Certain iPhone components including circuit boards and accessories such as chargers will no longer face import taxes in India as the country positions itself to weather changes in global trade.Mumbai, IndiaIn 2024, the Indian government reduced its import taxes on chargers, printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and smartphones themselves, from 20% to 15%. That 5% cut was estimated to mean Apple would earn between $35 million and $50 million more annually.According to Reuters, though, India has now entirely dropped import taxes on certain components and accessories, although not on smartphones. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the removal of the tax during her annual budget speech and the government has prepared a list of affected components. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Following last weeks visit toLos Angeles-based ORA, we are moving ourMeet Your Next Employerseriesto New York City this week, where we meet Bespoke Only.Founded in 2012 by Melissa Lee, the interior design firm describes its mission as "creating spaces with a unique experience-focused approach for understated luxury." Since its establishment, the firm's portfolio has expanded to a collection ofhospitality and residential projects in the Northeast, California, and beyond.Over onArchinect Jobs, the firm iscurrently hiringfor their New York office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning more about life at a design studio, we spoke with the BespokeOnly team for a behind-the-scenes look at the firm.Upper West Side Landmark, NYC by Bespoke Only. image credit: William Jess LairdHow did Bespoke Only get started?In 2012, our founder and principal Melissa Lee started Bespoke Only as a multi-disciplinary design firm. Originally, Bes...

While the wait continues for the next Resident Evil mainline title, its predecessors are still selling very well. According to Capcoms Platinum Titles list, which tracks games that sold over one million units, Resident Evil 7: biohazard reached 14.4 million sales as of December 31st, 2024. Its up by 400,000 since its last milestone.Of course, the more recent sequel, Resident Evil Village, is also doing quite well at 10.9 million copies sold (also up by 400,000 since the last milestone). Both titles are available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and received extensive acclaim for their visuals, first-person gameplay, and more.As for the next Resident Evil, its led by Koshi Nakanishi, who also directed Resident Evil 7: biohazard, Resident Evil 5, and Resident Evil Revelations. Further details have yet to be revealed, though rumors allege a possible launch in late 2025 or early 2026. That would mean a potential unveiling this year, maybe at Capcoms upcoming Spotlight showcase on February 4th. Stay tuned for updates until then.

Though Resident Evil 2 remake continues to reach new sales milestones, its vastly behind Capcoms best-selling title of all time: Monster Hunter World. In its updated Platinum Titles list, the publisher confirmed 28.10 million units sold as of December 31st, 2024. Its over one million units higher since its previous sales milestone (27 million).Of course, the figure includes Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition, which bundles the base game and its expansion. The former has sold 21.30 million units on its own while Iceborne is at 14.90 million sales. Meanwhile, Monster Hunter Rise has sold 16.70 million, up from 16 million, while its Sunbreak expansion is at 9.40 million sales.Capcom is currently prepping for the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on February 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. A second open beta is scheduled for later this week, though the action RPG will receive 15 minutes of new details on February 4th, 2 PM PT.

Neopets said its comeback gathered steam in 2024. The gaming brands daily active users (DAU) reached a new recent peak of nearly 250,000 and monthly active users (MAU) surpassed 400,000. That reflects three-fold growth since the company rebooted itself in 2023 and became a new independent game studio. The numbers are the highest in the pastRead More

Nintendo to cease foreign payment on digital stores in JapanDecision made to "prevent fraudulent use" of overseas credit cards and PayPal accounts News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Feb. 3, 2025 Nintendo eShop and My Nintendo Store for Japan will stop accepting payments from international credit cards and PayPal accounts from March 25, 2025.In a statement posted to its support page, the decision was made to "prevent fraudulent use.""For customers who have previously used overseas-issued credit cards or PayPal accounts opened overseas, we ask that you please use other payment methods, such as credit cards issued in Japan, from now on," it said.As noted by VGC, users outside of Japan can buy games from the Japanese eShop that aren't available in their own country. The price often differs due to the exchange rate, making some titles cheaper.

