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It’s another big game studio deal. Sony has announced plans to acquire Bungie, the studio behind the hit sci-fi MMO shooter Destiny, in a deal worth $3.6 billion. Bungie is positioning the acquisition as the start of a new era for the company — one focused on global multimedia entertainment, not just games. One notable point: Bungie will continue to develop for multiple platforms, not just PlayStation, according to a blog post by CEO Pete Parsons. It’s another sign of the video game industry consolidating. In case you forgot, last month Microsoft announced it was buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.— Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedEngadget Deals: The best Super Bowl TV deals from Amazon, Best Buy and the restFord's E-Transit work van offers a cleaner, quieter way to do businessTesla is opening more of its European Superchargers to third-party EVsEngadget Deals: Apple's 2021 cellular iPad Mini falls to a new all-time low at Amazon'It Takes Two' is being adapted for film or TV Kia's EV6 is the new benchmark for affordable electric carsSuperior range to the ID.4 and a lower price than the Model Y.HyundaiThe EV6 is the first Kia vehicle under the company’s new Plan S electrification strategy, leading the way for nearly a dozen new EV models by 2026. It’s not just packing a great range, a competitive price and Level 2 autonomous driving but also some augmented reality tricks. Senior Editor Andrew Tarantola takes a drive.Continue reading.Sony's first 2022 State of Play will be a 'Gran Turismo 7' showcaseThe event streams tomorrow.Gran Turismo 7, finally coming to the PS4 and PS5 on March 4th after significant delays, will be the focus of Sony's first State of Play in 2022. The event is set to stream at 5 PM ET this Wednesday (February 2nd) and will feature “just over 30 minutes of new [GT7] PS5 footage and gameplay details.”Continue reading.Grindr disappears from Apple's App Store in ChinaChina's Personal Information Protection Law might be to blame.ReutersOne of the biggest gay dating apps has disappeared from China’s Apple App Store. There was no immediate explanation for the departure, but it came just days after China's Cyberspace Administration launched a campaign to purge illegal online material, porn and rumors ahead of the Winter Olympics.Grindr’s developers may have removed the app due to the potential for problems stemming from China's Personal Information Protection Law, which governs private data. It requires any cross-border data transfers to go through China's Cyberspace Administration.Continue reading.Meta's upgraded 3D avatars work across Facebook, Instagram and VRDrawing all the company’s parts closer together.Meta is rolling out updated 3D avatars to Facebook, Messenger and Instagram (via DMs and Stories). The new design lets you bring the same avatar across Meta's platforms, including VR — if you’re using a Quest 2 headset. If you want some degree of separation, you can still create different avatars for Facebook, Instagram and VR, so you can have a more realistic persona for VR meetings and a more fantastical one for your social media presence.Continue reading.This is why your Apple two-factor texts include strange tagsThe move helps thwart phishing attacks.If you've noticed Apple's two-factor authentication texts include much more text than you're used to, that’s on purpose. Apple has implemented a system that uses domain-bound codes for sign-ins. The extra tags, for example, "@apple.com #123456 %apple.com," are meant to improve the trustworthiness of auto-filling text codes. The technique theoretically discourages more sophisticated phishing attacks that try to intercept and redirect two-factor verification messages.Continue reading.

India is introducing a battery swapping policy as part of a push to boost EV sales, Reuters has reported. "Considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, a battery swapping policy will be brought out," said India's Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman. The idea is change out depleted batteries for freshly charged ones, potentially saving time compared to charging. You may have first heard about the idea when Tesla launched battery swapping stations in 2014, then quietly dropped the idea due to lack of use.India plans to reduce "interoperability standards," presumably so that battery-swapping tech can be used between different EV makes and models. "The private sector will be encouraged to create sustainable and innovative business models for battery and energy as a service, improving the efficiency of the EV ecosystem," said Sitharaman. India's Sun Mobility and Honda recently set up a battery sharing service in India, starting with three-wheelers, but it's still in a very early phase. The idea has gained some traction elsewhere with scooters from Gogoro, which recently launched its battery swapping tech in China. Gogoro reportedly plans to enter the Indian market in partnership with the country's largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp. India's push for EVs is a key component of its Paris agreement commitment to reduce carbon emissions by up to 35 percent by 2030. It plans to give $6 billion worth of incentives to companies that build clean vehicles and produce batteries locally. The country has nearly 975,000 registered EVs, but only 1,028 public charging stations, according to the Hindustan Times. 

