MacworldThis may be shocking to hear from someone who would later edit a magazine called iPad and iPhone User, but I was the last of my friends to get a mobile phone. In the end, I only agreed to buy one because I lost a bet.Partly this can be explained by stubbornness, but another factor was that smartphones arrived slightly too late for me. By the time they took off in the U.K., I was a prematurely middle-aged 20-something, already beginning to lose the fearlessness you see when kids pick up touchscreen devices for the first time, which I had when 16-bit game consoles arrived a decade earlier. Children play with tech happily and recklessly, but I was worried Id buy the wrong model, or use it wrong and break it. I was just a bit scared to commit.And I wasnt alone. It happened early for me, but most of us, at some point, start to find new technology intimidating. Weve all seen older relatives jabbing nervously at touchscreens in expectation of disaster, bamboozled by tiny keyboards, or refusing to stray outside the two or three drop-down menus they know are a safe way to access email or the internet. Technology is not a fun experience when it makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe.Apples great success was to understand this fear and find a way to soothe it. We talk about the intuitive design of the iPhone and the iPad, the way things do what you expect and the processes are simple and easy to understand. But these are welcoming devices in ways that go well beyond the software interface. Apples engineers worked hard to make the first iPhones and iPad something you would want to pick up, a reassuring object that invited interaction, not awe. And while the creed of control minimalism would later risk turning into a mania, at heart it was about having a small number of buttons so you could easily tell which one did what.The most important element of all was the Home button, perfectly sized and shaped for your thumb and nestled at the bottom of the display. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, you had only to press the Home button and youd be whisked back to the safety and familiarity of the Home screen. This was the press-in-case-of-emergency button for early iPhone and iPad owners, the safety belt, the parachute, and the get-out-of-jail-free card. It was Don Drapers carousel. It was Dorothys ruby slippers, clicked together three times. There really was no place like Home.I dont think its possible to overstate the importance of the Home button in the early success of the iPhone and iPad. Tech heads, early adopters, and the wealthy young were always ripe to be recruited when the smartphone revolution began, but the intuitive friendliness of Apples devices enabled them to access the markets beyondolder users, busy or stressed users, users with disabilities, inexperienced and nervous users who never would have thought technology was for them. People, in other words, like me.Its been 18 years since the first Home button arrived with the first iPhone, but the time has come to say goodbye. Apples been working on the transition for nearly half of that time, since 2017s iPhone X heralded a future based around Face ID and full-body screens, and it finally ended an era last week with the launch of the iPhone 16e and the discontinuation of the final iPhone SE. There are now, for the first time since 2007, zero products in the Apple Store with a Home button. Were going to have to learn to live without it.And I think thats okay. The Home button was important, but it brought problems of its own. For one thing, it took up precious room on the front of your device; Id have trouble now swapping my iPhone 16 Plus for a screen the size of the SEs. And it used to go wrong a lot. When I started at Macworld we had an article explaining what to do if your Home button stopped working and it regularly used to get more traffic than anything else.More importantly, I think society is ready to move on. These days far fewer people, I suspect, would describe themselves as total beginners when it comes to technology. My parents generation all have smartphones and most of them seem to own a tablet too; theyre comfortable with the gestures used to operate a touchscreen device. And some guy who used to be terrified of owning a mobile phone now writes about them for a living. Were ready to manage without the crutch of a Home button, and a lot of the credit for that goes to Apple.FoundryWelcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but its cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.Trending: Top storiesiPhone 16e: The e means everything.Or, as a counterpoint: the iPhone 16e is disappointing, and its all Apple Intelligences fault.$699?! Why I cant recommend the iPhone 15 to a single type of customer.Apples political turn is leading it down a sketchy road.Deciding when to buy a Mac is about to get a lot easier.Could Apple take on Nvidia with a standalone graphics card?Someone hacked a Windows Phone to run iOS.Podcast of the weekTheres a new iPhone in town! Apple has released the iPhone 16e and we have all the details on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast!You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify,Soundcloud, thePodcasts app, orour own site.Reviews cornerHades 2 review: Now with native support for M-series Macs.Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi review: Good sound, many weaknesses.Logitech MX Creative Console review: Dream toolkit for creatives.Alogic Edge 34 and 40 Ultrawide QHD Monitor review: One monitor to match two.Got Bag Pro Pack review: Sustainability meets functionality.Software updates, bugs, and problemsGet ready to be annoyed: Apple wants to put ads in Maps.No Camera Control? No problem, your iPhone 15 Pro will soon get Visual Intelligence.iOS 18.4 set for early April release after a lengthy beta delay.And with that, were done for this weeks Apple Breakfast. If youd like to get regular roundups, sign up forour newsletters, including our new email from The Macalopean irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow usonFacebook,Threads,Bluesky, orXfor discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.

