Microsoft rebrands Xbox Game Pass for PC to just PC Game Pass

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is rebranding its Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription to just PC Game Pass. The new name drops the Xbox branding in favor of a simplified PC Game Pass name that should make things less confusing for PC gamers.

Previously, Microsoft had Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions, which could all be mistaken as Xbox-only offerings. The name of the PC subscription is now changing, but the logo will still include an Xbox symbol.

We heard a rumor that we’re changing our logo and name. the rumor is true

— PC Game Pass (@XboxGamePassPC) December 10, 2021

Microsoft also took the opportunity to list some upcoming games coming to the PC Game Pass on day one:

• Total War: WARHAMMER III
• Redfall
• S...

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Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming to PC on December 16th

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming to the Epic Games Store. | Image: Square Enix

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming to PC. It’ll be available on the Epic Games Store, and it’s coming soon — in just one week on December 16th. Previously, the game had been exclusive to PlayStation 5, where it became available earlier this year.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is an enhanced version of Final Fantasy VII Remake, which, like it says in the title, is a remake of the PlayStation classic. Intergrade upgrades the graphics, adds a number of quality of life features, and includes a new chapter starring Yuffie Kisaragi called Intermission.

Just announced at #TheGameAwards, @FinalFantasy VII Remake Intergrade is coming to PC via the @EpicGames Store on December 16th!

Wishlist the game later today and start...

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Alan Wake 2 announced for 2023

Alan Wake 2 was just announced at The Game Awards. A brief teaser trailer appears to show the titular protagonist in both New York City as well as the original game’s Pacific Northwest setting, and confirms a release date of 2023. Alan Wake 2 will be released for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and the Epic Games Store.

Remedy creative director Sam Lake told TGA’s Geoff Keighley on stage that Alan Wake 2 will be the studio’s first ever survival horror game, contrasting with the action focus of the original Alan Wake. Lake also tweeted this:

Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan Wake 2 confirmed! Alan...

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Idris Elba failed to make Knuckles not sound sexy in the first Sonic the Hedgehog 2 trailer

Sonic The Hedgehog 2, follow-up to Paramount Pictures surprisingly good live-action adaptation of Sega’s beloved speedy rodent platformer, has a new trailer. The trailer, announced during tonight’s Game Awards broadcast featureed Sonic trying to fit into his new life on Earth and his first encounter with Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba.

Ben Schwartz will reprise his role as the titular Sonic, while Jim Carrey will once again look like he’s having so much fun playing Sonic’s mortal enemy Dr. Robotnik. During the first movie’s post-credits scene, Tails made a brief appearance, alluding he might play a role in the inevitable sequel. On December 7th, Tails’ long-time voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey, confirmed she will be voicing Sonic’s...

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Monolith is making a Wonder Woman game

Wonder Woman will star in her own video game. | Image: Monolith Productions

Wonder Woman will be starring in her own game developed by Monolith Productions, a studio best-known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and _Middle-earth: Shadow of War._The new game was announced at The Game Awards on Thursday.

Basically no details were revealed about the game — all we were given was a brief CGI trailer showing Wonder Woman and a title card — so we don’t know what type of game it will be, when the game might come out, or even a release window.

Wonder Woman has had a resurgence lately due to Gal Gadot’s portrayals of her in the Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, and other movies in the DC Comics universe. It’s unclear if she’ll be voicing the superhero in the upcoming video game.

DC Comics is currently celebrating...

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Star Wars: Eclipse is a new action-adventure game set in the High Republic era from Quantic Dream

Quantic Dream’s rumored Star Wars title has been officially announced at the 2021 Game Awards: Star Wars: Eclipse, which will be set in the “High Republic” era of the Star Wars universe, hundreds of years before the Skywalker Saga during the golden age of the Jedi Order and the Republic.

The High Republic began as an ambitious multimedia project last year, but until now has mostly been focused on an interconnected series of books and comics exploring the Jedi Order and its fight with the Nihil, a new faction of marauders who use unique hyperspace technology to raid across the galaxy.

