FTC files to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission is asking for US courts to stop Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard while the government’s bigger case to block the merger plays out. The FTC originally filed a legal challenge to try and block Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition in December, and now it’s seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction from a US federal district court.

“Both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction are necessary because Microsoft and Activision have represented that they may consummate the proposed acquisition at any time,” reads the FTC’s complaint.

The FTC filed its complaint just as Microsoft is progressing with its appeal against UK regulators’ decision to block its...

Continue reading…

Google’s Pixel 8 series will again put the best cameras on the biggest phone

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you’re a fan of Google’s Pixel lineup and want the best possible camera performance, there’s only been one real choice over the last couple of years: you buy the biggest phone. The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro share the same primary sensor, but the larger device has a superior ultrawide camera (thanks to its wider field of view) and the vaunted telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom. For the upcoming Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, it looks like the company will continue the trend of giving the pricier phone an optical advantage.

Last year, the telephoto lens was the big story, but in 2023, it’s reportedly the ultrawide camera that’s making a substantial leap — but only in one of the two phones, of course.

Android Authority has seemingly obtained the camera...

Continue reading…

NYC food delivery gig workers score a big minimum wage victory

NYC food delivery workers like those with DoorDash will get a minimum wage increase. | Image: DoorDash

New York City gig economy workers just scored a significant victory as Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) announced on Sunday a new minimum wage of $17.96 per hour, effective on July 12th, for food delivery workers (via Quartz). That wage will grow to $19.96 on April 1st, 2025.

The new pay rate bumps workers up from their current $7.09 per hour minimum wage, and when it reaches its full rate, it amounts to a near-tripled base pay for more than 60,000 food delivery workers in the city, with annual inflation-adjusted raises. Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, said in an email to The Verge, “We’re proud to have secured this historic victory for delivery...

Continue reading…

Star Wars Outlaws gameplay looks like Grand Theft Auto: Tatooine

Ubisoft

Ubisoft already teased Star Wars fans with a brief trailer for Star Wars Outlaws during the Xbox Summer Game Fest presentation. However, it was saving all the big, juicy gameplay details for its own showcase. Ubisoft closed its presentation with a 10-minute extended look at Outlaws’ gameplay and the kinds of scum and villainy you can get up to in all the wretched hives of the galaxy.

In Star Wars Outlaws, you play as Kay Vess, someone who Ubisoft calls a “scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life.” In the gameplay trailer, she certainly feels like an outlaw, quick to pull blasters on people in a way that would please the “Han shot first” contingent. Outlaws features a choice system, with the trailer showing off a scene...

Continue reading…

How to control what boots up on your Mac

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

When you boot up your Mac, you’ve probably noticed that a number of apps and tools are loading themselves into memory along with the operating system. There are advantages to this — it ensures that your files always stay in sync with the cloud and that certain plug-ins are always available. But there’s value in keeping a balance: having too many programs start up with macOS can be a drag on your system.

Not only does it mean your Mac takes longer to get started and ready for use, but auto-starting apps can use up valuable memory space and processor time. It’s important to be selective about what can launch with macOS and what can’t.

You can control this by using tools and options built into macOS itself — no third-party software...

Continue reading…

Assassin’s Creed Mirage gets new story trailer and gameplay demo

Image: Ubisoft

At its big summer showcase, Ubisoft provided the best look yet at the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage. To start, a new story trailer gave a better look at the new assassin, Basim, and the 9th century version of Baghdad he’ll be exploring in the game. You can check it out above.

Perhaps more interesting, though, was a deep dive into the gameplay. Mirage is billed as a game that returns to style of the original Assassin’s Creed games, which is to say fewer RPG elements, and more focus on parkour, stealth, and, well, assassinations. The gameplay walkthrough showed Basim running and climbing his way through the city, while using tools like a blow dart and smoke bomb to dispatch of enemies as cleanly as possible. Also, he has a very good...

Continue reading…

Assassin’s Creed Nexus brings first-person assassinations to VR

Image: Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed is heading to virtual reality. At its Ubisoft Forward event, the publisher properly unveiled Assassin’s Creed Nexus, which is coming to the Meta Quest 2 and 3 (it’s launching “holiday 2023”) and will be the first game in the series to give players a first-person perspective on the world of assassins.

The game will be a greatest hits of sorts, letting players take on the role of three different characters from past AC games — Ezio, Kassandra, and Connor — so they can explore “untold stories” set in three different time periods. The game will let players physically act out classic AC moves, so that they can perform kills and more naturally use their various, deadly weapons; reaching over your shoulder to grab a bow, for...

