Tencent is acquiring Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios

Tencent is acquiring Turtle Rock Studios. | Image: Turtle Rock Studios

Tencent is adding to its already large roster of video game studios by acquiring Slamfire, the parent company of Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios. Turtle Rock will be “retaining its independent operations” in California and the current leadership team will still run the studio, according to a press release.

Tencent is behind some of the biggest games on the planet. It owns the studio behind the hugely popular MOBA League of Legends; the developer of the mobile hits Call of Duty: Mobile, Honor of Kings, and Pokémon Unite; and has a 40 percent stake in Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite and Unreal Engine. And the company has made many significant investments just this year, including acquiring British game studio Sumo, buying...

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Vizio’s large 70-inch MQ7 TV is $350 off at Best Buy

The MQ-Series of Vizio TVs supports voice controls through the remote. | Image: Vizio

The Christmas holiday is just one week away. I repeat: seven days from now is Christmas Eve. Let that sink in for a moment, but don’t panic just yet. There is still time to get gifts in time for the holidays before we reach cutoff times for shipments, though we’re getting a little tight on time. Just because you’re cutting it close doesn’t mean you have to overspend. Today, we have a bunch of great deals at a variety of price points — many of which can make exceptional gifts for a friend, family member, or yourself.

Starting off, Vizio’s midrange 70-inch MQ7 4K LED TV (M70Q7-J03) with voice controls and HDR is just $749.99 at Best Buy. That’s a $350 discount on quite a large TV. You may ask, “How can I gift a 70-inch TV to just one...

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Clockwork Aquario brings a long-lost arcade game back to life

If Clockwork Aquario had come out in the early ’90s, it would have cost me a lot of quarters. It’s the kind of arcade game that lures you in: big sprites, bright colors, inventive worlds, a bubbly soundtrack. You see it, and you want to play it. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to experience it in an arcade because it was never actually released. But a few decades later, it’s finally available in a new format — you can now play it on both the PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Clockwork Aquario was initially a victim of the game industry’s shift to 3D games. Development started in 1992 at Westone Bit Entertainment, a now-defunct studio best-known for the Wonder Boy series. The game was completed after two years, but by that time, arcades had...

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H&R Block is suing Block, formerly Square, over its new name

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Tax preparation service H&R Block filed a lawsuit against Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) for trademark infringement on Thursday, CNBC reported.

“Today’s filing is an important effort to prevent consumer confusion and ensure a competitor cannot leverage the reputation and trust we built over more than six decades,” said H&R Block president and CEO Jeff Jones in a press release.

H&R Block claims that Square’s new name competes directly with Block in several areas of financial services, including a recently purchased tax service named Cash App Taxes — previously Credit Karma Tax — a $0 tax filing service similar to H&R Block.

We are protecting the reputation and trust we have built over 65+ years. This morning, we filed a...

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Vergecast: James Webb Space Telescope’s launch next week, cool gadgets launched this week

Image: NASA

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. On the final Vergecast of 2021, Nilay and Dieter invite Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior space reporter Loren Grush to the show to cover the last bits of news before the holiday break.

Next week on Christmas Eve, we will see the James Webb Space Telescope — successor to NASA’s famed Hubble telescope — finally launch into space. Loren explains what the JWST will be used for, how the telescope will launch, and the complications with its launch along the way.

In the second half of the show, Nilay, Dieter, and Alex go through...

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Google reportedly under investigation for how it treats Black female workers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is looking into how Google treats its Black female employees, according to a report by Reuters. The report says that the regulator has been asking employees questions about harassment and discrimination, after receiving formal complaints.

The report doesn’t make any mention of the DFEH bringing charges against Google as it did with Activision Blizzard and says that the interviews being conducted don’t necessarily mean that Google could face charges.

Black women made up 1.8 percent of Google’s workforce in 2021

According to a diversity report Google released earlier this year, Black women make up around 1.8 percent of its workforce and departed the company at a higher than...

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Horseshoe crabs are in danger because everyone wants their blood

Horseshoe crabs are bled at the Charles River Laboratory in South Carolina. | Timothy Fadek

Conservationists fear that horseshoe crabs, a 450-million-year-old living fossil, will be pushed to the brink of extinction because of the value of their blood to the pharmaceutical industry. Horseshoe crab blood provides a natural source of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) which is used to test vaccines, drugs, and medical devices to ensure that they aren’t contaminated with dangerous bacterial toxins called endotoxins. With hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs captured and bled of their milky-blue blood each year, conservation groups are now stepping up their advocacy efforts and taking legal action to help save horseshoe crabs and the other species that rely on them.

Fortunately, there’s already an alternative to horseshoe crab...

