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2026-03-28 23:36:55

Ivy Road, the video game developer behind Annapurna-published cozy game Wanderstop, is shutting down on March 31. While Wanderstop was well-received and even critically acclaimed, it seems like it wasn’t enough of a hit to sustain the studio while it develops a new game without getting investors involved. In its announcement, the Ivy Road team said the company failed to land a funding and publishing deal for its new project, Engine Angel. The studio’s problems securing funding for its new game first came to light back in January when it laid off five team members.

Even though the studio is shutting down soon, the team said it has one last surprise that will help Wanderstop reach new players. It didn’t say what the surprise was, but the team said Annapurna Interactive will share more news about it in the future. Wanderstop revolves around a former fighter, Alta, who manages a tea shop in a magical forest. In the game, you can gather ingredients and concoct tea, tidy up, talk to customers and learn their stories or just sit on a bench to think and relax. The game will still be available to play and purchase even after Ivy Road shuts down.

2026-03-28 19:00:00

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As ever, we've got some new games for you to dive into this weekend, and a glimpse at some upcoming titles. But, first, a look at indie studio Albatross Interactive's take on a multiplayer mode from a much-loved blockbuster. 

Terminal War is a 4v4 third-person shooter and it seems like the small team of developers is trying to keep things grounded. Ammo and supplies are scarce, and there's an emphasis on melee combat with the promise of "brutal executions." The action is set in the late '90s, a few years after a global war, with three factions battling for control and survival in a collapsed version of the United States.

Albatross Interactive isn't shy about the inspiration behind Terminal War. “They canceled The Last of Us Factions 2," the team wrote on X. "So we're building it [sic] our version." 

In September 2019, nine months before the game’s eventual release, Naughty Dog confirmed The Last of Us Part 2 wouldn’t have a multiplayer mode. At the time, it told players "you will eventually experience the fruits of our team's online ambition."

That still hasn’t exactly come to pass. The studio formally announced The Last of Us Online in June 2022 and canceled it 18 months later. As such, the Factions mode in 2014's The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 remains the franchise's only remaining multiplayer mode.

Albatross Interactive, which says it's building Terminal War from scratch, plans to reveal more gameplay soon. The game is slated to hit Steam in early access as soon as this summer. 

The team expects Terminal War to remain in early access for around 12-18 months, though it noted that "we're a small studio and we'd rather take the time to get it right than rush to a finish line. The timeline will ultimately be shaped by community feedback, the scope of content we deliver, and the standard of quality we hold ourselves to." The studio plans to bring the game to consoles as well.

New releases

I’m into the current iteration of Acclaim as an indie publisher (albeit one with a plan to revive its own historic franchises). Its latest title, GridBeat from Ridiculous Games, is a rhythm-based dungeon crawler in which you're trying to escape from a corporate network after pinching a trove of valuable data. Malware and security protocols are on your tail. Navigating the mazes, interacting with objects and boss battles are all synced to a beat.

GridBeat is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. It typically costs $20, but there's a 10 percent discount on Switch until April 2. It's 15 percent off on Steam until April 9.

Given how much time I spent playing Football Manager 26 last year, Nutmeg is right up my alley. Getting veteran commentator Jim Rosenthal to pitch the soccer management sim in the launch trailer certainly doesn't hurt.

This is a card-battler take on soccer management and it’s set in the '80s and '90s. You can start out in the lower divisions and can work your way up to the top of the English soccer system. You'll hire and fire staff, and select your team and formation before taking on an opponent. Completing challenges and doing well in training will earn you more card packs. 

The trailer reminds me of collecting Panini stickers as a kid as well as the smell of my friends’ Subbuteo figures. I would have said my favorite thing about this is that everything takes place at an era-appropriate desk with a TV that shows results and standings in the style of Teletext and an old computer that has some retro mini-games you can play. However, Sumo Sheffield and Publisher Secret Mode are donating a small portion of every sale of Nutmeg to charity, which is a nice gesture.

Nutmeg is out now on Steam. It'll usually cost you $25, but there's a whopping 40 percent discount until April 2.

Devil Jam is a metal-themed spin on the roguelite formula that Vampire Survivors popularized with a dash of Hades-esque characterization mixed in. It's been out on Steam since November and it hit consoles this week. It costs $8 on PS5 and Switch, and $7.59 on Xbox Series X/S.

You'll wield a cursed guitar as you battle demonic enemies and bosses. As ever with this type of game, it's all about finding fun, powerful builds by synergizing abilities. You can put those together in a 12-slot gear system. I dig the art style and animation in this game from Rogueside too. I especially love that one character dashes by powersliding on their knees.

