was over, approximately 7 Englishmen and 20 Scots were dead. But the humiliation was too great for the young Scottish monarch. He died just three weeks after news of the defeat reached him.Though James had been ill for some time, Phillips writes, his cause of death remains unknown. Few doubt, though, that news of the debacle on the Esk was the final blow to the weary and already ailing king.Upon James untimely death, his only legitimate child, a 6-day-old daughter named Mary, ascended to the throne, reigning as queen of Scots for the next 25 years. The consequences of her reignand the aftershocks of the battle of Solway Mosswould reverberate for centuries.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: British History, England, European History, Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scots, Medieval Ages, On This Day in History, Scotland, Tudors, Warfare

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreThe artificial intelligence arms race heated up Friday as Amazon announced an additional $4 billion investment in Anthropic, doubling its stake to $8 billion in a move that signals the cloud computing giants ambitious bid to compete with Microsoft and Google in the fast-evolving AI landscape.The deal, which maintains Amazon as a minority investor, establishes AWS as Anthropics primary cloud and training partner. Most significantly, it commits Anthropic to using Amazons custom-designed Trainium and Inferentia chips for training and deploying its advanced AI models a major win for Amazons semiconductor strategy.Amazons calculated investment positions the company at the center of AI infrastructure development. While Microsoft has captured headlines and market momentum through its OpenAI partnership, Amazon is taking a different approach by building a comprehensive AI stack from silicon to software. The commitment to use AWS Trainium chips is particularly notable, as it gives Amazons custom silicon program the kind of high-profile validation it needs to compete with Nvidias dominance in AI acceleration.How Amazon plans to challenge Microsofts AI dominanceThe expanded partnership has already shown promising results. According to Anthropic, tens of thousands of customers are using its Claude models through Amazon Bedrock, including major enterprises like Pfizer, which reported tens of millions in operational cost savings. The European Parliament has also adopted Claude to power a document analysis system that processes 2.1 million official documents.The timing of this deal aligns with a crucial shift in enterprise AI adoption. As companies move from AI experimentation to production deployment, theyre increasingly focused on security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. By integrating Anthropics technology directly into the AWS ecosystem, Amazon is positioning itself to capture this next wave of enterprise AI adoption.Inside the battle for AI cloud supremacyThis move significantly reshapes the competitive dynamics in cloud AI services. While Microsofts OpenAI partnership gave it an early lead in the generative AI race, Amazons deeper integration with Anthropic could prove more sustainable in the long run. The focus on custom silicon and tight hardware-software integration mirrors the successful playbook Apple used in personal computing but at cloud scale.The deal also creates an interesting dynamic with Google, which invested $2 billion in Anthropic last year. With both tech giants now holding significant stakes, Anthropic has effectively positioned itself as a Switzerland of sorts in the AI wars, maintaining independence while leveraging the resources of multiple tech giants.What Amazons AI investment means for enterprise technologyFor enterprise customers, this partnership addresses several critical concerns. First, it promises more cost-effective AI deployment through optimization for AWSs custom chips. Second, it provides a clear path to scale AI applications through Amazons global infrastructure. Perhaps most importantly, it offers a more secure and compliant way to adopt advanced AI capabilities.Anthropics latest Computer Use feature, which allows AI to operate computers like humans, will be available first to AWS customers. This exclusivity period could give Amazons enterprise customers a significant head start in automating complex workflows.The future of cloud computing: AI takes center stageThe real significance of this deal lies in its long-term implications for the cloud computing industry. As AI becomes increasingly central to enterprise operations, the ability to offer optimized, integrated AI services could become the key differentiator in the cloud market. Amazons investment suggests a belief that the future of cloud computing will be built on AI infrastructure.The deal also reflects a broader industry trend toward vertical integration in AI, with major players seeking to control every layer of the stack from chips to applications. This could lead to a more concentrated market structure, with a few large players dominating the AI infrastructure landscape.As enterprise AI adoption accelerates, this partnership could prove pivotal in determining which technology giants emerge as the dominant forces in the AI era. With the generative AI market projected to exceed $1 trillion within the decade, Amazons expanded investment in Anthropic represents a strategic bet on shaping the future of artificial intelligence.VB DailyStay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox dailyBy subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service.Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.An error occured.