Quantic Dream is best known for its interactive narrative titles, including Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and the somewhat controversial D...

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Taco Bell had beef with Beyond Meat’s fake carne asada

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Taco Bell, the restaurant known for having ground beef that's utterly indescribable, reportedly told Beyond Meat that its version of carne asada wasn’t good enough to serve. According to Bloomberg, the chain canceled a test product that featured Beyond’s plant-based steak after samples failed to live up to its standards.

The report doesn’t make it clear what the company wasn’t fond of — was it the texture? The taste? Was it just too high-end for Taco Bell, seeming more like something you’d find at a Chipotle rather than the restaurant known as the place you drunkenly get 2 AM takeout and NFTs? Whatever the case, people on Twitter have been having an absolute field day with the news.

"We already figured out how to make our stuff without...

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The Epic Games Store finally has a shopping cart

While shopping, you can now add things to a cart. | Image: Epic Games

The Epic Games Store finally has a shopping cart, Epic announced Thursday, meaning you’re now able to buy multiple games in a single transaction. The feature arrives just over three years after the store’s December 2018 launch.

As you’re shopping on the store, you’ll now see an “Add to Cart” button, which lets you, well, add something to your cart. According to Epic’s blog, you’ll be able to add free games and paid ones into your cart at the same time, “all in one shopping spree.” If you want to skip the cart, you can alternately hit the “Buy Now” button. And if you don’t want to buy something at all just yet, you can always wishlist it.

GIF: Epic Games

Here’s an example of what the cart looks like, though I...

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Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop is canceled

‘Cowboy Bebop’ cast | NICOLA DOVE/NETFLIX

Netflix has canceled its live-action adaptation of the Cowboy Bebop anime. The show, starring Jon Cho as Spike Spiegel, will not be renewed for a second season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Though a lot of shows on Netflix are not renewed, The Hollywood Reporter alluded to the show’s poor reception as the reason for its abrupt cancellation.

Reviews of Cowboy Bebop generally criticized the show’s weak pacing and cheap-looking costumes and sets, while it also failed to capture the essence of what made the 1996 anime one of the best examples of the genre. The Verge’s Andrew Webster said the show eventually grew on him after failing in the first episodes while I, a Cowboy Bebop superfan, thought the show took some weird but...

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Coinbase will let users earn interest on crypto but not in the US

Coinbase has announced that it’ll let users earn interest on their cryptocurrency by lending it to a decentralized finance app called Compound (via Bloomberg). The program isn’t currently available to US users, though, after plans for a similar feature got the company into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Coinbase says that customers in over 70 countries will be able to lend their Dai, a stablecoin whose value is tied to the US dollar, to borrowers from within its app. The process works using a protocol called Compound, which programmatically pools money from lenders and collects interest on that money from borrowers. Coinbase’s pitch is that it makes the system more user-friendly — lending through Compound usually...

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Go read this investigation on the environmental racism of Amazon warehouses

A truck arrives at an Amazon fulfillment center on Cyber Monday in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. | Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Amazon is expanding its empire of warehouses at breakneck speed, and it’s building most of them in neighborhoods of color, according to a new investigation by Consumer Reports_._ That ultimately burdens Black and brown communities with the truck traffic, noise, and pollution that warehouses bring.

Almost 70 percent of Amazon warehouses in the US are in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of residents of color than what’s typical in other neighborhoods in the rest of the metro area, according to Consumer Reports. Fifty-seven percent of neighborhoods near Amazon warehouses have more low-income residents, too. To suss this out, Consumer Reports cross-referenced data from the Environmental Protection Agency, US Census Bureau, and a...

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Paramount Plus launches new live channels hub for linear streaming

Image: Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus is rolling out its own linear channels feature that’ll serve up linear movies and TV with a similar feel to traditional cable TV.

The new Live Channels feature launched on Paramount Plus today with more than a dozen curated 24/7 playlists for genres like crime and drama, as well as adult animation and kids programming. Some channels are dedicated entirely to a specific franchise, such as SpongeBob, Survivor, and Star Trek.