A new Brookings Institution report on generative AI (genAI) found that the more highly skilled a tech worker is, the more vulnerable they are to having their jobs supplemented by the technology.That differs dramatically from past automation technologies that primarily displaced low-skilled or physical laborers, according to Brookings, a Washington-based nonprofit public policy research firm.While IT workers can be found in virtually any organization today, genAI will have its greatest impact on jobs in high-tech geographical regions such as Silicon Valley, Seattle, WA., and Cambridge, MA., where highly skilled workers are concentrated. The report asserts that genAI tools will target cognitive tasks such as writing, coding, and data analysis impacting professionals in fields like software development, legal analysis, and finance.The report challenges earlier analyses that predicted genAI would mainly automate routine, repetitive tasks, and it highlights the growing risk to white-collar jobs and highly educated workers. But Brookings researchers said the technology is unlikely to eliminate jobs entirely. Instead, it will create a scenario where professionals must work alongside AI, using it as an augmentation tool rather than as a full replacement.GenAI has already proven itself to be an effective coder, assisting developers in creating new applications. That, coupled with the fact that the demand for skilled software developers is rising, will drive genAI adoption.Research firm IDC has forecast a shortage of four million developers this year, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects nearly 200,000 developer jobs to open annually through 2030. By 2027, genAI tools that can assist in the creation, testing and operation of software are expected to be adopted by half of all enterprise software engineers, according to a study by Gartner Research.Online coding platform Replit, for example, recently partnered with AI research company Anthropic and Google to help non-technical Zillow employees contribute to software development. The new applications are now being used to route more than 100,000 home shoppers to agents.The Brookings report presents a compelling case that AI will have a unique impact on knowledge workers and high-tech regions, said PeterMiscovich, Global Future of Work Leader at JLL Consulting. While this is a crucial shift from past waves of automation, it does not mean that AI will spare lower-level jobs entirely. Instead, AIs influence will be widespread, reshaping industries at multiple levels.Miscovich referred to the Brookings report as a bit nuanced in that it also indicates lower-skilled technology, operations, and customer service workers will also be affected by the fast-evolving technology.While manual workers are less affected, as robots havent fully replaced most of those jobs, AI-enabled robots are on the rise, according to Miscovich, and our sense is that manual job disruption will come about at some future point in time.Will AI really spare lower-level jobs?Nearly four in 10 Americans believe genAI could diminish the number of available jobs, according to a study conducted by Deloitte and released in October by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. And the World Economic Forums Jobs Initiative study found that close to half (44%) of worker skills will be disrupted in the next five years and 40% of tasks will be affected by the use of genAI tools and the large language models (LLMs) that underpin them.The Deloitte results highlight younger workers growing anxiety around AI replacing jobs and the actions theyre taking to improve their own job security. Deloittes survey of 1,874 full- and part-time workers from the US, Canada, India, and Australia roughly two-thirds of whom are early career workers found that 34% are pursuing a professional qualification or certification courses, 32% are starting their own businesses or becoming self-employed, and 28% are even adding part-time contractor or gig work to supplement their income.Despite the Brookings reports assertion that AI will primarily affect high-skilled jobs, there is evidence to suggest it will continue to replace low-wage, repetitive jobs as well, according to Miscovich, including:Customer service and call centers:AI chatbots and virtual assistants are already