Sales up 10% following Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch | US Monthly ChartsLatest entry in the FPS series debuted at the top of the charts, boosting subscriptions spending and console sales alikeImage credit: Activision News by Marie Dealessandri Deputy Editor Published on Nov. 22, 2024 US games consumer spending was back on the rise in October, boosted by the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.According to Circana's monthly data, hardware, software, and accessories sales combined went up 10% year-on-year, reaching $4.7 billion.Breaking down this figure, content represented $4.23 billion, a 12% rise compared to October 2023, while hardware was down 23% to $249 million.Black Ops 6 debuted at No.1 in the October US charts, and became the third best selling game of 2024 to date. Circana noted that non-mobile subscriptions spending grew 16% compared to the same period last year, which it attributed to the launch of Black Ops 6 on Game Pass. (Xbox announced at the end of October that the title was breaking records for Game Pass subscriptions)Circana also highlighted that console content was the biggest contributor to the overall rise in content spending, with a 27% increase compared to the same period last year, driven by digital full game sales."PlayStation platforms accounted for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 total console full game dollar sales volume during the October tracking period," said Circana's Mat Piscatella.He added: "Over its first two weeks in market, full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were 23% higher than the full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) over its first two weeks in market a year ago."Eight of the US charts' top ten for October were new entries, with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero debuting at No.2 and Silent Hill 2 (2024) at No.3.EA's Dragon Age: The Veilguard had to settle for No.6 while Sega scored two new entries in the top ten: Metaphor: ReFantazio at No.5 and Sonic X Shadows Generations at No.9Here are the top 20 selling games from October 6 to November 2, 2024 data courtesy of Circana:RankLast month rankTitle1NEWCall of Duty: Black Ops 62NEWDragon Ball: Sparking Zero3NEWSilent Hill 2 (2024)4NEWUndisputed5NEWMetaphor: ReFantazio 6NEWDragon Age: The Veilguard 7NEWSuper Mario Party Jamboree*83Madden NFL 259NEWSonic X Shadow Generations101EA Sports FC 25115EA Sports College Football 25124The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom*138Hogwarts Legacy149NHL 25152Astro Bot1614Minecraft^^177NBA 2K25*18NEWLife is Strange: Double Exposure1990Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle2013Elden Ring*Digital sales not included, ^Xbox and Switch digital sales not included, ^^Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included.

Does a Sony bid for Kadokawa make sense? | OpinionBuying Elden Ring developer From Software would be a coup for Sony but buying one of Japan's biggest media groups would be a complex and potentially difficult acquisition Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on Nov. 22, 2024 During the drawn-out process of Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard, one regularly voiced concern was that this purchase would spark an arms race.Rivals like Sony would feel that they had little choice but to respond in kind with major acquisitions, locking up studios and content not so much for console exclusivity today, but to build out the portfolio that would be needed for hypothetical subscription and streaming services to be competitive in the future.No other company in the industry has pockets as deep as Microsoft's, but there are a lot of potential acquisition targets out there in the industry whose price tag is only a fraction of Activision Blizzard's.The announcement this week that Sony is in discussions to buy publishing group Kadokawa is arguably a sign of that concern becoming a reality, but it's not accurate to describe this as being entirely a response to Microsoft's spending spree.Kadokawa is a big, sprawling group company which houses a number of different subsidiaries that could be of significant value to Sony's stated ambitions and goals for the coming years. It's also an acquisition that has the potential to be very tricky and costly in the long-term a serious concern given Sony's poor track record with acquisitions in recent years.Reporting about the potential deal in the western media has largely focused on Kadokawa being the parent company of FromSoftware, creators of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, and that's an entirely reasonably framing.FromSoftware is the jewel in Kadokawa's crown, with Elden Ring alone making an absolutely enormous contribution to the company's bottom line in the years since its launch. It's the most profitable part of Kadokawa's business by far in the most recent financials for the company, the gaming division was buoyed massively by sales of Elden Ring and its DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, and while it accounted for only around 12% of the company's sales, it contributed almost a third of the overall operating profit.Buying FromSoftware would undoubtedly be a coup for Sony. It's had a pretty close working relationship with the studio for some time, including developing PlayStation-exclusive titles like Bloodborne (an IP that might finally see some stirrings of life if this deal goes through), and it's pretty easy to see a Sony acquisition here running along the well-oiled tracks of its successful acquisitions of studios such as Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Guerrilla Games.It would still be valid to express concern about such a beloved, high-profile developer being bought by a platform holder, but the deal itself would seem straightforward and the integration of FromSoftware into Sony's