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This copy of the Declaration was printed by Robert Luist Fowle of New Hampshire. Sotheby'sA rare broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence is heading to auction at Sothebys, where its expected to fetch between $2 and $4 million.Dated to July 1776, this edition was created to disseminate the founding document to the public. Its one of only ten examples of this particular printing known to have survived, most of which are now tucked away in prestigious institutional collections, per the Observers Elisa Carollo.This rare printing of the Declaration of Independence is a cornerstone of American history, offering a glimpse into the transformative moment when the United States declared its independence, says Kalika Sands, Sothebys head of books and manuscripts for the Americas, in astatement. [This] broadside, one of the earliest versions to reach the public, not only captures the bold spirit of a nation in its infancy but also stands as a timeless emblem of American heritage.After the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, the manuscript was sent to the Congress official printer, John Dunlap, who evidently spent the evening setting the Declaration in type, per the lot listing. These copies were distributed across the colonies, where local printers produced their own versions.Experts say the broadside at Sothebys was made by one of those printers: Robert Luist Fowle of Exeter, New Hampshire. This copy is unique for its two-column format and mispelling of Charles Thomson's name. Sotheby'sThough Fowle was a supporter of the British crown, he printed the Declaration in his newspaper, the New Hampshire Gazette, and also as a separate broadside. As the Portsmouth Heralds Barbara Rimkunas wrote in 2010, One can only imagine what was going through his mind as he set the type.Fowles edition is distinctive for several reasons, including its two-column format and use of italic type. He also misspelled the names of John Hancock and Charles Thomson, the president and secretary of the Continental Congress. He later corrected Hancocks name, which is spelled correctly on the Sothebys copy. However, he never fixed Thomsons name, which is spelled with a p.This copy of the Declaration sold at Christies four years ago for just $930,000. But when it hits the auction block on January 24, its price tag will likely be far higher.Theres been a growing appreciation among collectors for these objects at auction in the past couple of years, Selby Kiffer, Sothebys senior international specialist for books and manuscripts, tellsArtnets Brian Boucher. This influx of interest has driven competition and set several new auction records.If this broadside hits its estimate, it will become one of the most expensive copies of the Declaration ever sold. The most expensive version was sold in 2000 at Sothebys for $8.1 million. Another copy sold for $3.4 million over the summer.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American History, American Revolution, Auctions, Founding Fathers, Fourth of July, Historical Documents, History

Ted Price, the founder and CEO of Insomniac Games, has announced he will retire after more than 30 years with the company on March 2025.Read More

Astro Bot takes home another Game of the Year award at the New York Game Awards, along with two other trophies.Read More

Nintendo, BioWare amongst nominees for outstanding video game at 36th GLAAD Media AwardsHowever, the majority of nominations went to indie games with strong LGBTQ+ representationImage credit: Nintendo News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 22, 2025 Nintendo, BioWare, and Deck Nine have all received nominations at this year's GLAAD awards, a non-profit organisation focused on celebrating positive LGBTQ+ representation in media, including games.The majority of the Outstanding Video Game nominations went to indie games, however: Caravan SandWitch, Dread Delusion, Dustborn, Fear the Spotlight, Minds Beneath Us, Sorry We're Closed, and Until Then.As spotted by Eurogamer, Nintendo's Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake likely secured a nomination for its ghost companion, Vivian. Whilst the character was trans - and intentionally misgendered by the game's cast - in the original game when it released on GameCube in 2000, this aspect of their identity was censored in many versions at the time, including its English-language release.For last year's remake, however, Nintendo restored Vivian's trans identity.Life is Strange: Double Exposure also received a nod, along with Dragon Age: The Veilguard.Last year, Baldur's Gate 3 secured the top prize for Outstanding Video Game at the GLAAD awards.