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The only Christmas tradition I care about is Sweden’s arson goat

The Gävle Goat before and after its most recent arson attack this year. | Photo by MATS ASTRAND,PERNILLA WAHLMAN/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

If you’ve never heard of the Gävle Goat before, there are just two critical pieces of information you need to know.

First: the Gävle Goat is a giant straw statue of a goat erected every Christmas in the Swedish town of Gävle. It’s essentially a massive Yule Goat, a traditional symbol of the Yuletide season in areas of Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and was first installed in the town in 1966. The most recent incarnation stands 42 feet high and weighs 3.6 tonnes.

Second: every year, someone tries to set the goat on fire. And most years, they succeed — including this one.

As the BBC reported this morning: “A giant straw goat that has become an annual highlight in the Swedish city of Gavle has been burned by an arsonist. A man in his 40s...

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Amazon shareholders are calling for independent audit of how the company treats workers

Amazon investors want an audit of the company’s workplace safety | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Citing the recent scrutiny on its employees’ working conditions, a group of Amazon shareholders has filed a resolution asking the board of directors to commission an independent audit on workplace health and safety at the company. The resolution calls for the audit to be conducted with input from Amazon employees and experts in workplace safety and surveillance.

“As Amazon strives to be ‘the Earth’s Safest Place to Work,’ a review is needed of the practices that have made the company a leader in workplace injuries and a target for criticism and regulation,” the shareholders’ resolution reads. “With surveillance and productivity quotas linked to high injury rates, we urge Amazon to commission an independent audit of these practices.”

If...

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FedEx receives its first electric delivery vans from GM’s BrightDrop

FedEx is the first customer to receive electric delivery vans from General Motors’ new EV-focused company BrightDrop. The logistics giant says it will integrate the EVs into its fleet starting in 2022.

BrightDrop, which is GM’s new dedicated electric delivery van spinoff, said it delivered five of its larger-sized EV600 delivery vans to FedEx, the first in a planned 500-vehicle order. The EV600, which went into production last fall, has 600 cubic feet of cargo space, can travel up to 250 miles on a full battery, and has a gross vehicle weight of less than 10,000 pounds.

The vans were delivered to FedEx’s facility in Inglewood, California, where they will be housed and maintained. FedEx plans to begin deploying BrightDrop’s vehicles on...

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Could a Witcher-style multiverse really exist? We asked a physicist

Toss a coin to the physicist who agreed to this interview

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Nintendo adds five new Sega Genesis games to its Switch Online Expansion Pack

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo has expanded its Expansion Pack for the Switch, adding five new Sega Genesis titles to the most expensive tier of its online subscription service. Those titles are Altered Beast,ToeJam & Earl,Dynamite Headdy, Sword of Vermilion, and_Thunder Force II._

The Expansion Pack subscription tier costs $49.99 annually for an individual subscription or $79.99 for a family membership (compared to $19.99 / $34.99 for a regular Switch Online subscription). For the extra cash, subscribers get access to larger back catalog of games. Both tiers include classic NES and Super NES titles like the _The Legend of Zelda_and _Super Mario World_while the Expansion Pack adds games from the Nintendo 64 (like Super Mario 64) and the Sega Genesis (known as...

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Peloton scrubs viral ads starring Chris Noth after the Mr. Big actor is accused of sexual assault

Chris Noth played Mr. Big in Sex and the City and its sequel series And Just Like That. | Photo by Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Peloton has removed a viral ad starring Chris Noth, the actor who plays Mr. Big in HBO Max’s _Sex and the City_and its sequel series _And Just Like That,_after Noth was accused of sexual assault. Peloton says it’s stopped promoting the videos until it “learns more” about the accusations.

In a story published by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, two women alleged that Noth assaulted them in 2004 and 2015 respectively. One of the women said that “seeing that [Noth] was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me.” She added: “For so many years, I buried it,” but decided it was time “to try to go public with who he is.” Noth has denied the allegations against him and claims the sexual encounters were consensual.

“Every...

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Microsoft is pushing the Control Panel aside in its latest Windows 11 updates

Microsoft is finally signaling the end of the legacy Control Panel in Windows 11. The software giant introduced a number of changes in its Settings section of Windows 11 earlier this year, and this month the company has started testing even more ways to replace Control Panel functionality.

In new test versions of Windows 11, Microsoft has moved the advanced network settings into a new page in the Settings app, which includes sharing options for folders, printers, and network discovery options. Some entry points to the network and device settings in Windows 11 also now redirect to the Settings app, instead of forcing you into the Control Panel.

The Control Panel in Windows 11.

Elsewhere, links to the section of the...