replacing entry-level call center jobs. Large corporations are integrating AI-driven customer service platforms, reducing the need for human representatives.Administrative and clerical Roles:Generative AI tools can automate document processing, email responses, scheduling, and data entry, roles traditionally performed by administrative staff.Retail and fast-food automation:AI-powered self-checkouts, robotic food preparation, and inventory management systems continue to reduce the need for human workers in retail and food service.Thus, while Brookings suggests that AI will hit high-tech jobs the hardest, it is probably more accurate to say that AI will affect a broad range of jobs across skill levels, Miscovich said.Key trends to watch, according to Miscovich, include:New roles and AI-augmented work: Many professionals will need to shift from purely technical jobs to roles that require human-AI collaboration. For example, software engineers might shift toward AI model training and oversight rather than coding from scratch.Upskilling and reskilling initiatives: Governments and corporations will need to invest in workforce retraining programs to help displaced workers transition into roles that require human judgment, creativity, and oversight of AI systems.Hybrid workforce models: Companies will integrate AI into workflows but still require human employees to handle complex problem-solving, ethical considerations, and customer interactions that AI cannot fully replicate.Rather than viewing AI as a job destroyer, it is better to consider it as a force for transformation, Miscovich said. Workers across industries will need to adapt, reskill, and learn to collaborate with AI rather than compete against it, he said. The key challenge for policymakers and businesses will be ensuring that AI-driven economic shifts do not exacerbate existing inequalities but instead create new opportunities across all regions and professions.Sarah Hoffman, director of AI research at AlphaSense and formerly vice president of AI and Machine Learning Research at Fidelity Investments, said genAI will change the future of work and how companies deploy the fast-moving technology over the next few years.The arrival of genAI tools in business will allow workers to move toward more creative endeavors as long as they learn how to use the new tools and even collaborate with them. What will emerge is a symbiotic relationship with an increasingly proactive technology that will require employees to constantly learn new skills and adapt, she said in an earlier interview with Computerworld.As AI automates more processes, the role of workers will shift, Hoffman said. Jobs focused on repetitive tasks may decline, but new roles will emerge, requiring employees to focus on overseeing AI systems, handling exceptions, and performing creative or strategic functions that AI cannot easily replicate.Gartner analyst: Brookings is wrongGartner analyst Nate Suda outright disagreed with the Brookings report findings.Generative AI will automate some tasks, for sure possibly even roles, in time, Suda said. However, the Brookings reports conflation of genAI with automation is a fallacy. In many cases, [the] productivity impact of genAI is a second-order effect. GenAI creates a special relationship with the worker, changes the worker, and that change impacts productivity.Gartner found that low-experience workers in low-complexity roles, such as call centers, saw a productivity boost not from AIs automation capabilities, but from its ability to help them learn their job more effectively. That, in turn, led to higher productivity from workers using genAI, a phenomenon known as experience compression, or the ability for the technology to accelerate learning.GenAI, Suda argued, boosts productivity for highly experienced workers in complex roles, like corporate finance or software engineering, by acting as a thought partner. That effect, he said, is known as skill magnification, where the technology amplifies employee capabilities, creativity, and productivity, leading to greater impact.As time spent on tasks increases, so does the quality and quantity of output, making productivity rise disproportionately, according to Suda. GenAIs true strength lies in inspiring creativity and teaching, not just automating tasks, he said.

