GAMES
- EA backs down over loot boxes in Belgium: “While we are taking this action, we do not agree with Belgian authorities’ interpretation of the law,” says publisher
- EA amends FIFA loot boxes in Belgium after regulators increase pressure
- Anthem gameplay premiere: Pretty jetpack combat, too much Bio-wear and tear
- EA BioWare refutes lack of planning for troubled Anthem demo: BioWare defends against accusation of “under-planned” VIP weekend, highlights “Fortnite-type” numbers on Twitch
- Sensor Tower: EA Sports free-to-play mobile games generate $1bn lifetime revenue – US consumers account for 62% of revenue, with Madden NFL grossing $490 million to date
- Loot Unboxing (Fortnite)
- Fortnite puts an end to random loot box purchases
- DOJ Reverses Wire Act Opinion as It Applies to Non-Sports Gambling
- Gaming mirrors Facebook’s crisis of credibility: On addiction and loot boxes, the industry’s lack of transparency will prevent it from getting the benefit of the doubt
- Facebook shot down safeguards to keep kids from overspending in Facebook Games
- Facebook ignored solution to children overspending in games: Unsealed documents reveal social network instead wanted to “maximise revenues”
- Disney Goes All Disney On The Kingdom Hearts 3 Title Screen Over Streaming
- A modder has spent three years recreating The Legend of Zelda in Doom
- Model accuses Tencent of using her likeness without permission in Ring of Elysium: “I feel like, in a way, people have been deceived, and that’s really, really not okay,” says Mei Yan
- Tencent uses model’s likeness for Ring of Elysium without permission
- 95 more games approved in China, including some from Tencent and NetEase
- China finally greenlights new Tencent, NetEase games – but Fortnite and PUBG still left waiting: Nation’s leading publishers included in latest batch of approvals
- NetEase to introduce mobile game curfew in China
- NetEase to impose restrictions on young gamers in China: Anti-addiction measures include an 11-hour curfew and a limit of one hour a weekday for people age 12 and under
- NetEase acquires minority stake in Quantic Dream
- NetEase grabs stake in Quantic Dream as studio prepares for multi-platform future
- February marks the final round of PlayStation Plus games for Vita and PS3
- Beyond PlayStation 5: Quantic Dream’s next-gen, multi-platform vision – NetEase investment will allow Detroit: Become Human studio to target new fans in China and “compete with the best AAA studios”
- Star Control: Origins restored to GOG after DMCA block – Publisher thanks Valve and GOG for their “timely review of the situation”
- Developer DMCAs Steam For Hosting Its Own Game To Wrest Control Back From Rogue Publisher
- Blog: Why did we DMCA our own game a few weeks after launch?
- Halo and Call of Duty co-developer Certain Affinity expanding into Canada
- Certain Affinity sets up Toronto studio: Trump’s America, non-stop flights, and distressed students helped decide where the Halo co-developer opened its new office.