studio system would likely go pretty smoothly.Sony isn't proposing to buy FromSoftware, though; it is proposing to buy Kadokawa, a company which isn't terribly well-known outside Japan, but which one of the country's most well-established media businesses and has, over the years, become a sprawling, tentacled horror of a holding companies with subsidiaries spanning all manner of fields from print publishing, to movie and TV production, to magazines, web services, real estate, and all manner of international partnerships and tie-ups.In some senses, that explains the potential value of Kadokawa. Across its various holdings there's an incredibly rich library of IP, mostly in the realm of anime and manga. Sony, which owns US anime streaming service Crunchyroll, is very keen to build up that side of its business, and there's some clear synergy between Kadokawa's various holdings and Sony's desire to become an increasingly major player in this field.Sony isn't proposing to buy FromSoftware, though; it is proposing to buy Kadokawa, one of Japan's most well-established media businesses that has become a sprawling, tentacled horror of a holding companies with subsidiaries spanning all manner of fieldsThis could also potentially connect to the games business, of course some of these IPs are probably well-suited to game adaptations, and relatively cheaply developed games based on popular manga and anime series are a surprisingly profitable corner of the industry (indeed, one of the other studios Sony would acquire if it bought Kadokawa is Spike Chunsoft, which has essentially specialised in this type of game over the past decade or so).An advantage to Sony in considering this acquisition is that Kadokawa is pretty cheap despite that major IP library. It's received wisdom that the Japanese stock market habitually undervalues IP, and that does seem to be the case here; the group's share price is depressed even further at the moment due to a damaging data breach problem earlier this year.I'm not sure that there's a more competitively priced library of IP and creative studios on the M&A market anywhere in the world right now, and at least part of Sony's thinking may be that they should snap that up before anyone else notices (especially anyone in, oh, the broad Seattle metro area). One of the other studios Sony would acquire if it bought Kadokawa is Danganronpa creator Spike ChunsoftNonetheless, there are some aspects of this potential deal that would be tricky to get right. For a start, the figure cited earlier that games accounted for 12% of sales, but a third of operating profit is actually a bit of a problem in many regards. Kadokawa is huge, and most of the company isn't very profitable.It's got a lot of low-margin businesses, some of which are pretty labour intensive, and some of which like its magazine publishing subsidiaries, Enterbrain and ASCII (peculiarly, Sony would end up being the actual parent company of Dengeki PlayStation magazine, among others, through this deal) are still ticking over but generally seen to be in long-term decline.A lot of Kadokawa's business looks "legacy" from the perspective of a company like Sony not least that a core part of its business, and indispensable from an IP generation perspective, is selling printed books. It's not clear where that kind of business would fit in Sony's structure, or how it aligns with the company's strategic goals.Just slashing and burning through ill-fitting subsidiaries post-acquisition, however, would probably be extremely difficult in many ways, not least of them being the strong employee protections of Japanese law.Kadokawa could be something of an albatross for Sony if it can't make those parts of the business work somehow. Having streamlined its own corporate structure through spinning off various aspects like financial services and insurance over the years, Sony could find itself lumbered with all sorts of unusual cruft under its umbrella, from Japanese video sharing website NicoNico, to a host of magazine publishing companies, and some truly unusual things like a giant art gallery and culture museum just north of Tokyo.Slashing through ill-fitting subsidiaries post-acquisition would probably be extremely difficult, not least of them being the strong employee protections of Japanese lawThis would be happening, it has to be added, against a backdrop of Sony having had a particularly rough time with acquisitions recently. After years of doing incredibly smooth, well-integrated acquisitions of studios as mentioned above the company went on a bit of a spending spree a few years ago, and thus far it's been a disaster.It spent $3.6 billion buying Bungie (similar to the market cap of Kadokawa, as it happens), only to discover that far from being in a position to help the rest of Sony's studios shift to a live-service model, Bungie itself seemed to be a complete basket case.Just last year it acquired Firewalk Studios, which it then shut down after its first game, Concord, flopped hard at launch earlier this year.Each of those was a more straightforward acquisition, by an order of magnitude, than Kadokawa would be; in light of recent events it's not unfair to question whether Sony will actually be able to manage an acquisition of this scale and complexity.Even if there are questions about execution, though, the core rationale for the deal is strong, and likely seems pretty persuasive to Sony's decision-makers. The company needs to get bigger to stay competitive, and Microsoft has made a persuasive case that acquisitions are the fastest way to do that.Microsoft, however, bought game developers and publishers; it didn't try anything as tricky as buying a huge media and publishing conglomerate just for the sake of a single key studio and some valuable IP rights. This deal has great potential for Sony but the difficulty of making it work shouldn't be underestimated.