The addition of Live Channels also allows Paramount Plus to more directly compete with streaming services that have similar live and linear integrations, including Peacock. Paramount Plus previously supported a Live TV hub for sports, breaking news, and programming from Entertainment Tonight. (Premium...

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Comcast now sells Xfinity Flex users internet cable TV from YouTube

Comcast is introducing YouTube TV to its Xfinity Flex devices, providing users another avenue for opting out of traditional cable.

YouTube was previously supported on Comcast’s Flex boxes, but the addition of YouTube TV gives users the ability to get some 85-plus live television channels for $65 per month. It’s not the first live TV streaming service to arrive on the platform — Sling and Hulu with Live TV were already supported. But it does diversify the streaming options for people who don’t want to pay Comcast for cable.

Colin Petrie-Norris, senior vice president of consumer entertainment at Xfinity, said in a statement that the addition of YouTube TV “is another example of how we surround our broadband service with value, giving our...

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Peacock will stream NBCUniversal movies as soon as 45 days after theatrical release

The “majority” of films from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group will be available exclusively on Peacock. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NBCUniversal committed to adding the “majority” of films from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Illumination, and DreamWorks Animation Films to its Peacock streaming service as soon as 45 days after they hit theaters, according to a press release. The new strategy kicks off with its 2022 slate of films.

This model means that movies including The 355,Halloween Ends, and Downton Abbey: A New Era will be available on Peacock soon after they debut in theaters. However, some of the company’s bigger 2022 movies, including Jurassic World: Dominion and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, aren’t expected to be part of this arrangement, according to Variety.

Entertainment companies have been experimenting with release strategies due to the...

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Build-A-Bear’s new Matrix Bear probably doesn’t know kung fu

Enter the Bear-trix

Build-A-Bear has announced its latest movie tie-in: an absolutely incredible-looking Matrix-themed bear (officially called “Matrix Bear”) just in time for the release of the upcoming fourth film in the absolutely-not-for-children film series, The Matrix Resurrections.

Matrix Bear is unique among Build-A-Bear bears, with green and black fur patterned after the iconic “digital rain” effect from the films. It also features _The Matrix_logo on one of its feet, with an optional “hacker costume” outfit patterned after Neo’s garb from the films.

EXT. The Westchester Mall Build-A-Bear Workshop

Morpheus: Let me tell you why you’re here, at the Westchester Mall Build-A-Bear Workshop. You’re here because you know something. What you know you...

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Microsoft quietly told Apple it was willing to turn big Xbox-exclusive games into iPhone apps

Private emails show Microsoft wheeling and dealing to get into the App Store

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Best Buy pulls TCL Google TVs amid complaints of slow, buggy software

Image: TCL

Back in late summer, TCL announced an upgraded version of its high-end 6-Series TV. Aside from some technical improvements — the newer set fully supports HDMI 2.1 and 4K gaming at 120Hz — the biggest change had to do with software, with the latest 6-Series running Google TV instead of the Roku OS that has shipped on many of TCL’s most popular sets in the United States. The company has already released TVs powered by Android TV internationally and on a few budget models in North America, but the 2021 6-Series was meant to be a combined showcase for TCL hardware and Google software.

So far, it’s not working out that way, and things aren’t going quite as well as TCL might’ve hoped.

Some early buyers of the 6-Series with Google TV (model...

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Former Apple employee says she won’t withdraw her labor board complaint

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Former Apple employee Cher Scarlett says the company didn’t adequately live up to its half of a settlement, so she won’t withdraw her complaint to the National Labor Relations Board as agreed, according to Forbes.

Scarlett says that her settlement with Apple required it to post “a company-wide memo clarifying employee rights including discussing pay & working conditions,” “in a prominent and visible location on the People site.” She says that the company did post a notice to its site, but that it was only up during the week that Apple employees were given off for Thanksgiving. “I’d argue all day that 7 days while no one is online for a holiday is absolutely not prominent and visible,” Scarlett tweeted on Thursday.

