Topic: industry trends
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Splinter Cell Remake Still On Despite Ubisoft Layoffs
The Splinter Cell remake is confirmed to still be in active development at Ubisoft Toronto, despite recent layoffs at the studio. Ubisoft eliminated 40 roles at its Toronto studio as part of a broader corporate restructuring and cost-cutting initiative. While the project persists, the workforce r...
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Sony Shuts Down Demon's Souls, Shadow of the Colossus Remake Studio
Sony is closing Bluepoint Games, the studio behind acclaimed remakes like *Shadow of the Colossus*, resulting in approximately 70 job losses and operations ceasing in March. Following its 2021 acquisition, Bluepoint shifted from its signature remakes to co-developing projects like *God of War: Ra...
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Perplexity Ditches Ads in Major Strategy Pivot
Perplexity is abandoning its advertising plans to focus on a subscription model, aiming to be the most accurate AI tool for paying customers and businesses. The company pivoted due to concerns that ads could undermine user trust and because its user base, while growing, is not yet at the massive ...
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Airbnb: AI Chatbot Drives Higher Conversions Than Google
AI chatbot traffic shows higher conversion rates than traditional search, indicating users arrive with clearer purchase intent and are beyond initial exploration. AI assistants are emerging as a high-intent discovery channel, refining the user journey and positioning brands as valuable top-of-fun...
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Square Enix Polls Fans on Desired Game Remakes and Remasters
Square Enix is surveying its Japanese players to gauge interest in remakes or remasters of older games, directly consulting its fanbase for future project ideas. The survey asks players to choose preferred games, visual styles like HD-2D or full 3D, and important purchase factors such as new cont...
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Google Demand Gen Now Uses AI for Lookalike Audiences
Google is transforming Lookalike audiences in Demand Gen campaigns from a strict targeting constraint into an AI-powered optimization signal, starting March 2026, to broaden reach and enhance performance. Under the new model, Lookalike tiers will guide Google's AI to explore for potential convert...
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Samsung's 'Wide Fold' Leaks With Wider Screen Than Pixel Fold
New leaks indicate Samsung is developing a significantly wider version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, featuring a 16:10 cover screen and a roomier inner display, in response to competition like Apple's rumored folding iPhone. This "Wide Fold" model aims to address user critiques by offering a more immer...
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Rogue Point Revives Classic Shooter Action
Rogue Point is a cooperative PvE shooter designed as a quick, replayable antidote to the grind-heavy, competitive nature of many modern first-person games, prioritizing fun social play with friends. The game offers a complete, contained package with no paid DLC, focusing on respecting player time...
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Databricks Soars to $134B Valuation on $5.4B Revenue Run Rate
Databricks achieved a $5.4 billion annual revenue run rate with 65% year-over-year growth, fueling a $134 billion valuation and securing over $7 billion in capital for expansion. A significant $1.4 billion of its revenue now comes from AI products, reflecting a market shift toward unified platfor...
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Ex-GitHub CEO's Dev Tool Lands $60M Seed at $300M Valuation
Entire, a startup founded by former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, has raised a record $60 million seed round at a $300 million valuation to address the challenge of managing overwhelming volumes of AI-generated code. The company's platform integrates a git-compatible database, a semantic reasoning la...
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ActiveCampaign Ushers in Era of Self-Driving Campaigns
ActiveCampaign's acquisition of Feedback Intelligence marks a shift toward self-driving marketing campaigns that learn and adapt autonomously, creating a continuous loop of optimization with minimal manual oversight. The innovation introduces a "Return on Intent" metric, moving beyond traditional...
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Sync Your Audiobooks and Physical Books with Spotify's Page Match
Spotify's new **Page Match** feature uses a phone's camera to scan text from a physical book or e-reader, instantly syncing the user to the corresponding point in an audiobook, allowing seamless switching between reading and listening. The tool works with physical books and e-readers (but not pho...
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a16z Partner Kofi Ampadu Exits After TxO Program Pause
Kofi Ampadu, head of a16z's TxO initiative, has officially departed the firm following the program's suspension and team layoffs. The TxO program, launched in 2020, aimed to support underrepresented founders with funding and networks, with its final cohort ending in March 2025. Its indefinite sus...
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How AI Research is Revolutionizing Flight
A new AI lab named **Flapping Airplanes** has launched with $180 million in funding, aiming to develop large models that require less data through innovative research, not just increased computing power. The lab champions a **research paradigm**, a philosophical shift from the industry's dominant...
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Zuckerberg: A Future Without Smart Glasses Is 'Hard to Imagine'
Meta's CEO envisions AI-powered smart glasses becoming as ubiquitous as smartphones, marking a strategic shift from its metaverse focus to prioritizing AI wearables and models, citing rapid sales growth for its existing products. The tech industry is heavily investing in smart glasses, with major...
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Apple Creator Studio Subscriptions: 7 Key Things to Know
Apple has launched a new Creator Studio subscription bundle, offering ten professional creative and productivity apps for a single monthly or annual fee, with significant discounts for students and educators. The bundle follows a hybrid subscription model, as many included apps remain available f...