- A ‘major reorganization’ could see RuneScape dev Jagex put up for sale
- Jagex up for sale as Chinese owner seeks to restructure: Fukong Interactive announces intention to seek buyer for all or part of its stake in the Runescape developer
- Game on in trademark dispute
- Westworld Mobile shutting down following lawsuit settlement: Behaviour Interactive says removal from App Store and Google Play was not connected to “amicable resolution” of copyright dispute
- PUBG esports introducing profit-sharing for its teams
- How FIA Esports interest could change motorsport: The FIA’s desire to follow Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship into Esports is not an attempt to jump on the bandwagon – instead it could inform the future of motorsport
- Why a Farming Simulator esports league isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds: Giants Software CEO Christian Ammann on the world of competitive farming
- FanAI acquires esports data firm Waypoint Media: Sports monetisation platform unites with technology and data specialist
- Playtika opens $6m R&D centre in Bucharest: New Romanian outfit will provide QA and testing for mobile company’s games
- Epic acquires SkookumScript creator Agog Labs
- Deep Silver pulls Metro Exodus from Steam in favor of Epic Store
- Epic Games Store snags Metro Exodus away from Steam [Updated]
- Deep Silver owner THQ Nordic distances itself from Metro Exodus exclusivity deal
- So you want to compete with Steam: Epic, Discord, Kartridge, and RobotCache
- THQ Nordic CEO ‘fully supports’ Metro Exodus exclusivity deal
- THQ Nordic “fully supports” Metro Exodus exclusivity: Parent company clarifies comment distancing itself from decision to pull PC version from Steam in favor of Epic Games store, says it will change name to avoid future confusion
- Report: Apple is eyeing its own game subscription service
- Apple hopes to offer a Netflix-like subscription service for games, report claims
- Ubisoft will modify Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC following feedback
- Ubisoft will change divisive Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC: Enforced heterosexual relationship in Shadow Heritage DLC will be altered by an upcoming patch
- Opinion: The latest Assassin’s Creed Odyssey controversy was easily avoidable 3
- Nintendo restarting Metroid Prime 4 development with series originator Retro Studios
- Metroid Prime 4 Development Restarting With Retro Studios
- Nintendo throws out Metroid Prime 4 work, restarts with Retro Studios
- Development restarts on Metroid Prime 4, Retro Studios back in the fold: Nintendo says it was not satisfied with the quality, warns of “extensive” delay
- Nintendo’s Honesty Around Metroid Prime 4 Sets An Important Standard: Nintendo has set a good precedent for publisher transparency moving forward.
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe tops EMEAA charts: Just Cause 3, Mortal Combat XL, and Need for Speed – Payback pushed into top ten thanks to digital discounts
- Nintendo isn’t considering a Switch price cut or successor quite yet
- Nintendo president: No price cut needed to meet Switch sales goal: Shuntaro Furukawa says the platfrom holder is “not considering” a discount – or even new hardware – at this time
- 12 years in, Nintendo is closing down the Wii Shop Channel
- GDC State of the Industry: Nearly half of devs say they’re most interested in the Switch
- Nintendo’s former ‘indie advocate’ Damon Baker joins up with Xbox
- Games and services fuel rising Xbox earnings as console sales falter
- NPD crowns Call of Duty the top-selling console game franchise in U.S. for 10th year in a row
- Resident Evil 2 remake has shipped 3 million copies in four days
- Capcom shipped 3 million units of Resident Evil 2: Sales expectations are in line with Resident Evil 7, which has now sold 6 million units
- Blog: $5.7 billion games investment in 2018 doubles previous record
- Breaking down nearly 50 years of video game revenue
- Games investments raised $5.7 billion in 2018: Amount of fundraising was more than double that of 2017, led by Epic Games’ $1.25 billion round
- GameStop is looking at other options after plans to sell the company fall through
- Game retailer GameStop says it can’t sell itself, sees stock dive 27%
- GameStop gives up on selling the company: Stock tumbles 25% as retailer terminates search due to lack of acceptable financing terms for potential buyers
- Meet The Fan Who Can Beat Mario Games Without Moving Right
- DICE throws future of Battlefield custom rental servers into doubt
- Report: Netflix will continue streak of video game series with Resident Evil
- Resident Evil 2 debuts at No.1 in UK charts (again): Strong first week for remake, more than 20 years since the original
- Just 6% of devs say Steam earns its 30% cut – Survey: GDC poll shows which storefronts developers are depending on and which platforms they’re working on
- GDC 2019 State of the Industry: Nearly 50% of devs support unionization
- Only 16% of devs anti-union – Survey: GDC Survey finds 47% of respondents think the industry should unionize, another 26% say maybe
- The crazy and costly world of First 4 Figures: How one Facebook group is transforming the fortunes of the company making $600 video game statues
- Fable Studio Pivoting to “Virtual Beings,” Building Stories Around Persistent AI-powered Characters
- DeepMind AI faces off against (and defeats) StarCraft IIpro players
- Introducing Gamedev.world, the first global game developer conference: Rami Ismail talks us through his ambitious plans for a free online conference translated into eight languages
- In response to visa woes, indie game devs create their own virtual gaming expo
- Fellow Traveller: “Indie publishers need to stand for something” – Chris Wright on recovering from the collapse of the Australian games industry to found an indie publisher with a distinct voice
- Unity targets kids, educators with Unity Playground: New tool offers introduction to creating 2D games, simplified version of Unity interface
- Unity acquires voice and text-based chat tools maker Vivox
- Unity acquires Vivox: Engine maker picks up voice-and-text service, well have it continue operating independently
- Sea of Thieves experiencing second wind thanks to Twitch
- Talking up the positives about gaming | Opinion: Hbomberguy’s wonderful charity Twitch marathon has made headlines — let’s boost these stories, instead of letting trolls and misanthropes define our medium
- Twitch no longer advertising big streamer events on smaller channels
- Blog: Making game music with external collaborators
- Blog: Game accessibility quotes of 2018
- How do you rejuvenate the skateboarding genre? Put a bird on it!
