Amazon Announces Blue Protocol Technical Test For North America and Europe November 8-10th

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The former NPD Group (now named “Circana”) has released its full North American sales data for October, and it was a bit of an up-and-down kickoff to the holiday season. Players spent $4 billion on games, additional content, and hardware in October, a 5 percent year-on-year decrease. The PlayStation 5 was the #1 console, followed by Switch and Xbox Series X/S, but hardware sales were down 23 percent year on year, with all consoles experiencing a double-digit decline in business.

Yesterday, Blue Protocol’s technical test concluded, and Amazon and Bandai Namco Online are  thanking testers for their time and hinting at some of what’s next.

Roblox's awesome growth in recent years has been long in the making, but such scale has brought a new level of scrutiny to what may now be the biggest single gaming experience in the world. There are all sorts of criticism faced by the platform, but the most serious by far relates to its overwhelmingly young audience (a February 2022 SEC filing says over 60 percent of Roblox users are under the age of 16, 55% 12 or under), and whether it does enough to protect them from bad actors and the type of content children should not be seeing. Many parents don't think it does enough. And not for the first time, some are taking action.

AI job threat peaks in Washington, D.C., according to a recent analysis; Majority of Americans believe AI will revolutionise healthcare in 2024; Google files lawsuit against hackers in India and elsewhere spreading malicious AI ads on Facebook; MIT Scientist urges CFOs to shift risk tolerance for rapid impact of generative AI- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look..

Diwali is almost here, and while India is all set to enter the festive weekend, the artificial intelligence space is ever so buzzing. In the first incident, Maharashtra Congress asked the state government to intervene and set up a committee to create a legal, regulatory framework to deal with the issue of deepfakes. In another incident, Google is currently in talks to invest capital worth hundreds of millions of dollars into the popular character-based AI chatbot platform Character.AI. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

 Since the Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903, one aspect of how we fly hasn't changed. Evolving plane design and improved engines aside, almost all modern aircraft have one thing in common: They're powered by combustible fuels. 

As 2023 comes to a close, the games industry once again prepares for another ceremony recognizing the year’s line-up of adventures that made us laugh, cry, and everything in between. While we all have our personal lists, The Game Awards (TGA) packages that into something a little more formal.

At the end of the last month, more than 30 US States, including California, Massachusetts, Tennesse, and others, filed lawsuits against Meta Platforms over the allegations of using features on its social media platforms to lure children and teens and allegedly get them hooked on harmful content, while not doing enough to ensure their safety. The Massachusetts lawsuit was earlier updated and the submissions were made unredacted, meaning the general public can go through its content. The claims and allegations in the documents paint a grim picture of how Facebook and Instagram were run, and how Mark Zuckerberg reportedly handled situations relating to teens.

Valve has announced the Steam Deck OLED, a new model of their popular Steam Deck handheld PC that features a host of welcome hardware improvements.

Coach Chuck Goldstein often finds himself jumping up and down on the sidelines of the field -- trying, in vain, to get his players' attention. That's because all but one of the players on the Gallaudet University American football team, in Washington, are all deaf or hard of hearing. "If our player is not looking at us, they're not gonna know what we're telling them," Goldstein tells AFP.

BlizzCon returns to the Anaheim Convention Center in California this weekend for the first time in four years.