Shu Yoshida has graduated from Sony, but he is not retired. Rather, he is running a new indie games consulting company dubbed YOSP Inc. Yoshida’s appetite to do more in gaming shows just how much he loves indie game developers. He won a Lifetime Achievement Awards at Gamescom Latam 2025, where I did a fireside chat with him in front of a big…Read More

All VPNSecure lifetime deal accounts have been deactivated as of April 28, 2025, kicking off an online backlash among old customers. Here's what we know so far.

If only every random scroll through Reddit was as productive as the one that changed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen’s entire life.  Not too long after ditching the finance world to pursue creative dreams, but in the thick of the COVID-19 lockdown, Svedberg-Yen was wasting away an afternoon on the community forums when she stumbled upon a call from former Ubisoft producer Guillaume Broche for voice-actor help. Broche was in need of a willing and able person to record scratch lines for a game he was developing. Svedberg-Yen agreed to read for two roles — why not? — and immediately had notes for Broche on how to imbue the characters with more nuance. That game was not Clair Obscur. When Svedberg-Yen met Broche, the game designer was originally at work on We Lost, a much smaller, steampunk game set in Victorian England. An avid fantasy reader and writer, Svedberg-Yen sparked to Broche’s vision for a turn-based RPG that incorporated elements of realtime combat, and couldn’t help but offer her thoughts when discussing the characters she might voice. Over the course of months, and from two corners of the world — Broche in Shanghai and Svedberg-Yen in Sweden — the pair developed a narrative bible for the game. But by the end of the creative process, advisors and investors told them the idea wasn’t viable. They needed to go bigger.  “They said, ‘assume you had more resources,’” Svedberg-Yen recalls. “‘Think bigger’ […] We were trying to be realistic and that kind of limited the scope of it. So we went back to the drawing board, and came up with Expedition 33.” The only connections to the scrapped steampunk game and the Belle Époque-inspired RPG they eventually made are a few names — Lune and Maelle both made the cut. Everything else was built up from scratch, Svedberg-Yen says, world-building she says came easy to her thanks to a lifetime of reading. The Wheel of Time books were a major influence, just by the nature of them being expansive and lived in.  “I would say Robert Jordan was definitely a major influence on how I think about epic fantasy, in terms of how he weaves in societies and how social structures affect the citizens that reside within them,” she says. “You follow a lot of the logic of the world in terms of cause and effect. So when I start writing, I always try to think about what is the world that they inhabit? How does that shape who the characters are? Because I do believe that we are a function of all of our experiences, the society we grew up in, the people who are in our lives. The specific things that have happened to us that affect who we are affects how we see the world. And that in turn affects how we think, then affects how we speak and how we react to other things. And as a writer, you need to know how your characters are going to speak and react. Wheel of Time does a fantastic job with that.” Going back to the drawing board meant finding new inspiration, but the aesthetic of French architecture, baguette costumes, and mimes could only carry the new project so far. Svedberg-Yen ultimately found the game’s foundation in her own work, developed out of a short story she had previously written. In the writer’s words, the story was about a young woman “who thought she was an orphan and realizes later on that her mom is actually a painter and can enter paintings, and that her mom was still alive and was lost in a painting, and she has to go and try to save her mom and bring her out of the painting. So that then became the backstory for Clair Obscur.” As much as the pivot away from Victorian steampunk was driven by business potential, none of the development on Clair Obscur was driven by its potential as a long-lasting IP for studio Sandfall Interactive. She says there was nothing coded into the storytelling that would lead directly into a sequel or even a DLC, and that was never the goal. “I think we told the story we wanted to tell based on the characters we had — our story has a beginning, a middle and end,” she says. But she does have reams and reams of lore stashed away, lots of storytelling that didn’t make it into the games, and plenty of other ideas. So maybe “Clair Obscur” — which roughly translates to the contrasting balance of lightness and darkness often referred to as chiaroscuro in the painting world — could become what “Final Fantasy” is to the disconnected games of that franchise? “‘Clair Obscur’ has a lot of symbolic meaning tied to all of the themes within the game. It links very specifically to the emotional journey that the characters are going through, but it’s also broad enough,” she says without, wisely, committing to anything. “So who knows. The world is our oyster. Everything is possible.”

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08907-1Climate models, impact models and demographic data are used to estimate the number of people projected to experience unprecedented lifetime exposure to extreme climate events across multiple dimensions, including birth year, warming scenario and vulnerability.

Desktop scanners had their moment, but in 2025, that bulky machine just takes up precious space. iScanner replaces your dumpy old scanner with an app that works faster, smarter, and cleaner. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime subscription for just $24.99 (reg. $39.99) when you use code SCAN at checkout—but only until June 1 when this coupon expires. Snap, scan, and send If you can take a photo, you can scan with iScanner. The app automatically detects borders, straightens pages, and removes curves—no manual cropping required. It’s perfect for digitizing tax forms, receipts, contracts, or anything else paper-based. Need to sign or fill out a PDF? iScanner includes a built-in mobile PDF editor, so you can skip those clunky browser tools that charge for every little edit. Everything happens on your iOS device—quick, clean, and secure. Why it beats your old scanner No bulky hardware No setup or boot times AI-powered border detection and straightening Mobile PDF editing, signing, and form filling Lifetime access — no subscription required Scan, sign, and organize from your phone forever—Use code SCAN at checkout to get iScanner for just $24.99 until June 1 StackSocial prices subject to change. _ iScanner App: Lifetime Subscription See Deal

The Nintendo Switch 2 will get a new software feature to help its battery last longer over the lifespan of the console. Batteries inside all gadgets diminish over their lifetime, and a way to slow that process down can be to not fully charge the device every day.The new feature on the Switch 2 is appropriately called “Stop Charging Around 90%” and can be found within the System Settings. When turned on, it’ll slow the charging speed down when it's nearing full and only start charging again when the battery drops.We’ve seen this feature on smartphones, laptops, and other gadgets over the last few years. On modern iPhones, Apple has a feature called Charge Limit that works as an opt-in feature limiting your phone to 80% charge to help reduce the deterioration of the battery.You'll be able to turn the feature off on the Switch 2 for scenarios where you’ll want that extra 10% of battery life, such as taking it away on a trip. Many people will play the Switch 2 as a home console in its charging dock, and that means it'll be on charge consistently throughout its life. If that's how you intend the play the console, it makes sense to turn on this feature.Recommended by Our EditorsNintendo doesn’t give us an estimate of how much longer it expects the battery to last. The original Switch launched in 2017 meaning the console has been in many people's lives for over seven years. Battery life on the Switch 2 is already an uphill battle as the company says it estimates between two and six and a half hours of usage on the new console. The original Switch model had a similar battery life, but models released later in the console’s lifespan increased it to up to nine hours.Many have experienced bad battery life on original Switch models. Nintendo has said on the original Switch, “After about 800 charge cycles, the system battery life will decrease to about 80% compared to the battery on a new system.”The Nintendo Switch 2 is set to release in less than a month’s time on June 5. The console costs $449.99 in the US, and preorders for the console are open now but you’ll likely struggle to buy one as it's sold out at multiple US retailers.