E3 is lifeless. Endlessly
‘Finish of an period’ is one method to describe E3’s official exit from this world. “I cri evrytiem,” is… one other method to put it. Oh, proper. We haven’t instructed you the unhealthy information but. E3 is lifeless. Endlessly. We’ve turn into so accustomed to banging out these annual ‘E3 is cancelled’ articles (no, actually, look), it was a little bit of a shock to see the official E3 account on X.com confirming its demise.
“After greater than 20 years of E3, every one larger than the final, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the recollections.”
E3 final managed an in-person went again in 2019, simply months earlier than the world determined to break down in on itself. E3 was already struggling — with Sony and Microsoft pulling out beforehand — nevertheless it was the pandemic that completed it off. E3 did have a convention lined up for 2024, with the ESA partnering up with Reedpop to tug a miracle off earlier than the 2 parted methods on account of “artistic variations.”
The convention that was as soon as the be-all of gaming conferences introduced us a number of the most iconic sport reveals in historical past. From the absurd Grand Theft Auto IV reveal by way of a tattoo on Peter Moore’s physique in 2006 to Twilight Princess’ reveal on the 2004 stage (which solely vaguely resembled the precise sport), it’s been a packed and eventful journey that’ll by no means be forgotten.
Fly excessive, E3.
Netflix is leaping on the end-of-year recap bandwagon
Keep in mind when firms shoving their year-end knowledge down viewers’s throats was a distinct segment apply? Pepperidge Farm remembers. These days, you possibly can’t stroll down the road with out somebody displaying off the music they listened to for the yr. Netflix is the newest company making an attempt to play good with Gen Z and leap on the end-of-year bandwagon, saying “What We Watched” – a fruits of the yr’s most-watched titles break up up into two six-month-long studies within the type of an Excel spreadsheet.
On the time of writing, Netflix has solely launched knowledge protecting the primary half of 2023, however we are able to anticipate a brand-new Excel spreadsheet each six months or so. The report covers the hours seen for each title that racked up greater than 50,000 hours (sorry, Dying Notice) coming to a complete of 18,214 eligible titles. That is the primary time a streamer has delved fairly so deeply into its metrics, often maintaining these types of studies beneath lock and key.
The outcomes are about as boring as you’d anticipate. Sat atop the most-watched films listing was The Mom (we needed to Google what that’s), pulling in additional than 249,900,000 viewing hours total. It nonetheless fell 20 ranks in need of the platform’s best-performing TV exhibits, reminiscent of The Night time Agent: Season 1, Ginny and Georgia, The Glory, and Wednesday.
In its announcement, Netflix confused that hours seen aren’t the one indicator of a present’s success. “We’ve got enormously profitable films and TV exhibits with decrease and better hours seen. It’s all about whether or not a film or TV present thrilled its viewers — and the scale of that viewers relative to the economics of the title.” Yeah, proper. We’re guessing this can be Netflix’s go-to assertion the subsequent time it cancels one thing well-liked. 1899, anybody?
Google Play Films & TV is lifeless, lengthy reside YouTube
Two years later, and Google Play Films & TV continues to be on its deathbed, its demise rattle echoing across the Google graveyard. The time has lastly come to tug the plug on the service for good. It’s not like we (or many others) are that upset in regards to the change, with most already believing the service to be lifeless and buried.
Nevertheless it raises some issues for the 4 or 5 individuals who personal content material on the service. Don’t fear. Google isn’t making like PlayStation or Discovery and shovelling that content material into the recycler. It’ll all be relocated safely when the time comes — that point is 17 January 2024 (although that is topic to alter relying in your location).
The Android TV Assist web site introduced the adjustments to the service final week, noting that it will now not be out there on Android TV units or the Google Play web site. As an alternative, people who find themselves searching for their content material can discover it in a couple of methods. One — for TVs and/or set-top bins powered by Android TV, you’ll want to go over to the ‘Store’ tab to seek out any lively content material. For these nations that enable for buying films and TV collection on YouTube (there’s an inventory right here), they’ll have their content material moved right here, too. South Africa continues to be awaiting its activate that entrance, sadly.
Supply
Tesla’s Optimus is in its Prime
Optimuspic.twitter.com/nbRohLQ7RH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 13, 2023
After we final noticed Tesla’s line-up of humanoid Optimus robots in motion, that they had discovered how you can stroll menacingly towards the digicam and couldn’t do a lot else. On the time, they had been nonetheless being taught a variety of duties by people, reminiscent of with the ability to type gadgets into bins, although there was no proof in that pudding but. Now, Elon Musk has taken to X.com to point out off the Optimus bots of their present kind, and… they’ll dance now?
Apparently, sure. Optimus Gen-2, as the present iteration is named, can groove to a beat. It’s additionally acquired a far slimmer, extra human-like look to it, and might stroll round 30% quicker than the final era. That’s because of a 10kg weight discount on the robotic’s physique, newly improved toes, and feetier ft (?) alongside a couple of extra technical enhancements that result in a extra pleasing gait total.
Maybe probably the most spectacular shot of the sub-2-minute video was the robotic demonstrating its new palms and its capacity to deal with an egg with out a lot concern of being dropped.
The purpose, when you missed Musk’s announcement of the “bipedal autonomous humanoid” again in 2021, was to swap out people instead of robots when finishing these duties thought of too boring or plain unsafe. Musk believes that the Optimus program could possibly be value greater than the automotive enterprise and full self-driving at Tesla headquarters.