Author: Justin Carter

David Cronenberg is best known for his films that explore how the human body can be transformed, typically in pretty gruesome fashion. His newest feature, The Shrouds, continues that with a somber examination of death, grief, and their intersection with modern-day technology—and by letting the filmmaker get a little more personal. Set in a “deceptively placid near-future,” the film centers on Karsh (Vincent Kassel), a tech entrepreneur who’s been using new software to watch his dead wife (Diane Kruger) decay in real time. Just as he’s ready for this Shroud tech to get a wider release, all the graves currently using…

Copilot, Microsoft’s AI tool, will be coming to Xbox and PC games. The tool, which was first unveiled in 2024, will “help players have time, find new games you’re likely to love, or even to help ease you back into a game you may have stepped away from.” Members of the Xbox Insiders program will test the feature in April ahead of its eventual wider release.When its game functionalities were shown off at last year’s Microsoft Surface and AI event, Copilot was used in Minecraft to figure out components to craft in-game items, like a sword. The in-game assist tool…

You may have seen a video earlier this week of Aloy, protagonist of PlayStation’s Horizon franchise, recreated with generative AI in a leaked Sony test demo. The video spurred a whirlwind of emotions from players and developers, in part because the Aloy bot has a robotic voice found in text-to-speech programs, rather than that of her longtime human voice actor, Ashly Burch.  Despite not having her facial or voice data used for the bot, and Guerrilla telling her ahead of time that this wasn’t for anything actively in development, Burch admitted to feeling “worried about game performance as an art…

It was only a few days ago the first real trailer for the Lilo & Stitch remake came out, and it looks… like these remakes do? This is apparently the one Disney’s putting its weight behind this year, which means it’s time to brag about some metrics! According to Disney, the Lilo & Stitch trailer has garnered 158 million views within 24 hours. It’s the second-biggest trailer for its enterprise of live-action remakes to date, coming behind the 224.6 million views for the Lion King remake’s teaser trailer. (That teaser, which dropped in November 2018, was the second-biggest trailer drop ever at…

Independent studio Human Computer recently raised $5.7 million in seed funding.The round was led by venture firm Makers Fund. a16z and ex-AirBnB COO Belinda Johnson provided further investment, bringing the developer’s total funding to $7.7 million. It’s the latest burst of funding for the industry this week, preceded by Pragma raising $12.75 million and a $150 million UA fund from Tilting Point.Based in San Francisco, Human Computer was founded in 2024 by creative director Alex Schleifer and gameplay director Eliot Garcia Weisberg. Both previously worked together at AirBnB and Universal Entities, another indie studio Schliefer founded in 2020.A “broad portfolio”…

Nikolay Dybowski, the founder and studio creative director of Ice-Pick Lodge, has left the studio.In a statement, the Russian developer said Dybowski chose to leave to “focus on personal projects and his private life.” In recent months, Pathologic players unearthed allegations accusing Dybowski of kidnapping and abuse, some of which date back to 2021.Dybowski founded Ice-Pick in 2002, and has been a guiding creative force on most of its games since. Along with the two Pathologic games and the upcoming Pathologic 3, he directed 2013’s Knock-Knock.Aleksey Luchin, a former Ice-Pick developer, later commented on the allegations and claimed Dybowski’s behavior…

As the SAG-AFTRA voice actor strikes continue, a pair of voice actors for MiHoYo’s Zenless Zone Zero learned they were abruptly recast.Emeri Chase and Nicholas Thurkettle, who respectively play Soldier 11 and Lycaon, discovered they were replaced in a recent patch for the game released earlier this week. On social media, Chase explained she was “unwilling to perform work not covered by a SAG Interim Agreement during a strike for AI protections.”Earlier this week, the union said “alarming loopholes” have kept it from reaching a consensus with major game developers. The proposals offered would potentially leave actors vulnerable to AI…

Dave Mallow, a longtime voice actor across games and animation, has died at 76.Sources speaking to TMZ revealed Mallow had been in hospice care for some time, and that his health had been declining in recent years. For many, Mallow was best known as the voice of Baboo on Power Rangers and Angemon in the first two seasons of Digimon.Games-wise, he lent his talents to several Call of Duty and Blizzard titles, including Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (as Baseplate) and Diablo III (Raziel the Dark One). He was also the English voice for Street Fighter’s Akuma across several…

Pragma, a backend engine for live-service games like Spectre Divide and Predecessor, recently secured $12.75 million in a round of “strategic investment.”Square Enix and venture firms Insight Partners, Upfront Ventures, and Greylock Partners all contributed to this round. This new investment, per VentureBeat, delivers over $50 million in investment to Pragma.In its announcement, the company noted the funding “helps us continue delivering scalable, live-service infrastructure while expanding our suite of game dev tools.” Pragma’s services include cross-platform accounts and monetization, live operations, and social features like matchmaking and player data systems.Major players on Pragma’s rolodexPrevious Pragma clients have included People…

For the first time in years, Blizzard Entertainment’s showcase event BlizzCon is making a comeback.The World of Warcraft and Overwatch developer revealed the convention will skip 2025, but make a two-day return on September 12 and 13, 2026 at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’ll be the first BlizzCon since 2023, and since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 million.Previous BlizzCons have been defined by reveals for future projects, or updates to current titles. For example, the 2018 event featured reveals for Diablo Immortal, and Warcraft III: Reforged; the following year had reveals for Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV.In 2022 and…