Despite the fact...

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Apple has reportedly closed an Apple Store in Texas due to a COVID-19 outbreak

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple closed one of its Southlake, Texas retail stores Wednesday after many staff members contracted COVID-19, according to NBC News_’_Zoe Schiffer. A manager told employees Wednesday that 22 staffers “have shared that they’re positive for COVID-19,” NBC News reported, and four of the store’s 151 employees reported positive cases right after Black Friday. The store will be closed through Sunday.

NBC News’ report highlights a few worrying trends about the Southlake location. One employee said they had previously raised concerns about being unable to keep social distancing. He and another employee said the store was packed “shoulder to shoulder” on Black Friday. And a manager at the Southlake store apparently had asked employees to come...

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Ford stops taking reservations for the F-150 Lightning

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Ford has stopped taking reservations for the all-electric F-150 Lightning as it prepares to start making and shipping the new pickup truck in the first half of 2022. The company says it has collected 200,000 refundable $100 deposits for the Lightning since it debuted in May.

That means that anyone not already in line may have to wait a while to buy Ford’s first mass-market electric pickup truck off a dealer lot (or order one from the company’s website). Ford hasn’t said how many it plans to build in 2022, but Automotive Newsreports that the automaker is looking to build as many as 80,000 in 2023. The company has publicly said it wants to build that many in 2024 after originally targeting just 40,000 annually and has been hiring new...

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Life360 makes millions selling location data, and it’s about to buy Tile

Life360’s marketing image of acquiring Tile is also a reminder of how much data it owns now | Image: Life360

Life360, the company that bills its product as a “family safety service,” has been selling location data on its 31 million customers — including kids — since 2016, _The Markup_reports.

Former employees from data broker companies told _The Markup_that Life360 is “one of the largest sources of data” for what has become a $12 billion phone location tracking industry. In November, the company announced it’s reached a deal to acquire the popular item tracking company Tile for $205 million and said it plans to pursue a dual public listing in the US (it’s currently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange) next year.

there are currently no plans to sell Tile’s data

“Our philosophy has been first ... be open with our users with what we are...

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How to watch The Game Awards 2021

The Game Awards

The Game Awards are back. The awards ceremony / game conference / concert hosted by Geoff Keighley will deliver a couple hours’ worth of performances (notably, Sting will be playing), game reveals (one of which is over two years in the making), and almost certainly, a few new memes. There have been very few teases as to what we’ll see onstage, but don’t take that as any indication that this could be a quiet show.

A few years ago, this is where the debut of the Xbox Series X was an unexpected surprise. I wouldn’t expect any game console announcements for this year’s show. What you can expect (even if you’d rather avoid it) are some metaverse happenings that aim to give you a more immersive way to experience the Game Awards. Speaking of...

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Looks like Louis Vuitton is planning to launch another smartwatch

Like the name suggests, it lights up | Image: Gadgets and Wearables, Louis Vuitton

It appears that Louis Vuitton is launching yet another version of its Tambour Horizon Connected Watches. According to Gadgets and Wearables, this one lights up thanks to 24 LED lights. It’s not dissimilar to Louis Vuitton’s bizarre $2,890 light-up speaker that looks like it belongs in a space opera. There’s a lot that could be written about this thing, from its ostentatious design to its simple feature set. But the big thing to note here is the watch may purportedly forgo Wear OS in favor of a proprietary operating system.

Screenshot: Victoria Song

Several reports of the announcement have been taken down or redirect to other content, but remain in Google News.

Several other outlets initially ran the...

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Google says bug with Teams and Android can cause 911 calls to fail

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Last week, a Reddit user reported that they weren’t able to call 911 using their Pixel 3 and later said they were working with Google support to figure out the issue. Yesterday, Google announced what was causing the issue in a reply to the post: an “unintended interaction between the Microsoft Teams app and the underlying Android operating system” (via 9to5Google).

