The Outer Worlds 2’s satire has a Microsoft-shaped problem

The Outer Worlds 2’s satire has a Microsoft-shaped problem

Almost immediately in The Outer Worlds 2, the player receives news of a corporate shake-up: Auntie Cleo and Spacer’s Choice, two of the in-game retail brands, have merged to form Auntie’s Choice. Less a chain of stores and more a feudal power, Auntie’s Choice manages its employees – serfs, really – with the cruelty of…

A massive Microsoft Azure outage is taking down Xbox and 365

A massive Microsoft Azure outage is taking down Xbox and 365

Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud computing service, is experiencing an outage just one week after issues with AWS took out swaths of the internet. The issues appear to be impacting Microsoft’s services that run on Azure, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, and even Minecraft. On Azure’s status page, Microsoft links the outage to an “inadvertent configuration…

Amazon is ditching MMOs and cranking out party games

Amazon is ditching MMOs and cranking out party games

A screenshot from Throne and Liberty, one of Amazon’s MMOs. As part of Amazon’s mass layoffs announced today, the company is making “significant” changes to its gaming division, including halting much of its work on first-party AAA MMOs, according to a memo from Steve Boom, VP of audio, Twitch, and games.  “While we’re proud of…

The FCC just gave itself the power to make a DJI drone ban stick

The FCC just gave itself the power to make a DJI drone ban stick

This morning, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-0 to let itself retroactively ban gadgets and radio components that it previously approved for entry into the United States, if the company that makes them is deemed a national security risk. Officially, it’s a way to close loopholes and protect US networks from backdoors in Chinese…

Uber, Stellantis, Nvidia, and Foxconn make a robotaxi deal

Uber, Stellantis, Nvidia, and Foxconn make a robotaxi deal

Robotaxi fever is back, baby! After a bunch of automaker-led autonomous driving projects shut down amid concerns over safety and costs, car companies are expressing a renewed interest in self-driving cars, and robotaxis specifically. Stellantis, which oversees brands like Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, announced today a “new collaboration” with a diverse range of firms,…

Lucid jumps on the ‘privately owned’ autonomous vehicle bandwagon

Lucid jumps on the ‘privately owned’ autonomous vehicle bandwagon

Lucid says it will eventually sell “privately owned” autonomous vehicles with the help of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence technology. The company is the latest to declare its intention to sell Level 4 autonomous vehicles to its customers, despite a range of theoretical and logistical challenges standing in the way. Lucid’s autonomous vehicles — which do not exist…

GM isn’t ready to rip off the CarPlay/Android Auto band-aid quite yet

GM isn’t ready to rip off the CarPlay/Android Auto band-aid quite yet

Last week, General Motors CEO Mary Barra caused a stir when she said that the company would eventually kill Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in all of its gas cars. The company had already successfully removed phone mirroring capabilities from most of its electric vehicles, and now it was plotting how to drop support from…