Midnight Society shuts downDeadrop developer ran out of funding according to former employeeImage credit: Midnight Society News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Feb. 3, 2025 Deadrop developer Midnight Society has closed down.The studio announced the decision on January 30 in a post on social media, making 55 employees redundant in the process."We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members," it wrote."We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and [are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal."Level designer Brad Boice shared on LinkedIn that the team [was] given a two-day notice before the news was announced."The team at Midnight Society got our two-day notice that the studio is out of funding and everybody needs to pack up and go home," Boice wrote. "Everyone I worked with at Midnight Society was absolutely amazing at what they do and [are] now jobless. I thought we had much, much more runway with funding."Last September, Midnight Society was affected by a round of layoffs due to of "multiple unexpected challenges in recent months."In June, the developer announced it would be parting ways with co-founder and streamer Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm following allegations related to his 2020 Twitch ban relating to messaging a minor in 2017."In order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act," the studio said. "For this reason, we are immediately terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm."

Composer Winifred Phillips has been awarded a Grammy for her work on Digital Eclipse's historic remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.Phillips won out in the 'Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media' category, which was first introduced two years ago to celebrate scores created specifically for video games.Other nominees in the category at the 2025 ceremony included Pinar Toprak (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), Bear McCreary (God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla), John Paesano (Marvel's Spider-Man 2), and Wilbert Roget II (Star Wars Outlaws).Speaking after the show, Phillips said she was "blown away" by the win."It was so inspiring to create the music for [the game]. The team at Digital Eclipse were so inspiring to work with," she added."I really didn't expect [the win]. The category was populated with so much brilliance this year, and I have so much deep respect for the other nominees in this category. To have been recognised is just a highlight of my career. It truly is."Since the category was first introduced, Grammys have been awarded to Assassin's Creedcomposer Stephanie Economou and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor maestros Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton.

Sean Lennon (pictured) accepted the Best Rock Performance Grammy award on behalf of The Beatles.The Beatles have won their eighth competitive Grammy award thanks to a little help from artificial intelligence. The 2023 track Now and Then which Billboard reports is the first song knowingly created with AI assistance to earn a Grammy nomination was awarded Best Rock Performance on Sunday, beating out competition from Green Day, Pearl Jam, The Black Keys, Idles, and St. Vincent.The track was pieced together using a demo that John Lennon recorded in the late 1970s, with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison later providing their own contributions in the mid-90s, with the aim of including the final song in The Beatles Anthology project. Now and Then wasnt released, however, due to technical limitations at the time preventing Lennons vocals and piano from being separated from the original lo-fi demo.McCartney and Starr later managed to complete the song in 2021 with help from filmmaker Peter Jackson and his sound team, who developed machine-learning technology (a type of AI that uses algorithms to learn from data) capable of isolating and cleaning up different components of Lennons recording. This greatly differs from generative AI tech that can be used to create music that mimics an artists style and vocals, but confusion around AI terminology led to some backlash online when the track was released.To be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. Its all real and we all play on it, McCartney said in 2023, addressing speculation about AIs role in development. We cleaned up some existing recordings a process which has gone on for years.

The game director of MultiVersus has called out threats to harm developers on the game have received following the announcement of its impending shutdown.Last week, Player First Games announced that Season 5 of the Warner Bros. brawler would be its last, with the MultiVersus servers going dark this May, just one year after it relaunched. Players will still be able to access all earned and purchased content while offline via the local gameplay mode and training mode.While real-money transactions for MultiVersus are no longer available, fans can still use Gleamium and character tokens to access in-game content until support ends on May 30. MultiVersus will also be delisted from the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store at this time.Following the announcement, and without word of a refund policy, MultiVersus players who bought the $100 premium Founder's Pack hit out at Warner Bros. and Player First Games, with some saying they felt scammed. Based on online reports, there are a number of disgruntled customers who have character tokens that are now rendered useless, given they had already unlocked all playable characters in the game. Predictably, MultiVersus is also getting review-bombed on Steam.Tony Huynh, co-founder of Player First Games and game director of MultiVersus, tweeted to address player concerns and call out threats of violence directed at the team.Heres Huynhs statement in full:Hey all, I wanted to say a few words as I reflect on the recently announced news about MultiVersus. While I'm sad about the outcome, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity given to us by Warner Bros. Games and to each and every developer on the Player First Games and WB Games teams. Also to every IP holder thank you for entrusting us with your babies, we hope we made the characters true to themselves and felt authentic to your fans. I couldnt be prouder of the work the PFG team did. Their endless creativity and passion never ceased to inspire and amaze me. And of course I wanted to thank every player who has ever played or supported MultiVersus. Delighting and serving players is Player First Games objective.I apologize for not addressing things sooner, theres been a lot going on and Ive been focused on the game and the team, but now more-so the team.Thank you for sending us all the great fan art, character ideas, and personal stories. They were the highlight of every day and always excited the team.Im sorry if we couldnt get to your favorite character. I do think Aquaman and Lola are really cool and I hope you all check them out. Character selection comes down to bunch of things including development time, listening to what the community wants, working with IP holders and approvals, if there is a cross-marketing opportunity available to support, and of course if the team is inspired to make the character. So a lot goes into to it.For instance BananaGuard came about because the team was enthusiastic about making it and on their own produced it over the weekend as a fun, quick-to-make character. When inspiration and enthusiasm spark we want to reward that and we got BananaGuard because of that. It wasnt at the expense of another character. It was because the team was excited about making the character.I dont have the power some you think I do. PFG is a highly collaborative team and ideas are encouraged and can come from anyone and we promote delivering value to playersI also hope that the community notices that we try to listen and act. Like any developer were limited by time and resources.I know that this is painful for everyone, and I know every member of PFG feels it too, but I have to call this out, youre entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm its crossing the line. I hope that you can take a step back and realize that this is an extremely sad time for the team. I am in deep mourning for the game. Nobody wanted this outcome and it wasnt from lack of caring or effort.I sincerely hope that Season 5 is enjoyed with the time we have left and that you will all continue supporting other platform fighter and fighting games as these games have impacted me in many positive ways. Ive made so many friends and created so many great memories because of these games, and a big reason why we worked so hard at PFG was to share that with you. I hope that we played a small part and that you can look back on MVS and find some joy in the friends you made and the memories you shared.Thank you for allowing this dream to become a reality even if for a briefer time than we would have wanted. I dont know what the future holds for any of all of us, but I just wanted to say thank you. It has been an honor to work alongside the team at PFG to serve our community and players.Player First Games community manager and game developer Angelo Rodriguez Jr. took to X/Twitter to defend Huynh, stressing: Receiving threats of physical harm against him is not and will never be the way.I've legitimately been losing sleep over the past few days watching as all of these has been happening to Tony, he said.The man who would stay up past midnight with us watching streams and listened for fun ideas from the players. The man who took the time to read so many messages and respond to so many people when he didn't have to. The man who spent countless hours working with every department to try and improve things we could in the weeks we had to do it. The man who went out of his way to hire so many of us from the community and gave us a shot at being involved in something so special. Tony is not who he is being painted out to be.I know things aren't the best right now and everyone is looking for answers. Receiving threats of physical harm against him is not and will never be the way.PFG poured their heart into this game and we still hope everyone enjoys season 5. We never stopped pushing for improvements and again you will see 50 pages worth of them this season. I hope everyone can take the time to read through what Tony has to say, and I hope you will all think things through.MultiVersus demise is the latest high-profile failure for Warner Bros. Games, following Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagues disastrous launch last year. Last month, the departure of Warner Bros. Games boss David Haddad was revealed after what had been a troubling 12 months for the company.Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has said Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagues failure contributed to a $200 million hit to its business, and MultiVersus added another $100 million on top. Warner Bros. Games' only new game release during the third quarter of 2024 was Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, which failed to make an impression.Speaking in a financial call, Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav said: "We recognise [the games business] is substantially underperforming its potential right now.Since then, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League post-launch content has come to an end with the delivery of its year one roadmap. Warner Bros. has yet to announce Rocksteadys next game, but it is reportedly helping out on a directors cut of Hogwarts Legacy. The legendary British studio has suffered a number of layoffs in recent months.There are also question marks over Mortal Kombat 1s financial performance, although NetherRealm chief Ed Boon recently announced over five million sales and teased future DLC following the release of the T-1000 Terminator guest character.During the same financial call, Zaslav said Warner Bros. was doubling down on four games: Hogwarts Legacy (a sequel is already in the works), Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC, "in particular Batman." Warner Bros. recently published the VR game Batman: Arkham Shadow exclusively on the Meta Quest 3, and has a Wonder Woman game in the works at Monolith Productions."We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio," Zaslav added.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.