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LG refreshes its pricey Pro OLED monitors for 2022 and adds a 27-inch option

Image: LG

In 2021 LG added an OLED-based monitor for pros to its lineup, and now the company has revealed the follow-up UltraFine OLED Pro monitors it’s planned for 2022. While its first effort was only available as a $3,999 31.5-inch 4K monitor, next year’s version will include a 27-inch variant.

Image: LG

Image: LG

Naturally, the 32BP95E and 27BP95E still feature the precise lighting control you’d expect from an OLED panel; however, these screens aren’t meant for gaming or even TV and movie watching. The promise LG’s DisplayHDR 400 True Black technology ensures that if you’re editing photos or video, everything looks the way it truly should. They’ll also ship with detachable self-calibration sensors...

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The Holmes trial is about money

It was never about the people

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Schools across US cancel classes over unconfirmed TikTok threats

Unconfirmed threats on TikTok led some schools to cancel classes | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

School districts across the United States are cancelling classes on Friday, December 17th due to reports of threats that are supposedly being made on TikTok. Districts in California, Texas, Minnesota, and Missouri have said they plan to close down Friday in response, according to the districts and local media reports. Elsewhere, districts have said they plan to have heightened police presence or have emailed parents to say they’ve been investigating the allegations.

But so far, there’s little evidence that the threats are credible — or even exist. The districts and local police departments largely say they’ve heard about a trend referencing the possibility of shootings or bombings on December 17th, but it’s not clear how many have seen a...

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FTC opens antitrust probe into Meta’s purchase of VR fitness app Supernatural

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened an in-depth antitrust probe of Meta’s plan to buy the popular VR fitness app Supernatural, according to a new report by The Information.

The probe means that antitrust regulators are starting to scrutinize the-company-formally-known-as-Facebook’s interest in scooping up VR startups, not just its traditional social media acquisitions. According to _The Information’s_Josh Sisco, Meta’s previous five virtual reality acquisitions, including its deal for the studio behind hit game Beat Saber, weren't probed by the government because the purchase prices were too small. “But those regulators are slowing down the $400 million-plus Supernatural deal, according to two people with knowledge of the...

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will no longer have NFTs after fan outcry

GSC Game World has scrapped its plans for NFTs in_S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2._ | Image: GSC Game World

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl will no longer include NFTs, developer GSC Game World announced Thursday. The news arrives after a heavily criticized announcement Wednesday and after the studio posted and then deleted an explanation on Thursday that initially tried to explain it would, in fact, still have NFTs.

“Based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,” the new statement says. “The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team. We’re making this game for you to enjoy — whatever the cost is. If you care, we care too.”

pic.twitter.com/mffnmpiQiw

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) December 16, 2021

GSC Game World had announced...

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Read the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer’s deleted explanation for why you’re getting NFTs

GSC Game World deleted a tweet elaborating why it plans to offer NFTs. | Image: GSC Game World

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World posted a now-deleted statement on Twitter elaborating on its widely criticized plans to add NFTs to the game. In short, the company said it will be using funds earned from the NFTs to help with development.

“S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is truly the biggest and the most complex game we have ever created,” GSC Game World said. “All the funds that we earn during the development process (including the potential income from NFT) will be spent on improving the long-awaited game to make it even better.”

Image: GSC Game World

GSC Game World’s now deleted statement addressing its plans to add NFTs.

On Wednesday, the developer revealed it would be...

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s AirPods Pro wireless earbuds are a go-to pick that’s often on sale | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have come and gone, but there are still some great discounts available on Apple’s AirPods. In fact, we’ve actually been seeing some deals that are even better than they were during the recent shopping holidays.

Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods in October and unveiled its new AirPods lineup, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model drop from $159 to $129. Even better, we’ve seen many retailers starting to heavily discount the second-gen AirPods as well as the more expensive AirPods Pro and Max, which offer noise cancellation and better sound quality than the standard model. We’ve even recently seen some significant discounts on the third-gen AirPods, despite how...

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Peloton rival Echelon’s new connected bike is fit for the club

Behold, the EX-8S | Image: Echelon

While Peloton is the most familiar name in connected fitness, Echelon’s bikes are probably the ones you’ve seen before without noticing. Echelon’s bikes are among the first that pop up when you google “cheaper Peloton alternative,” and it’s also the company behind Walmart’s $497 connected bike. (You might also remember them from last year’s Amazon Prime Bike debacle.) Well, now one of Peloton’s biggest rivals is back with a new premium bike — the EX-8S, and it is extremely extra.

For starters, the bike sports a 24-inch 1080p curved touchscreen. Echelon says that’s to create a more immersive experience and that the screen itself also flips open 180-degrees for off-bike workouts. It’s also got not one but two light-up flywheels that can be...