In a significant escalation of transatlantic tensions over tech regulation, US House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has demanded clarification from the EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera regarding the enforcement of the EUs digital marketplace rules, citing concerns about potential discrimination against American companies.The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trumps recent memorandum announcing heightened scrutiny of the EUs Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), reported Reuters.Regulations that dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union, like the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, will face scrutiny from the Administration, Trump said in the memorandum signed on February 21.These regulations establish strict guidelines for how major technology companies operate within the European Unions digital marketplace, representing the most comprehensive attempt to regulate digital platforms globally.The DMA, which primarily affects the US big tech including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, implements a comprehensive framework of rules aimed at ensuring fair competition and expanded consumer choice in digital markets.However, US officials argue these regulations may disproportionately impact American technology companies, potentially creating barriers to innovation and global market access.We write to express our concerns that the DMA may target American companies, the report said citing Jordans letter to the EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera.DMAs crackdown on big techThe DMA introduced unprecedented restrictions and requirements for companies designated as gatekeepers in the digital market. These companies must comply with a strict set of rules designed to prevent unfair business practices and ensure market accessibility for smaller competitors.The Act mandates various requirements including interoperability for core platform services, restrictions on personal data combination across services, and prohibition of self-preferencing practices in rankings and search results.Big techs designated platforms can no longer unfairly promote their own products or services above yours (EU-based companies) in search results or ads, one of the clauses of the DMA says pertaining to offering level playing.Companies must also allow users to uninstall pre-installed applications and provide business users with access to platform data.Data generated by your business on designated big tech platforms wont be used by them to outcompete you, another clause of the act reads.US concerns and oppositionIn their letter to Ribera, Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald, chairman of the subcommittee on administrative state, regulatory reform, and antitrust, raised several critical concerns that reflect broader US apprehensions about the European regulatory framework.The enforcement mechanism of the DMA, which includes fines of up to 10% of global annual revenues for violations, is viewed by US officials as potentially serving dual purposes: forcing companies to adopt European standards globally and functioning as a de facto tax on American businesses. This could significantly impact the global operations and profitability of US tech companies.American businesses will no longer prop up failed foreign economies through extortive fines and taxes, the Trump-signed memorandum read, though without naming the EU or any specific economy. My Administration will not allow American companies and workers and American economic and national security interests to be compromised by one-sided, anti-competitive policies and practices of foreign governments.The lawmakers also expressed serious concerns about data security and competition, arguing that certain DMA requirements could potentially benefit Chinese competitors.They contend that the regulations could stifle innovation, disincentivize research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations, the Reuters report added.International implications and market impactThe implementation of the DMA has far-reaching implications for global digital markets and international trade relations. The regulations could fundamentally alter how major technology platforms operate worldwide, as companies may need to adjust their global practices to comply with EU requirements.The impact of the DMA is expected to be substantial across various dimensions of digital business. Major tech platforms will likely need to implement significant operational changes while bearing increased compliance costs.Importantly, the EU and the US share the worlds most extensive bilateral trade and investment partnership, marked by deep economic integration. As each others largest trading partners, their combined trade in goods and services reached $1.73 trillion (1.6 trillion) in 2023. This equates to $4.75 billion (4.4 billion) worth of goods and services exchanged across the Atlantic every day.The regulations may necessitate restructuring of digital services in the EU market, potentially creating new opportunities for European tech companies and startups, while simultaneously shifting the dynamics of global digital competition.European Commissions stanceMeanwhile, the European Commission where Ribera serves as the second-highest ranking official under President Ursula von der Leyen maintains that these regulations are not targeted at US companies, according to the report.The Commission argued that the DMA is designed to ensure fair competition and consumer choice in digital markets, regardless of companies national origin. However, the predominance of US firms among those affected has intensified transatlantic tensions over digital policy. Jordan and Fitzgerald have requested Ribera to brief the judiciary committee by March 10, signaling the US governments intent to monitor the implementation and enforcement of these regulations closely. This development suggests an increasing focus on digital policy in transatlantic relations and could potentially impact future trade negotiations and regulatory cooperation between the US and the EU.