This week, a repair team is set to help restore Tonga’s internet, after a volcanic eruption and tsunami last month severed the country’s primary communication connection to the rest of the world: a submarine cable, one of many that crisscross the floors of oceans and seas around the planet. In fact, if you’re listening to this outside of the U.S., this episode has itself traveled along a cable, or multiple cables, at the bottom of the ocean to make its way to you. To unpack this technology, we’re joined by Alan Mauldin, a research director for market research and consulting firm TeleGeography.

Meta is ending its Express Wi-Fi program designed to provide low-cost internet in developing countries through partnerships with local communities, mobile operators and businesses. Launched in 2016, it wasn't free like Meta-owned Facebook's failed Free Basics program, struck down by Indian courts for violating net neutrality. Instead, it was designed to be inexpensive, starting at around 15 cents for 100MB or $5 for 20GB. Facebook partnered with satellite companies, ISPs and others in places like India, South Africa and the Philippines. Retailers were able to sell hotspots at reasonable rates decided by them and the operator, rather than Facebook. Meta would benefit, of course, by gaining access to new customers it no doubt hoped would create Facebook accounts. As with Google, most of the company's recent growth has come from developing countries where people are getting online for the first time. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that glitches in Meta's free internet services were creating unwanted charges for users in countries like Pakistan. Meta was also reportedly favoring its own content on its free-data Discover service to the detriment of other sites. Meta said that while it's winding down Express Wi-Fi, it's focusing on other projects around internet access. "While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. It promised to work with Express Wi-Fi partners to "minimize the impact to their businesses while keeping networks running." 

Microsoft was most likely ready for rigorous anti-trust scrutiny around the world when it decided to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal is the tech giant's biggest yet, and it's also set to become the largest all-cash acquisition ever. In the US, the proposed acquisition will be reviewed the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department, according to Bloomberg. The two agencies are in charge of investigating mergers in the country and typically decide between themselves which one will take charge of a case. FTC's investigation will reportedly take a close look at how Microsoft's ownership of Activision could harm rivals by limiting access to the developer's biggest games. Activision owns hugely popular IPs, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. It's unclear if Microsoft has plans to release titles exclusive to Xbox and Window PCs in the future, but it's worth noting Sony is still ahead of Microsoft in terms of gaming hardware sales and that a large chunk of Activision's revenue comes from PlayStation gamers.Microsoft expects to close the acquisition by June 2023, and it's probably not going to be easy for the company. As Bloomberg notes, the FTC vowed to adopt a more aggressive approach towards investigating mergers and acquisitions last year under new chairperson Lina Khan. In December, the FTC sued to block NVIDIA's $40 billion purchase of ARM over concerns that the deal would stifle competition for various technologies, such as those for data centers and car computers. A more recent Bloomberg report said NVIDIA is making preparations to walk away from the deal and that current ARM-owner SoftBank is looking to take the company public if the acquisition falls through. Still, the Microsoft seems to be confident that the acquisition will take place — Reuters says the tech giant committed to paying a $3 billion break fee if the deal fails to go through. 

Since a group of 34 quality assurance testers at Raven Software voted to unionize earlier this month, the studio's parent company, Activision Blizzard, has been making moves that will undermine that support and make it harder for workers to organize. This morning, Activision VP of QA Chris Arends sent the clearest message yet about where executives stand on the unionization effort, and (spoiler) it's firmly against.In an internal, locked Slack channel on Monday morning, Arends asked himself six questions about the potential union and provided answers for employees from Activision's point of view, as shared on Twitter by union organizer Jessica Gonzalez. Employees were unable to respond to the message. Each answer diminished the benefits of unionization, but the fourth prompt offered the most explicit takedown of the organization process. It reads as follows: We heard that the union will protect employees and provide employees with job security? Job security here at ABK rests with our ability to produce epic entertainment for our fans. A union doesn't do anything to help us produce world-class games, and the bargaining process is not typically quick, often reduces flexibility, and can be adversarial and lead to negative publicity. All of this could hurt our ability to continue creating great games. The fifth answer argued that union-driven bargaining takes too long to be effective, stating the obvious in the process: "A unionized company cannot act quickly on its own if the union does not agree with its position." The final answer reminded employees that they don't have to vote in favor of the union when an election takes place.On Twitter, Gonzalez called the post "sad."This is the latest move from Activision designed to halt momentum on the unionization process at Raven. Just three days after employees announced they had gathered a supermajority of signatures required to unionize under the name Game Workers Alliance, Raven head Brian Raffel revealed a reorganization plan that breaks up the studio's QA department, moving employees to disparate teams.Communications Workers of America, which is backing GWA, said on Twitter that the shuffle was "nothing more than a tactic to thwart Raven QA workers who are exercising their right to organize."Activision also failed to voluntarily recognize GWA, which means they'll have to seek a vote through the NLRB, a process that can take years. Additionally, Activision is pushing for the vote to include all employees at Raven, rather than only QA workers, reducing the potential for success.Arends' Slack message — trying to convince employees that unions will make their works lives slower and crappier — falls in line with Activision's previous tactics. Activision Blizzard is currently the subject of intense scrutiny from multiple angles. GWA will be the first union at a AAA game development studio in North America, potentially setting the stage for more organization across the industry. Plus, Activision Blizzard is the subject of a lawsuit and multiple investigations into reports of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the studio, with incidents allegedly dating back decades. And finally, Microsoft is in the process of buying Activision Blizzard, Raven Software and all, in a deal worth $69 billion. It'll be the largest acquisition in video game history and it marks the industry's era of consolidation. One day after news of the acquisition went live, Activision told the SEC that there were no unionization efforts underway at its studios, though in the months before, executives told Raven employees to "consider the consequences" of signing union cards.