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Why Google Gemini Has No Ads: Building Trust in Your AI Assistant
Google DeepMind's CEO states there are no current plans to place ads in the Gemini AI assistant, emphasizing the need to maintain user trust in a personal technology relationship. He distinguishes AI assistants from search engines, arguing that ads are logical in search where intent is declared, ...
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Substack's New TV App Sparks Backlash
Substack's launch of TV apps for video and livestreams has sparked backlash from its core user base, who see it as a departure from the platform's identity as a haven for written journalism. The strategic expansion targets the growing market for televised video and podcast consumption, aligning w...
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Witchfire's Creative Director on Small Teams and Clair Obscur's Brilliance
Witchfire, a dark fantasy shooter, is nearing full release after a nine-year development cycle that began following a pivot from a sci-fi concept to a "shooting demons" premise. The game's successful Early Access, selling over 500,000 copies, is attributed to its compelling "Dark Souls with guns"...
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Everstone Merges Wingify and AB Tasty in $100M+ Digital Experience Deal
Private equity firm Everstone Capital is merging India's Wingify and France's AB Tasty, creating a new digital experience platform with over $100 million in annual revenue and a global client base of over 4,000 businesses. The combined company will be led by Wingify's Sparsh Gupta as CEO, with a ...
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Is Asus Exiting the Smartphone Market?
Asus will halt development of new Zenfone and ROG Phone models, entering an indefinite observation period while continuing to support existing customers. The decision follows diminished market momentum, with recent models failing to gain significant traction and a notable retraction from competit...
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Gamevestor: A European Crowdfunding Platform for Gaming's Investment Gap
The traditional funding landscape for video games has tightened, creating a significant hurdle for mid-sized studios that Gamevestor, a new French crowdfunding platform, aims to fill. Gamevestor transforms players into investors through a revenue-sharing model, offering milestone-based funding an...
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Forza Horizon 5 Beats Ghost of Yotei as Top PS5 Game of 2025
Regional sports titles led the charts, with NBA 2K26 topping North America and EA Sports FC 26 dominating Europe. Established franchises like Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft showed enduring popularity, while Forza Horizon 5 notably outperformed in Europe as a former Xbox exclusive. The latest Ca...
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Umamusume Developer Apologizes, Vows No AI Use Without Notice
Cygames clarified it does not currently use AI-generated art in its games and pledged to inform players before any future implementation, addressing community concerns about AI ethics in creative work. The company apologized for its initial vague announcement, emphasizing that its existing produc...
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Skild AI Hits $14B Valuation in Robotics Software Boom
Skild AI raised $1.4 billion in Series C funding, led by SoftBank and Nvidia, skyrocketing its valuation to over $14 billion from $4.5 billion just months earlier. The company develops general-purpose robotic foundation models that enable adaptable intelligence for various robots, aiming for syst...
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Physical AI: The Next Tech Frontier Is Already Here
Physical AI represents a shift from screen-based software to intelligent hardware systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world, enabling contextual and intuitive decision-making. A prime consumer example is smartglasses, which act as an intelligent layer in the physical world by s...
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Physical AI: The Next Tech Frontier Is Already Here
Physical AI integrates artificial intelligence into hardware that can sense, process, and act upon its real-world environment, moving beyond simple programmed responses to contextual understanding and autonomous reasoning. A key challenge is the scarcity of real-world training data, leading to re...
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BMW's Electric M3 Promises a New Level of Performance
BMW's first fully electric M3, launching in 2027, will be a quad-motor sports sedan built on the new 800-volt Neue Klasse platform, designed to set a new performance benchmark. The car features an innovative four-motor drivetrain that can switch between all-wheel and rear-wheel drive, alongside a...
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VR Developers Stunned by Sudden Platform Shifts
The VR industry is experiencing significant uncertainty, with a lack of new consumer hardware and developers struggling with high costs to reach a fragmented audience, leading to studio downsizing. Developers are forced to diversify platforms and make difficult technical decisions due to shifting...
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The Biggest CES 2026 Absences: What Was Missing
Apple deliberately skips major trade shows like CES, instead hosting its own controlled events to command exclusive media attention and avoid competing announcements. The company has established a dominant annual launch calendar with events like WWDC and the iPhone unveiling, which other brands a...
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Weird Phones at CES 2026: The Search Was Worth It
At CES, the Clicks Communicator phone emerged as a focused companion device, featuring a full physical keyboard and a design that appeals to professionals for tasks like typing emails. The Ikko MindOne Pro is a compact, square Android phone with a unique rotating camera, offering a pocket-friendl...
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PPC Updates: Reddit Max, Google Creator & Microsoft Targeting
Reddit launched Max Campaigns, an automated ad system that simplifies campaign management by handling targeting and bidding, though it reduces direct advertiser control and visibility. Google Ads enhanced its Creator Partnerships beta with a search tool for finding influencers and a centralized d...
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New Steam Games Break Live Service Dominance in Record Year
Newly released games on Steam achieved record-breaking revenue in 2025, significantly increasing their share of the platform's highest-grossing chart and challenging established live-service giants. The trend is driven by a strong year for major launches and the full-price sales of new titles, wh...