In the fall of 2024, a trucking company in Falls Township, Pennsylvania, temporarily stored a storm-damaged Tesla at its yard. A few weeks later, the car burst into flames that grew out of control within seconds, some shooting out 30 feet.A local fire company tried in vain to squelch the blaze, spraying more than 2,000 gallons of water on the vehicle. Eventually, the firefighters requested help from a fire company in neighboring Bristol Township, led by volunteer fire chief Howard McGoldrick. Hed been fighting fires since 1989, but this conflagration was unusual: It was a chemical fire in a lithium-ion battery, meaning it provided its own heat, fuel, and oxygen. And it was incredibly challenging to extinguish.McGoldrick was encountering fires like this more and more often. The previous year, he says, several rowhouses were badly burned after overcharged lithium-ion batteries in racing drones ignited inside. In another nearby incident, old lithium-ion biomedical devices at a scrapyard got soaked in a rainstorm and combusted.The Tesla fire felt like a breaking point. We were like, Okay, this is just too many incidents in a short amount of time, McGoldrick recalls. He went in search of someone who could help his company get better at responding to fires in lithium-ion batteries. He found Patrick Durham.Durham is the owner of (and mustache behind) StacheD Training, one of a growing number of private companies helping first responders learn how to deal with lithium-ion battery safety, including electric-vehicle fires.Although there isnt solid data on the frequency of EV battery fires, its no secret to EV makers that these fires are happening. Yet the manufacturers offer no standardized steps on how to fight them or avoid them in the first place, leaving first responders scrambling to search through each cars emergency response guidesomething thats hard to do when youre standing in front of an immolating vehicle.In this void, Durham offers a wealth of resources to first responders, from easy-to-follow video tutorials to hours-long in-person workshops. In 2024 alone, Durham says he trained approximately 2,000 first responders around the country. As more people buy EVs, in part to help address climate change, the need for this training has only grown; in less than two years, Durhams YouTube channel has attracted almost 30,000 subscribers. (The US doesnt currently collect data on the frequency or causes of EV fires, but this year the US Fire Administration and the Fire Safety Research Institute are rolling out a new data collection system for fire departments.)A circumspect man with a shaved head, brown eyes, and a thick horseshoe mustache framing his mouth, Durham previously worked as a mechanical engineer developing battery boxes for EVs. He is also a volunteer firefighter, and in 2020 he offered his first training on fires in lithium-ion batteries to his local department. From there, his reputation spread by word of mouth. Today, StacheD Training is Durhams full-time work. Hes also the captain of his local volunteer fire department in Troy, Michigan.As more EVs hit the road, what worries Durham most isnt just the growing likelihood of battery firesits their intensity. The severity of the fire is significant compared to a regular vehicle fire, he says.The traditional car fires that you and I grew up withthe majority of those always start in the engine compartment, says Jim Stevenson, a fire chief from rural Michigan who has taken Durhams training. So we basically get there, we pop the car hood, and then we put out the fire from there, and if it gets into the inner compartment of the car? Not a big deal. You spray it down with the hose, and its out in no time. With EV fires, Stevenson says, its just a completely different monster.SHAWN HAZENAn EV battery is essentially a tightly packed array of thousands of cells, each of which ranges from approximately the size and shape of an AA battery to the size of a legal envelope, depending on the battery model. If a single cell gets damagedsuch as by getting crushed, overcharged, or waterloggedthat cell can heat uncontrollably in a process called thermal runaway. It will release so much heat and flammable gas that it generates its own fire, which spreads to the other cells.Older lithium-ion battery packs exploded like a pipe bomb when that happened, Durham