Insomniac Games' CEO and founder, Ted Price, to step down after 30 yearsPrice will be superseded by Chad Dezern, Ryan Schneider, and Jen HuangImage credit: Insomniac Games News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 22, 2025 Insomniac Games founder and CEO, Ted Price, is retiring later this year.After acknowledging the devastating fires in Los Angeles, California - where Insomniac is based - and thanking colleagues who have "rallied to help others," Price confirmed he would be stepping down in March."As a result of the team's persistence and collaboration, we're in one of the strongest positions we've experienced in years, with each game in development looking beautiful and playing fantastic," Price said."After over 30 years of leading Insomniac, I felt it was simply time to step aside and let others pave the way for our team."Chad Dezern, Ryan Schneider and Jen Huang will be stepping up as Insomniac Games' new co-studio heads when Price steps away from leading the studio after 30 years."There is no way that I would ever consider handing the reins to a team I didn't trust to take care of Insomniacs and lead us to even greater heights," Price added. "Chad, Jen and Ryan are that team."To conclude, Insomniac has been my life, my home away from home, for three decades."I want to thank every Insomniac for having a positive and lasting impact on my life," Price concluded. "Working side by side with Insomniacs for so many years has been a gift that I'll cherish for the rest of my days."

According to NetherRealm creative director Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat 1 sales have gone from around 3 million copies to over 5 million since its September 2023 launch, and the studio will "keep trucking forward" with new "Kontent.""Seeing Mortal Kombat 1 still in the top 15 most played Playstation 5 games makes us very grateful to fans," he continued. "Thanks for continuing to support our games!" The sales marker offers industry watchers some sense of how the game is performing for NetherRealm and parent company Warner Bros. Games.In recent months, rumors claimed NetherRealm would wrap support for Mortal Kombat 1 after its current Kontent Pack. Boon's "trucking" statement seems to partially pour water on that, though at time of writing, neither he or NetherRealm have fully said what's next. The fighting game just got its 11th DLC fighter, Conan the Barbarian, earlier this week, and NetherRealm released the Khaos Reigns story expansion last year.For some comparison, the studio's support for its prior games has been quite extensive, driving revenue for it and its publisher: Mortal Kombat 11 had 12 DLC characters spread across three Kontent Packs and a post-launch story campaign when all was said and done. Injustice 2 had no such expansion, but had a similar 12 character, three-pack model.Shortly after Mortal Kombat 1's launch in 2023, WB Discovery head David Zaslav praised it and Hogwarts Legacy's sales. The two were quite successful compared to the company's 2024 output, which was mainly a cascading series of losses following the lackluster release of Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.During an earnings call last November, WBD made clear it wanted to focus on four particular franchises for its game ventures: Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC Comics. However, that statement came months after NetherRealm cut staff and shut down its mobile spinoff, Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.The company's comments indicate that another Mortal Kombat game is likely, helped by a new movie based on the series releasing this October. However, it's currently unclear if NetherRealm will jump into a sequel after this game wraps, or return to its DC Comics-based Injustice series.