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Ford Cars to Get AI Assistants: What to Expect
Ford is integrating a sophisticated AI assistant into its vehicles, starting with smartphone apps before embedding it into future models, to compete in the software-defined automotive market. The AI aims to provide context-aware assistance by connecting a driver's phone and vehicle to simplify pr...
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Roku's $3 Streaming Service Howdy Expands to New Platforms
Roku's new streaming service, Howdy, offers an affordable, ad-free alternative to major platforms that are raising prices and increasing ads. The company plans to expand Howdy's availability beyond Roku devices to become a widely accessible standalone app on various platforms. This strategy aims ...
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Swap Secures $100M Just 6 Months After $40M Round
Swap Commerce, an e-commerce tech firm, secured a new $100 million investment from DST Global and Iconiq, signaling strong investor confidence just months after a $40 million round. The company's AI-powered platform helps brands, particularly in luxury clothing, manage international sales by simp...
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Google's Mueller: SEO vs. GEO Debate Explained
Google's John Mueller advises businesses to analyze their own traffic data to determine if AI tools like ChatGPT are a significant referral source before shifting strategies. The discussion around "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO) is reframed as a practical resource allocation issue, not jus...
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Sony-Honda Afeela EV Arrives Late 2026
The Sony-Honda Afeela 1 electric sedan is scheduled for a U.S. launch in late 2026 at a starting price of $90,000, with the company also revealing an SUV concept for potential production by 2028. The vehicle emphasizes Sony's entertainment and technology, featuring a panoramic dashboard screen, a...
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Roborock's Stair-Climbing Robot Vacuums as It Walks
Roborock unveiled the Saros Rover, a prototype robot vacuum with articulating legs that can climb and clean stairs, marking a significant step toward full home automation. The robot demonstrated fluid stair navigation and control on slopes, though it is currently a vacuum-only device with no anno...
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CES 2026: The Real AI Advantage Is How You Use It
The annual CES tech showcase in Las Vegas is a key event for major product launches, with live coverage available through dedicated blogs and reports. Artificial intelligence has become so ubiquitous at CES that the term itself is losing its power to distinguish products, as nearly all devices no...
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CES 2026: Top Gadgets, Innovations & Breaking Tech News
CES 2026 in Las Vegas is a major global event where companies unveil groundbreaking technology, setting the innovation tone for the year with live coverage from the show floor. Key themes will include pervasive AI integration into devices and smart homes, alongside major advancements in personal ...
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Experience the Future of Noise Canceling
The future of personal audio is shifting from basic noise cancellation to intelligent devices that protect hearing health and enhance environmental awareness by adapting to surroundings. New "semantic hearing" technology, developed by startups, uses AI to recognize and classify environmental soun...
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PC Hardware to Get Excited About in 2026
Exciting hardware innovations are emerging for 2026, including new processor architectures and peripheral refinements that promise to reshape computing experiences. Valve is launching a trio of new products: the Steam Frame VR headset, a revived Steam Machine for Linux gaming, and an updated Stea...
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Top 10 Cybersecurity Stories of 2025: The Year's Biggest Breaches & Threats
Major cybersecurity vendors withdrew from the MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations in 2025, citing the tests' growing complexity and shift toward marketing, prompting plans for reform ahead of the 2026 cycle. A widespread proxy network compromised thousands of vulnerable IoT devices to facilitate malicious a...
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AI and Rust: The New Era of OS Programming
The development of major operating systems like Windows and Linux is being fundamentally reshaped by the adoption of **Rust for memory safety** and **AI for developer efficiency**, though the transition from legacy C/C++ codebases will be gradual and incremental. While both ecosystems embrace the...
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Tech We Lost in 2025: A Final Farewell
The tech industry saw several notable retirements in 2025, including the end of the TiVo hardware era, the final shutdown of the pioneering Skype service, and the closure of the popular read-it-later app Pocket. Microsoft fully retired its password manager in favor of passkeys for enhanced securi...
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Canon EOS R6 Mark III Review: This Lens Steals the Show
The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is a strong all-around upgrade with higher resolution, 7K video, and refined autofocus, making it a top choice for versatile shooters, though its predecessor remains a compelling used option. The standout product is the new RF 45mm f/1.2 STM lens, which offers an excepti...
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The Top PPC Columns of 2025: Expert Insights from Search Engine Land
PPC strategies in 2025 evolved to prioritize strategic precision over budget size, with a focus on eliminating wasteful spending and effectively leveraging automation and tools like Performance Max campaigns. Financial planning became crucial due to rising advertising costs, requiring marketers t...
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'Fallout Shelter' Reality TV Show in the Works
A reality competition series titled **Fallout Shelter**, based on the mobile game, is reportedly in development for Prime Video as a new, unscripted expansion of the *Fallout* franchise. The show would be set in iconic Vaults, featuring an Overseer managing resources and survival, with executive ...
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GOG Splits From CD Projekt, Remains DRM-Free
GOG has officially become an independent company, separating from CD Projekt to reinforce its core mission of offering DRM-free games and ensuring true player ownership. The platform's founding DRM-free philosophy, established in 2007, is a significant commitment in a market often reliant on onli...
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