says; todays battery packs have release valves so that during thermal runaway they avoid an explosion by instead spewing flames in what Durham describes as essentially a blowtorch. The location of an EVs batteryunderneath the car, between its axles, within a protective casecomplicates things further. The batteries are much safer from collision damage than they would be under the hood, but they are also much harder to reach and douse if they ignite.The result? Fires such as one at an Illinois Rivian plant in 2024, where one EV caught fire and approximately 50 cars parked nearby ended up burning. Or one in Hollywood, Florida, in 2023, where a Tesla was accidentally driven off a dock and burst into flames even though it was underwater.Durham worries that if an EV battery catches fire in a high-speed crash, it will burn so intensely that first responders wont be able to save anyone inside the vehicle. Putting out a fire in an internal-combustion car might take as little as 30 minutes and a few hundred gallons of water, he notes, while an electric car battery fire could take upwards of 4,000 gallons of water and many hours to extinguishand much more for commercial trucks. Indeed, when a Tesla Semi drove off Interstate 80 in Northern California in 2024 and burst into flames, first responders had to douse it with 50,000 gallons of water and close the highway for 15 hours.Whats more, with EVs, its never entirely clear whether the fire is truly out. Cars may ignite, or reignite, weeks or even months after the battery is damaged or a battery fire is initially suppressed. Durham points to one salvaged Tesla in California that burst into flames 308 days after it had flooded in a Florida hurricane. The vehicle hadnt initially ignited, but saltwater intrusion into the battery pack eventually corroded it enough to produce a chemical fire leading to thermal runaway.According to Durham, the simple truth is that the best way to manage EV fires right now is to let them burnwhile making sure to protect the surrounding area, including other vehicles and peoples homes. Allowing the fire to run its course will ideally also destroy any cells that might otherwise ignite later.This goes against firefighters instincts. When they respond to EV fires, they will spray water because they want to do something to fix the problem, he says. [But] its not really doing anything.Stevenson worries about how bystanders will perceive first responders waiting out a blaze. Its going to be ugly, he says, because the publics going to see us standing on the side [of the] road just watching it burn, which looks bad for us. But at the same time, he adds, we dont have [an] actual way of getting to the battery to knock it out.For now, Durhams training focuses on the options that first responders do have with EV fires. An important if simple one is using a fire blanket to cover a vehicle and prevent the blaze from spreading as it burns out. Although they hadnt yet received Durhams training, thats exactly what McGoldrick and his crew did when they responded to the burning Tesla last fall: After the facility used a forklift to move the burning car to an isolated part of the yard, first responders covered it with a fire blanket. The car reignited several times over the next few days, McGoldrick says, but it was contained. We just put it in the middle of an open lot and basically let it go.Its a significant cultural shift that first responders need to make, Durham says, and theres another one, too: being extra-vigilant about the personal protective equipment they wear from the first moment they arrive at a burning EV. There isnt yet enough information to compare the toxicity of EV fires and those in gas-powered cars, but Durham warns that first responders could inhale high levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and heavy metals from burning EVs.Overall, Durham says, he is not against EVs, but he thinks there needs to be a change in attitude to handle them safely. When an EV battery catches fire, he says, until that battery has been removed from the vehicle and shredded and fully recycled, its always going be a hazard.Maya L. Kapoor is an award-winning freelance journalist who writes about climate change, biodiversity, and environmental justice.

Apple today announced plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.

