From The Verge

  • Erling Haaland becomes the first ‘real person’ in Clash of Clans

    Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland is becoming a playable video game character in Clash of Clans this week. It’s the first time a real person has been added to the game, and footballer Haaland will become the Barbarian King character during a month-long football-themed seasonal event. Clash players will be able to recruit the Norwegian striker or raid his village and ruin it — perfect if you’re an Arsenal fan like me. Haaland has played Clash of Clans for more than 10 years and reached...

  • Paramount CEO Bob Bakish steps down as merger inches closer

    Paramount has removed Bob Bakish as CEO — and it doesn’t have plans to fill the role. The company announced the news as part of its earnings results on Monday, which will leave Paramount reliant on a committee made up of three executives. The new team consists of George Cheeks, the president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, the president and CEO of Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios, and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, the president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon. ...

  • All the news from Xbox’s spring indie game showcase

    The slow rollout of the summer gaming showcases continues. Earlier this month, Nintendo held its indie showcase, showing off games like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Little Kitty, Big City, and unfortunately not Silksong. But those hoping for some kind of news concerning the Hollow Knight sequel will get another bite at the apple with today’s ID@Xbox indie showcase. Expect news about the life-stealing Vampire Survivors and some new games with interesting names like 33 Immortals and Lost Records:...

  • Lego is bringing summer vibes with K.K. Slider and new Animal Crossing sets

    Good news for those of us who love Animal Crossing and Legos. Starting August 1st, Lego is launching two new Animal Crossing sets and a minifig of one very special canine crooner. Lego teased the news on its X account, which shows K.K. Slider doing his thing and a brief glimpse of the two new sets. (Amusingly, Lego notes that the K.K. Slider minifigure does not actually move or sing. Bummer.) K.K. Slider is part of a fall-themed Town Hall set, which includes Isabelle and Audie. There’s also a...

  • BlizzCon 2024 has been canceled

    Blizzard has announced it will not hold BlizzCon, the publisher’s annual fan convention, this year. “After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024,” Blizzard wrote on its website. Instead of BlizzCon, Blizzard wrote that it would be holding other, smaller events throughout the year and mentioned participating in other trade shows, such as Gamescom. Additionally, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of World of Warcraft, with...

  • Garry’s Mod is taking down decades of Nintendo-related add-ons

    The popular physics sandbox game Garry’s Mod is pulling all of its Nintendo-related add-ons following copyright takedown requests from the gaming giant. On Wednesday, the developers of Garry’s Mod made a post on Steam saying users “may have noticed that certain Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down,” adding that “this is not a mistake,” as the takedowns came from Nintendo. “Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is...

  • This self-transforming Transformers Megatron is as badass as it is expensive

    Three years later, Hasbro’s self-transforming, dancing, driving, talking, and attacking Optimus Prime finally has a villain to fight. Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, is about to arrive. For $1,200 — $899 through May 25th — its robot partner Robosen has created what could be the best auto-converting Transformer yet. Just to make sure you’re getting it: this bot automatically transforms itself into a badass remote-control tank with a gigantic auto-extending cannon that can actually fire...

  • Spotify launches quiz to discover your K-pop persona

    Spotify has launched a colorful personality quiz designed to help K-pop fans determine their persona. For those unfamiliar with the K-pop term or its Jungian roots, a “persona” refers to the distinct, public-facing role of each member of a band. The feature leans into K-pop’s status as a major area of growth in the global music industry, which Spotify has been eager to tap into. The five-question quiz, which fans can take inside the Spotify app, will identify whether you’re a Main Visual, a...

  • The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses get video calling, Apple Music, and a new style

    Meta just announced a slew of new updates for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. CEO Mark Zuckerberg just dropped an Instagram reel showing off a new cat-eye frame style for the glasses and a video calling feature. You can also now connect the glasses with Apple Music, and last but not least, the multimodal AI assistant is live for everyone in the US and Canada. You can peep a pretty clear demo of the video calling feature from Zuckerberg’s reel. In it, he talks to Eva Chen, who runs fashion at...

  • Netflix's Atlas is looking more and more like a buddy cop movie about working with AI

    At first glance, Netflix’s upcoming action thriller Atlas, starring Jennifer Lopez, seemed like it was going to be a rather serious movie about a mech pilot fighting to survive on an inhospitable planet. That could still be the case, but the movie’s latest trailer makes it out to be a bit more of a sci-fi buddy cop affair with an emphasis on human / robot alliances. Though a maniacal machine (Simu Liu) dead-set on eradicating humanity presents the biggest threat in Atlas, the movie’s new...

  • Fortnite Festival now supports Rock Band 4 guitar controllers

    If you still have your old Rock Band guitars lying around, it’s now possible to use them in Fortnite’s Rock Band-like music mode. As promised at launch, Fortnite Festival now supports a handful of guitar controllers across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The announcement comes as part of a fresh update headlined by Billie Eilish. The supported controllers include the Riffmaster Wireless Guitar Controller, Rock Band 4 Rivals Wireless Fender Jaguar Guitar, and Rock Band 4 Wireless Fender Stratocaster...

  • Fortnite will let players hide mean emotes

    Fortnite is rolling out an update on Tuesday that includes a new setting that filters out “confrontational” emotes. The v29.30 update will let players “choose not to see” the following emotes: “Laugh It Up”, “Take the L”, “Whipcrack”, and “Make it Plantain.” The four emotes won’t exactly be hidden per se, they’ll appear as still images in the game — but players performing them won’t dance and they won’t play music. Players can opt to only see these emotes from friends, or hide them altogether....