Bryant Francis, Senior EditorJanuary 22, 20254 Min ReadImage via Adobe Stock.At a GlanceNew data from the Game Developers Conference shows rank-and-file game industry workers growing colder on generative AI tools.Disclaimer: The author of this piece consulted on the creation of questions for the 2025 State of the Game Industry survey and assisted with copyediting its contents.This week's data from the annual Game Developers Conference State of the Game Industry survey is one hell of a doozy. In addition to revealing insights on the wave of layoffs and increased interest in PC game development, the results show a major year-over-year shift in developer opinions on generative AI technology.Specifically, developers are much more pessimistic about tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, and MidJourney than they were the prior year. In 2024, 21 percent of game developers thought generative AI would have a "positive" impact on the video game industry. In 2025, that number has dropped to 13 percent.Meanwhile, the number of survey respondents who think it will have a "negative" impact on the industry increased from 18 percent to 30 percent. This change comes even as more developers report using generative AI tools, with the number rising from 31 percent in 2024 to 36 percent in 2025.But one eye-opening slide shows who is adopting AI tools in game developmentand for the most part, it's not the people programming or creating assets for games. The heaviest AI use showed up for those working in "Business & Finance," at 50 percent of respondents. Next up were those in "Production & Team Leadership" and "Community, Marketing, & PR" at 40 percent of respondents each. Developers in all other departments reported less use.Related:Why hasn't adoption reached the rank-and-file of game development yet? Well one respondent who answered the question "what concerns do you have about Generative AI, and what can be done to address them?" may have had the simplest answerone that goes beyond the ethical concerns over using the technology. "No matter how you put it, generative AI isn't a great replacement for real people and quality is going to be damaged," this person said.The lack of enthusiasm from developers attending GDC is almost an inverse of the breathless hype surrounding generative AI in the broader marketplace. You'd think there would be more alignment if you take claims about the technology at face value. After all, boosted productivity and faster asset creation aren't inherently bad thingsdevelopers have been creating tools to solve those problems for as long as there's been a video game industry.It seems developers view AI tools as going beyond supporting productivity and creativity. "I think AI generated code is currently low quality, and can give rise to subtle bugs that the person using the AI doesn't understand," one respondent told GDC. "If the models advance far enough, this concern might go away, but I'm skeptical. I think right now developers are better [off] avoiding AI code, unless it is for something small like a one time use script.""People will end up having to review generated content rather than create things themselves, which is not what we all get into the industry for," another wrote.A third respondent warned that the video game market could become "oversaturated" with "low effort or AI created projects, content, and games that are put out to make money," comparing it to the mobile free-to-play market, currently dominated by fast-follow games that are constantly A/B testing to maximize placement in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.These attitudes run counter to other surveys about developer adoption of generative AI. Organizations like venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) have polled developers and reported that 73 percent of game studios using AI technology, and that about 67 percent of developers are "excited" about using AI in game development.What's driving that gap in results? "A16z's methodology is opaque so it's hard to say for sure, but it's almost certainly a sampling issue," Omdia analyst Liam Deane explained to us. "If you ask developers to answer a survey about AI in games, the people who respond are inevitably going to be much more interested in AI than the average developer."He noted that the Game Developer Collective survey (run by Omdia in partnership with Game Developer) has found 35 percent of game developers are reporting the use of generative AI tools, a number that runs parallel to data from the State of the Industry survey. "These two surveys have very different methodologies, so the fact that they produce such similar results is a good sign that the data is pretty accurate."Whatever you think of the data, what matters most at the end of the day is whether the rank-and-file are comfortable using generative AI tools to make fun, successful games. So far signs say they're not quite there yet.The question iswill they ever be?Game Developer, Omdia, and Game Developers Conference are sibling organizations under Informa.About the AuthorBryant FrancisSenior Editor, GameDeveloper.comBryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.See more from Bryant FrancisDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Samsung just teased the Galaxy S25 Edge the new ultra-slim entry into the Galaxy S25 lineup. The phone isnt out yet, and Samsung hasnt provided any details, but now we know its real. And we have pictures. Like pretty much every phone, its a thin silver slab. Its got two cameras on the back, rather than the three cameras youd get with other S25 phones. The Edge is rumored to measure just 6.4mm thick, but my colleagues Allison Johnson and Vjeran Pavic, who are on the ground at Galaxy Unpacked and took the below photos, werent able to actually hold or measure the device to confirm.Were trying to get closer so we can show perspective, but the place is mobbed with people. Theres a lot of excitement about this phone. By comparison, though, the regular Galaxy S25 is 7.2mm thick. So, its... even thinner.Here are some of the pictures we took: Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Photo by Allison Johnson / The VergeUpdate, January 22nd: Added more photos.

Xbox has a new beta software update rolling out today for Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring that enables Series X and S systems to support much larger external hard disks. Previously, the Xbox could only support up to 16TB of space on a single USB-connected drive.With the new update, Xbox systems can now partition hard disks larger than 16TB into segments to use the full physical storage space. A single 24TB hard disk can now be formatted into multiple partitions (the largest still being 16TB) so you can archive more games, apps, and media than ever if thats something youve wanted to do.However, if you have already been using a hard disk greater than 16TB with Xbox, the company says youll need to erase it first to take full advantage:Drives greater than 16TB that have already been formatted will be unaffected by this change and would need to be reformatted to take advantage of the updated support for larger drives.Although you still cant play current generation games directly off an external drive, it can be useful to back up all of your installs anyway, or games made for older systems. You wont need to redownload entire titles such as the 300GB-plus Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 using an internet connection when you feel like playing it again after a hiatus, unless they need an equally-sizable update.Xbox is also releasing an update that enables new network quality indicators for cloud gaming sessions to tell you if your connection is slow and affecting your gameplay. They will appear in red bubbles on the upper right side of the screen, telling you what is happening, such as packet loss or increased ping, which can help you troubleshoot your connection.