A new image purporting to show CAD renders of all iPhone 17 models has been leaked by one often unreliable leaker, but also now backed by many sources.Purported CAD renders showing the camera layout of all iPhone 17 modelsFollowing the leaked renders claiming to be of an iPhone 17 Pro Max in a MagSafe case, a new single image of the entire iPhone 17 lineup has now appeared. The image, said to be from CAD renders, fits with previous rumors concerning the camera systems on every model including the expected slim iPhone 17.iPhone 17 Lineup CAD pic.twitter.com/xednTkpJnq Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) February 23, 2025 Rumor Score: Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind the recently-released RPG Avowed, has revealed that it has grown quite a bit since being brought under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella. Speaking to IGN during a recent episode of tis Unlocked podcast, studio CEO Feargus Urquhart revealed that the company had between 170 and 180 employees before being bought out by Microsoft.Urquhart has revealed that, since this acquisition, Obsidian has grown to be around 285-strong. He also spoke about having great development partners through support studios like Beamdog and Heavy Iron.When we came on with XGS and Xbox, we were about 170, 180 people [in 2018], and through the course of the last five or six years, weve not only grown the studio to about 285 people, but we also have a lot of really good co-dev partners with Heavy Iron and Beamdog, said Urquhart.The interview, which you can check out below, revolved around a host of different subjects, including Obsidians games like Avowed, co-op survival game Grounded, and The Outer Worlds. During the interview, Urquhart was also asked if Obsidian would work on a new Fallout game down the line.Fallout is near and dear to my heart, responded Urquhart when asked if Obsidian would pitch a follow-up to Fallout: New Vegas. Im an 80s kid, Im a Gen-X, so the whole thing makes sense. If the opportunity ever arose for us to make one, wed love to make one. But we also have a lot of other things we like.Interestingly, the lead writer behind Fallout: New Vegas recently returned to Obsidian Entertainment as a creative director after having originally left the company all the back in 2011. In the interim, Gonzalez had worked on a number of high-profile titles, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor as lead narrative designer, and Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West as narrative director.Obsidian Entertainments latest release was Avowed, which came out just last week. The game has proven to be have seen quite a successful launch, with the PC version alone getting 17,000 concurrent players on Steam on its release date. Since the title is also available through Game Pass, it is likely that the number of concurrent players on PC was even higher.Avowed is a first-person action RPG that takes place in the world of Eora the same setting as Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The game puts players in the shoes of an envoy of the Aedyran Empire that has been sent to investigate a plague known as the Dream Scourge. Along the way, players will find and befriend companions as they try and figure out the secrets behind the Dream Scourge, as well as the various factions that seemingly have their own designs.Avowed got a trailer celebrating its accolades last week shortly after release. It is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the RPG, check out our review. And if youre looking for information about Avowed without digging into spoilers, here are 15 of them.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Artlist has discontinued all of the FXhome applications, including HitFilm, its editing, compositing and effects package, and Imerge, its image-editing app.Users will be able to use their existing software indefinitely, but it will not be updated to support new hardware or operating systems, and it will not receive active product support.The change actually came into force on 15 January 2025, but we felt it was worth covering, partly because it hasnt had a lot of coverage on mainstream news sites, and partly because of the speed of the collapse: these are applications, that just three years ago, had millions of users.A well-established firm with a 20-year track record, and over 6 million usersFounded in 2001, FXhome was a well-established developer of image- and video-editing tools.Its best-known product, all-in-one video editing, compositing and effects package HitFilm provided an affordable alternative to tools like Adobes Premiere Pro and After Effects.A number of prominent motion graphics and VFX artists started as HitFilm users, one notable example being ActionVFX founder and former HitFilm YouTuber Rodolphe Pierre-Louis.When stock media company Artlist acquired FXhome in 2021, it estimated that FXhome had a user community of over 6 million artists.At the time, the two firms said that it was business as usual, and that the buyout would help to position Artlist alongside companies like Adobe.A poorly received switch from perpetual licenses to subscriptionsThe following year, Artlist did what many users had speculated and some had feared it would do to FXhomes software, switching HitFilm to a subscription model.HitFilm Express, the old free edition of the software, was discontinued, and Artlist introduced new subscription tiers that included access to Artlist stock assets.Perpetual licenses of the old Pro edition were discontinued the following year.The move prompted a backlash in the user community, summarized in this YouTube video.Although HitFilm Express was replaced by a new free edition, it featured only basic video editing tools and export resolution was capped at 1080p.The UI was also redesigned with