A couple of months after its debut on Steam, Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator landed on Xbox Series X/S for $20 this week. The latest game from prolific studio Strange Scaffold is a stock market simulator in which you speculate on the "simulated lives of babies" and how successful (or not) said alien sprogs will be in the future. It takes aim at real-life prediction markets where people can gamble on everything from the Time Person of the Year to nuclear tests. 

Upcoming 

Here's another game you can actually check out this weekend, as a playtest is taking place on Steam until March 31. Salvation Denied is a co-op construction sim/tower defense game from Firevolt and publisher Digital Vortex Entertainment.

You can get together with up to three friends to build experimental structures at the behest of a foreman who looks like he's stepped right out of Team Fortress 2. You'll have tools like a gravity gun, foam gun and jetpacks on hand to help you form these structures, along with heavy machinery that can move or recycle sections of the build. Coordinating with proximity voice chat could be critical as you and your buds deal with natural disasters like acid rain and meteor showers.

I'm almost always going to be on board with a game that's all about chaos, so I'm interested in checking out Salvation Denied. It's set to hit Steam this fall before landing on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2027.

Someone has stolen the sun. Reclaiming it is your goal in Light Dude, which is from solo developer Ramy of Dergham Games. It's an action game in which the lights go out when you move, so you'll need to figure out your approach to each level and how to avoid hazards before moving forward. There's a first-person mode here too.

Light Dude is slated to hit Steam sometime this spring. A demo is available now.

Solo developer Mateo Covic (aka ZoroArts) is looking to follow up on the success of Paddle Paddle Paddle with another friendslop game. Covic said it took just four weeks to create Cool Story Bro. Up to four players each have five minutes to write a short story that includes four words. These are picked at random or taken from a pool of player suggestions.

Special items appear throughout each round, such as a revolver, which can take another player out of the game for 10 seconds, and one that swaps everyone's stories. If you're the first player to type an item's name, you can use it.

After everyone has finished writing their story, players take turns to read theirs out for the rest of the group. The others vote on whether they liked the tale. If you really hate someone else's short story, you can blow them up with a rocket launcher. If only I had that option at some of the poetry readings I’ve been to.

This seems fun and silly, and the kind of thing that could easily blow up on Twitch (there's an integration that allows viewers to suggest words). Cool Story Bro is slated to hit Steam sometime in April.

Fittingly enough, it's been a long time since Third Shift announced its debut project, Forever Ago. Six years, in fact. The game re-emerged this week during the Xbox Partner Preview showcase. Publisher Annapurna Interactive is bringing it to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox on PC, Steam and Epic Games Store this fall. It'll be available on Xbox Game Pass (and Xbox Cloud) on day one.

This is a road trip adventure in which you take on the role of Alfred. Following a personal tragedy, he ventures north in his minivan to seek redemption. With an instant camera in hand, Alfred will meet new people and explore forests, deserts and mountains. It's another narrative-heavy game from Annapurna, which appears to be leaning heavily into nostalgia this year given that Mixtape is only a few weeks away.

2026-03-28 06:18:14

Verizon will waive late fees and offer flexible payment arrangements for workers affected by the partial government shutdown. The carrier has made similar offers in the past, like during the COVID-19 pandemic when it gave customers extra mobile data at no additional cost. 

The Department of Homeland Security has been hit the hardest by the partial shutdown, but Verizon's offer covers any federal worker who's able to offer employment verification. Verizon says employees can call 1-800-Verizon (1-800-922-0204) to get their late fees waived and set up a payment plan.

The partial government shutdown started in February after Congress failed to pass a new DHS funding bill. The lack of funding has not affected all of DHS' sprawling organizations equally, however. While the Transportation Security Administration is no longer able to pay its employees — leading to significant delays in airport security lines over the last week — both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have been spared thanks to a separate funding pool established by a previous bill.

Lawmakers continued inability to fund DHS also happens to hinge on both agencies. Democratic senators and congresspeople are demanding ICE agents wear body cams and remove masks before making arrests, among other restrictions, and refusing to fund DHS until those restrictions are worked into the bill. Both Republicans and Democrats have also separately proposed funding the entire department except for ICE and CBP, but while that bill passed in the Senate, it hasn't been taken up in the House.

2026-03-28 05:26:18

A hacking group called Handala has gained access to FBI Director Kash Patel's email account, Reuters reports. The group published content from Patel's email on their website as proof, including photos of Patel "sniffing and smoking cigars" and "making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a ​large bottle of rum."

TechCrunch was able to independently confirm that at least some of the emails Handala stole were from Patel's account by checking information used by mail delivery systems that’s stored in an email's header. Several stolen emails included a cryptographic signature that linked them to Patel's account. The FBI has also separately confirmed that the Director's account was hacked. "The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel's personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity," the Bureau told TechCrunch. "The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information." 

The FBI is offering up to $10 million in rewards for more information about the hackers who targeted Patel's account. Handala presents as a pro-Palestinian hacking group online, but is believed to be one of several aliases used by cyberintelligence units working for the Iranian government, Reuters writes. Groups affiliated with Iran have targeted officials in the US before. In August 2024, the FBI shared that a separate group, APT42, was trying to gain access to both the Trump and Harris campaigns. Three men associated with APT42 were later charged that September.

Handala has appeared to become more active during the current conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. According to Reuters, the group claimed to be behind a cyber attack on Stryker, a medical devices company, earlier in March. Handala also said it accessed and published personal data from Lockheed Martin employees stationed in the Middle East.

2026-03-28 05:17:37

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have a complicated history. In 2023, the two vowed to fight each other in a cage match that never happened. But by early 2025, when both were cozying up to the newly-elected President Donald Trump, they were apparently on more friendly terms. 

In February of that year, Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "Looks like DOGE is making progress," the Meta CEO texted. "I've got our teams on alert to take down content doxxing or threatening the people on your team. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help."

The texts, which were published Friday in court documents as part of Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, are dated February 3, 2025. That's just a few weeks after Zuckerberg announced Meta's pivot away from content moderation in favor of "free expression." It's also the same day that a US Attorney said he would protect DOGE employees from "disgruntled" critics. 

Musk responded to Zuckerberg's message with a heart and followed up with an unrelated topic: OpenAI. He asked Zuckerberg if he was "open to the idea of bidding on the OpenAI IP with me and some others." Zuckerberg asked to "discuss it live" and Musk said he would call the next day. Previous documents disclosed in the case show that Musk had invited Zuckerberg to help him buy OpenAI, though he never officially signed on to the bid.

In a separate filing also made public Friday, Musk's lawyers argued that his exchanges with the Meta CEO ought to be excluded from the lawsuit. "Musk’s personal relationships and communications – including with other high-profile individuals – are also tangential and prejudicial," they wrote. "Defendants included in their exhibit list for trial, for example, several private exchanges between Musk and Mark Zuckerberg discussing Musk’s political activity and this lawsuit. Those recent communications have nothing to do with Musk’s claims and are nothing more than Defendants’ attempt to stoke negative sentiments toward Musk because of his association with Zuckerberg."

A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. 

In the same filing, Musk's lawyers also take issue with Altman's lawyers asking about Musk's alleged ketamine use and his attendance at Burning Man. A transcript from a video deposition with Musk indicated he was asked if had taken "rhino ket" at Burning Man in 2017. Musk said no, according to the transcript. 

"Any implication that music festivals or drugs have any relevance to this case is outlandish, and how Musk spends his free time is equally irrelevant," his lawyers wrote. A judge ruled earlier this month that OpenAI's lawyers would be permitted to ask "limited" questions about Burning Man, but not ketamine. 

2026-03-28 04:10:00

Meta will essentially foot the power bill for the $27 billion mega data center it's building in Louisiana. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company struck a deal to fund the energy infrastructure needed for the project.

Through a deal with Entergy Louisiana, Meta will fund seven new natural gas power plants, 240 miles of transmission lines and battery energy storage at three locations. The gas plants will have a combined power output of 5,200 megawatts, and the transmission lines will operate at 500 kilovolts.

In addition, the company will help fund up to 2,500 MW of new renewable resources. It also agreed to a memorandum of understanding for future nuclear power development. The 4-million-square-foot Richland Parish, LA, data center will be Meta's biggest yet. It's currently under construction.

The energy deal follows a pledge by tech companies, including Meta, to offset local residents’ rising electricity costs from AI data centers. The companies plan to "build, bring or buy the new generation resources and electricity needed to satisfy their new energy demands, paying the full cost of those resources." However, the pledge lacks a binding agreement or any enforcement mechanisms.

The shift in tone comes in response to growing anger from local communities over the rise of power-hungry, environmentally damaging AI data centers. A December poll found that 60 percent of Americans — including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents — support more AI regulation. Just this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill to force a moratorium on data center construction until meaningful regulations are passed.

We could easily file this and similar moves as Big Tech's latest attempt to convince voters and officials that it can be trusted to do right without enforceable regulations. We've seen that movie before.