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Babble Royale turns Scrabble into Fortnite

There used to be a joke that every game was turning into a Fortnite-style battle royale, and here to make that bit a reality is Babble Royale, a new Scrabble-style competitive online multiplayer game from designer Frank Lantz’s Everybody House Games (best known for Universal Paperclipsand Hey Robot).

Despite the fact that it feels like a joke meant to clown on Fortnite, PUGB, and other last-person-standing games in the genre, _Babble Royale_is very much a real game, currently available on Steam in early access for both PC and Mac.

Babble Royale is now live in early access! I think it's the funnest game I've ever worked on. Come see for yourself.https://t.co/5vxJDAlYXDpic.twitter.com/N6WGBpB8AM

— Frank Lantz (@flantz) December 15,...

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The Verge’s 2021 holiday gift guide for kids

Illustration by Richard Parry

Great gifts that will cultivate curiosity, creativity, and so much more

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Meta alerts 50,000 users to targeting by ‘surveillance-for-hire’ companies

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook’s parent company Meta has alerted 50,000 users of Facebook and Instagram that their accounts were spied on by commercial “surveillance-for-hire” schemes around the globe.

The users were targeted by seven entities and located in more than 100 countries, according to an update posted on Meta’s news page today.

Targets included journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, families of opposition, and human rights activists, the post said. The surveillance was uncovered in a monthslong investigation in which Meta identified spying groups and removed them from the platform.

“These companies are part of a sprawling industry that provides intrusive software tools and surveillance services indiscriminately to any customer —...

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GM announces Cruise CEO Dan Ammann is stepping down

Dan Ammann, the CEO of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, is stepping down, the automaker announced late Thursday. Kyle Vogt, the co-founder of Cruise and its chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO.

Ammann is the latest CEO of an AV company to step aside as the industry struggles to meet its own over-inflated expectations about the future of driverless cars. Earlier this year, John Krafcik announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Waymo after helping lead the company since 2015.

GM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departure

GM didn’t provide a reason for Ammann’s departure except to say he was leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” A spokesperson for...

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French regulator tells Clearview AI to delete its facial recognition data

France’s foremost privacy regulator has ordered Clearview AI to delete all its data relating to French citizens, as first reported by TechCrunch.

In its announcement, the French agency CNIL argued that Clearview had violated the GDPR in collecting the data and violated various other data access rights in its processing and storage. As a result, CNIL is calling on Clearview to purge the data from its systems or face escalating fines as laid out by European privacy law.

Clearview rose to prominence in 2020 after a New York Times investigation highlighted the company’s massive data collection efforts. In particular, the company offered the unique ability to identify subjects by name, drawing on data scraped from public-facing social...

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Epic is giving away 15 free games during its holiday sale, and the first is Shenmue III

Shenmue III is one of 15 games Epic is giving away. | Image: Epic Games

Epic Games’ annual holiday sale is now live, and in addition to offering some nice discounts on many titles, the company will also be giving away 15 free games. Epic is also bringing back the Epic Coupon, which gives you $10 off games that cost more than $14.99.

The first freebie is Shenmue III, which began life as a hugely popular Kickstarter. The company hasn’t said what games are next, and Epic spokesperson Nick Chester declined to comment on what games are coming down the pike — you’ll have to check the store every day to see what Epic is offering.

The Epic Coupon is a good deal, too

While you’re browsing the store, you’ll want to keep the Epic Coupon in mind. It gives you $10 off any title that’s more than $14.99 and has no limit to...

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Comcast delays new data caps for at least another year, which is weird because it should be forever

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The majority of Comcast Xfinity internet customers have suffered ridiculous and unnecessary data caps since 2016, and the company planned to extend those caps to a dozen more US states this year. But after taking well-deserved flak for attempting to bilk customers in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Comcast delayed them once, twice, and now a third time — now they won’t arrive until 2023 at the earliest, _Light Reading_reports.

“We don’t have plans to implement our data usage plan in our Northeast markets in 2022 at this time,” a Comcast spokesperson told the publication.

Does that mean the planned 1.2TB data cap for those states is gone for good, or is Comcast simply biding its time? Hard to say. Technically, “We don’t have plans...

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Rivian will build a second, $5 billion EV plant in Georgia

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Amazon-backed EV startup Rivian is going to build a second factory in Georgia where it will assemble up to 400,000 electric vehicles per year. The company made the announcement on Thursday alongside state representatives after months of speculation over where it would look to expand its manufacturing footprint. It’s expected to invest $5 billion into the facility.

Rivian is already building its first electric pickup trucks at a former Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Illinois. But the company is getting ready to start building its electric SUV and is committed to producing 100,000 custom delivery vans for Amazon, so it has been searching for a place to create a factory from the ground up.

Rivian had been in talks with Forth Worth, Texas to...

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