Close your eyes and think of the word “summer.” What comes to mind?Is it long days at the beach, a drink in one hand and a book in the other, letting the sun fall on your face and the waves tickle your toes? Two weeks of vacation in some remote destination, piling up memories to keep yourself warm through the rest of the year? The endless freedom you remember in those July and August weeks of childhood, set loose from the confines of the classroom? Hot dogs and ice cream and roller coasters and ballgames? John Travolta’s falsetto at the end of “Summer Love”?Well, I have bad news for you, my friend. You are yet another victim of the summer industrial complex, that travel industry-concocted collection of lies designed to convince you that June, July, and August are the three best months of the year. The beach? That sun will literally kill you. Vacation? Just don’t look up how much plane tickets cost, and don’t even think of leaving the country with the way the dollar is dropping. Freedom? Unless you are an actual child, a schoolteacher, or an NBA player, you’re going to spend most of your time in summer working as hard as you do the rest of the year. Hot dogs are honestly the worst way to eat meat. Your ice cream is already ice soup. Roller coasters kill an average of four people per year (you can look it up). If you want to drink beer, you don’t need to sit through a baseball game while doing it. Grease is fine, but its success led to John Travolta one day being allowed to make Battlefield Earth, a film so bad that as of this writing, it has a 3 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Summer is the triumph of hope over experience. Every Memorial Day weekend, we begin our summers full of expectation, sure that this will be the season we create the summer to remember. And every Labor Day weekend, we emerge, sweaty and mosquito-bitten, wondering what precisely happened over the past three months. Then next year we do it all over again, fruitlessly chasing that evanescent summer high — even though deep down inside, you know it’s probably going to be a disappointment, and secretly you’re counting the days until September. If you were able to control those hopes, you might be able to control that disappointment.But don’t you dare air those feelings out loud. When I suggested this essay to my fellow Vox editors, they reacted as though I were about to commit a war crime on paper. Doesn’t everyone love summer? Isn’t summer the best? How dare you look askance at the gift that is the three months when our hemisphere happens to be titled toward the rays of our life-giving sun? What kind of monster are you?As it turns out, I am precisely that kind of monster. So what follows is why this is our most overrated season — and unlike summer itself, which really is getting longer year by year, I’m going to be brief. It’s hotYou will not be surprised to learn that I don’t like the heat. Maybe it’s genes — my ancestors come from Ireland, a small, charming, rainy island where for most of the year, the sun is little more than a rumor. I realize this makes me unusual. The US county that has added the most people in recent years is Maricopa, Arizona, home to Phoenix. Phoenix has a lot of things going for it: relatively inexpensive housing, a fairly robust labor market, and a vibrant population of wild parrots, which is absolutely something I knew before researching this article.Phoenix also has sun — lots and lots of sun. Just look at what they named their NBA team. And with that sun comes unfathomable summer heat. Across the full 2024 calendar year, the city logged a record-breaking 70 days of temperatures over 110 degrees, obliterating the previous record of 55 days set in 2020. It also set a record for the most days straight with temperatures in the triple digits, with an unfathomable 113 days in a row.Yet every year, apparently tens of thousands of Americans take a look at those numbers and think, “Yes, please, I would like to see if they have any available lots left on the surface of the sun.” Look, I get it. The tremendous growth of the Sun Belt in recent decades is one big piece of evidence that, if given the choice, most Americans would rather boil than freeze. Or even be slightly cold. And sure, historically cold temperatures have had a bad habit of killing large numbers of human beings. No one in Game of Thrones was warning that “summer is coming.”But while it’s still true that extreme cold kills significantly more people globally than extreme heat by a large magnitude, heat is catching up. And there’s one thing you can count on with climate change: It will continue to get hotter. Summer — that season you love so much — is where we’re going to feel it. You may have heard the line: “This could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life”? It’s true! Just to take one example: A study found that by 2053, 107 million people in the US — 13 times as many as today — will be living in an extreme heat belt where they could experience heat indexes above 125 degrees. So sure, Americans like the heat just like they like summer, though I can’t help wondering if that has to do with the documented connection between extreme heat and cognitive impairment. (Summer! It makes you dumber!) But I doubt you will like it when your body is no longer able to cool itself through sweating and you begin suffering multiple organ failures. It’s boringLet’s flip through the major events of autumn. You have your Halloween — everyone loves candy. Thanksgiving — by far the best American holiday, even if we have all collectively decided to eat a bird we wouldn’t otherwise touch the rest of the year. Christmas and Hanukkah — presents and several days off.Spring has Easter, a festival of renewal and chocolate. Winter has…okay, to be clear, this is an argument against summer, not a defense of winter. Summer has Memorial Day (cookouts, beaches); Fourth of July (cookouts, beaches, and ooh, a chance to blow off my finger with fireworks); and then two utterly endless months before Labor Day, where we also have cookouts and beaches. And in between, there are just…days.This is the secret problem with summer. After school has let out and Independence Day has passed, we enter a tepid sea of indistinguishable days, with little to no events to break them up. July 12? July 27? August 13? I challenge you to tell the difference. Time becomes a desert that stretches out to every horizon, without even the false hope of a mirage to break it up. The Catholic Church, which I grew up in, calls the entirety of summer “Ordinary Time” in its liturgical calendar, which always seemed fitting to me. Nothing special, nothing to wait for — just all the Ordinary Time you can take.And while the calendar is no help, there’s also what I call the collective action problem of summer. Everything slows down and even shuts down, either because people go off on vacation or because they haven’t but almost everyone else has so what’s the point of doing anything. All the big cultural events — the books, the (actually good) movies, most of the good TV — won’t arrive until the fall. (Except The Bear. The Bear is great.) The sports landscape is as barren as your office, and this summer we don’t even have the Olympics.I’m sure someone will tell me I’m missing the point of summer, when the very formlessness of the days reminds us to slow down and appreciate these moments out of time. Sure, great, whatever. Personally, I can either be hot or I can be bored — not both.It has AugustTechnically this should be a subcategory of the previous section, but even Auxo, the Greek goddess of summer, would get impatient with August. Why does it have 31 days? Who voted for that? August is the worst parts of summer concentrated and then wrung out over the course of more than four sweaty, sticky weeks. I am positive that I have experienced August days where time begins to move backward.Slate had it right back in 2008: Let’s get rid of August. We’ve gone to the moon, we’ve mastered the genome, we’ve somehow made Glen Powell a movie star. If we can do all that, we can remove one measly month from the calendar. Or we could, except that August is the month when all motivation goes to die.It has vacations…in AugustI’ve got a great idea. Let’s have most of the country all go on vacation during the same few weeks. And then let’s ensure that those few weeks are set during one of the hottest, muggiest months of the year. What could go wrong (other than ridiculous travel costs, heat stroke amid the capitals of Europe, and the better-than-average chance of getting hit by a tropical storm)?It has FOMOIt’s probably not true that everyone is having more fun than you this summer, all evidence on social media notwithstanding. But it will feel that way.It’s become a verbLet me give you one last piece of advice. If you encounter someone who uses the term “summering” in a sentence, get far, far away. You are dangerously close to getting into a conversation about the best way to clean linen pants.I realize I’m not going to change a lot of minds here. There’s something deep in our biological clocks that can’t seem to help but welcome the days when the sun stays up past 8 pm and the air temperature reaches equilibrium with our bodies. Add that to the enforced summer love that comes from all the industries that capitalize on this seasonal affliction. We summer haters are few and rarely invited to parties, but at least we see the truth. The truth is that you might actually enjoy your summer more if you lower your expectations. It’s not the summer of your life — it’s just three months in the middle of the year. And please, put on some sunscreen. That big thing in the sky really is trying to kill you. Update, May 26, 9 am ET: This story was originally published on July 8, 2024, and has been updated with new data on heat waves in Phoenix.You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

The collapse of Builder.ai exposes the growing threat of “FOMO investing,” according to an expert in tech growth intelligence. Builder had become one of Britain’s best-funded startups, but is now filing for bankruptcy due to financial problems. The insolvency comes after enormous sums were invested into the business. Big-name backers including Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund had poured a total of over $500mn into the startup, which aimed to simplify software development with AI. The funding gave Builder a coveted unicorn status, with a valuation exceeding $1.3bn. But the eye-watering sums couldn’t keep the business afloat. Builder blamed the downfall on “historic challenges and past decisions” that strained its financial position.The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! The company has been accused of inflating sales figures under the leadership of Sachin Dev Duggal, the startup’s founder. Duggal stepped down as CEO in February, but retained the role of “chief wizard.” His replacement as chief executive, Manpreet Ratia, told employees this week that the company was filing for bankruptcy. Ratia said “unexpected and irreversible action” from lenders had triggered the company’s collapse.   Carrie Osman, CEO of growth intelligence firm Cruxy, highlighted another cause: “FOMO investing.” “Technology like GenAI has been massively overhyped in recent years and investors and boards are under increasing pressure to find the latest, sexiest uses for AI,” she said. “Driven by FOMO rather than fundamentals, investors are rushing into deals with minimal scrutiny, inflating valuations and sidelining due diligence.” Her warning comes amid an extended “AI gold rush.” Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, investors have heavily focused their funds on artificial intelligence companies. Approximately 40% of last year’s US venture cash came from funds that “list AI as a focus,” according to a report released this week by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). In 2021, the proportion was just 10%. SVB also discovered a growing number of “zombiecorns” — unicorns with poor revenue growth and unit economics. Builder has become another member of the injured flock. Osman warned that more of them are set to emerge. “Microsoft and others failed to capture the true value and ROI from Builder’s product and didn’t dig below the headlines and hype,” she said. “This isn’t the first case of disastrous FOMO we’ve seen over the years, either — Zymergen, Frank, and Theranos are all famous examples. And as AI washing continues, this won’t be the last case.” The future of AI will be a hot topic at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets for the event are now on sale — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off. Story by Thomas Macaulay Managing editor Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he e (show all) Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse). Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

A report from Insider Gaming points to more issues at Cloud Imperium Games, with the studio reportedly losing "integral" staff regarding server meshing and having been hit with more layoffs across all its departments. According to Insider Gaming, after Roger Godfrey's departure in December 2024, Ivan Corbett and Jordan Wood have left the studio, leaving no producers at Cloud Imperium Games working on server meshing. Sources Insider Gaming spoke to described all three leaving as a "huge loss" for Cloud Imperium Games. It's the latest news in what's been a rocky time for Star Citizen and Cloud Imperium Games. Last year, the studio suffered layoffs in February and November 2024, and just ahead of the November layoff, a separate report from Insider Gaming described an internal environment where developers are overworked on anything but finishing Star Citizen to launch it out of the early access state it has remained in for its entire existence. More recently, CIG has come under fire from players for its 'pay-to-win' Flight Blades. Players made their vitriol known to the point where CIG released a statement, admitting that it had "missed a step" with its implementation of Flight Blades, and that in an upcoming June update, players will be able to acquire them through in-game currency instead of just being able to buy them with real money. "The choice has and should always be yours. If you want to support the project early, you can, but it’s not required. If you own a game package, you’ll be able to pick these up with in-game currency in our next monthly patch. And for future gameplay kit introductions, we’ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one," CIG wrote in its statement. "Thanks to everyone who’s weighed in, especially those who brought the heat constructively. This game has always been shaped by the community. Star Citizen wouldn’t exist without your passion and support, or your scrutiny and feedback. We hear you, and we take it all to heart." Players were not appeased with this though, with many of the comments underneath still calling out the studio, claiming that it was always their plan to get players to buy into Flight Blades through "FOMO" and then offer them as an in-game item later. It's definitely been a difficult time for CIG, but just how much this will impact Star Citizen remains to be seen. Earlier this year, CIG passed $800 million in crowdfunding for the game, which has been in early access since 2012. Deal of the Day

Credit: Image: Mashable composite; Getty Images / izusek When I was a child, computers were a fixture in my home, from the giant Atari on which I learned my ABCs, to the Commodore Amiga that my dad used for his videography business, to the PC towers that facilitated my first forays onto the internet. But tech was still a niche hobby back then. Even in college in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of my friends got by just fine without computers. For people in college now—namely, my students—things are decidedly different. Gadgets are everywhere, and are increasingly designed to insert themselves into every aspect of our consciousness, colonizing every spare moment of our time and attention. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have never known a world without mini-computers within arm’s reach. They learned to relate to the world through gadgets, to turn to them for everything from entertainment to education to escape. And when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their lives, it took away even more of their access to the offline world, making tech feel paradoxically both like a lifeline and a prison.It's easy to call young people “screenagers” and blame them for being glued to their devices. But I know better. My students feel conflicted; they know they’re hooked, and they worry for their younger siblings who seem even more in the grip of all-consuming tech. You May Also Like Several years ago, it occurred to me that I could do something to help. I began requiring students to put away all devices, including laptops and tablets, in my classes. It was an experiment both for them and for me: What happens when we remove the barrier tech has put between us and other people, between us and our own thoughts? What does that teach us about how to handle the explosion of hype around generative AI?How I went from gadget geek to tech skepticMy own journey with tech predates our always-on devices, way back to that old Atari. I had always been a little obsessed with gadgets, and when I bought my first iPhone in 2008, it was almost a religious experience.My wife and I were living in New York City, and my entire family drove down from Boston to witness my initiation. Like pilgrims, we journeyed together to the flagship Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. We all stood in reverence at the foot of the spiral staircase, beneath the illuminated glass cube, as I was welcomed into the cult of Apple.From then on, almost without fail, I’ve upgraded my phone annually, a September ritual as cyclical for me as going back to school. And it wasn't just the iPhone; I had the first or second iteration of the iPad, AirPods, and the Apple Watch, too. Back then it felt like Steve Jobs might announce something that would reshape the world every time he stepped on stage.But in the 2010s, something started to change. Underwhelming new tech releases grew increasingly common, and the constant hype around them began to feel empty and manipulative. As both a college professor and a parent, I began to see the benefits of our always-connected devices becoming overshadowed by the negatives. The young people in my life are obsessed with their gadgets, legitimately afraid they’ll be disconnected from society if they aren’t extremely online, and they hate it. Many worry as much as their parents do about their phone use.  Mashable Trend Report: Coming Soon! Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! So, even before the hype that greeted the AI revolution of the last few years, I’d begun to look a lot more skeptically at claims that tech was changing our lives, and that more apps, devices, or wearables were automatically better.What happens when we turn off the tech?One day, near the end of the spring semester in 2019, I looked out at my class to see rows of students focused intently… on their laptop screens. They presumably had their devices out to take notes, but I wasn’t lecturing. I was trying to lead them into a discussion. This moment for me is trapped in time: It was the moment I decided I had to take drastic measures to recapture my students’ attention.The following fall, my syllabus included a new section, which has remained in place since. I call it my in-class technology use policy and it begins, “This class is a laptop/mobile phone/tablet/headphone/AirPods-free zone. Bring a notebook and pens to each class.” I explain my reasoning and, like a good academic, cite my sources. I provide exceptions for emergencies, explaining that if a student has to take an urgent call, they can quietly slip out of the classroom to do so without judgment or penalty. That first fall, I was nervous. Would they go along with it? Would my classes, previously well-loved, suddenly struggle to fill? To my great relief there was no significant pushback, no mass exodus. Going tech-free is still a shock, to be sure.I begin most classes by distributing an article to read—often a recently-published opinion piece—printed on paper. I encourage students to read it with pen in hand, marking it up as they go. As they read quietly, I look around the room at a group of so-called screenagers concentrating, without a device in sight. When they finish reading, they open their notebooks and write a response, by hand. In those first few weeks, I often see students massaging their palms, sore from lack of practice. After they write for five minutes or so, I open a discussion on what we just read and, distraction-free, the students engage. In those discussions, I love that my students are actually paying attention to one another when they speak. Not everyone of course; some look sleepy and bored, but even that is better than distracted. I call this productive boredom: Without a phone or laptop to divert them, there is little left to do other than sit with their thoughts. What a gift. I ask them, “When was the last time your only task was to think?”Lessons for the AI invasionThis experiment with a device-free classroom has also shaped my response to the AI revolution (I sometimes think of it more as an AI invasion)I’m not a luddite: I continue to be as curious about new technologies as ever. As soon as it came out, I peppered ChatGPT with questions to see if it could imitate my writing style. (It kind of can!) And I know there’s no going back; whether we like it or not, AI will be a significant presence in our lives, and I see it as my job to teach students how to use it responsibly. In my long journey with tech, I’ve learned that we can incorporate devices into our work without surrendering to marketing hype and manufactured FOMO. As a writing professor, my job is to convince students that, as William Zinsser wrote, “writing is thinking on paper.” The process of writing — not the final product — is what sharpens our logical reasoning and self-expression. For students who don’t use AI in smart ways, the result is essays that are all product, no process — and no process means no real learning. In my classes, students glimpse a time before they were born, when fewer distractions inhibited learning, when sitting with one’s thoughts—and, yes, being bored—could be productive and creative. I’m reminded, too, of why I love teaching, for the magic that happens when 20 people sit together in a room attending to one another and talking about ideas. When we leave the classroom, we’ll go back to our devices, and even to our new AI tools. But hopefully the time away from them reminds us we have the power to keep tech in its place—and gives us a taste of what only human minds can do. Jonathan D. Fitzgerald Mashable Perspectives Contributor Jonathan D. Fitzgerald ("Fitz") is a Mashable Perspectives contributor, as well as an associate professor of English and the coordinator of the professional writing concentration at Salem State University. He is the author of How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists. His articles and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Fitz holds a Ph.D. in English from Northeastern University. For more information, visit https://jonathandfitzgerald.com.

Magic: The Gathering’s highly anticipated Final Fantasy set launches June 13, and demand is skyrocketing. The Final Fantasy commander decks are already mostly sold out. The prebuilt Starter Kit is the only item still widely available from major retailers like Amazon, which has it up for $20. As for the other products, they’re already seeing price spikes. The Play Booster Set jumped from $164.99 to $185.59 on TCGPlayer, while Amazon’s $189 restock sold out fast. A nine-booster bundle now averages $95, though it’s still $70 at Walmart. Even single boosters have risen from $7.99 to $9.54. These price hikes reflect the “Market Price” — a real-time, demand-based pricing system often exceeding MSRP by $20–$40, especially for in-demand sets. Used to be that one would only have to worry about resellers pulling this, but now that they see the demand is there, your regular mom-and-pop shop is doing it too! How grand. TCGPlayer remains a top destination for singles and for tracking card values, especially if you pull rare Surge Foil cards like Cloud, Midgar Mercenary (Borderless), or Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian (Borderless), priced currently at $599 and $351.27 respectively on the site. As such, collectors are encouraged to pre-order now. For newcomers, the Starter Kit offers great value: two prebuilt decks, Arena code cards for online play, deck boxes, and tokens — but no boosters or chase cards inside. It’s what I chose this morning, and although FOMO can entice one to make a hasty purchase, keep in mind this FF set isn’t a limited edition, and availability will come back around. But if you’re living for the now, act fast. This crossover is shaping up to be one of the biggest Magic events in years.

Star Citizen players slam CIG's "non-apology" after space-sim introduces "pay to win" items that cannot be earned in-game "Vote with your wallet, citizens!" Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 18, 2025 Cloud Imperium Games has responded to players unhappy about the recent introduction of "pay to win" flight blades in Star Citizen, admitting it "missed a step". While Star Citizen's community doesn't typically shy away from financially supporting the game's 12-year-old early access period, on this occasion, players took umbrage that even though the blades give an undeniable in-game advantage, they had been introduced as a premium item that could not be earned organically through gameplay. The fallout has been so intense, CIG has now posted a statement, stressing to players that they will be able to obtain flight blades through the in-game currency aUEC "in our next patch this June" and said that "for future gameplay kit introductions, we’ll ensure these items are obtainable in-game on day one". Star Citizen | The Idris Is Here.Watch on YouTube "We're pushing 11 patches this year instead of 4. We're crushing more bugs than ever, building more exciting content, moving faster than ever to make the Persistent Universe a better experience for everyone, and in moving that fast, we missed a step," stressed Tyler "Zyloh-CIG" Witkin (thanks, PC Gamer). "To be clear, the new Flight Blades will be obtainable for aUEC in our next patch this June. We followed our usual approach by offering early access on the pledge store to help support development. But after some reflection, we've decided that for smaller components like Flight Blades or bomb racks, they should be available in-game at the same time they appear on the store. "The choice has and should always be yours," the statement continued. "If you want to support the project early, you can, but it's not required. "Thanks to everyone who's weighed in, especially those who brought the heat constructively. This game has always been shaped by the community," Witkin concluded." Star Citizen wouldn't exist without your passion and support, or your scrutiny and feedback. We hear you, and we take it all to heart." Not all players were mollified, however. "This is meant to be constructive, but you cannot keep the status quo and move up the in game part a little faster and act like you have solved the root of the problem," responded one. "This is a bandaid to calm people down, but the root issue here is that you continue to sell more and more items in the game that have a wider impact on what a player would do day to day. "Everyone knows the convienence of the pledgestore would outweigh any gameplay in an MMO that is meant to be played and slowly gained progress over years…" "Flight blades were kept from players in PTU with complete radio silence from CIG only for them to pop up in the store once the patch hit LIVE," added another. "They wanted to cash in on the FOMO during Invictus, and have not changed course. This isn't an act of goodwill, this is a non-apology and business-as-usual for CIG." Another said players "deserve what we tolerate", stating: "These flight blades feel so gimicky, and having them locked to a single type of ship is just greedy design. "If we accept this and CIG makes money off these blades, then we deserve more pay-to-win features. "Vote with your wallet, citizens! I've been following the project since 2.6 and I was happy with the development till they changed the ship prices to GTA5 online prices (and economy). That was a hard pill to swallow, but seeing these flight blades come out in this manner, it just paints a clear picture of things to come." Star Citizen has now raised over $800m, despite there still being no hint of a version 1.0 release date some 12 years after its original Kickstarter campaign.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here NetEase Games has officially kicked off the much-anticipated Galacta’s Gift event in Marvel Rivals, celebrating the game’s one-year anniversary since its Closed Alpha launch in May 2024. Beginning on May 15, 2025, players can dive into this event that grants a complimentary event pass. This pass features seven tiers packed with exclusive rewards, such as Nameplates, Sprays, eight Chrono Shield Cards, and a Costume Coin applicable to any Season 0 hero. Players can dive into daily missions across Quick Play, Competitive, or AI matches to advance through the pass and snag those highly sought-after items, creating a fulfilling journey for both newcomers and seasoned competitors alike. Yet, lurking beneath the festive exterior of this event is a unique element that has gamers buzzing — the event’s distinctive method of engaging players, especially with its captivating “2099” expiry date. Marvel Rivals Galacta’s Gift event will last forever with unique end date On May 15, trusted leaker X0X_LEAK posted on X that the Marvel Rivals Galacta’s Gift event is “set to end in 2099,” which corresponds with the in-game description, implying it is perpetual. This description, which appears in the event’s UI, shows that Galacta’s Gift is a permanent event for players, particularly as part of the new player onboarding process, which lends credence to the leaker’s assertion of an extended or infinite life. Galacta’s Gift screen in Marvel Rivals. Image by VideoGamer. The 2099 reference, maybe a fun tribute to the Marvel 2099 reality, may inflate the timeline while reflecting the event’s long-term availability. The in-game text indicates that Galacta’s Gift is permanent, as opposed to the time-limited Battle Pass. An X post from Miller Ross also confirms that the event is a one-time completion for existing accounts but is available indefinitely for new players. The event’s design allows for continuous access, therefore, a 2099 “end date” is an exaggerated approach to depict its continuing nature. Players must still finish objectives quickly to receive rewards, as the event’s one-time-per-account constraint implies no second chances. Marvel Rivals Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Fighting, Shooter Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Remedy Entertainment has a history of being experimental with genre favorites like Alan Wake 2 and Control, but largely sticking to the (comparatively) safe waters of premium single-player games. Now Remedy is using the setting of Control as a launching pad for a live service co-op shooter called FBC Firebreak, their first crack at an online co-op game about contending with The Oldest House following a new lockdown.Producing an online live service game these days is an increasingly risky business that many developers have struggled with. A key factor is that playing a live service game and keeping up with the content and other players is time-consuming—and only so many games can operate within that space at a given time. With that, the developers at Remedy Entertainment have built their take on an online live service game that not only allows players to tune the activities to match their pace, but also offer a way for players to take in as much as they want when they want.In a chat with Game Developer, game director Mike Kayatta explained that Remedy is expanding the 'Remedy Connected Universe' further, while also building an online co-op game that's all about getting players right into the action and progressing at their own pace—all to build a sustainable live service that can attract players without plenty of time on their hands, and how they're ensuring players who don't have a lot of free time won't feel left behind.Related:An online game built around the player's scheduleIn FBC Firebreak, squads of 3 players are tasked with completing various missions within The Oldest House—the extradimensional office building from the original Control—using jerry-rigged equipment and weapons to contain rogue Objects of Power or halt the invasion of the otherworldly monsters known as the Hiss. FBC Firebreak stands out in the live service space by providing more surreal objectives, like a mission called "Paper Chase," where players hunt supernatural sticky notes.According to Kayatta, FBC Firebreak and its first-person, co-op-driven gameplay have been long brewing at Remedy. The concept itself stretches back to the original's conceit of contending with a setting that's actively working against players."One of my favorite pieces of Control concept art is of an FBC employee trying to play a game of pool, but the floor has shifted one end of the table just enough to ruin his game. This is pretty much how we think about the Oldest House in FBC: Firebreak," said the game director. "It's a powerful and mysterious building, yes, but there's also a certain level of canonical 'grounded absurdity,' it produces that's perfect for our type of experience."Related:Image via Remedy Entertainment."But even aside from those tonal opportunities, the House's shifting and unknowable nature, and the fact that it can connect to other dimensions, gives us all the room we'll ever need to do what's best for Firebreak without violating what makes Control, Control."On the surface, the concept of FBC Firebreak recalls similar efforts from other developers attempting a stand-alone multiplayer game based on a single-player experience, another example being the upcoming Elden Ring: Nightreign. What makes FBC Firebreak particularly interesting is that it's not only leveraging the weirdness of the Control setting, but it's also an online game that seeks to remedy (pun intended) a growing problem with live-service games. Simply put, there's never enough time to play all the games out there while meeting the investments they expect from players.Kayatta stated that FBC Firebreak was all about removing the familiar pain points and sense of FOMO found in online games. To them, the Control spin-off aimed to be a game that players could play "on their terms, and not on the games."Related:Amusingly, Kayatta said the team at Remedy took inspiration from their own busy schedules as game developers, studying the pace of how they kept up with modern online games.FBC Firebreak lets players set their own progression paceThe developers of FBC Firebreak seek to solve the live-service dilemma with two solutions. First, all players can unlock key weapons and upgrades for their Crisis Kits (the game's take on class types), all from playing the game's set of missions and collecting resources. As players rank up their Requisitions—the game's take on the unlock system—they can spend points to unlock whatever they like, which includes new weapons, kit upgrades, and other add-ons to modify their loadouts.The second solution, and most interesting to FBC Firebreak's structure, is the customizable objectives and encounter difficulties. Before each job, the team leader can tune the enemy variety and spawn rate to different intensity levels while also setting the number of objectives needed to clear the mission.This means players can can have a mission with limited objectives but high enemy frequency, presenting a one-stage encounter with an onslaught of enemies. Conversely, they can customize the same mission to have a larger set of objectives, but with a lower frequency of enemies, making it more of an atmospheric, task-focused mission that culminates in a boss encounter.Image via Remedy Entertainment."With a multiplayer game, it's important to consider how your game slots into people's lives," he said. "In co-op, especially, friend groups are stepping in with an unpredictable set of needs: How experienced is each group member? How much time do they have? Are they treating the game session like a phone call, where they just want something to do in the background while talking about something personal?""And you can't solve this for a player forever because the same person who wants to zone out one night for thirty minutes sometimes turns around and wants to hyper-coordinate for two hours the next night. This goes back to putting the game on the players' terms instead of ours; we wanted to give you those controls so that Firebreak can meet you where you are on any given day."FBC Firebreak's approach to challenge and tuning of the experience is flexible by design, which feels like an oddity among other games that push players towards timed battle passes or monthly events.According to Kayatta, building the game's structure and more flexible approach to progression was all about removing potential barriers that so many other live service games have, to provide an online game that players of whatever time investment can get something out of. Remedy axed other popular live service features like dense statistics (think damage, buff, and debuff percentages) because it made players care about "min-maxing and tracking metas.""That in turn, can create barriers to people who don't want to be pressured into thinking about anything that's not directly in front of them," he said.It's an unconventional strategy to drive retention by asking players for less engagement, but Kayatta said targeting those busy everyday players will be key to FBC Firebreak's success."We just wanted to make a game that players without a lot of time could enjoy, which feels like it describes a lot of gamers these days," he concluded. "Some people lose their time to work or to their kids. Others are among the hundreds of incredible games destroying their backlogs. Some poor suckers, like me, lose time to both.""Too many games ask too much of their players, especially in the multiplayer space."