The latest jaw-dropping deal in video games is Sony Interactive Entertainment's agreement to buy Bellevue, Wash.-based Bungie, maker of the Destiny series of online multiplayer first-person shooter games, originally known for developing Halo for Microsoft's Xbox. Bungie was spun out of Microsoft in 2007 and has operated as an independent company in the meantime. It's expected to be an independent Sony Interactive Entertainment subsidiary and continue to operate under its current management. Bungie is promising to expand its 900-person employee base and move into new areas of entertainment as a result of the Sony deal. Games writer Thomas Wilde joins us on this special episode to explain what the deal means for Sony, Bungie, Microsoft and the world of video games at large.  RELATED: Analysis: Sony buying Bungie is the counter-move we were waiting for The announcement Monday morning came two weeks after Microsoft struck a $68.7 billion deal for Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty and Candy Crush maker.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Diem, the ambitious crypto project funded by Facebook has collapsed. The Diem Association confirmed that it’s selling its assets to Silvergate, the bank that had previously partnered with the group, and that it would “begin the process of winding down.” Bloomberg had reported talks of a sale last week. A Diem Association spokesperson alleged at the time that the report had unspecified "factual errors."Now that the sale is official, it marks the end of a more than two year effort to launch the stablecoin championed by Mark Zuckerberg. Though the Diem Association was a separate organization from Facebook and parent company Meta, much of its funding came from Facebook. “I believe that this is something that needs to get built, but I get that I’m not the ideal messenger for this right now,” Zuckerberg told Congress in a 2019 hearing about his cryptocurrency ambitions.The group previously known as the Libra Association had reportedly hoped to launch its stablecoin last January. But it ran into repeated roadblocks from lawmakers and regulators around the world, and the project was delayed and scaled back numerous times. Among officials’ top concerns was that Diem could be used for money laundering and other illicit purposes.In a statement, Diem CEO Stuart Levey blamed US regulators for Diem’s demise, and defended the organization’s work to minimize risk with “industry-leading controls to protect consumers and combat financial crime.”“Despite giving us positive substantive feedback on the design of the network, it nevertheless became clear from our dialogue with federal regulators that the project could not move ahead,” Levey. “As a result, the best path forward was to sell the Diem Group's assets, as we have done today to Silvergate.”It’s unclear what this means for Facebook’s cryptocurrency wallet Novi, which launched a “small pilot” last year with the Pax Dollar stablecoin. At the time, Facebook’s former crypto chief David Marcus said the company remained committed to launching Diem. Marcus left the company a month later. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Update 1/31 9:25pm ET: "The Diem journey has been an ambitious and challenging one to date," Meta's head of Novi, Stephane Kasriel wrote on Twitter. "We hope that the Association’s sale of their assets to @silvergatebank will allow the project’s vision to live on. Because we still believe in the shared financial inclusion mission."At Meta, we’re continuing to execute on our existing fintech plans to create economic opportunities and champion greater financial inclusion today, and as we look ahead to the #metaverse.— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) January 31, 2022

After Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from Spotify the streaming company has released the rules and policies regarding dangerous, deceptive, sensitive, and illegal content. Sony buys Bungie in possible countermove to news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision last week. Starring Sarah Lane, Rich Stroffolino, Roger Chang, Joe, Amos MP3 Download Using aContinue reading "Sony is Destined to purchase Bungie – DTNS 4202"