Chris Kerr, News EditorNovember 22, 20242 Min ReadImage via GSC Game WorldAt a Glance..."The Heart of Chornobyl emanates stronger with each of us," said the Ukrainian studio. "Thank you, Stalkers."Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has sold one million copies worldwide. Developer GSC Game World shared the news on X and said more players have downloaded the title through Xbox Game Pass."This is just the start of our unforgettable adventure. The Heart of Chornobyl emanates stronger with each of us," said the Ukrainian studio. "Thank you, Stalkers."The survival shooter has received mixed reviews, with some critics heaping praise on the title despite obvious performance issues and others taking issue with the array of bugs.GCS Game World acknowledged those "rough edges" in a a statement issued earlier this week, but emphasized it has never released a title of this scale before and is determined to roll out fixes."We're absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention," reads the post. "In the first days after release, we'll be working with hot fixes, rolling them out as precisely as possible, but as frequently as we can. Then, we'll switch to larger updates that include constant improvements."Stalker 2 was developed in a war zoneIt should't be forgotten that bringing Stalker 2 to market was an achievement in itself. GSC Game World has been developing the title in a war zone amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, the company expressed defiance after Russia began its assault on the country."As of today, the Russian Federation has officially declared war on Ukraine. Our country woke up with the sounds of explosions and weapons fire, but is ready to defend its freedom and independence, for it remains strong and ready for anything," said the studio at the time."The future is unknown, but we hope for the best, are ever sure of our armed forces and our belief in Ukraine. We thus address all of our colleagues in the gaming industry. Players, bloggers, or anybody else who sees this post in their newsfeed: share this, do not stand aside, and help those in need."Read more about:Top StoriesAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

How is World of Warcraft still going?In an age where online multiplayer games rise and fall sometime in the same year, it's a worthy question to ask. Its legions of beloved fans stick around even though its core gameplay hasn't changed much since 2004 (though it has been repeatedly overhauled and improved). Players pick a race, class, and gender, then set out into the world to complete quests, raid dungeons, and fight other players using unique spells and abilities.What once pressed against the technical limits of online play is now quaint in an age of battle royales and co-op basebuilding games. And yet, it persists. And not merely persistsmillions of players still log in regularly to raid dungeons, bringing in extraordinary cash for the studio and its new parent company Microsoft.This Saturday, the venerated MMORPG officially turns 20. At Gamescom 2024, we asked production director Michael Bybee and game producer George Velev about the game's long-lasting appealand what its current stewards are doing to make sure it never goes away.World of Warcraft players want a reason to log in every dayThe team at Blizzard is fully aware it doesn't take much to drag someone away from World of Warcraft. "We're ultimately competing for everyone's attention and we compete with everything, including things like Netflix," Bybee said. "If we're not giving you something interesting or engaging to do, [players] are gonna go somewhere else."Related:That was a problem Blizzard ran into with the expansion Shadowlands, which released to positive reviews but soon saw a drop-off in players. (It didn't help that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, a dark horse competitor to World of Warcraft, was enjoying great word-of-mouth marketing).Beginning with the next expansion Dragonflight, Blizzard began releasing content at what Bybee referred to as a "faster pace." Around this time, the company began shifting its production structure to support two expansion teams and one "live service" team. The company had always worked several expansions ahead, but the hope now was that Blizzard could plan expansions in a way that let them tease players about future content sooner and adjust that content based on player reception.Image via Blizzard Entertainment/Microsoft.Enter this year's expansion, The War Within. In it, Blizzard introduced a new idea for World of Warcraft, which is the idea of a story arc that will play out over multiple annual releases. The first one is called "The Worldsoul Saga," and its announcement came with the names of the next two expansions: Midnight and The Last Titan. "Our goal was to make sure that players always felt like there was something right around the corner," said Bybee. Creating expansions that end with a metaphorical "next time on World of Warcraft..." definitely tees up the game's future direction more than the climactic finales of Shadowlands or Legion.Related:But altering the structure of expansions wasn't Blizzard's only pivot point. Velev explained that beginning with a revamp of the talent system in Dragonflight, the studio began designing new "evergreen" features