Continue reading…

This is the new Twitter CEO’s first email to employees

Linda Yaccarino. | Photo by Santiago Felipe/Getty Images

Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has officially entered the building.

On Monday, she sent her first memo to employees titled “Building Twitter 2.0 Together,” in which she echos her boss Elon Musk’s stated goal for the company to be the “global town square.”

“From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation, so he did it,” she wrote. “More recently it has become increasingly clear that the global town square needs transformation—to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us.”

“More recently it has become increasingly clear that the global town square needs transformation”

Yaccarino is a longtime...

Continue reading…

Wildfire smoke slashed solar power generation

Midtown Manhattan buildings are shrouded in smoke from Canadian wildfires on Wednesday, June 7th, 2023. | Image: Luiz C. Ribeiro / New York Daily News / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Wildfire smoke curtailed solar power generation when it clouded skies across the US last week. It’s one more example of how climate change is putting more pressure on stressed-out power grids.

Billows of smoke from hundreds of blazes in Canada wafted over huge swaths of the East Coast and Midwest, where it created a record-shattering air quality disaster last week. Hazy skies also made it harder for solar panels to soak up sunlight, leading to big losses in clean energy generation.

It’s one more example of how climate change is putting more pressure on stressed-out power grids

Solar farms in New England produced about 60 percent less electricity at 1PM last Wednesday than they did at the same time the week prior, according to data from...

Continue reading…

The Division Resurgence hits smartphones this fall

Image: Ubisoft

The Division is coming to your smartphone later this year. At its Ubisoft Forward event, the company confirmed that The Division Resurgence, a mobile spinoff of the near-future shooter series, will be launching in fall 2023.

As with the previous games in the series, Resurgence is set in a “mid-crisis” version of New York, one thrown into a crisis following an outbreak of a genetically engineered virus known as the “dollar flu.” And like those games, the mobile version is a cross between an open world game, where you can explore the city and take on missions, and a multiplayer experience where you can squad up with friends. Ubisoft describes it as a “true MMO experience.”

I had the chance to check out an early version of the game, and...

Continue reading…

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is coming out later this year

Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a video game entry in James Cameron’s hit movie franchise, is coming out on December 7th, the company announced at its Ubisoft Forward event on Monday. In addition to some details on the game’s story, a new trailer showed some brief glimpses at the first-person action-adventure experience. In addition to exploring the colorful world of Pandora as a Na’vi, you’ll be doing some skydiving and, uh, shooting guns. (The protagonist was apparently has military training from humans.)

The game is a first-person action-adventure experience and has an all new story. “In this new, standalone story, play as a Na’vi and embark on a journey across the Western Frontier, a never-before-seen part of Pandora,” the...

Continue reading…

All the news from Ubisoft Forward 2023

Image: Ubisoft

Summer Game Fest 2023 continues with Ubisoft’s presentation of games.

Continue reading…

Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker with a clock ticks down to a low price of $34.99

The fifth-gen Echo Dot with clock uses a dot matrix style display to show the time and weather conditions. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

It’s smart home week here at The Verge, where we have a variety of articles to help demystify the overwhelming world of the smart home and help you decide on the right system for you. And conveniently, you can get Amazon’s staple smart speakers today for their lowest prices yet. The best deal is on the fifth-gen Echo Dot with a clock, which is selling for $34.99 ($25 off) at Best Buy and Amazon. The tiny speaker has frequently gone on sale since it launched last year, but it usually dipped down to $39.99.

The clock-equipped Echo Dot is small enough to fit just about anywhere in your home and offers music, weather, news updates, and Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. The latest model has improved sound, more useful tap controls, and a...

Continue reading…

Reddit starts crashing as subreddit blackout keeps growing

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit is experiencing some issues for many on Monday, with the outage happening the same day as thousands of subreddits going dark to protest the site’s new API pricing terms. For many Verge staffers, Reddit.com isn’t loading, but some subreddits will. There are around 40,000 user reports of issues on Downdetector.

Reddit’s status page is now reporting a “major outage” affecting Reddit’s desktop and mobile sites and its native mobile apps. “We’re aware of problems loading content and are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible,” the company wrote on the status page.

Reddit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A site that had been tracking the number of subreddits to have gone private in protest also...

Continue reading…

How to watch Ubisoft Forward 2023

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

As Summer Game Geoff, aka Keigh3, aka The Keighleys, aka Summer Game Fest 2023, winds down, there are a few more big developer presentations left, including today’s Ubisoft Forward 2023.

You can watch the livestream on Twitch or YouTube at 1PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6PM BST. Since we’re global here at The Verge, if we haven’t included your timezone, Ubisoft has got you covered, tweeting a bunch more global start times.

Today's the day! Watch #UbiForward around the world:
10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
11 AM Mexico City
2 PM Brasília
6 PM London
7 PM Paris
7 PM Cape Town
8 PM Ankara
9 PM Abu Dhabi
10:30 PM New Delhi

Tuesday 13
1 AM…

— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) June 12, 2023

Ubisoft has already...

Continue reading…

Smart homes for smart people

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

Everybody is talking about smart homes these days — but what exactly does that mean? If you have one or two Amazon Echo smart speakers in your apartment or a Google Nest router along with a speaker, do you have a smart home? Or is your home only smart if you’ve got a smart camera monitoring your smart doorbell, your smart lights automatically waking you while your smart blinds roll up, and your smart AC going on just in time to cool your office for the day’s work?

In our special Smart Home Week articles, we give you the down and dirty (or, if you have a robovac, the down and clean) on smart homes. We answer questions such as what exactly is a smart home, do you need one, and if so, which of the several ecosystems should you use? We also...

Continue reading…

Samsung’s 49-inch ultrawide OLED gaming monitor is probably as costly as your PC

Image: Samsung

Samsung is getting ready to release its 49-inch OLED gaming monitor. The Odyssey OLED G9 is the “first OLED monitor to offer Dual Quad High Definition (5,120 x 1,440) resolution with a 32:9 aspect ratio,” says Samsung. It’s available to preorder today priced at $2,199.99 and is expected to ship on June 26th.

First announced at CES 2023, the Odyssey OLED G9 includes a 1800R curve, a fast 240Hz refresh rate, and a 0.03ms response time thanks to its OLED panel. Samsung is using its own QD-OLED tech for this monitor, not LG Display’s OLED panels. QD-OLED differs from traditional OLED because it can, at higher brightness levels, produce a more contrast-rich picture.

Image: Samsung

You’ll need some serious desk space...

Continue reading…

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch review: exactly what was asked for

Apple’s first big-screened MacBook Air addresses a long-standing need in the company’s laptop lineup. And it comes with zero surprises and no sticker shock.

Continue reading…

From brilliant to basic, here are our smart home setups

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

The Verge staff varies widely as to how ‘smart’ our homes are, ranging from one or two stray devices to entire planned networks.

Continue reading…

Ford opens new EV-focused assembly plant in Germany

Ford’s electric Explorer will be the first car produced at the facility. | Image: Ford

Today, Ford has opened its Cologne Electric Vehicle Center, part of the automaker’s push to become an all-electric car company by 2030. The American automaker’s Cologne plant was originally founded in 1930, but in 2021, the company said it would be transforming it into an EV manufacturing center at a cost of $1 billion. As of today, the company says the plant’s transformation is “part of a $2 billion investment.”

The first car to be produced at the plant is Ford’s new all-electric Explorer made exclusively for Europe. The company is billing the crossover SUV built on top of VW’s MEB platform as its fourth electric vehicle behind the Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit, and F-150 Lightning. A “sports crossover” is scheduled to be the second...

Continue reading…

How to pick a smart home platform

One connected lock does not a smart home make. If you want to get serious with home automation, start with a smart home platform.

Continue reading…

What is a smart home, and do you need one?

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

As connected becomes the default for every household appliance — from TVs and washing machines to ovens and vacuums — we break down exactly what makes a home ‘smart’ and help you decide if it’s the right fit for you.

Continue reading…

More than six thousand subreddits have gone dark to protest Reddit’s API changes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Over six thousand subreddits, including many of the most-subscribed communities on Reddit like r/funny, r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, and r/science, have set themselves private to protest Reddit’s upcoming API pricing changes. It means these communities are no longer publicly accessible, even to Reddit users previously subscribed to them. Here’s a Twitch stream which is tracking the exact number of subreddits that have gone dark.

Moderators began planning the actions last week after the developers of some of Reddit’s most-beloved third-party apps said they wouldn’t be able to afford the platform’s updated API pricing. On Thursday, the developers for Apollo for Reddit and others announced they would be shutting down their apps on June 30th...

Continue reading…

Microsoft is bringing PC Game Pass to Nvidia’s GeForce Now service

Image: Nvidia

Microsoft is planning to bring PC Game Pass titles to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service. Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, announced the move at a private Xbox media briefing in Los Angeles on Sunday. “You will be able to play your PC Game Pass catalog on all the devices supported by Nvidia GeForce Now,” said Bond.