Wordle, the once-a-day word game that's been delighting puzzle nerds (and cluttering Twitter feeds) since launching in October of last year, has been purchased by the New York Times... reportsThe New York Times. So long, old buddy. The game is the brainchild of Josh Wardle and his partner Palak Shah, and once day it gives players six chances to guess a five-letter word. In an interview with the Times earlier this month, Wardle admitted that the project was inspired in part by Spelling Bee, one of the paper's subscription games which Wordle will likely appear alongside shortly. In part, the appeal of World was that — unlike much of the internet today — it was in now way ad- or subscription-supporter. There was no app (even though some clones attempted to capitalize on that fact.) It was, two years into a global pandemic, a rare, unalloyed good. The Times did not disclose the exact terms of the Wordle acquisition, though it stated in a press release that it paid "in the low-seven figures." We've reached out for comment to the Times on if any changes are slated. On Twitter, Wardle stated that while "it has been incredible to watch [Wordle] bring so much joy to so many" he has found the experience "a little overwhelming," given that he's been maintaining the free, highly-trafficked game himself. He notes that once it migrates to the Times, Wordle "will be free to play for everyone," and win streaks will likely be preserved.An update on Wordle pic.twitter.com/TmHd0AIRLX— Josh Wardle (@powerlanguish) January 31, 2022Wordle became an overnight sensation, thought it was hardly its creator's first brush with mass online fame. While employed by Reddit, he was responsible for both "Place" and "The Button," both of which garnered plenty of positive attention, though neither with the scale or staying power of Wordle, which is estimated to have millions of daily users. A bot (run by another former Reddit employee, Kevin O'Connor) tracks the number of solves that are shared to Twitter via the now-ubiquitous black, green and gold emojis. It regularly cracks 250,000 such tweets daily. The game has itself become a sort of template for a new variety of word puzzles, spawning a variety of offshoots that range from legitimately interesting challenges — like the two-column Dordle, the work-backwards Crosswordle or the adversarial Absurdle — to silly or absurd riffs such as Sweardle and Lewdle. More variations are seemingly released every week. Still, it's the end of an era for the game that started it all, even if functionally for players it seems things will remain much the same. 

There's always been a strict wall in World of Warcraft between Alliance and Horde players — you can only cooperate with people from your own side. Blizzard is ready to (partly) remove that barrier, though. As Polygonexplains, WoW's 9.2.5 update will allow cross-faction dungeon crawls, raids and rated PvP matches. You won't be cut off from your friends just because they chose the 'wrong' allegiance for their characters.You'll have the option to both directly invite people from an opposing faction or join premade groups in the Group Finder listings for a given event type. Group leaders can limit instances to same-faction players, however. And don't expect to be living in harmony with rivals outside of these controlled circumstances. Guilds, matchmaking-based events and the regular world will behave as usual, so you'll still need to be on your guard most of the time.The feature is available regardless of level, although there will be a few old instances where multi-faction parties can't enter, such as Battle of Dazar’alor, Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel. They'll need to be "reworked" to eliminate single-faction elements, Blizzard said.There's no release date for the 9.2.5 update at this stage. It's a long-requested update, and it's well-timed in a post-Battle for Azeroth environment where the Alliance and Horde have reached a delicate truce. Whether or not it boosts player counts is another story. Dexertonotes Blizzard's total monthly active base dropped by 20 million between 2017 and 2021, and WoW likely played a large role in that drop. Toss in an ongoing sexual harassment scandal and cross-faction WoW may only have a limited effect, even as it fulfills the hopes of many subscribers.

Starting today, PS4 and PS5 players can connect their PSN account to Discord. At the outset, that means you'll be able to display your PlayStation game activity on your Discord profile and let friends there see what you're playing — something Xbox players have been able to do since 2018. If you like, you can display your PSN ID on your Discord profile to make it easy for folks to add you as a friend there.To get started, open the Discord app or website on PC or mobile, then go to the Connections section of the User Settings. If you can connect your PSN account, you'll see a PlayStation icon. Discord is gradually rolling out the feature to everyone, starting with folks in the US, so you might not have access right away.These are useful features, especially with crossplay becoming more commonplace and friends playing games together on different platforms. If you're an Xbox owner, for instance, you'd be able to hop on Discord and see if your friends are playing Destiny 2 or Rainbow Six Extraction on PC or PlayStation, and hop in to play with them.DiscordWe're starting to see the results of a partnership Sony and Discord announced last May. "Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together," Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said at the time. SIE also made a minority investment in the messaging and voice and video chat platform.Microsoft was previously said to be in talks to buy Discord for at least $10 billion. Though other potential suitors were reportedly interested, Discord remains an independent company. Still, with so many enormousgamingdeals being agreed already this year, who knows what the future holds?In the meantime, Discord and Sony are looking at other ways to collaborate. "We’re excited to continue our partnership with PlayStation and explore how we can collectively create great shared experiences for your friends and communities," Discord wrote in a blog post.

MLB The Show 22 will arrive on April 5th and, for the first time in the series, you'll be able to play on Nintendo Switch. There will be full cross-platform support between Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. You'll be able to transfer Road to the Show or Franchise save files between platforms and have access to items across various consoles (though Xbox Series X/S and PS5-exclusive content will remain locked to those systems).As with last year's edition, which was the first to land on Xbox, MLB The Show 22 is coming to Xbox Game Pass on its release day. That continues an unusual arrangement where a Sony-published title is available to Game Pass members at no extra cost. Subscribers can play via the cloud as well as on consoles.This year's cover athlete is Los Angeles Angels megastar Shohei Ohtani. The pitcher and designated hitter had an incredible 2021 season, racking up 46 home runs and 156 strikeouts. It's pretty hard to imagine anyone else gracing MLB The Show 22's cover.

Sony has plans to acquire Bungie, the studio behind the hit sci-fi MMO Destiny, in a deal worth $3.6 billion. Bungie will join the Sony Interactive Entertainment family, which includes Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Bluepoint Games and a handful of other prominent studios.Bungie is positioning the acquisition as the start of a new era for the company — one focused on global multimedia entertainment, not just games. Bungie will retain creative control over its franchises and continue to develop for multiple platforms, not just PlayStation, according to a blog post by CEO Pete Parsons."We will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games," he wrote. "We will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community. Our games will continue to be where our community is, wherever they choose to play.​"The deal follows news on January 18th that Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, and it's the latest sign that the video game industry has entered the consolidation stage. Massive companies including Microsoft, Sony and Tencent are in the process of sweeping up as many studios as they can in a battle for exclusive experiences. As console makers, Sony and Microsoft hold particular power in these negotiations, with built-in audiences of millions on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms.These deals give the acquired studios financial stability, production support and wide-reaching marketing plans, though they'll have to operate within a corporate ecosystem and potentially tie their games to specific platforms. Bungie, it seems, has plans to publish outside of Sony's PlayStation universe, though time will tell what that looks like in practice.Sony's purchase of Bungie is surprising, given where the studio started. Bungie is the original home of the Halo franchise, and it was part of the Microsoft family from 2000 to 2007. Halo was (and is) a pivotal series for Xbox consoles, and Bungie was its arbiter for nearly a decade under Microsoft. The studios split in 2007 and Bungie went private, and in 2010 it signed a publishing agreement with Activision for the Destiny franchise. That deal lasted through 2019, when Bungie moved its publishing process in-house.Just two weeks ago, Microsoft announced it was acquiring Activision Blizzard, bringing the two former Bungie publishers under one roof. And now, Bungie has Microsoft's biggest rival, Sony, in its back pocket. These relationships are only going to get more complicated as the consolidation era runs its course through the video game industry, so buckle up for more multibillion-dollar deals and exclusivity clauses over the coming years.Update 5:01PM ET: Well, that didn't take long. Shortly after news of the Bungie acquisition went wide, SIE CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz that there are definitely more acquisitions in the company's future. "We should absolutely expect more," he told GI. "We are by no means done."Additionally, Ryan confirmed Destiny 2 and Bungie's future games will continue to be published on platforms outside of the PlayStation brand. For Sony, the goal is to deliver more live, online, multi-platform experiences, Ryan said."Everybody wants the extremely large Destiny 2 community, whatever platform they're on, to be able to continue to enjoy their Destiny 2 experiences," he told GI. "And that approach will apply to future Bungie releases. That is unequivocal."

Hazelight Studios and Sonic the Hedgehog production company dj2 Entertainment are aiming to turn It Takes Two into a movie or TV show. Pat Casey and Josh Miller, who wrote both Sonic movies, are onboard to adapt the co-op game for the big or small screen. Although no studio or network has snapped up the project just yet, Variety reports that a bidding war is underway.“Creating the world and story in It Takes Two was so much fun for me and the team,” Hazelight founder and creative director Josef Fares said in a statement. “Since it has a strong narrative with many crazy characters and just as crazy co-op action moments, the potential is huge for a great adaption to film or television.”At the 2021 Game Awards, It Takes Two won three honors, including the game of the year gong. EA published it last March and more than three million copies were sold by October. Along with It Takes Two and the Sonic movies, dj2 is working on a Tomb Raider anime for Netflix. It's also developing a Disco Elysium series and a Sleeping Dogs movie.Although It Takes Two received widespread plaudits for its platforming and asynchronous split-screen gameplay, several critics took issue with the "stay together for the kids" story and an "awful" character called The Book of Love. With some finding the plot to be the weakest aspect of the game, it'll be interesting to see how that translates to a movie or TV show.