to be introduced in expansions that could be kept fresh with the help of the live service team. Another example would be the "Delves" of The War Withindungeons that can be run quickly on a daily basis solo or with up to four friends.That's a shift from the strategy found in previous expansions, whose big showcase centerpieces would be large raids meant to be run repeatedly by large groups of players. These expansions catered to players who wanted to run said encounters again and againbut Blizzard started getting the message this wasn't appealing to all of its subscribers. Raids are still a high priority for Blizzard, but players will now have endgame options that don't demand they and their friends all be available at the exact same time.Related:Delves also allow casual players to see story narrative cinematics that used only appear after completing high-difficulty dungeonsa boon for the broader World of Warcraft playerbase. So far it's been enough to keep them coming back over, and over, and over again...Repetition is fun with friendsDevelopers on games like World of Warcraft face a constant challenge: how exactly do you make sure content that's meant to be repeated on a daily or weekly basis doesn't become a boring grind?The idea of re-running dungeons over and over again in MMORPGs sounds "dull on paper," Velev admitted, but it's been Blizzard's goal to provide variance in those features so they do not feel like the exact same encounter every time (one such tool is the decade-old "Mythic" dungeon system, which lets players tweak the difficulty of encounters before entering). But Bybee said it's the game's status as a social hub that's made these encounters stand the test of time.Velev pointed out that there are player-led challenges like the "world first" competition, where groups assemble to be the first (or second, or third) to defeat a new dungeon on their server. External sites that connect with the World of Warcraft API track player stats for PvE and PvP competitions, and it goes on from there with streamers, player-written guides, etc.Of course those elements are common to many online games. Bybee pointed out that World of Warcraft, unlike many other games, is one that's been a hub for friend groups, some who've been at it for the last two decades. "You're doing it with your friendsthat's the kicker, is that you're doing it with other people [you know]," he said.It's definitely something worth thinking about in an era of struggling online games. If your friends are wedded to one game, even if it's not as slick or fresh as a brand-new title, why would you want to leave them behind?The pair declined to tell Game Developer if any plans for an Xbox version of World of Warcraft were in the works ("there's nothing new to announce about that," said Bybee). For now, it's just about focusing on "the community [they] have" and all the guilds, friend groups, high school pals, and families still playing together as the game enters its second decade.

Its clear the world is ready to go all in on streaming for premier live events. Thats evidenced most recently by massive deals brokered by the likes of Netflix, which will exclusively broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day and weekly episodes of WWEs Monday Night Raw.RelatedIf you arent already set up with a capable streamer to enjoy it all, the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store for $39.99 ($10 off), which is less than $2 shy of its all-time low. Theres a bit of urgency here, too, because we may be in the final proverbial hours of the Chromecasts existence. Google recently confirmed its discontinuing the line in favor of the Google TV Streamer 4K, so if you want one even if its only to preserve its memory now would be a good time to grab one.Chromecast with Google TV (4K)$40$5020% off$40$40$5020% offThe Chromecast with Google TV (4K) features a dedicated remote and intuitive software that pulls together recommendations from all of your streaming services. It also supports 4K HDR content with Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10 Plus. Read our review.The Chromecast with Google TV (4K) has long been one of our go-to alternatives to premium streaming devices like the Apple TV 4K, which costs twice as much. Thats mostly due to its intuitive Google TV software, which offers relevant recommendations from across streaming services. You can also manage a universal watchlist, find content using Google Assistant commands via the included voice remote, or cast content from supported video and music apps. Keep in mind, however, that theres no telling whether Google plans to keep software updates rolling once its fully discontinued.Googles budget streaming device also supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, offers a great selection of streaming apps, and has Bluetooth for connecting various devices (including controllers). That said, theres no room on the slim dongle for an ethernet port, meaning it may be worth just stepping up to the new Google TV Streamer ($99.99) if thats a prerequisite for you. Opting for Googles newest set-top box also gets you a (slightly) faster processor, quadruple the storage (32GB vs. 8GB), and support for both Matter and Thread, making it a great pick if youre in need of a capable smart home hub for Google Home.

Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Edge Game Assist, a new Edge-powered in-game browser overlay, is available for beta testing in Windows 11. The game-aware overlay lives in the Microsoft Game Bar and is designed to automatically find and show you links to tips and guides for the game youre playing, using the Edge browser.Game Assist uses the profile youre logged into in Edge, so itll give you access to your data, like cookies, autofill, and favorites, so you dont need to log into sites again. Like other Game Bar widgets, you can pin it above your game as you play. Game Assist is currently available in English, and youll need to opt into the preview and set Microsoft Edge Beta 132 as your default browser to use it.Heres a video of the feature in action: Youll have to find content yourself for most games for now, but the game-aware part of Game Assist will surface information automatically for a few games, including Baldurs Gate 3, Diablo IV, and Hellblade II: Senuas Saga. Microsoft says itll be adding support for others throughout the preview and over time.In a second video, Microsoft shows how the overlay looks when used to follow along with video guides:Microsoft says its collecting feedback in a few ways: You can share your feedback in Game Assist by going toSettings and more() >Send feedback. You can also vote on which features you want to see added to Game Assist using the newGame Assist Community feedback portal, and well be monitoring feedback onr/MicrosoftEdge, X, and other social channels as well.Game Assist only supports mouse and keyboard input for the moment, but Microsoft writes its adding support for handhelds and gamepads in the future. Compact Mode support is also coming later, the company says.Below are Microsofts instructions for getting started with Game Assist.Make sure Windows 11 and Game Bar are up to date.Game Assist requires the Beta or Preview channel of Microsoft Edge. If youre running Windows Insider builds on your PC or have opted into Edge Preview, you already have Edge Preview and can skip to Step 3. Otherwise:Install theMicrosoft Edge Insider Beta channel(you can also use the Dev channel for the latest updates, but things may be slightly less stable).Set Edge Beta as your default browser: go toWindows Settings>Apps>Default apps, search forEdgeand, at the top of the page, clickEdge Beta>Set as default.To opt-into Game Assist (Preview) and install the Game Bar widget, in Edge, go toSettings and more() >Settings, then search forGame Assistin the search box, find the Game Assist option (above thePage zoomsetting), and selectInstall widget.If you havent used Edge Beta/Preview before, in Edge, go toSettings and more() >Close Microsoft Edge, and then re-open the browser. You may have to repeat this step a few times for the Game Assist option to appear.

Despite the success of Vision Transformers (ViTs) in tasks like image classification and generation, they face significant challenges in handling abstract tasks involving relationships between objects. One key limitation is their difficulty in accurately performing visual relational tasks, such as determining if two objects are the same or different. Relational reasoning, which requires understanding spatial or comparative relationships between entities, is a natural strength of human vision but remains challenging for artificial vision systems. While ViTs excel at pixel-level semantic tasks, they struggle with the abstract operations required for relational reasoning, often relying on memorization rather than genuinely understanding relations. This limitation affects the development of AI models capable of advanced visual reasoning tasks such as visual question answering and complex object comparisons.To address these challenges, a team of researchers from Brown University, New York University, and Stanford University employs methods from mechanistic interpretability to examine how ViTs process and represent visual relations. The researchers present a case study focusing on a fundamental yet challenging relational reasoning task: determining whether two visual entities are identical or different. By training pretrained ViTs on these same-different tasks, they observed that the models exhibit two distinct stages of processing, despite having no specific inductive biases to guide them. The first stage involves extracting local object features and storing them in a disentangled representation, referred to as the perceptual stage. This is followed by a relational stage, where these object representations are compared to determine relational properties.These findings suggest that ViTs can learn to represent abstract relations to some extent, indicating the potential for more generalized and flexible AI models. However, failures in either the perceptual or relational stages can prevent the model from learning a generalizable solution to visual tasks, highlighting the need for models that can effectively handle both perceptual and relational complexities.Technical InsightsThe