In its comment, Google says that the bug happens when someone is using Android 10 or later and has Teams installed but isn’t logged into the app. The company says that Microsoft will be releasing an update to Teams “soon” to prevent the issue and that there’s an update to Android coming January 4th.

If you’re running Android 10 or above and aren’t logged into Teams, uninstall...

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Utility companies will no longer share data with ICE — but many loopholes remain

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A nationwide group of companies from the power, water, cable TV, and telecommunications sectors have agreed that they will no longer sell customer information to data brokers used by ICE and law enforcement agencies. The news has been hailed as an important step by privacy advocates, who have long criticized the practice as a privacy violation that lets law enforcement obtain personal information from third parties without appropriate review.

The announcement comes from a letter sent Wednesday by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and reported by The Washington Post.

The companies concerned belong to the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE), a credit reporting agency that lets...

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YouTube announces new year-end live event, Escape2021

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube will host a 24-hour interactive live event featuring musicians and creators to look back on the platform’s biggest trends and videos of 2021, the company announced today. The event, called Escape2021, will have three chapters, the first of which begins on December 16th at midnight ET. The goal of Escape2021: liberate Lofi Girl from the confines of her bedroom and studies.

Escape2021 replaces YouTube Rewind, a high-production recap video YouTube published at the end of each year that had been derided by creators for sanitizing the platform to appeal to advertisers. The company officially pulled the plug on Rewind in October, saying it would “refocus our energies” to create different kinds of productions.

The event seems to be an...

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Nvidia’s big ambitions could be its Achilles’ heel in the Arm deal

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nvidia has been trying to buy Arm for $40 billion for over a year now — but this week, the acquisition was hit with its biggest roadblock yet. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission laid out the case to stop the merger from going through, arguing that the deal would “stifle competing next-generation technologies.”

It’s the most significant attempt to reign in Big Tech yet under Lina Khan’s term as FTC chair, so there’s a lot at stake, both for the FTC and the electronics industry at large. Arm is a hugely important company; the company’s chip designs touch hundreds of billions of devices, including CPUs and ISPs for modern cars, embedded chipsets for wearable and medical devices, smart home gadgets like thermostats and routers, and of...

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NASA launches new X-ray mission to study black holes and exploding stars

Illustration of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer | Image: NASA

On Thursday morning, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) successfully launched into space on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The two-year mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying and measuring X-ray polarization.

The pioneering mission will allow NASA to look into the origins of X-ray light, a form of high energy light produced during some of the most extreme celestial events like supernova explosions and violent collisions. The mission builds on the work done by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s flagship X-ray astronomy mission, which launched in 1999 and has imaged the remnants of exploded stars, discovered black holes, and more.The IXPE will provide more...

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The Chevy Silverado EV pickup truck will go into production early 2023

The Chevy Silverado EV will go into production in early 2023, according to Automotive News. The electric truck, which will make its public debut in a few weeks at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January in Las Vegas, will go on sale in late 2023.

The Silverado EV will be the second electric truck for General Motors, succeeding the GMC Hummer EV, which is expected to reach a handful of its first customers before the end of 2021. But when it comes out, the electric Silverado will be one of the flagship vehicles in the company’s much larger $35 billion push into electric vehicles, as well as the first electric truck for the automaker’s Chevy brand.

The Silverado’s production will lag behind the F-150 Lightning

But when it hits...

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Get a full Eero mesh Wi-Fi router setup for an all-time low price today

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

With recent flash sales, console drops, and daily deals that have even matched some of Black Friday’s best, you can feel that holiday shopping is soon reaching its final form. We are approaching the time where you want to give the calendar the occasional check and ensure that anything you’re ordering as a gift will arrive in time. Today, we have a smattering of excellent deals from many areas of the tech landscape, some of which can make an excellent gift for a loved one or just save a load of money for yourself.

Kicking it off, we have Amazon’s deal of the day, which, unsurprisingly, is featuring one of its own lines of products. Eero is a popular option for simplified mesh Wi-Fi that can cover your entire home, and for today only, you...

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