“This will enable the PC Game Pass catalog to be played on any device that GeForce Now streams to, like low spec PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile devices, TVs, and more, and we’ll be rolling this out in the months ahead,” says Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire editor in chief, in a blog post.

GeForce Now members will be able to “stream select PC games from the library,” so it doesn’t look like it will be the full catalog....

Continue reading…

Activision removes another streamer’s skin from Call of Duty

Timthetatman / Activision

Activision has removed another streamer’s skin (from a game, not their body). TimTheTatman, a prominent Call of Duty streamer, asked to have his operator bundle removed from Call of Duty in support of his friend Nickmercs, whose skin was pulled last week after he made homophobic comments. “At Tim’s request, we have removed the TimTheTatman operator bundle from the Modern Warfare II and the Warzone store,” wrote Activision spokesperson Neil Wood in an email to The Verge.

TimTheTatman, who named Nickmercs as a long-time friend, tweeted that it “felt wrong” for him to still have a skin in the games when Nickmercs didn’t and requested that Activision remove his skin too. “In support of my friend, please remove the TimTheTatman bundle,” he...

Continue reading…

Watch 45 minutes of new Starfield gameplay

Image: Bethesda

We got a solid 15 minutes of Starfield gameplay at Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda showcase last year, and today we’re getting a really in-depth look at Bethesda’s first new IP in 25 years. Described as “Skyrim in space,” by game director Todd Howard, the RPG is really shaping up ahead of its debut on September 6th.

Today Bethesda decided to show us a lot more detail about Starfield, including the cities and settlements in the game, the skill trees, upgrades, and space combat. The 45-minute deep dive is a lot, and it really feels like if Bethesda can pull this off then you’ll be able to live out all your dreams of exploring space.

Image: Bethesda

Starfield has more than 1,000 planets.

The main story is centered on...

Continue reading…

Overwatch 2’s getting its first story missions and teases a new hero

Blizzard / Xbox

Overwatch 2: Invasion will finally kickstart Overwatch 2’s story. Revealed during the Xbox showcase, Overwatch 2’s story missions are finally here — if “here” actually means August 10th. Last month, game director Aaron Keller revealed that Overwatch 2’s long-hoped-for story mode was being cancelled, citing an ambitious but ultimately unfeasible development process. However, Keller said that the game’s story missions would still be coming, giving players a chance to see what’s going on with Overwatch’s beloved characters.

Story missions aren’t new to Overwatch. The game got its first story mission back in 2017, and it was a prequel of sorts, highlighting the events that would eventually led to the disbanding of the Overwatch...

Continue reading…

The biggest announcements from the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 and Starfield Direct

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft just wrapped up its annual summer showcase for Xbox games, and it was a big one. Not only did Microsoft share tons of information about new titles coming to Xbox, but the company also showed a long look at Starfield, Bethesda’s long-awaited sci-fi RPG.

Here’s the biggest announcements from the show.

A Starfield trailer and special Direct revealed an incredible amount about the upcoming sci-fi RPG

We got a lot of new info about Starfield during Sunday’s event. First, there was a sweeping new trailer promising grand adventures among the stars and with some footage of how the game will actually play. Then, during the 45-minute Starfield Direct, the development team went into detail about things like character creation,...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s new Starfield Xbox controller and headset are available now

The new Starfield Xbox controller. | Image: Microsoft

After weeks of leaks Microsoft is making its Starfield Xbox controller and headset official today. The Starfield-branded Xbox controller is the latest in a long line of special edition controllers that Microsoft has created since the launch of its Xbox Series X / S consoles in 2020.

Priced at $79.99, the Starfield-branded controller will be available to purchase today and includes a design inspired by elements in Starfield. The controller has accents of grey and gold to match the Starfield branding and textured hand grips.

Image: Microsoft

The Starfield wireless Xbox headset.

The Starfield-branded headset, priced at $124.99, will also launch today. The wireless headset is based on Microsoft’s existing...

Continue reading…

Like A Dragon sequel trailer shows off Ichiban’s best assets

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / Sega

Ichiban is back and still number one! During the Xbox showcase, the developers at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio teased the next part in the Yakuza: Like a Dragon saga— Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

In the trailer, Ichiban, the floofy-haired protagonist of Like a Dragon, has washed up on a beach butt-ass-naked. As he comes to consciousness, English-speakers react to his nudity (somewhat enthusiastically if you know what I mean) before Ichiban realizes he’s not in Japan anymore.

Earlier this week, during Summer Game Fest, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio gave us a look at another installment in the Yakuza series — Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. In that absurdly-long named game, we catch up with long-time Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu...

Continue reading…