study provides insights into how ViTs process visual relationships through a two-stage mechanism. In the perceptual stage, the model disentangles object representations by attending to features like color and shape. In experiments using two same-different tasksa discrimination task and a relational match-to-sample (RMTS) taskthe authors show that ViTs trained on these tasks successfully disentangle object attributes, encoding them separately in their intermediate representations. This disentanglement makes it easier for the models to perform relational operations in the later stages. The relational stage then uses these encoded features to determine abstract relations between objects, such as assessing sameness or difference based on color or shape.The benefit of this two-stage mechanism is that it allows ViTs to achieve a more structured approach to relational reasoning, enabling better generalization beyond the training data. By employing attention pattern analysis, the authors demonstrate that these models use distinct attention heads for local and global operations, shifting from object-level processing to inter-object comparisons in later layers. This division of labor within the model reveals a processing strategy that mirrors how biological systems operate, moving from feature extraction to relational analysis in a hierarchical manner.This work is significant because it addresses the gap between abstract visual relational reasoning and transformer-based architectures, which have traditionally been limited in handling such tasks. The paper provides evidence that pretrained ViTs, such as those trained with the CLIP and DINOv2 architectures, are capable of achieving high accuracy in relational reasoning tasks when fine-tuned appropriately. Specifically, the authors note that CLIP and DINOv2-pretrained ViTs achieved nearly 97% accuracy on a test set after fine-tuning, demonstrating their capacity for abstract reasoning when guided effectively.Another key finding is that the ability of ViTs to succeed in relational reasoning depends heavily on whether the perceptual and relational processing stages are well-developed. For instance, models with a clear two-stage process showed better generalization to out-of-distribution stimuli, suggesting that effective perceptual representations are foundational to accurate relational reasoning. This observation aligns with the authors conclusion that enhancing both the perceptual and relational components of ViTs can lead to more robust and generalized visual intelligence.ConclusionThe findings of this paper shed light on the limitations and potential of Vision Transformers when faced with relational reasoning tasks. By identifying distinct processing stages within ViTs, the authors provide a framework for understanding and improving how these models handle abstract visual relations. The two-stage modelcomprising a perceptual stage and a relational stageoffers a promising approach to bridging the gap between low-level feature extraction and high-level relational reasoning, which is crucial for applications like visual question answering and image-text matching.The research underscores the importance of addressing both perceptual and relational deficiencies in ViTs to ensure they can generalize their learning to new contexts effectively. This work paves the way for future studies aimed at enhancing the relational capabilities of ViTs, potentially transforming them into models capable of more sophisticated visual understanding.Check out the Paper here. 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. Sana Hassan+ postsSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions. Read this AI Research Report from Kili Technology on 'Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities: A Comparative Analysis of Red Teaming Techniques'

Best Buy has officially kicked off its Black Friday Sale. Black Friday itself lands on November 29, but Best Buy and other retailers have released a good portion of their best deals earlier. You don't have to wait around to jump on the best prices I've found on gaming consoles, video games, PCs and laptops, TVs and more.One significant advantage that Best Buy has over online-only retailers like Amazon is that you have the option of buying online and picking it up in store. Chances are there's a retail location within driving distance of your home. Not only do you avoid the hassle of shipping, especially during the busy holiday season, but returning your order is also much easier.Black Friday Nintendo Switch DealsThese are the deals we gamers have been waiting for. Best Buy is offering an extra $75 off the already tempting Nintendo Switch Holiday Bundles. The Switch OLED bundle is marked down to $275 and the Switch bundle is down to $225. The Holiday Bundles include a digital download voucher for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a 12 month Switch online membership. Sufficed to say, this is easily the best deal that Nintendo has offered for their Switch consoles