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2025-12-23 06:00:58

Nintendo is in a giving state of mind this season, offering some holiday deals on games in the eShop, including a few recent Switch 2 titles. For instance, the Switch 2 version of Ball x Pit, which was one of our staff's favorite games of 2025, is 20 percent off at $12. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is $40, down from the usual $50 on Switch 2, which is about as good a deal as you’ll get for a current-year game release.

There are also a few older games that have gotten even steeper discounts. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for the Nintendo Switch 2 is a whopping 75 percent off, so load it onto your new console for less than $18. At about $33, Cult of the Lamb: Unholy Edition is half off for the original Switch. No Man's Sky is also 50 percent off, so you can grab it for either Switch console for just $24. Star Wars: Outlaws is down to $40, which is $20 off, and Nier: Automata is $16, compared with its usual $40 price tag.

Those are just a few that caught our eye. The discounts will run until January 4, so you can make purchases as a last-minute gift or load up your own Switch in case nobody gifts you with a game you've been eyeing.

2025-12-23 05:19:14

Anna's Archive, the open-source search engine for shadow libraries, says it scraped Spotify's entire library of music. The group acquired metadata for around 256 million tracks, with 86 million actual songs, and is just under 300TB in total size.

"A while ago, we discovered a way to scrape Spotify at scale. We saw a role for us here to build a music archive primarily aimed at preservation," the group said in a blog post. The pirated treasure trove of music represents over 15 million artists with over 58 million albums.

The group intends to make all files available for download for anyone with the available disk space. "This Spotify scrape is our humble attempt to start such a “preservation archive” for music. Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start," the group wrote. The 86 million songs that the group has archived so far represent about 99.6 percent of listens on the platform. This only represents about 37 percent of the total and the group still has millions left to be archived.

The open-source site is normally focused on text like books and papers, which it says offers the highest information density. The group says its goal of "preserving humanity's knowledge and culture" doesn't distinguish between media types. Of course none of this is exactly legal, and the sharing or downloading of all these files is flagrantly in violation of IP protection laws.

Anna's Archive contends that current collections of music, both physical and digital, are over-indexed to the most popular artists or composed of unnecessarily large file sizes due to collectors' focus on fidelity. The group says that what it's amassed is by far the largest music metadata database publicly available. The music files will be released in order of popularity in stages.

2025-12-23 04:40:46

Game developer Vince Zampella, known for his work on many popular first-person shooter franchises, has died. According to Los Angeles news channel NBC4, Zampella was killed in a single-vehicle car crash on Sunday along with one other unnamed person. He was 55.

Zampella has helmed several well-known first-person shooter titles. He was a founder of Infinity Ward, where he was a creator of the Call of Duty series. Zampella remained at the company for the launch of the hugely popular franchise's first few installments. In 2010, he co-founded Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Titanfall, Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends. Respawn was acquired by EA, and most recently, Zampella was leading DICE's studio in Los Angeles and headed up the Battlefield franchise, another FPS series that just saw the launch of Battlefield 6 earlier this year.

EA shared the following statement about Zampella's death: “This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones and all those touched by his work. Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching. A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world. His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come.”

Update, December 22, 2025, 3:53PM ET: Added statement from EA.

2025-12-23 00:47:30

The Indie Game Awards has stripped Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 of two major awards, including Game of the Year and Debut Game. This is due to developer Sandfall Interactive's use of generative AI, as reported by Mashable.

This looks to be fairly cut and dry. The awards ceremony clearly states in its FAQ that any game that uses generative AI in the development process would be "strictly ineligible" for nominations. It was recently revealed that Sandfall did indeed use generative AI while making Clair Obscur.

The company says it was only for placeholder textures that were later removed, but a few squeezed past the QA process and made their way to the final game and, as such, the internet. The Indie Game Awards is clear about disallowing any use of generative AI and, so, here we are.

"In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination," the organization wrote. "While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place."

Six One Indie, the company behind the ceremony, deserves a smidge of the blame here. These awards were initially handed out last week and we've known about the whole Clair Obscur AI thing for months. It says it didn't discover Sandfall's use of AI until December 18, the day the winners were announced. A Google search on December 17 likely would've helped. It is worth noting, however, that Sandfall did previously agree that no generative AI was used during development as part of the submission process. 

In any event, the second-highest scoring titles in each category now gets the award. This means that Blue Prince is now Game of the Year and Sorry We're Closed snags Debut Game.

Despite this AI controversy, Clair Obscur had a record-setting night at this month's The Game Awards. It won just about everything it was put up for, including Game of the Year. It also made our list of the best games of 2025. The developer announced that it had sold 5 million copies back in October. That number is surely much higher by now.

2025-12-23 00:27:21

An investigation by the New York Times into Uber's background checks and safety procedures for its drivers found a patchwork approach that opens the door for violent felons to drive for the ride-hailing platform.

Uber outright rejects applicants convicted of murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and terrorism. However, in 22 states, the Times found Uber can approve applicants convicted of many other offenses including child abuse, assault and stalking, if the convictions are at least seven years old. The extensive investigation also found that in 35 states, these checks are based largely on where someone has lived in those seven years, meaning convictions from other locations could be missed.

In 2017, Massachusetts conducted an audit of ride-hailing drivers in the state and ended up banning more than 8,000 drivers (about 11 percent) who were previously approved. Lyft, for its part, does not allow drivers with previous violent felony convictions regardless of how long ago the conviction was.

In a document from 2015 reviewed by the Times, Uber executives discussed a strategy to "shift the conversation about safety from background checks to [less costly] initiatives proven to reduce incidents." A 2018 email from Uber’s then head of safety communications described the company's background check policy as "a bare minimum."

The Times compiled half a dozen examples of serious cases where Uber drivers with past violent convictions were later accused by passengers of sexual assault or rape. Two of those cases resulted in criminal convictions.

Between 2017 and 2022, Uber's US operations received a report of sexual assault or sexual misconduct among almost every eight minutes, according to the company's own internal data. Uber said 75 percent of these reports were for "less serious" incidents such as flirting or making comments about a rider's appearance, and claimed that 99.9 percent of its rides take place without incident.

2025-12-22 22:43:48

Paramount Skydance isn't giving up on obtaining Warner Bros. Discovery just yet. The company has amended its $108 billion offer to include Larry Ellison's "irrevocable personal guarantee" equaling $40.4 billion. Ellison is the founder or Oracle and a backer of Skydance, created by his son David Ellison, Paramount Skydance's CEO. 

On December 17, WBD formally recommended shareholders reject Paramount's offer. WBD had already accepted an $82.7 billion offer from Netflix, set to close some time next year following regulatory approval. "[The board] has unanimously determined that the tender offer launched by Paramount Skydance on December 8, 2025 is not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders and does not meet the criteria of a 'Superior Proposal' under the terms of WBD's merger agreement with Netflix announced on December 5, 2025," WBD stated. 

The Paramount deal included backing by sovereign wealth funds in places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But the Ellisons previously said that, if the other funders dropped out, they would "backstop the full amount of the bid." That wasn't enough of a guarantee for WBD. 

Now, Paramount has returned with the irrevocable personal guarantee and an agreement that the senior Ellison won't "revoke" or "adversely transfer" the Ellison family trust's assets while the transaction is pending. WBD had stated that a personal guarantee was the only fix to Paramount's inadequate offer. 

Paramount might have taken this step, but not with a smile on its face: "None of these concerns, nor the demand for a personal guarantee, were raised by WBD or its advisors to Paramount in the 12-week period leading up to WBD agreeing to the inferior transaction with Netflix, Inc.," the company stated about its updated offer. 

"Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on December 4th, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders. Because of our commitment to investment and growth, our acquisition will be superior for all WBD stakeholders, as a catalyst for greater content production, greater theatrical output, and more consumer choice," David Ellison stated. "We expect the board of directors of WBD to take the necessary steps to secure this value-enhancing transaction and preserve and strengthen an iconic Hollywood treasure for the future."

Paramount's updated offer also includes publishing the trust's assets, more flexible transaction terms and an increase from $5 billion to $5.8 billion of its "regulatory reverse termination fee" — in line with Netflix's. 

Paramount's offer will expire on January 21, 2026.