Upland raises $7M for virtual land Web3 metaverse

Climate change is full of spooky phenomena (see zombie fires, ghost forests), but the widest-reaching is “global weirding,” a term coined by Hunter Lovins that takes an expansive look at the Anthropocene, the current era of human-caused environmental change. Global weirding is about how the world won’t just get warmer, but the knock-on effects will be dynamic, varied, amplified, and downright weirder.

Game artists: It's time to show your work to the world. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has opened submissions for its third annual arts showcase—promoting an honoring a broad spectrum of art by specific artists in video games.

Next week marks the third year since PS5 launched and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank the more than 40 million players who’ve joined our global PS5 community. In these first three years, PlayStation Studios and third-party developers have introduced more than 2,500 PS5 games for players to enjoy, including fan-favorite titles in recent months like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Final Fantasy XVI.

The signs of AI making trouble were there to see ever since the song ‘Heart on my sleeve' came out and immediately began ranking on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. It was an AI-generated song that used the cloned voices of artists Drake and The Weeknd. While it was soon taken down from the platforms, it showed the world how closely an AI-generated voice could sound. Now, in a recent incident, Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson has decided to take legal action against an AI app for using her voice for an online ad without her consent. This lawsuit marks the latest event in a series of growing frustration among singers and actors over the misuse of their identity through deepfakes.

Amazon Games and Bandai Namco have announced a Blue Protocol closed technical test for North American and European players starting on November 8th. 

Atari has agreed to buy classic video game maker Digital Eclipse for up to $20 million in cash and stock.

Playbite has raised $1 million to bring back the magic of arcades on mobile gaming devices.

BlizzCon is just a week away, and Blizzard has confirmed the schedule for the two-day event and live stream for those who aren’t making it out to California.

Moonveil Entertainment has raised $5.4 million for multiplayer mobile games using blockchain technology.

Upon booting up Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, I did what any self-respecting New Yorker would do: I beelined it toward my favorite part of the city as soon as possible, to see how Insomniac Games had recreated the locale. In my case, this meant veering toward South Brooklyn, even as Sandman was wreaking havoc on the infrastructure of Manhattan’s Financial District. However, as I swung beneath the gothic arches of Brooklyn Bridge, the better to glimpse the steel girders and stevedore cranes of Red Hook from a distance, the vista confirmed what I had feared deep down: My favorite neighborhood wasn’t even there.

Soon after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been completed, Xbox leadership visited the headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, California, to address the staff for the first time.

Apple is renowned for making its devices hard to repair, but yesterday the company pledged its support for a US right-to-repair law.