- GLAAD Media Awards list nominees for video games with outstanding LGBTQ themes
- GLAAD announces nominees for first ever Outstanding Video Game category: Assassins Creed, Guild Wars, The Elder Scrolls Online, Pillars of Eternity, and The Sims Mobile all up for award from LGBTQ advocacy group
- Unearthing the Pokemon-inspired Diablo game that never was
- Magic Leap’s AI ‘Mica’ Won’t Turn Off Your Lights, Play Your Music, or Give Directions
- VR Cameras Now on International Space Station to Capture Space Walks & Missions
- VR’s Most Bizarre Game ‘Mosh Pit Simulator’ to Launch into Early Access Tomorrow
- See what ray tracing can do to a game like Quake 2
DIGITAL
- Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Nir Grinberg, Kenneth Joseph, Lisa Friedland, Briony Swire-Thompson, David Lazer)
- Older, right-leaning Twitter users spread the most fake news in 2016, study finds
- Emma Best’s New Transparency Project Targets Russian Leaks She Says Wikileaks Refuses To Touch
- Chinese Court Creates App To Alert Citizens Of Deadbeat Debtors In Their Area
- Cameroon Military Arresting, Trying, And Jailing Journalists On ‘Fake News’ Charges
- U.S. Charges Huawei with Theft of Trade Secrets; Risks for Carriers Using Huawei Equipment Increase
- Bell and Telus have been using Huawei equipment to deploy fibre-optic networks for years
- Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them
- Facebook pays teens to install an app that could collect all kinds of data
- Facebook Got Busted Paying Teenagers $20 A Month For Private Data
- Why Facebook’s Banned ‘Research’ App Was So Invasive
- Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents’ Credit Cards and Did Nothing to Stop It
- Facebook Hires Up Three Of Its Biggest Privacy Critics
- The rise of the Facebook divorce
- I Cut Facebook Out of My Life. Surprisingly, I Missed It
- Tuning out: What happens when you drop Facebook?
- Facebook’s Privacy Problems Are Piling Up Too Quickly To Chronicle
- Mark Zuckerberg, Let Me Fix That Op-Ed You Wrote: I can tell the people what it is you’re really trying to say.
- State-aligned trolling in Iran and the double-edged affordances of Instagram
- Inside The UAE’s Secret Hacking Team of American Mercenaries: Ex-NSA operatives reveal how they helped spy on targets for the Arab monarchy – dissidents, rival leaders and journalists
- Brands Crack Down On Instagram’s Content Moderation After Ads Run Alongside Posts About Self-Harm, Suicide
- John Mayer’s Instagram Talk Show Returns
- Notice of Terms via Buried Link within a Post-Sale Email Unenforceable
- The Copyright “Meme” Game: Can an Internet Meme Containing a Copyrighted Work Be Considered Infringing?
- Vine Successor ‘Byte’ Won’t Showcase Follower Counts On Users’ Profiles, Founder Says
- The Egg Is Now Trying to Sell Us Hulu
- CE Family Announces YouTube Hiatus, Comeback Docuseries In Wake Of Phallic Lollipop Incident
- In Bizarre Tweet, Pope Francis Calls Virgin Mary “The First Influencer”
- As U.K. cracks down on social media endorsements, where does Canada stand?
- The CMA clamps down on social media endorsements
- Facebook to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
- Can the internet be made safe for children? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Fighting misinformation on social media using crowdsourced judgments of news source quality
- A Nesting Doll Of Stupidity: Rudy Giuliani’s Twitter Typo Leads To Bogus Trademark Threat Letter
- The Roger Stone indictment shows a conspiratorial comedy of Opsec errors
- Arizona The Latest To Explore Dumb Porn Filter Law, This Time To Help Fund Trump’s Fence
- Apple News is officially launching in Canada next week
- Apple News Launches in Canada with iOS 12.2 Beta, Supports English and French
- Apple says iPhones were down 15% last quarter, but everything else was up 19%
- Apple Expects to Benefit From Climate Change: The company says that severe weather will increase “customer loyalty or brand value.”
- Apple cuts 200 people from its autonomous vehicle team
- Apple Is Blowing It
- Apple Will Finally Launch Its Streaming Service In April (Report)
- Samsung Pursued by Pixel Plaintiffs
- Microsoft Office is now available in the Mac App Store
- Amazon plans to launch a new Middle East marketplace, two years after buying Souq for $580 million
- Sundance: Amazon Scores Comedy ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ for $14 Million
- Tubular Labs, VICE, BuzzFeed, and Group Nine Media Launch Global Video Measurement Alliance
- BuzzFeed To Cut 15% Of Workforce As It Wrestles With Profitability
- BuzzFeed Layoffs Gut National News Desk, National Security Team
- Human Rights Groups Plead With The EU Not To Pass Its Awful ‘Terrorist Content’ Regulation
- Author Ken MacLeod: Please Don’t Pass The EU Copyright Directive In My Name
- Google doesn’t want employees to use work email to organize, per report
- Google Threatens To Shut Down Google News In Europe Over Article 11 As Publishers Whine About ‘Publicity Stunt’
- Google Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Crazy Ruling About Copyright In APIs
- I Cut Google Out Of My Life. It Screwed Up Everything
- Google Fiber outage leaves KC customers offline two weeks after storm
- Crashing the Internet: Cars, CarGurus and Copyright in the Digital Age
- Independent Musician Explains Why Article 13 Will Be An Utter Disaster For Independent Artists
- Study Shows Piracy Can Sometimes Be Beneficial To Markets & Consumers Alike
- Who Benefited from FOSTA? (Spoiler: Probably No One) (Eric Goldman)
- RackaRacka Claims YouTube Is Breaking Its Own Content Policies And Community Guidelines With New Original ‘Wayne’
- YouTube Is Going to Bury ‘Borderline’ Content. It Won’t Tell Us What That Means
- Matthew Patrick Claims Defy Media Stole $1.7 Million In YouTube AdSense From 50 Channels
- These YouTubers are owed $1.7 million, and they’re probably never going to get it: Ally Bank responds to concerns from creators
- YouTube says it will recommend fewer videos about conspiracy theories: Taking steps to reduce the spread of misinformation
- YouTube’s Latest Attempt To Cut Off Conspiracy Content Is A New Algorithm
- YouTube Suspends Advertising on Tommy Robinson’s Channel
- Scammers On YouTube Impersonate Philip DeFranco, Jeffree Star, Send Fake Private Messages To Subscribers
- YouTube is working to prevent impersonation after top creators hit by major scam: Philip DeFranco, James Charles, and others affected
- Amanda Steele Becomes Latest YouTube Star To Launch Her Own Fashion Label
- YouTube Vets Shane Dawson, KSI Both Surpass 20 Million Subscribers
- Guy Who Forged A Court Order To Delist Content Issues More Bogus Takedown Notices To Remove Posts Discussing His Forgery
- Study Again Finds That Most VPNs Are Shady As Hell
- ‘Baby Shark’ Videos Have Amassed 5 Billion Views, Becoming No. 1 Education Trend In YouTube History
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 1/27/2019
- Android TV Is Good Now
- Roku Adds First Paid Channels, Including Starz, Showtime, Tastemade
- Fyre Festival Documentaries Dissect Attendees’ – And Your – Fomo
- Dumpster Fyre of Advertising Issues
- Diary Of A Web Series: Crowdfunding — Expectations vs. Reality
- Spotify data shows how music preferences change with latitude: The farther from the equator, the greater the seasonal swings.
- Foreign Stream-Ripping Site Wins Against Music Labels Based On Jurisdiction
- The Dolan Twins Forced To Ask Fans Not To Attend Their Late Father’s Funeral
- Social-media influencers are pretty; their meltdowns are anything but
- Alisha Marie And Remi Cruz To Take Their Popular Podcast On Tour
- Snapchat Solicits Bhad Bhabie To Garner Buzz For Original Content Slate
- Snapchat Considering Longer Lifetime For Users’ Public Content (Report)
- Verizon Lays Off 800 Employees Within ‘Media Group’, Comprising Yahoo, Tumblr, More
- Verizon cuts 7 percent of staff in failing Yahoo/AOL division
- Judge rejects proposed settlement to Yahoo data breach lawsuit
- WarnerMedia shuts investment arm that backed Mic, Mashable and other digital media startups
- Lawyer Steps Up To File Doomed Lawsuits On Behalf Of Catholic School Teens Called Racists On Social Media
- Yes, “algorithms” can be biased. Here’s why
- Compassion through Computation: Fighting Algorithmic Bias
- On Human Predictions with Explanations and Predictions of Machine Learning Models: A Case Study on Deception Detection (Vivian Lai, Chenhao Tan)
- We analyzed 16,625 papers to figure out where AI is headed next: Our study of 25 years of artificial-intelligence research suggests the era of deep learning may come to an end.
- “Disruptive” Bezos healthcare venture accused of copying competitor
- Robots Will Take Jobs From Men, The Young, And Minorities
- This Automation Platform Helped Eliminate 40,000 Jobs, and Now It’s Available to Companies Everywhere
- A New Algorithm Trains AI to Erase its Biases: It’s like sensitivity training for algorithms.
- Deep Fakes: Let’s Not Go Off The Deep End
- Nvidia and AMD’s Nerdiest Fight Is the One That Matters Most
- Nvidia CEO warns of “extraordinary, unusually turbulent, disappointing” Q4
- Nvidia shares tank 15% following Q4 revenue adjustment
- Nvidia trims quarterly revenue forecast as its RTX cards undersell
- Why Choosing Between Windows and macOS Still Matters
- Modern slavery in the tech sector: Ethical supply chains
- Undersea cable damage wipes out most Internet access in Tonga islands
- Open innovation: A shift to new intellectual property models?
- Fair Use in Flux: Second Circuit TVEyes Ruling May Have a Lasting Effect on Fair Use Analysis
- Another Nail In The Coffin For Fair Use: TVEyes Agrees Not To Carry Fox News
- Neuroscientists Translate Brain Waves Into Recognizable Speech
- Listen To A Gadget That Translates Thoughts Into Speech
- Columbia Engineers Translate Brain Signals Directly into Speech: Advance marks critical step toward brain-computer interfaces that hold immense promise for those with limited or no ability to speak.
- Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex
- Update Regarding Website Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act: Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC
- Ninth Circuit reversal delivers blow to defense of website accessibility class actions
- Tolerating Piracy Can Benefit Consumers, Creators and Retailers, Research Finds
CREATIVITY
- Olivia de Havilland’s Right-to-Publicity Suit Is Gone With the Wind
- Michael Jackson Documentary Leaving Neverland Is ‘Shocking, Sad, Disturbing, Devastating’
- Well, this is brutal: Father of a murdered child has his own Parkland-based “stand-up set” for Louis CK
- NY Governor Offers Journalists A Gift No Journalist Would Be Interested In Receiving
- Trademark’s reputation must be based on Canadian not foreign use, says FCA
- Copyright Office identifies visual arts copyright problems, solutions
- One bad lawyer: Kurt Dahl is a lawyer by day, rock star by night and an advocate for artists throughout
- Humorless Pittsburgh News Station Fires Employee For Graphic Calling Tom Brady A “Known Cheater”
- As Super Bowl Approaches, Advertisers Should Be Aware of The NFL’s Efforts to Protect Its Golden Goose – 2019 Update on Super Bowl Advertising and Promotions
- Kimberly-Clark Unable to Flush Wet Wipes Case
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Canadians Pay The Highest Rates For Wireless Data, And The US Is About To Follow Suit
- ACTRA Wants Government To Penalize Search Engines that Refuse to Promote Canadian Content in Search Results (Michael Geist)
- Building a Digital Wall: What Lies Behind The Emerging Battle Over New Taxes to Support Canadian Content (Michael Geist)
- Netflix: competition, not regulation, is the way to stimulate Canadian content
- “Immediate War Footing”: Phil Lind Recounts the Big Three Battle Against Wireless Competition in Canada (Michael Geist)
- Bell Urged Canadian Government To Ban Some VPN Services in NAFTA Submission (Michael Geist)
- Comcast Network Investment Drops Despite Repeated Claims Killing Net Neutrality Would Trigger Investment Wave
- Ajit Pai and Republicans in Congress Helped Enable ‘Bounty Hunters’ to Track Your Phone
- These Wireless Location Data Scandals Are Going To Be A Very Big Problem For Ajit Pai
- Verizon caves, won’t charge “spam” fee for texts from teachers to students
- T-Mobile/Sprint merger turns two disruptors into one “mega company,” Dems warn
- Anna Eshoo, Other Lawmakers Offer Gushing, Facts-Optional Support For T-Mobile Sprint Merger
- Robocalls Really Were Worse Than Ever Last Year, Report Finds
- Dozens Of Privacy Experts Tell The California Legislature That Its New Privacy Law Is Badly Undercooked
- California and European Privacy FAQs: Can a business share its marketing list with social media platforms in order to target advertising messages to specific social media users?
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- FamilyTreeDNA Hands the FBI Access to Its Database
- Secret UAE Spy Team Used “Cyber Super-Weapon” To Hack Any iPhone
- Northern District of Georgia Rules in Equifax Data Breach Cases
- Apple Disables Group Facetime to Prevent Remote Spying
- Bizarre Apple Bug Let Facetime Callers Spy On Each Other
- Disable FaceTime Right Now [Updated]
- What’s the Latest on Apple’s Catastrophic FaceTime Bug?
- More Than Two Years After It Took Them, The FBI Still Won’t Return Family Videos Seized During A Raid Of A Security Researcher’s Home
- Google Defeats Alleged BIPA Violations for Retention and Collection of Face-geometry Scans via Google Photos
- San Francisco lawmaker: Our cops should be banned from using facial recognition
- French Defense Secretary Says Country Is Willing To Fire First In Cyber Wars
- Amazon and Chase Will Not Give Me a Straight Answer About What They Do With My Credit Card Data
- The FBI Says It Can Neither Confirm Or Deny Social Media Monitoring Programs It Publicly Secured Contracts For
- Malvertisers target Mac users with steganographic code stashed in images
- Hackers Are Passing Around A Megaleak Of 2.2 Billion Records
- DHS: Multiple US gov domains hit in serious DNS hijacking wave
- Internet watchdog Citizen Lab targeted in comically inept undercover sting
- Privacy In The Iot Age
- The Top 10 Privacy Changes in 2018 and What’s on the Horizon for 2019
- One Incident, Potentially Multiple Breach Reporting Requirements – OSFI Introduces Cyber Breach Notification Guidelines for Financial Institutions
Jon