ever since launch.Nintendo Switch OLED Model: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe BundleNintendo Switch Mario Kart 8 Deluxe BundleNintendo Switch Pro ControllerNintendo Switch Joy-Cons (Pair)8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller for SwitchBlack Friday PlayStation DealsSony's Black Friday PlayStation deals all went live on Friday, November 21. Best Buy is one of Sony's major authorized resellers and the massive price drops I've seen on PS5 Slim console bundles, DualSense controllers, PS VR2 headset, and video games are all available on their site.Sony PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Console Fortnite Cobalt Star Console BundleSony PlayStation 5 Slim Digital NBA 2K25 Console BundleSony PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Fortnite Cobalt Star ConsoleSony PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain BundlePS5 DualSense Chroma ControllersPS5 DualSense Controllers Starting at $54.99Black Friday PS5 & Xbox Series X Video GamesBest Buy just unloaded a bunch of PS5 and Xbox Series X games for sale. The best deals are on the exceedingly adorable Astro Bot for $49.99, the gorgeous Stellar Blade for $49.99 and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth for $39.99. If you're a sports gamer, pick up the latest NBA 2K25 game for $29.99, which is discounted by over 50% off. Also, both the standard edition of Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree edition that includes the DLC are on sale.PS5Astro BotPS5Stellar BladePS5Gran Turismo 7PS5, XboxElden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree EditionPS5, XboxElden RingPS5Final Fantasy VII RebirthPS5, XboxNBA 2K25PS5, XboxTekken 8PS5, XboxCyberpunk 2077 Ultimate EditionPS5Final Fantasy XVIPS5, XboxVisions of ManaPS5, XboxStar Wars: Jedi SurvivorPS5, Xbox, SwitchBalatroPS5, Xbox, SwitchSea of StarsPS5Octopath Traveler IIPS5, Xbox, SwitchDisney Dreamlight Valley Cozy EditionPS5, XboxLies of PPS5, Xbox, SwitchPrince of Persia: The Lost CrownPS5, XboxAvatar: Frontiers of PandoraPS5, XboxAssassin's Creed MiragePS5, XboxThe Crew MotorfestBlack Friday Nintendo Switch Video GamesUp to now we haven't seen many deals on Switch games at all for Black Friday, but the floodgates have opened. Pick up some classic games at great prices, like the outstanding The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the 10/10 "Masterpiece" Super Mario Odyssey, the cat-tastic Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, the idyllic Animal Crossing: New Horizons and my kids' favorite, Kirby and the Forgotten Land.SwitchThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomSwitchSuper Mario OdysseySwitchPikmin 4Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's FuryAnimal Crossing: New HorizonsSwitchKirby and the Forgotten LandSwitchSuper Mario Maker 2SwitchNintendo Switch SportsFinal Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary EditionPS5, Xbox, SwitchBalatroPS5, SwitchMetal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1PS5, Xbox, SwitchPrince of Persia: The Lost CrownPS5, Xbox, SwitchDisney Dreamlight Valley Cozy EditionPS5, Xbox, SwitchSea of StarsSwitchMario + Rabbids Sparks of HopePS5, Xbox, SwitchRabbids: Party of LegendsBest Buy isn't the only retailer with games already on sale. For more deals on video games sorted by individual platform, check out our best Black Friday deal guides for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X.Black Friday PC Gaming DealsThere are some deals here that are worth getting well ahead of Black Friday. The Meta Quest 3S was already the best value in PCVR gaming, but Best Buy just made the deal even sweeter by throwing in a $75 gift card. They've also dropped the price of all of the most popular Windows gaming handhelds, including the Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally, and our top-ranked gaming handheld, the Asus ROG Ally X.Asus ROG Ally X AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme 1TB Gaming HandheldLenovo Legion Go AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme 512GB Gaming HandheldLenovo Legion Go AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme 1TB Gaming Handheld$449.99 for My Best Buy Plus MembersAsus ROG Ally AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme 512GB Gaming HandheldAsus ROG Ally AMD Ryzen Z1 512GB Gaming HandheldSteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless HeadsetPS5, Xbox, SwitchAlienware AW720H Dual Mode Wireless Gaming HeadsetBlack Friday Xbox DealsAlthough there are a few Xbox console deals sprinkled here and there, I don't think I've seen floor pricing yet for Black Friday. However, there are some really great deals on Xbox controllers (including the limited edition Ghost and Sky Cipher editions), a fantastic SteelSeries gaming headset that's marked down to 50% off, and an officially licensed 1TB Xbox Expansion Card that's priced under $100 for the first time ever.WD Black C50 1TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox