Wholesome Direct 2025 - everything announced at this year's cosy indie showcase Big hops! Discount shops! Spooky pups! More! Image credit: Eurogamer Feature by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on June 7, 2025 If you're the sort who just can't seem to resist the soothing rhythms of turnip planting and interior design, you've come to the right place. This year's Wholesome Direct - which marks the fifth anniversary of the showcase - has now aired, unleashing a fresh wave of cosy games to stick on your wishlists. We've got vending machine management, adorable puppies on spooking adventures, cheese-based puzzling, geckos, goats, seasonal cemetery exploration, and a whole lot more. So if that sounds like it might help sate your idyllic yearning, read on for all the big announcements from Wholesome Direct 2025. And for more indies, you can check out our round-up of this year's Day of the Devs showcase elsewhere. Leaf Blower Co. Leaf Blower Co. trailer.Watch on YouTube Ever wished your PowerWash Simulator had a little less splosh and a little more whoosh? That seems to be the starting point for developer Lift Games' Leaf Blower Co., a game about making the untidy tidy come rain, snow, or shine, one mechanised gust at a time. It's got a story mode plus a variety to locations waiting to be blown debris-free, and if that appeals, a demo's available now on Steam ahead of its release later this year. Instants Instants trailer.Watch on YouTube Instants is a creativity themed puzzler about the intoxicating pleasures of obsessive scrapbooking. It sees players attempting to sort images into chronological order and then assembling them into a scrapbook to reveal a "heartwarming" story inspired by the way family history can be passed down using pictures. It's developed by Endflame and launches today on PC (via Steam and Epic), and Switch. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar trailer.Watch on YouTube Stardew Valley might be the face of farming sims these days, but the grandaddy of the genre - Story of Season (formerly Harvest Moon) - never went away, and another entry in the venerable series is looming. Grand Bazaar is actually a remake of 2011 DS game Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar, and it's got pretty much everything you'd expect from these kind of things - including turnips to fondle, animals to rear, and locals to dazzle with your impressive root vegetable collection. The main twist is you'll be selling all this yourself by setting up shop in the titular bazar. And if that sounds like something you'd enjoy, it launches for Switch, Switch 2, and Steam on 27th August. Gourdlets Together Gourdlets Together trailer.Watch on YouTube Perhaps you're already a fan of last year's Gourdlets or perhaps you're completely new to its vegetable-themed low-stakes thrills. Either way, there'll soon be a new way to play, thanks to developer AuntyGames' Gourdlets Together. Essentially, it takes the laid-back village-building vibes of the original, slings in a bit of a fishing focus - where earnings can be spent on upgrades or accessories to decorate your island home - then lets you do it while hanging out with friends online. Gourdlets Together launches on PC later this year. Luma Island Luma Island trailer.Watch on YouTube Don't think we're done with the farming sims yet - not by a long shot! Luma Island launched last year, offering an attractive mix of crop whispering, profession-specific activities, creature collecting, exploration, and puzzle-y dungeoneering. And come 20th June, it'll be getting just a little be more swashbuckling, thanks to its free Pirates update, introducing a new profession, new Lumas, new outfits, and a pirate cove filled with mini-games, temples, traps, and treasures. It'll also bring a range of different difficulty modes to suit players of all tastes. Is This Seat Taken? Is This Seat Taken? trailer.Watch on YouTube Think you're a dab hand at the old 'awkward family gathering' seating plan challenge? Well then, this might just be the game for you. In Poti Poti Studio's "cosy, silly, and relatable" logic puzzler Is This Seat Taken?, the goal is to satisfy the demands of a particularly fussy group of chair occupiers to find the perfect spot that'll keep everyone happy - be they on the bus, at the park, or in the office. It's coming to Steam, Switch, iOS, and Android this August, and a Steam demo's out now. MakeRoom MakeRoom trailer.Watch on YouTube Here's one for the aesthetic tinkerers and furnishing fetishists out there. MakeRoom, from developer Kenney, sees players decorating a series of miniature dioramas - from cosy indoor retreats to camper vans and even forests - to fulfil the requests of adorable NPCs. You might, for instance, be tasked with creating the perfect room for cats, or a suitably moody hideout for a vampire. Then it's simply a matter of hanging drapes, plopping down plants, and even crafting furniture to bring these spaces to life and satisfy your clients' whims. It all sounds very much like Animal Crossing's weirdly compelling Happy Home Paradise expansion, so if it's more of that sort of thing you want, MakeRoom comes to Steam on 7th August. Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell trailer.Watch on YouTube The apple bell - whatever an apple bell is - has been stolen, but luckily for apple bell lovers everywhere, renowned detective Ambroise Niflette is on the case. Over the course of Topotes Studio's investigatory adventure, Ambroise - and players - will roam the village of Touvoir, interrogating its inhabitants and searching for secrets, all while using a notebook of steadily amassing leads to reveal contradictions and unmask the culprit. It all sounds perfectly lovely, but the real draw is the delightful art style, which is heavily inspired by miniatures and stop motion. Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell is eventually set to launch on Steam, but first there's a Kickstarter, which is underway now. Let's Build a Dungeon Let's Build a Dungeon trailer.Watch on YouTube First there was Let's Build a Zoo, and now comes Let's Build a Dungeon. But while developer Springloaded kept its focus pretty tight for its debut release, Let's Build a Dungeon goes broad; not only is it a playable RPG creator where you can rustle up your own worlds and quests, it's also claiming to be an entire games industry sim too, where you'll need to manage all the malarky around releasing your game - from attracting funding right through to making a profit at the other end of the process. But if all that sounds too stressful, Springloaded has confirmed - as part of its latest showing - there'll be a cosy sandbox Build Mode too. There's still no release date for Let's Build a Dungeon yet, but it's heading to Steam (there's a demo here), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Squeakross: Home Squeak Home Squeakross: Home Squeak Home trailer.Watch on YouTube What do you get if you cross adorable mice with classic grid-filling puzzler Picross? Well, this thing, obviously. Squeakross: Home Squeak Home is the work of developer Alblune, and it adds its own twist to the familiar logic-testing formula by introducing a home decorating element. The idea is each puzzle corresponds to an unlockable bit of decor - including furniture, accessories, and stickers - so you'll slowly amass new furnishings and trimmings as you give your brain a work out. Is there an in-game lore reason why puzzles equals furniture? Who knows! We'll soon find out, though, given Squeakross launches for Switch and PC (via Steam and itch.io) today. Monument Valley 3 Monument Valley 3 trailer.Watch on YouTube Ustwo Games' perspective shifting puzzle series Monument Valley has been a big old hit, amassing tens of millions of downloads since its iOS debut back in 2014 - so it wasn't a huge surprise when a third entry showed up on mobile last year. Initially, however, it was locked behind a Netflix subscription, but Monument Valley 3 - which we quite liked despite it offering little meaningful evolution for the series - is finally spreading its wings later this year. As announced during today's Wholesome Direct, it's coming to Steam, Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 22nd July. Big Hops Big Hops trailer.Watch on YouTube If you immediately thought bunnies, you're wrong. Big Hops is, in fact, a frog-themed action platformer, in which players attempt to help the titular Hop find his way home. Each world he visits on his adventure promises its own self-contained story - involving everything from mountain cultists to desert ne'erdowells - all interspersed with plenty of agile platform action. You can grapple across gaps, hoist levers, rotate wheels, even pick locks - all using your tongue - and it's accompanied by some veggie-based gameplay that lets players introduce the likes of climbable vines and mushroom-based bounce pads into levels. Big Hops is currently raising funds via Kickstarter and a Steam demo's out now. Little Kitty, Big City Little Kitty, Big City trailer.Watch on YouTube Here's quicky for you. Little Kitty, Big City - the feline-focused open-world adventure from Double Dagger Studio - is getting a little bigger. That's thanks to a free content update coming to all platforms this "summer", promising new story content, a new neighbourhood to explore, and new oddball characters to befriend. That's alongside a new cat customisation feature for you creative sorts out there. Vending Dokan!: Kozy Kiosk Vending Dokan!: Kozy Kiosk trailer.Watch on YouTube What's in a name? Well, pretty much everything in this case. Aftabi Games' Vending Dokan!: Kozy Kiosk is, just as it sounds, a cosy, laidback game about managing your own vending machine empire. You'll choose where your machines go and what they sell, and hire staff to ensure they stay stocked, clean, and in working order. There's a heavy customisation element too, as you're free to decorate the areas surrounding your vending machines in order to attract new customers. Kozy Kiosk is officially referred to as an "idle simulation", and can be played both actively and passively. And if that appeals, it launches for Steam today. Winter Burrow Winter Burrow trailer.Watch on YouTube Developer Pine Creek Games' "woodland survival game" Winter Burrow was unveiled during December's Wholesome Direct, but it's back to announce it's now coming to Switch. If you missed its original reveal, Winter Burrow casts you as a mouse who's attempting to fix up their burrow and turn it into a toasty retreat from the cold. That requires exploring the snow-covered world outside, gathering resources, crafting tools, building things, making friends, baking pies, and more. Winter Burrow launches next year and will be available for Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch. Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game Tales of the Shire trailer.Watch on YouTube After multiple delays, cosy hobbit life sim Tales of the Shire is almost upon us, and developer Wētā Workshop is readying for its arrival with a brand-new trailer. It's been described as a game about "finding joy in the small moments", and features all the usual life sim activities - fishing, cooking, gathering, decorating, merrymaking - with a bit of a Lord of the Rings twist. So yes, you CAN decorate your hobbit's hole. Tales of the Shire launches for Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 29th July. Haunted Paws Haunted Paws trailer.Watch on YouTube If your interests lie at the intersection of spooky mansions and adorable pups, prepare to have your day made. In developer LazyFlock's supernatural adventure Haunted Paws, players - either solo or with a friend - control two brave (and customisable!) puppies as they explore a creepy old house in search of their human, who's been kidnapped by sinister forces. It promises puzzles, lighthearted spookiness, and even a few emotional bits. There's no release date for Haunted Paws yet, but it's coming to Steam. The Guardian of Nature The Guardian of Nature trailer.Watch on YouTube This wholesome, hand-drawn puzzle adventure from Inlusio Interactive is all about the interconnectedness of nature, and sees players embarking on a botanical journey as the lovably be-hatted Henry. Not only does Henry know his stuff about the natural world, he's also able to change his size, meaning players can explore both above and below ground as they solve puzzles to assist nature. The Guardian of Nature launches into Steam early access today, and it's coming to Switch, Xbox, iOS, and Android too. Everdeep Aurora Everdeep Aurora trailer.Watch on YouTube If you've ever thought Dig Dug would be improved if its protagonist was a cat, Everdeep Aurora might be the game for you. It follows the apocalyptic adventures of a kitten named Shell as she explores subterranean depths in search of her mother. You'll obliterate blocks, do some platforming, play mini-games, and converse with peculiar characters as you investigate the dark secrets buried below, all without a hint of combat. Its limited-colour pixel art looks wonderful, and it's coming to Steam and Switch on 10th July. Seasonala Cemetery Seasonala Cemetery trailer.Watch on YouTube From the creators of A Mortician's Tale, the "meditative" Seasonala Cemetery is a "peaceful but poignant reflection on life and death". It's set in an expansive, living cemetery that changes dynamically based on your system's time and date. The summer, for instance, might see the world bustling with vibrant life, while the winter brings quiet and snow. You can interact with NPCs and animals, rummage through nature, learn the history of the nearby city through its gravestones, or simply relax to its ambient sounds. Seasonala Cemetery is out today on Steam and itch.io, and is completely free. Camper Van: Make it Home Camper Van: Make it Home trailer.Watch on YouTube One of (bizarrely) several camper-van-themed games currently in the works, developer Malpata Studio's Make it Home is a pretty self-explanatory thing. You've got a camper van to make your own as it journey across beautiful, idyllic landscapes. Part of your goal is to solve organisational puzzles, but there's laidback interior design too. Camper Van: Make it Home is available today, alongside a demo, on Steam. Lynked: Banner of the Spark Lynked: Banner of the Spark trailer.Watch on YouTube FuzzyBot's Lynked: Banner of the Spark is a cheerily colourful action-RPG, that's part sci-fi roguelike, part relaxed life sim. At its most peaceful, you'll farm, fish, gather materials, and build your base with help from your robot pals, but that's all in service of its more frenetic hack-and-slash action. When you're ready for some proper adventure, you can brave the wilds, battle evil robot forces with a large arsenal of weapons, and search for helpful bots to bring back home. Lynked is already available on Steam, but it's coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S too. Omelet You Cook Omelet You Cook trailer.Watch on YouTube In this chaotic cooking roguelike from SchuBox Games, you're tasked with creating the perfect omelettes to satisfy your customers' increasingly peculiar demands. That involves combining ingredients as they fly by on a conveyor belt, from the relatively mundane to the rather more dubious, in the hope of earning enough money to increase your provisions, add useful relics to your pantry, and, hopefully, please the fearsome Principal Clucker. It all looks wonderfully ridiculous, and it launches on Steam today. Milano's Odd Job Collection Milano's Odd Job Collection trailer.Watch on YouTube Milano's Odd Job Collection (known as Milano no Arubaito Collection in Japan) is coming to the west for the very first time. It follows the adventures of 11-year-old Milano as she's left to her own devices over the summer. Free to do as she pleases, she embarks on a range of odd job - from pizza delivery to milking flying cows - in order to make money and have fun. Milano's Odd Job Collection, from developer Westone, is coming to Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC later this year. Fireseide Feelings Fireseide Feelings trailer.Watch on YouTube If you've got something to get off your chest, what better place to do it than by a roaring fire in a cosy forest glade? Fireside Feelings is described as a "mental wellness experience" promoting empathy, connection, and positivity between players. Situated cosily in your customisable camp, you're able to answer questions on a range of topics, taking part in conversations between people "separated in space and time". Conversations aren't live, and there's no direct interaction with others, but the goal, according to developer Team Empreintes, is to "share experiences, express your emotions, and be a part of a caring community". It launches today on Steam. All Will Rise All Will Rise trailer.Watch on YouTube Well here's something you don't see every day. All Will Rise is a "narrative courtroom deck-builder", in which you and your team take a corrupt billionaire to court, accusing them of a river's murder. That involves accumulating cards and using them to engage in conversation battles, attempting to charm, intimidate and manipulate those you meet around the vibrant city of Muziris. "Obey a dead river god's summons - or defy them," developer Speculative Agency explains. "Pass information to violent ecoterrorists - or maintain your pacifist ideals. Convince a corporate stooge to testify for you - or blackmail him with sensitive information. Your choices will determine the [city's] fate." All Will Rise is currently crowdfunding, but it's aiming to launch on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. Gecko Gods Gecko Gods trailer.Watch on YouTube It's hard to go wrong with a gecko, which immediately gives developer Inresin's Gecko Gods a bit of an advantage. What we've got here is a "serene lizard-sized puzzle-platformer" set on a beautiful archipelago, in which its tiny protagonist clambers across forgotten ruins, solving puzzles as they go. There are secrets of a lost civilisation to uncover, hidden paths, and more, all of which you'll be able to explore for yourself when Gecko Gods launches for Switch, PS5, and Steam later this year. But if you're an impatient sort, a Steam demo is available now. One Move Away One Move Away trailer.Watch on YouTube If you quite fancied the idea of Unpacking, but thought it had far too much 'taking stuff out of things' for its own good, you might enjoy Ramage Games' One Move Away, which is basically the inverse experience. Here, you play as three different characters, starting with a young girl in the 1980s, gradually learning more about them as you pack their belongings away ready for another chapter in their intertwining lives. All this plays out in first-person across 20 levels, and if that takes your fancy, a Steam demo's out now ahead of a full launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Heidi's Legacy: Mountains Calling Heidi's Legacy trailer.Watch on YouTube As you've probably already guessed, Heidi's Legacy: Mountains Calling takes inspiration from the classic children's stories. Which is why it's something of a surprise to learn its protagonist is called Adèle. Regardless, this is a game of grumpy old men, goat management, and alpine wandering, where you'll explore the beautiful countryside with your bleating pals, foraging for herbs, mushrooms, and more in a bid to help the nearby village. You can unlock abilities that open up more of the world, and chat to the locals in branching conversations'll that impact their lives. And as for those goats, they can provide milk, cheese, and wool. "Will you embrace slow living," asks developer Humble Reeds, "or push for bolder change?". Heidi's Legacy is coming to PC "soon". Hotel Galatic Hotel Galatic trailer.Watch on YouTube In Hotel Galactic, you're responsible for the running of a modular hotel on a strange cosmic island, which you'll customise and optimise in order to provide guests with the perfect stay. There are resources to manage, a workforce to build, and more, as you cater to the demands of your ever-growing colony, all with assistance from your ghostly Grandpa Gustav. There's a bit more to it than that, though, and the whole thing's framed by a tale of love and vengeance that's conveyed through some lovely anime-inspired art and animation. Hotel Galactic launches into Steam early access on 24th July, with consoles to follow, and a demo's available now. Out and About Out and About trailer.Watch on YouTube If it's serene forest meandering you're after, then look no further than Yaldi Games' Out and About. It's a "cosy foraging adventure" focused on exploring nature and identifying real-life plants and fungi. You'll cook recipes, make herbal remedies, and help rebuild your community after a devastating storm, all while hopefully learning a bit of botanical knowledge you can take out into the real-world. Out and About looks to be aiming for a 2025 release on PC, with a console launch to follow. And if it's piqued your curiosity, you can test out a Steam demo now. Discounty Discounty trailer.Watch on YouTube Forget the farm life; how about managing your own discount supermarket in a small harbour town? That's the premise of Discounty from Crinkle Cut Games, which sees you designing and organising your shop, managing stock levels, working the checkout, and striking trade deals. You'll make friends, navigate local drama, and expand your empire, but that doesn't mean you have to play nice. After all, can you really become filthy rich without making a few lifelong enemies along the way? Discounty launches for Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 21st August and, yup, a demo's available now on Steam. Islanders: New Shores Islanders: New Shores trailer.Watch on YouTube We're big fans of developer GrizzlyGames' minimalist city builder Islanders around these parts, so news publisher Coatsink was developing a sequel earlier this year came as a pleasant surprise. It is, if you're unfamiliar, a game about attempting to squeeze as much onto a procedurally generated island as possible, maximising building synergies and minimising penalties to get the highest score. New Shores sounds like a gentle finessing of the formula, rather than a radical reinvention - it's got a sandbox mode as well as a high score mode now, alongside new power-ups called "boons" - but that's okay. The big news is it now has a release date and is coming to Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam on 10th July. Collector's Cove Collector's Cove trailer.Watch on YouTube VoodooDuck's Collector's Cove might be yet another farming game, but it does at least have a unique twist. For starters, your farm is on a boat endlessly sailing the oceans AND it's powered by an adorable sea monster who you'll need to forge a bond with. As you set out on a tranquil adventure across the water, you'll farm, fish, craft, and personalise your surroundings, sometimes stopping off at passing islands to catalogue their unique flora. Collector's Cove doesn't have a release date yet, but it's coming to PC and a Steam demo's available now. Town to City Town to City trailer.Watch on YouTube Fans of minimalist railway game Station to Station might want to pay attention here. Town to City is developer Galaxy Grove's follow-up to that earlier puzzler, sporting a similar voxel art aesthetic and vibe. This time around, you're charged with building quaint picturesque towns by placing shops, houses, amenities, decorations, and more - all in a bid to please your residents and encourage more to move in. Eventually, you'll have multiple towns under your care, helping the whole region grow and thrive. Town to City doesn't have a release date yet, but you can play a demo on Steam. Fishbowl Fishbowl trailer.Watch on YouTube And finally for the big, non-montage reveals, it's Fishbowl, a coming-of-age tale told over the course of a month. Developer imissmyfriends.studio describes it as a "warm and cozy story about living in isolation, nurturing friendships and understanding grief", and it's all focused on 21-year-old video editor Alo as she works from home while mourning her grandmother. As the days tick by, you'll video call loved ones, work to assemble videos, do care tasks, and solve puzzles to unpack your grandmother's belongings - recovering childhood memories as you do. There's no release date for Fishbowl yet, but it's coming to PS5 and Steam.

May belongs to Vince Vaughn and the grandmothers. Nonnas, which premiered on May 9, has become a hit on Netflix and remains in the top 10 most popular movies list. From the kitchen to the football field, Untold: The Fall of Favre is a fascinating look into two notorious scandals involving Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Nonnas and The Fall of Favre will remain on the streamer when the calendar changes from May to June. Unfortunately, these five movies are departing the service. One of them is Batman Begins, the first movie in the spectacular Dark Knight trilogy. Check out the rest of the picks below. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Batman Begins (2005) Warner Bros. Pictures In 2025, Christopher Nolan is the top filmmaker in Hollywood concerning power, notoriety, and recognition. 20 years ago, Nolan did not have the same juice he has now. However, Batman Begins is arguably the movie that changed his career. The previous Batman movies treated Bruce Wayne like a comic book character. Nolan crafted a more grounded and nuanced version of the character, starting with a gritty origin story in Batman Begins. After years of training and traveling globally, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) returns to Gotham City and becomes Batman, the masked vigilante intent on ridding the city of crime. Batman’s foes include his former mentor, Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), and Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), two men who believe Gotham isn’t worth saving. After watching Batman Begins, stream The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, which also leave at the end of the month. Stream Batman Begins on Netflix. Den of Thieves (2018) STXfilms What a comeback year it’s been for Den of Thieves. The cult classic’s popularity led to a sequel, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, which premiered in January. Plus, a third movie is now in the works. However, these sequels would not have been possible without the original from 2018. Written and directed by Christian Gudegast, Den of Thieves is a heist film set in Los Angeles that pits the cops against the robbers. The lines are blurred as neither side is good nor evil. The police are led by Big Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler), a renegade cop who frequently breaks the law to apprehend the enemy. The outlaws’ leader is Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber), a former Marine and mastermind of a heist crew. Merrimen’s group plans to hit the Federal Reserve Bank, and Big Nick plans to stop it. It’s going to get loud, violent, and chaotic once these two sides battle. Stream Den of Thieves on Netflix. Pride & Prejudice (2005) Universal Pictures “You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love you.” Jane Austen fans will recognize that iconic line from Joe Wright’s terrific adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. In the English countryside live the five Bennet sisters: Jane (Rosamund Pike), Elizabeth (Kiera Knightley), Mary (Talulah Riley), Kitty (Carey Mulligan), and Lydia (Jena Malone). The girls have been pressured by their father to find a suitable husband, particularly a wealthy one. The free-spirited Elizabeth has no plans to marry for money and will hold out for love. Could that man be Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen)? Good luck not falling in love with the will-they-won’t-they dilemma between Elizabeth and Darcy. Stream Pride & Prejudice on Netflix. GoodFellas (1990) Warner Bros. Pictures Martin Scorsese’s greatest movie is about to leave Netflix, which is a crime against humanity. The late Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a Brooklyn teenager who advances within the ranks of the Mafia to become one of its top lieutenants. While working for the mafia, Henry becomes closely associated with Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), an Irish-American gangster, and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), a fiery criminal. The trio reaps the rewards of being in the mafia — money, drugs, and power. These items also lead to their demise. The brilliance of Goodfellas is how Scorsese divides the story into two halves. The first half glamorizes the mafia lifestyle, while the second half explores the dark consequences of being a gangster. Describing Goodfellas as a masterpiece does not do it justice. Stream Goodfellas on Netflix. Two Weeks Notice (2002) Warner Bros. Pictures Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant starring in Two Weeks Notice is equivalent to Captain America and Iron Man joining the Avengers. Bullock and Grant became two of the ’90s biggest names, especially in rom-coms. The stars aligned in Two Weeks Notice, Marc Lawrence’s take on the opposites attract trope. Lawyer Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock) will do whatever it takes to protect the environment. Billionaire George Wade (Hugh Grant) only cares about himself and his money. Lucy works for George after he promises to save a community center. At first, oil and water are a better mix than Lucy and George. Over time, the duo come to appreciate one another’s company and gain feelings. Even with a predictable ending, Two Weeks Notice will satisfy anyone who loves on-screen chemistry between the leads. Stream Two Weeks Notice on Netflix.

After eight seasons and over 200 guest stars, the adult animated franchise "Big Mouth" premiered its final season on Friday.Though it never reached the viewership numbers of behemoths like "Bridgerton" or "Stranger Things," it's one of the streamer's longest running original scripted shows.Across eight years, the series has won five Emmys and inspired the 2022 spin-off, "Human Resources." Season eight concludes the series, which was created by Nick Kroll, his childhood best friend Andrew Goldberg, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin.The season follows a group of teens entering Bridgeton High School and having to rediscover their identities in the new school.As with previous seasons, the teens' hormones, feelings, and mental illnesses are personified through various creatures that appear to help guide the teens through the ups and downs of puberty. Nick Kroll plays Nick and Maury. Nick Kroll plays numerous characters in "Big Mouth." Courtesy of Netflix / Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix Kroll played several human characters, including Nick Birch, the series' lead character, who was inspired by Kroll's childhood.Kroll also played Lola Skumpy and Coach Steve, Andrew's hormone monster, Maury, and Nick's hormone monster, Rick.Kroll is known for starring in the FX comedy "The League," creating and starring in his own sketch series "Kroll Show," and creating the "Big Mouth" spinoff series "Human Resources." John Mulaney plays Andrew Glouberman. John Mulaney plays Andrew, who is inspired by series co-creator Andrew Goldberg. Courtesy of Netflix Andrew Glouberman, a boy obsessed with masturbation, is Nick Birch's best friend who joins him on his adventure through puberty.John Mulaney, a comedian and former "Saturday Night Live" writer, plays the character. Mulaney has starred in other animated movies, including "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." Jessi Klein plays Jessi Glaser. Jessi Klein is a producer and writer. Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix / Courtesy of Netflix Jessi Klein plays Jessi Glaser, a close friend of Nick and Andrew's who explores her sexuality and struggles with depression and her parents' divorce.Klein is best known for her writing and producing work, having previously produced "Inside Amy Schumer," "Transparent," and "Dead to Me." Maya Rudolph plays Connie LaCienega and Diane Birch. Maya Rudolph has won four Emmys for her performance as Connie. Will Heath / NBC via Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix Maya Rudolph plays two characters in the series — Connie LaCienega, the hormone monster for Jessi, and Diane Birch, Nick's mother.Rudolph, who rose to fame as a cast member on "Saturday Night Live," has won four primetime Emmy Awards for her performance in "Big Mouth" and has starred in numerous movies and TV shows, including "Bridesmaids," "The Good Place," and "The Lego Movie 2." Ayo Edebiri plays Missy Foreman-Greenwald. Ayo Edebiri played Missy from seasons five to eight. Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix / Courtesy of Netflix Missy is a nerdy biracial classmate of Andrew, Jessi, and Nick's.In the first four seasons, Jenny Slate voiced the character, but she stepped down from the role in 2020, announcing on Instagram that black people should play black characters.Slate was replaced with Ayo Edebiri as Missy began to explore her Black identity in the show.Edebiri is best known for her breakout roles in the 2020s in "Bottoms" and "The Bear." Thandiwe Newton plays Mona. Thandiwe Newton plays a British hormone monster. Rodin Eckenroth / Film Magic / Getty / Courtesy of Netflix Thandiwe Newton played Missy's British hormone monster, Mona.Newton is known for starring in "Westworld," "Mission: Impossible II," and "Solo: A Star Wars Story." Jason Mantzoukas plays Jay Bilzerian. Jason Mantzoukas is known for playing chaotic characters like Jay. Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix / Courtesy of Netflix Jay Bilzerian, a sex-obsessed bisexual boy, is another friend of Andrew, Nick, and Jessi's.Mantzoukas is a comedian who has previously played equally wacky characters in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," "The Good Place," and "The League." Andrew Rannells plays Matthew MacDell. Andrew Rannells is the voice behind Matthew. Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Netflix Matthew MacDell, a gossipy gay student, was initially a secondary character in the first few seasons but became one of the main characters after season 3, developing relationships with Jay and Jessi.Broadway and screen actor Andrew Rannells has starred in "The Prom" and "Girls" and has a vibrant voice-acting career, appearing on shows like "Sonic X," "Pokémon," and "Invincible." David Thewlis plays The Shame Wizard. David Thewlis plays a spectre known as The Shame Wizard. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix David Thewlis joined the cast in season two as the Shame Wizard, who will mock and bully the children to amplify their shame around their mistakes.Thewlis previously starred in multiple "Harry Potter" movies, "Wonder Woman," and "The Theory of Everything." Jean Smart plays Depression Kitty. Jean Smart played Depression Kitty since season two. Frazer Harrison / Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix Depression Kitty first shows up in season two after Jessi starts to develop strong negative emotions amid her parents' divorce. Since then, Depression Kitty has made a few appearances across the show.Jean Smart, an Emmy-winning actor who stars in "Hacks," played Depression Kitty. Maria Bamford plays Tito the Anxiety Mosquito. Tito (Maria Bamford) has had recurring appearances since season four. Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix. Tito the Anxiety Mosquito embodies the children's anxiety, first appearing in season four. Comedian Maria Bamford is known for her comedy specials as well as her Netflix show "Lady Dynamite." Zazie Beetz plays Danni. Zazie Beetz only starred in season 7. Amy Sussman / Getty Images / Netflix Danni is a student Nick meets in season seven when considering attending a private school.Zazie Beetz is known for her roles in "Atlanta," "Deadpool 2," "Joker," and "Bullet Train." Megan Thee Stallion plays Megan. Megan Thee Stallion made a cameo in "Big Mouth" season 7 as Megan the hormone monstress. David Crotty / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images / Netflix In season seven, Megan Thee Stallion guest stars as Megan, a hormone monster for Danni.Megan Thee Stallion is better known for her rapping career, though she has also starred in Disney+'s "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law" and the 2023 movie "Dicks: The Musical." Jordan Peele plays the ghost of Duke Ellington. The ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele) was a major supporting character in the first few seasons. Unique Nicole / WireImage / Netflix One of Nick's friends is the ghost of jazz pianist Duke Ellington, who lives in the teen's attic.Jordan Peele is the voice behind the ghost. He also played Missy's father, Cyrus Foreman-Greenwald.Peele is an Oscar-winning horror director and comedy actor best known for directing "Get Out," "Nope," and "Us" and starring in "Key and Peele." Brian Tyree Henry plays Elijah. Brian Tyree Henry joined the cast in season six. Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images / Netflix Elijah, an asexual Christian student, appears in seasons six and seven, building a relationship with Missy. They broke up after graduating from middle school.Brian Tyree Henry, known for his roles in "Atlanta," "Bullet Train," and Marvel's "Eternals," plays Elijah. Henry has voice acting experience from starring in the "Spider-Verse" movies as Miles Morales' father, Jefferson. Natasha Lyonne plays Ms. Dunn. Natasha Lyonne stars as a sex-ed teacher in "Big Mouth" season eight. The Hapa Blonde / GC Images / Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix Natasha Lyonne guest stars in the final season as sex-ed teacher Ms. Dunn. Lyonne has also made cameos in previous seasons playing Suzette Saint James, Jay's pillow girlfriend, and Nadia Vulvokov, the character Lyonne plays in Netflix's "Russian Doll."Lyonne is best known for starring in "American Pie," "Orange is the New Black," and "Poker Face." Ali Wong plays Ali. Ali Wong joined the cast in season three, playing a transfer student. Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic via Getty Images Ali Wong joined "Big Mouth" in season three, playing the pansexual transfer student Ali.Wong is a comedian who has previously starred in other Netflix originals like "Beef" and "Always Be My Maybe." Keke Palmer plays Rochelle. Keke Palmer is the voice actor behind the "Big Mouth" character Rochelle. Emma McIntyre / WireImage / Courtesy of Netflix "Big Mouth" season five introduced the concept of Hateworms and Lovebugs, who strengthen the children's emotions. Rochelle, played by Keke Palmer, was Missy's Hateworm but later transformed into her Lovebug.Palmer is best known for starring in "True Jackson, VP," "One of Them Days," and "Nope."

All throughout 2025, I've been bursting with podcast recommendations (which might not be surprising, given writing a podcast recommendation newsletter is part of my job). I've shared my lists of the best podcasts about liars and scammers, podcasts that expose the nonsense in politics and pop culture, and podcasts you'll like if you miss Heavyweight. But then I awoke and realized that we are almost halfway through the year, and I haven't spent nearly enough time talking about my favorite new shows that debuted this year. June is a great time to take stock of all the new podcasts from the first half of the year. These are the shows that made my jaw drop, made me laugh, and inspired me to subscribe—and pester all of my friends to do the same. I think you'll like them, too. Alternate Realities (Embedded) Credit: Podcast logo Embedded recently produced a 3-part series, Alternate Realities, focused on a bet between reporter Zach Mack and his father, who intended to determine once and for all who was right about the other having been lost to conspiracy theories. Zach’s father had started to believe in chemtrails, that the government controls the weather, that ANTIFA staged the Jan. 6 riots, that a cabal called the globalists is controlling the world. Zach…did not believe those things. In early 2024 the two agreed: Zach’s dad would make a list of 10 prophesies that he was 100% sure would happen, (i.e. a bunch of democrats would be convicted of treason and/or murder, the U.S. would come under martial law), and on Jan. 1, 2025, Zach would have to give his father $1,000 for every one that came to pass. For every one that didn’t, Zach would get the same. It’s a zingy idea for a series, but also a dark family story—the bet is the make-or-break thing for not just Zach and his dad, but for the entire family. Beyond the money, the stakes are high.Debt Heads Credit: Podcast logo Friends Jamie Alyson Feldman (@realgirlproject) and Rachel Gayle Webster (@webbythefox) are using storytelling, research, springiness, humor, and fun audio elements in their podcast Debt Heads, which examines Jamie’s deeply ingrained issues with debt and uses them as an entry point into the question of why so many young people are in the same boat. It's a fascinating dive into the issue of millennials and their money—harrowing and fascinating and occasionally funny, and a rich listening experience even if you (like me) want to crawl under a table when the conversation turns to money.Our Ancestors Were Messy Credit: Podcast logo If you love the way Normal Gossip pulls you into the juicy drama of strangers, and especially if you also love history, you’ll get sucked right in to Our Ancestors Were Messy, Nichole Hill’s show about the gossip, scandals, and pop culture that made headlines in historical Black newspapers across America. Nichole tells true stories from the past (a Victorian-era love triangle that hit DC elites, a mystery concerning a tabloid sensation in Harlem) with help from a guest, placing you inside of a vintage scandal, providing the context you need to understand why it was a scandal at all, and fleshing out the characters involved with the skill of a novelist. Nichole’s storytelling is descriptive, funny, conversational, and crisp, and she uses amazing sound production that pumps it all into life. Why Is Amy in the Bath? Credit: Podcast logo Have you ever noticed that Amy Adams seems to do a lot of bathtub and shower scenes in her films? After listening to this show, you won’t be able to un-notice it. Certainly that fact stuck out to Brandon R. Reynolds and Gabby Lombardo, who spun the observation into the podcast Why Is Amy in the Bath? In six episodes they ask: Is Amy, who has never won an Oscar, doing all these bathtub scenes because they offer the opportunity for the kind of dramatic acting that earns the biggest, golden-est prizes? Brandon and Gabby went through 1,500 movies, including all the Best Actress Oscar nominees, to see if there was a correlation to tub scenes, and their conclusions are the stuff of the best conspiracy theories.What We Spend Credit: Podcast logo If you love Refinery 29's Money Diaries, or if you’re just a nosy person, you’re going to salivate over What We Spend, in which regular people take us, day by day and purchase by purchase, through what they spend in a week. It's like looking inside their wallets, flipping through their credit card statements, and hearing the personal stories behind the financial decisions they make. One person is scared about having to pay for a cat funeral. A 35-year-old asks her dad to pay her bills for a month. In each episode, the subject realizes, along with us, that there are usually deeply rooted personal issues underneath their money issues and the anxieties they bring up. Listeners can contact the hosts for a spot on the show, but that's a huge no thanks from me! But I’ll be listening. Text Me Back Credit: Podcast logo If you’re looking for a chat show that will have you laughing out loud without making you feel like you just lost a bunch of brain cells, try Text Me Back. Bestselling writer Lindy West and democracy policy expert Meagan Hatcher-Maysget are childhood friends who get on the mic for convos that range from off the rails goofy stories to insightful pop-culture and political commentary, with an irresistible friendship vibe flowing throughout. Their chemistry is nothing that could be rehearsed or planned, and they are both such good storytellers, they can spin gold out of the most mundane things that happened to them in a given week. Text Me Back will be a balm for listeners who still miss the iconic podcast Call Your Girlfriend (RIP.) The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs Credit: Podcast logo Delivered in four short episodes, The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs explores the fate of the titular geriatric cat, who went missing in Manchester, New Hampshire, then turned up dead, causing a huge blowup in the community he left behind. Rose, Sgt. Tibbs’ owner, was devastated when Tibbs went missing, and infuriated to learn that he might not have actually been missing at all, but in the hands of neighbors, the mother/daughter duo of Debbie and Sabrina, who claim to have saved the cat's life. We going in knowing that Tibbs has died. The question is, what happened? Todd Bookman puts a microscope to the kitty's last days, and finds a story of adults behaving badly and a community torn apart. At one point, Todd wonders if there are better things he could be doing with his time (and microphone). “But imagine something more important than something you love disappearing and dying," he says. "It seems worth every second trying to figure out what happened.” Pet lovers get it. RIP, Sgt. Tibbs.We Came to the Forest Credit: Podcast logo We Came to the Forest introduces you to Vienna Forrest, an environmental crusader remembering her life living in the forest with a bunch of other activists as they protested the construction of Atlanta’s Cop City, one of the biggest police training facilities in the country. She speaks intimately about her partner Tortuguita (Manuel Esteban Paez Terán,) another protester or “forest defender” who was allegedly shot and killed by Atlanta law enforcement. We Came to the Forest revolves around Tortuguita’s murder and everything that led up to it. What seems obvious (Tortuguita was shot by the police) is tough to prove. A cop was also shot, but who shot him? There is no body cam footage to prove what happened. Through storytelling and interviews, the show will make you think about how fast things can turn sideways when law enforcement gets involved in a situation, and how thin the line can be between safety and danger.CRAMPED Credit: Podcast logo Kate Downey has been having debilitating period pain every month since she was14 years old. Debilitating period pain is common, yet something nobody seems to want to talk about or research—and certainly nobody is trying to have fun with it. But Kate is doing all of the above with CRAMPED, which is somehow boisterous and dead serious at the same time. It's full of fascinating interviews, illuminating info, and helpful tips for anyone with a uterus. She gets smart, funny people on the mic to talk about their that-time-of-the-month experiences, what is really going on in their bodies and why nobody cares, and why Kate hasn’t been able to get an answers from a doctor after 20 years of asking questions. Suave (Season 2) Credit: Podcast logo In its first season, Suave won a Pulitzer Prize-winning for telling the story of Luis "Suave" Gonzalez, a convicted man who turned his life around in prison, and his relationship with journalist Maria Hinojosa. The show is assembled from years of recordings of their conversations, an audio document of the highs and lows of Suave's life both in and out of jail, and the mother/son bond that develops between the two. At the end, Suave is released, and we are left to wonder what freedom really means. That’s where season two picks up: Suave is now “Mr. Pulitzer,” but life on the outside is very hard. Proxy Credit: Podcast logo With her beautiful show Proxy, "emotional journalist" Yowei Shaw investigates and solves deeply intimate conundrums by proxy—she finds people with unresolved relationship issues and links them up with a stranger who can help them better understand what's going on. (Recently she connected a man whose wife left him for a woman with a woman who'd left her husband for a woman.) Yowei also appears on the massively popular NPR podcast Invisibilia, so you know you can trust her to deliver a good story that will be professionally structured. It's a space for unique conversations the likes of which I have never heard before. Sea of Lies (Uncover) Credit: Podcast logo On Sea of Lies (available on the Uncover podcast feed) Sam Mullins (Wild Boys) tells the tale of one of the most wanted men in the world, Albert Walker, who is arrested for fraud after a dead body wearing a recognizable watch washes ashore. The globe-spanning saga gets wilder from there, always zagging left when you think it will go right. Via meticulous reporting, Sea of Lies skirts around Walker’s manipulative tactics to get to the psychological questions at the root of his crimes. 

Smitch The Unshakable Resolve of "this guy are sick" Member Apr 21, 2022 4,758 Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) April 2025 U.S. Video Game Market Highlights from Circana - April 2025 total market projected U.S. consumer spending across video game hardware, content and accessories fell 3% when compared to a year ago, to $4.1B. 2025 year-to-date spending was 8% behind 2024’s pace, at $17.8B. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) U.S. Video Game Market April Spending Trend - April video game content spending declined by 2% compared to a year ago, to $3.7B. 18% YoY growth in non-mobile subscription spend and a 16% gain in Console digital premium downloads were offset by declines in other content segments. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) U.S. Video Game Market 13-Month Spending Trend bsky.app View: https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lpoo44vmwk2e View: https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lpoo47q3hk2e Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered was the best-selling game of the month, instantly becoming the 3rd best-selling game of 2025 year-to-date. It was the best-selling title across each of the PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered sold more units in Apr 2025 than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion achieved across its first 15 months in market combined following its March 2006 debut and generated more full game dollar sales than the original’s first 14 months combined. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) Forza Horizon 5 was the 2nd best-selling game of April 2025 following its debut on PlayStation 5. It ranked as the 42nd best-selling title of March. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also launched on PlayStation 5 during April 2025. The game jumped from 118th on the monthly best-selling titles chart a month ago to 6th. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) Four of the top five - and five of the top seven - best-selling games of the month on PlayStation platforms were published by Microsoft. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) Call of Duty HQ led all titles in total US monthly active users across both PlayStation and Xbox platforms during April, according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker. Schedule 1 ranked 1st in US total month active users on Steam. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) Two titles saw strong engagement gains on PlayStation following their addition to PS+. RoboCop: Rogue City jumped from 111th in PlayStation total monthly active users in March to 8th, while The Texas Chain Saw Massacre jumped to #10 in April from 375th a month ago. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) April hardware spending fell by 8% when compared to a year ago, to $186M. It was the lowest monthly hardware dollar sales total reached in the US market since July 2020 ($163M). bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) PlayStation 5 dollar sales declined 5% in April compared to a year ago, but the platform once again led the hardware market in both dollar and unit sales. Switch hardware spending fell 37% in April vs YA, while Xbox Series grew 8%. bsky.app Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) April spending on accessories fell by 2% when compared to a year ago, to $166 million. The PS5 Dual Sense Wireless Controller Midnight Black was April’s best-selling accessory in both unit and dollar sales. bsky.app   OP OP Smitch The Unshakable Resolve of "this guy are sick" Member Apr 21, 2022 4,758 Maelstrom Member Apr 22, 2025 151 Okay, seems like the same thing as last week. And the week before. And the week before..   Bigkrev Member Oct 25, 2017 13,000 Does Kepler not report information? This should have captured the first ~10 days of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, but it doesn't show up anywhere on these lists, including engagement, which theoretically would have covered if people just gamepass'd the game...   Derbel McDillet ▲ Legend ▲ Member Nov 23, 2022 24,351 Good for Hello Kitty Island Adventure.   jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,053 Hell of a jump for both Forza and Indians Jones. MLB The Show doing MLB The Show things.  Granjinhaa Member Dec 28, 2023 9,627 Bigkrev said: Does Kepler not report information? This should have captured the first ~10 days of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, but it doesn't show up anywhere on these lists, including engagement, which theoretically would have covered if people just gamepass'd the game... Click to expand... Click to shrink... don't think they do   cw_sasuke Member Oct 27, 2017 29,988 Glad to see The Hundred Lines in the Switch charts at least. Switch outsold Xbox ? Seems kinda wild with Switch 2 releasing soon and a kinda stacked release schedule for Xbox and GP. Edit. Clarified a couple posts below. Xbox is 2nd and Switch 3rd for this month.  Last edited: Yesterday at 9:31 AM Gavalanche Prophet of Regret Member Oct 21, 2021 25,917 Bigkrev said: Does Kepler not report information? This should have captured the first ~10 days of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, but it doesn't show up anywhere on these lists, including engagement, which theoretically would have covered if people just gamepass'd the game... Click to expand... Click to shrink... No they do not. They are an indie publisher, most of them don't.  turkoman_ Member Apr 29, 2023 520 I can understand Call of Duty, GTA or Minecraft but Spiderman always there is pretty impressive imo.   Splinky Member Jul 12, 2023 146 Bigkrev said: Does Kepler not report information? This should have captured the first ~10 days of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, but it doesn't show up anywhere on these lists, including engagement, which theoretically would have covered if people just gamepass'd the game... Click to expand... Click to shrink... Pretty sure they don't. Kind of a BG3 situation where an obvious major player is completely missing from Circana's data   Mr Swine The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 6,931 Sweden cw_sasuke said: Glad to see The Hundred Lines in the Switch charts at least. Switch outsold Xbox ? Seems kinda wild with Switch 2 releasing soon and a kinda stacked release schedule for Xbox and GP. Click to expand... Click to shrink... One would think that Xbox would start outselling Switch before Switch 2 hits the market  jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,053 cw_sasuke said: Glad to see The Hundred Lines in the Switch charts at least. Switch outsold Xbox ? Seems kinda wild with Switch 2 releasing soon and a kinda stacked release schedule for Xbox and GP. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What remains shocking to me is Xbox can sell better, and still come in 3rd.   Granjinhaa Member Dec 28, 2023 9,627 cw_sasuke said: Switch outsold Xbox ? Seems kinda wild with Switch 2 releasing soon and a kinda stacked release schedule for Xbox and GP. Click to expand... Click to shrink... it did? i don't see in the bluesky thread   Threadmarks Xbox #2, Switch#3 New Index Tsunami561 Member Mar 7, 2023 5,359 cw_sasuke said: Switch outsold Xbox ? Seems kinda wild with Switch 2 releasing soon and a kinda stacked release schedule for Xbox and GP. Click to expand... Click to shrink... No View: https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3lpootbqmxh2e  New Index MarcosBrXD Member Aug 28, 2024 1,703 [CITAÇÃO="Sr. Swine, postagem: 140267553, membro: 8340"] Alguém poderia pensar que o Xbox começaria a vender mais que o Switch antes do Switch 2 chegar ao mercado [/CITAR] Principalmente nos EUA  Lant_War Classic Anus Game The Fallen Jul 14, 2018 25,286 Half the top 10 of PS is Microsoft Corp. Crazy   YozoraXV Member Oct 30, 2017 3,799 Real MS domination, interesting how ESO also got a boost from Oblivion.   