Euro Gamer reports: “Xenoblade studio Monolith Soft is now 100 percent owned by Nintendo. Based in Tokyo, with a second office in Nintendo’s home of Kyoto, Monolith Soft has become a key partner studio for the Mario maker over the past two decades, and has provided development support for some of Nintendo’s biggest titles, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”
Republic World reports: “Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday released the second generation of its artificial intelligence model Gemini and teased a slate of new ways to use AI beyond chatbots, including through a pair of eyeglasses. CEO Sundar Pichai in a blog post dubbed the moment as the start of a “new agentic era,” referring to virtual assistants that can perform tasks with greater autonomy.”
Engadget reports: “YouTube is expanding how you can interact with games on its free in-app platform, Playables. The company has announced that users can now try out a multi-player function that allows them to game with other players in real-time. However, that doesn’t extend to YouTube Playables’ entire 100-plus catalogue of titles.”
TechCrunch reports: “Attention, players. You are about to compete in a new challenge—but first, do you know how to speak Korean? In preparation for Season Two of “Squid Game,” one of Netflix’s most popular Korean thriller series, the streaming giant announced on Tuesday that it has teamed up with the language learning app Duolingo to help viewers learn Korean ahead of the premiere on December 26.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “The presidential election and the conclusion of the World Series helped drive overall TV use to a nine-month high in November. But despite those big events on linear TV platforms, both cable and broadcast outlets lost some share of viewing in Nielsen‘s monthly platform rankings.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “Build A Rocket Boy has acquired PlayFusion for an undisclosed sum. The partnership will see PlayFusion support Build A Rocket Boy’s AAA projects including MindsEye, in addition to its open world platform Everywhere and user-generated content tool Arcadia. PlayFusion CEO and CTO Mark Gerhard has been appointed co-CEO of Build A Rocket Boy as part of the acquisition.”
CNBC reports: “OpenAI said Monday it’s releasing its buzzy AI video-generation tool, Sora, later in the day. The AI video-generation model works similarly to OpenAI’s image-generation AI tool, DALL-E: A user types out a desired scene, and Sora will return a high-definition video clip. Sora can also generate video clips inspired by still images and extend existing videos or fill in missing frames.”
Breaking the News reports: “Meta Platforms Inc. announced on Tuesday that Instagram is launching trial reels, which will help users “try out” content and “experiment with new ideas” without worrying about how their followers will receive it. According to the social media giant’s press release, the trial reels will be shown to non-followers first so that users can check how their content will perform before posting it for their own followers.”
Cord Cutters News reports: “In a significant shift in the streaming landscape, major live TV streaming services like Sling TV, Philo, Fubo, and DIRECTV STREAM are now offering free ad-supported channels to attract new subscribers. This trend reflects a growing recognition of the power of free content to entice viewers and potentially convert them into paying customers.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “In a unanimous decision, a federal appeals court in the US has rejected TikTok’s lawsuit to challenge a law that could force it to cut its ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a complete ban in the US by mid-January 2025. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday that the government’s actions are justified on national security grounds, dealing a blow to TikTok‘s ongoing legal battle to remain operational in the US.”