what Techradar described at the time as a big, forever-present Upgrade button, noting that the aggressive upselling did not leave a good taste in the mouth.Continuing lukewarm reviews, and migration of users to competing appsThe ubiquitous upgrade buttons were also singled out by PCMag two years later in a lukewarm review that compared HitFilm unfavorably to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.Judging by comments in the HitFilm Reddit community, users were already turning to DaVinci Resolve the free edition of which is capable of 4K export as an alternative.Late last year, Artlist conceded defeat, announcing that it would stop accepting new subscriptions for HitFilm and take down the old FXhome website on 15 January 2025.The firm also discontinued Imerge, FXhomes still-image-editing software.FXhomes other products had already been discontinued: Ignite Pro, its collection of plugins for compositing and video editing apps, in 2021, and older still image editor Photokey by 2023.FXhome and Imerge now officially discontinued: no further updates or product supportUsers with paid subscriptions have now been switched to non-renewing plans with some additional effects, but no third-party software.It remains possible to activate and use HitFilm including the free edition and older perpetual licenses but users will not receive product support once their paid subscription ends.The software will not receive future updates, and Artlist says that it cannot guarantee that older software will activate or run seamlessly on newer hardware or operating systems. Read Artlists FAQs about the discontinuation of the FXhome softwareHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

GDC Awards 2025 to honor Sam Lake and Lucas PopeRemedy's creative director will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award as Paper's, Please designer is recognised with the Pioneer AwardImage credit: GDC News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Feb. 24, 2025 The Game Developers Choice Awards organised have announced this year's recipients for its Lifetime Achievement and Pioneer Award categories.This year's Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Remedy's creative director Sam Lake, with the Pioneer Award will be given to independent game designer Lucas Pope.Lake has been working at the Finnish developer for over three decades, having been involved in writing, directing, and acting in Remedy's franchises including Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control.Last month, Lake received the Andrew Yoon Legend Award at the 14th Annual New York Game Awards.Pope has been in the games industry for over two decades, and is the creative force behind experimental indie hits Paper's, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn.The designer also worked at Naughty Dog on projects including Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves."[Pope] has pushed the bar for gaming narratives and mechanics through his work," the organisers said. "He has tried to make things that others don't, exploring new genres and new ways of telling interesting stories."The Lifetime Achievement and Pioneer Awards were voted for by 2025's Game Developers Choice Editorial Committee, with suggestions from the International Choice Awards Network."The GCD Awards has a proud legacy of shining the spotlight on figures who make gaming the most gripping and evocative method of storytelling," said GDC event director Stephenie Hawkins."We're excited to recognise Sam Lake and Lucas Pope for their commitments to pushing the boundaries of the medium through transcendent narrative structures, complex moral questions, and evocative gameplay."The awards ceremony will take place on March 19 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.The finalists for the GDC Awards were announced last month, with Astro Bot and Black Myth: Wukong receiving the most nominations.

Bossa Games has laid off an undisclosed number of employees due to what it has branded a "fundamental transformation of the games industry."The Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread developer previously laid off around one third of its workforce in January 2024. Roughly 40 people remained with the studio following those redundancies.Now, just over a year later, studio CEO Henrique Olifiers has confirmed the company is making additional cuts in a bid to survive."The past couple of years have brought a significant amount of disruption to the games industry at large, with treasured studios, teams, and games being shut down or significantly scaled back. We've all read the news, suffered through the changes ourselves or seen it through the eyes of peers and colleagues affected," wrote Olifiers in a statement published on Linkedin."In our view this is not a phase, it's a fundamental transformation of the games industry, a reshape of how games are made and by what kinds of teams. The industry of two years in the future will not look like the industry of two years ago."Olifiers said Bossa is scaling back with that transformation in mind and will now focus on the late-stage production of Lost Skies, its upcoming co-operative survival adventure published by Humble Games."Once Lost Skies is established and enjoying live operations, we'll reshape into small teams working independently on novel game ideas brought to players as early as possible," continues the post."This means saying vey difficult goodbyes to extremely talented and treasured colleagues, truly some of the best people in the games industry, who have been part of our journey for a long time. We wish we had found a way of navigating this turmoil without resorting to the decision of scaling back our teams, but unfortunately we've failed in this endeavour."Game Developer has reached out to Bossa for more information about the cuts.