Fabs Member Aug 22, 2019 2,753 Project Latitude in full effect. Xbox killing it right now. Bad Hardware year for everyone continues. Switch 2 can't come soon enough.  Mr Swine The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 6,931 Sweden Ah I see that it did outsell Switch, well good for Microsoft   FarSight XR-20 Member Jan 4, 2018 9,493 Oblivion Remastered sold more in 8 days than original game in first 15 months. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered sold more units in Apr 2025 than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion achieved across its first 15 months in market combined following its March 2006 debut and generated more full game dollar sales than the original's first 14 months combined. Click to expand... Click to shrink...   mrmickfran The Fallen Oct 27, 2017 33,202 Gongaga Holy fuck @ Forza Hundred Line Defense in top 5 Switch titles is something? I guess  Terbinator Member Oct 29, 2017 13,373 XBS(+8%) Click to expand... Click to shrink... All according to keikaku?   UraMallas Member Nov 1, 2017 24,464 United States Xbox HARDWARE up? Well, you love to see that.  Maelstrom Member Apr 22, 2025 151 Lant_War said: Half the top 10 of PS is Microsoft Corp. Crazy Click to expand... Click to shrink... It won't be soon.   Tasman1991 Member Oct 22, 2024 446 Fabs said: Project Latitude in full effect. Xbox killing it right now. Bad Hardware year for everyone continues. Switch 2 can't come soon enough. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Bro PlayStation is down 5% and Microsoft's up 8% how is this bad   Mr Evil 37 Member Mar 7, 2022 27,772 YozoraXV said: interesting how ESO also got a boost from Oblivion. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It also had a showcase and updates and stuff. Don't think it was just Oblivion.   JAY_HORROR Member Sep 27, 2021 15,687 jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,053 Ok, this is better. Yeah....that price increase is gonna be rough.  Fabs Member Aug 22, 2019 2,753 Tasman1991 said: Bro PlayStation is down 5% and Microsoft's up 8% how is this bad Click to expand... Click to shrink... YOY and last April was bad. Lowest hardware spending since the covid shortages when everything is in stock and expensive.  GalvoAg Member Oct 30, 2017 2,608 Dallas Tasman1991 said: Bro PlayStation is down 5% and Microsoft's up 8% how is this bad Click to expand... Click to shrink... For real seems pretty healthy if anything considering Switch 2 around the corner.   Tasman1991 Member Oct 22, 2024 446 jroc74 said: Ok, this is better. Yeah....that price increase is gonna be rough. Click to expand... Click to shrink... So you're thinking everyone's getting their Xbox before are the price increase hits honestly I'm shocked that PlayStation 5 it's only - 5% down from last year that is insane   Gavalanche Prophet of Regret Member Oct 21, 2021 25,917 It makes sense there would be an increase on xbox consoles, everyone getting in before they increase the price. Maybe it explains why ps5 only dropped 5% as well, as the expectation is that they will also have a price increase.   Killer Member Oct 27, 2017 2,976 Microsoft PlayStation   g-m1n1 Member Oct 27, 2017 2,870 Luxembourg PS5 is Xbox Game Studios main platform. What a twist!  Gavalanche Prophet of Regret Member Oct 21, 2021 25,917 g-m1n1 said: PS5 is Xbox Game Studios main platform. What a twist! Click to expand... Click to shrink... They did release like six games this April, it is pretty expected :P  Tasman1991 Member Oct 22, 2024 446 Fabs said: YOY and last April was bad. Lowest hardware spending since the covid shortages when everything is in stock and expensive. Click to expand... Click to shrink... You do realise April's a quiet month right like you're not going to have constant high sales after it's peak right like you do realize this it will come down I don't want to be mean but it seems as you just go into these form posts and go this is bad and then just leave yet very 5% down from last year is actually very good for PlayStation considering they'd at at 2023 also at least Xbox is up in the Home Country through that could also be because people are getting Xbox is before the price increase   YupiScroopy Member Jun 28, 2023 149 LETS GO HUNDRED LINE!!  Mr Evil 37 Member Mar 7, 2022 27,772 g-m1n1 said: PS5 is Xbox Game Studios main platform. What a twist! Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not really if you look at the Doom numbers lol (or the Forza numbers). Sales might be high on PS but overall playerbase is still higher on Xbox.   mietek Member May 9, 2025 37 Gavalanche said: It makes sense there would be an increase on xbox consoles, everyone getting in before they increase the price. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The price hike was announced effective immediately, let's not revise history.   DamageEX2 Member May 20, 2024 1,247 No Expedition 33?   mietek Member May 9, 2025 37 Killer said: Microsoft PlayStation Click to expand... Click to shrink... Xbox Series P   cw_sasuke Member Oct 27, 2017 29,988 Thanks, this makes much more sense. The title made it seems like Switch was #2.  Miyoshi Member May 4, 2025 32 Lant_War said: Half the top 10 of PS is Microsoft Corp. Crazy Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yes, that's precisely the result of acquiring two major publishers and branding them under your name.   Mr Evil 37 Member Mar 7, 2022 27,772 RPGamer92 Member Oct 25, 2017 5,147 That's very good for FH5 especially as it came out at the end of the month.   g-m1n1 Member Oct 27, 2017 2,870 Luxembourg Mr Evil 37 said: Not really if you look at the Doom numbers lol (or the Forza numbers). Sales might be high on PS but overall playerbase is still higher on Xbox. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Of course talking about direct sales only (XGP don't show up on Circana numbers, except "player engagement"). If someone said this 3 years ago, he would be mocked by the whole forum.  Fabs Member Aug 22, 2019 2,753 Tasman1991 said: You do realise April's a quiet month right like you're not going to have constant high sales after it's peak right like you do realize this it will come down I don't want to be mean but it seems as you just go into these form posts and go this is bad and then just leave yet very 5% down from last year is actually very good for PlayStation considering they'd at at 2023 also at least Xbox is up in the Home Country through that could also be because people are getting Xbox is before the price increase Click to expand... Click to shrink... Both things can be true, and you would assume people would try to be purchasing hardware before Tariffs. April is historically bad, but dollars sales is alarming because a 700$ Pro exists. April 2023 was bad and this is worse. The whole year is down and likely to go down further on the big boy consoles with price increases. Switch 2 is needed just to stabilize the market and GTA being a year away is going to be a long wait.  Shopolic Avenger Oct 27, 2017 8,093 Forza Horizon 5! :O Imagine FH6 sales number when it'll be available day one on PS5!  ProdigyZA Member Jun 9, 2024 1,510 g-m1n1 said: PS5 is Xbox Game Studios main platform. What a twist! Click to expand... Click to shrink... This is not true.  

By Isaac Schultz Published May 17, 2025 | Comments (0) | Scientists are using AI to decipher animal communication, creating some ethical conundrums. © Gizmodo [Illustration: St. Lumbroso, Photos: TatianaKim,Gulf MG/Shutterstock) Chirps, trills, growls, howls, squawks. Animals converse in all kinds of ways, yet humankind has only scratched the surface of how they communicate with each other and the rest of the living world. Our species has trained some animals—and if you ask cats, animals have trained us, too—but we’ve yet to truly crack the code on interspecies communication. Increasingly, animal researchers are deploying artificial intelligence to accelerate our investigations of animal communication—both within species and between branches on the tree of life. As scientists chip away at the complex communication systems of animals, they move closer to understanding what creatures are saying—and maybe even how to talk back. But as we try to bridge the linguistic gap between humans and animals, some experts are raising valid concerns about whether such capabilities are appropriate—or whether we should even attempt to communicate with animals at all. Using AI to untangle animal language Towards the front of the pack—or should I say pod?—is Project CETI, which has used machine learning to analyze more than 8,000 sperm whale “codas”—structured click patterns recorded by the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. Researchers uncovered contextual and combinatorial structures in the whales’ clicks, naming features like “rubato” and “ornamentation” to describe how whales subtly adjust their vocalizations during conversation. These patterns helped the team create a kind of phonetic alphabet for the animals—an expressive, structured system that may not be language as we know it but reveals a level of complexity that researchers weren’t previously aware of. Project CETI is also working on ethical guidelines for the technology, a critical goal given the risks of using AI to “talk” to the animals. Meanwhile, Google and the Wild Dolphin Project recently introduced DolphinGemma, a large language model (LLM) trained on 40 years of dolphin vocalizations. Just as ChatGPT is an LLM for human inputs—taking visual information like research papers and images and producing responses to relevant queries—DolphinGemma intakes dolphin sound data and predicts what vocalization comes next. DolphinGemma can even generate dolphin-like audio, and the researchers’ prototype two-way system, Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry (fittingly, CHAT), uses a smartphone-based interface that dolphins employ to request items like scarves or seagrass—potentially laying the groundwork for future interspecies dialogue. “DolphinGemma is being used in the field this season to improve our real-time sound recognition in the CHAT system,” said Denise Herzing, founder and director of the Wild Dolphin Project, which spearheaded the development of DolphinGemma in collaboration with researchers at Google DeepMind, in an email to Gizmodo. “This fall we will spend time ingesting known dolphin vocalizations and let Gemma show us any repeatable patterns they find,” such as vocalizations used in courtship and mother-calf discipline. In this way, Herzing added, the AI applications are two-fold: Researchers can use it both to explore dolphins’ natural sounds and to better understand the animals’ responses to human mimicking of dolphin sounds, which are synthetically produced by the AI CHAT system. Expanding the animal AI toolkit Outside the ocean, researchers are finding that human speech models can be repurposed to decode terrestrial animal signals, too. A University of Michigan-led team used Wav2Vec2—a speech recognition model trained on human voices—to identify dogs’ emotions, genders, breeds, and even individual identities based on their barks. The pre-trained human model outperformed a version trained solely on dog data, suggesting that human language model architectures could be surprisingly effective in decoding animal communication. Of course, we need to consider the different levels of sophistication these AI models are targeting. Determining whether a dog’s bark is aggressive or playful, or whether it’s male or female—these are perhaps understandably easier for a model to determine than, say, the nuanced meaning encoded in sperm whale phonetics. Nevertheless, each study inches scientists closer to understanding how AI tools, as they currently exist, can be best applied to such an expansive field—and gives the AI a chance to train itself to become a more useful part of the researcher’s toolkit. And even cats—often seen as aloof—appear to be more communicative than they let on. In a 2022 study out of Paris Nanterre University, cats showed clear signs of recognizing their owner’s voice, but beyond that, the felines responded more intensely when spoken to directly in “cat talk.” That suggests cats not only pay attention to what we say, but also how we say it—especially when it comes from someone they know. Earlier this month, a pair of cuttlefish researchers found evidence that the animals have a set of four “waves,” or physical gestures, that they make to one another, as well as to human playback of cuttlefish waves. The group plans to apply an algorithm to categorize the types of waves, automatically track the creatures’ movements, and understand the contexts in which the animals express themselves more rapidly. Private companies (such as Google) are also getting in on the act. Last week, China’s largest search engine, Baidu, filed a patent with the country’s IP administration proposing to translate animal (specifically cat) vocalizations into human language. The quick and dirty on the tech is that it would intake a trove of data from your kitty, and then use an AI model to analyze the data, determine the animal’s emotional state, and output the apparent human language message your pet was trying to convey. A universal translator for animals? Together, these studies represent a major shift in how scientists are approaching animal communication. Rather than starting from scratch, research teams are building tools and models designed for humans—and making advances that would have taken much longer otherwise. The end goal could (read: could) be a kind of Rosetta Stone for the animal kingdom, powered by AI. “We’ve gotten really good at analyzing human language just in the last five years, and we’re beginning to perfect this practice of transferring models trained on one dataset and applying them to new data,” said Sara Keen, a behavioral ecologist and electrical engineer at the Earth Species Project, in a video call with Gizmodo. The Earth Species Project plans to launch its flagship audio-language model for animal sounds, NatureLM, this year, and a demo for NatureLM-audio is already live. With input data from across the tree of life—as well as human speech, environmental sounds, and even music detection—the model aims to become a converter of human speech into animal analogues. The model “shows promising domain transfer from human speech to animal communication,” the project states, “supporting our hypothesis that shared representations in AI can help decode animal languages.” “A big part of our work really is trying to change the way people think about our place in the world,” Keen added. “We’re making cool discoveries about animal communication, but ultimately we’re finding that other species are just as complicated and nuanced as we are. And that revelation is pretty exciting.” The ethical dilemma Indeed, researchers generally agree on the promise of AI-based tools for improving the collection and interpretation of animal communication data. But some feel that there’s a breakdown in communication between that scholarly familiarity and the public’s perception of how these tools can be applied. “I think there’s currently a lot of misunderstanding in the coverage of this topic—that somehow machine learning can create this contextual knowledge out of nothing. That so long as you have thousands of hours of audio recordings, somehow some magic machine learning black box can squeeze meaning out of that,” said Christian Rutz, an expert in animal behavior and cognition and founding president of International Bio-Logging Society, in a video call with Gizmodo. “That’s not going to happen.” “Meaning comes through the contextual annotation and this is where I think it’s really important for this field as a whole, in this period of excitement and enthusiasm, to not forget that this annotation comes from basic behavioral ecology and natural history expertise,” Rutz added. In other words, let’s not put the horse before the cart, especially since the cart—in this case—is what’s powering the horse. But with great power…you know the cliché. Essentially, how can humans develop and apply these technologies in a way that is both scientifically illuminating and minimizes harm or disruption to its animal subjects? Experts have put forward ethical standards and guardrails for using the technologies that prioritize the welfare of creatures as we get closer to—well, wherever the technology is going. As AI advances, conversations about animal rights will have to evolve. In the future, animals could become more active participants in those conversations—a notion that legal experts are exploring as a thought exercise, but one that could someday become reality. “What we desperately need—apart from advancing the machine learning side—is to forge these meaningful collaborations between the machine learning experts and the animal behavior researchers,” Rutz said, “because it’s only when you put the two of us together that you stand a chance.” There’s no shortage of communication data to feed into data-hungry AI models, from pitch-perfect prairie dog squeaks to snails’ slimy trails (yes, really). But exactly how we make use of the information we glean from these new approaches requires thorough consideration of the ethics involved in “speaking” with animals. A recent paper on the ethical concerns of using AI to communicate with whales outlined six major problem areas. These include privacy rights, cultural and emotional harm to whales, anthropomorphism, technological solutionism (an overreliance on technology to fix problems), gender bias, and limited effectiveness for actual whale conservation. That last issue is especially urgent, given how many whale populations are already under serious threat. It increasingly appears that we’re on the brink of learning much more about the ways animals interact with one another—indeed, pulling back the curtain on their communication could also yield insights into how they learn, socialize, and act within their environments. But there are still significant challenges to overcome, such as asking ourselves how we use the powerful technologies currently in development. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Lucas Ropek Published May 16, 2025 By Matt Novak Published May 16, 2025 By Isaiah Colbert Published May 16, 2025 By Matt Novak Published May 15, 2025 By Matt Novak Published May 14, 2025 By Kyle Barr Published May 13, 2025

Little Kitty, Big City packs a lot to do in its meowtropolis (sorry, that’s my first and only cat pun), all of which is as cute and fun as you’d expect for a game about a lost kitty in a big ‘ol city. But this city is actually more bite-sized than you might anticipate by the game’s name, offering a brief but enjoyable romp that doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you’d like to know just how long you’ll be spending with this little black kitty, here’s what you need to know.Suggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Could Launch With Almost No Reviews Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Could Launch With Almost No Reviews Share SubtitlesOffEnglishNintendo Switch 2 Could Launch With Almost No ReviewsLittle Kitty, Big City?Little Kitty, Big City is a short game, especially if you overlook any unnecessary side-quests. If your main goal is to just get our titular kitty back home, you can achieve that in only 2-3 hours. But skipping all of the optional content in the game would be missing some of the most charming parts of this cat’s journey. There are tons of animal friends to find and assist with adorable tasks, as well as a variety of quirky trophies and achievements that require you to do silly things around the city, such as leaving paw prints on wet concrete, knocking paint on a car, or making a human slip on a banana peel.Speaking of trophies and achievements, you’ll need to collect a whole lot of stuff on the road to 100-percent completion. You’ll have to find 200 shinies (currency), collect every hat, knock over every bird nest, recycle 100 items in bins around the city, and complete multiple other similar tasks. Knocking out all the side-quests and achievement/trophy tasks in Little Kitty, Big City can push your total playtime to around 5 hours or so. But rest assured that, even once you’re finished with all of that, there’s still some fun to be had running around the city tripping humans and stealing their phones. Being a cat never gets old.Little Kitty, Big City is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PCs..