Latest news with #Aftermath
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Xbox producer suggests laid-off staff should use AI to deal with emotions
An Xbox producer has faced a backlash after suggesting laid-off employees should use artificial intelligence to deal with emotions in a now deleted LinkedIn Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, wrote the post after Microsoft confirmed it would lay off up to 9,000 workers, in a wave of job cuts this post, which was captured in a screenshot by tech news site Aftermath, shows Mr Turnbull suggesting tools like ChatGPT or Copilot to "help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss."One X user called it "plain disgusting" while another said it left them "speechless". The BBC has contacted Microsoft, which owns Xbox, for comment. Microsoft previously said several of its divisions would be affected without specifying which ones but reports suggest that its Xbox video gaming unit will be has set out plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), and is spending $80bn (£68.6bn) in huge data centres to train AI Turnbull acknowledged the difficulty of job cuts in his post and said "if you're navigating a layoff or even quietly preparing for one, you're not alone and you don't have to go it alone".He wrote that he was aware AI tools can cause "strong feelings in people" but wanted to try and offer the "best advice" under the Xbox producer said he'd been "experimenting with ways to use LLM Al tools" and suggested some prompts to enter into AI included career planning prompts, resume and LinkedIn help, and questions to ask for advice on emotional clarity and confidence."If this helps, feel free to share with others in your network," he Microsoft cuts would equate to 4% of Microsoft's 228,000-strong global video game projects have reportedly been affected by the cuts.
Engadget
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Blizzard is giving up on its Warcraft mobile game amid layoffs
It's nearly the end of the road for Warcraft Rumble . Blizzard has announced that it will no longer be developing new content for the free-to-play mobile strategy game, and instead focus on "regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes." The change comes as the rest of Microsoft's business is in upheaval: The company is laying off as many as 9,000 employees across its global workforce. Blizzard's statement doesn't get into the details of what motivated the decision, but is clear that Warcraft Rumble hasn't been living up to expectations. The game "struggled to find its footing" relative to Blizzard's ambitions, prompting the studio to explore different options to improve it over the last few years. "Some of that work showed signs of progress, but ultimately wasn't enough to put the game on a path to sustainability," Blizzard writes. Warcraft Rumble was announced in 2019 as Warcraft Arclight Rumble. Much like Hearthstone , the game was a high-profile attempt to translate a popular Blizzard franchise into something that works on smartphones and tablets. Warcraft Rumble plays like a more flexible version of Clash Royale , where miniaturized armies face off in PVP or singe-player challenges, and the biggest strategic choices are when and where characters are placed. Aftermath reports that winding down Warcraft Rumble is a direct result of the wider Microsoft layoffs effecting Blizzard. While some of the team who created new content for Rumble will be given new roles at the studio, others will be let go, according to a staff email sent by Blizzard president Johanna Fairies that Aftermath viewed. Blizzard's public statement doesn't acknowledge these layoffs beyond a mention that the studio is "focused on supporting [its] teammates," which is telling in context. While Warcraft Rumble will live on for now in a diminished state, some future Xbox games have been outright cancelled as a result of Microsoft's restructuring, including Everwild and Perfect Dark . The bigger damage is the loss of talent. Greg Mayles, the lead designer on Donkey Kong Country and creative director of Sea of Thieves, is leaving Rare, according to Video Game Chronicle . ZeniMax Online Studios shared on X that director Matt Firor is also making an exit following the cancellation of the studio's next MMO.
Daily Mirror
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Rolling Stones have 'recorded huge new album' after scrapping upcoming tour
The Rolling Stones, which consists of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, are said to have been working on a new album after deciding to scrap plans for a European tour The Rolling Stones are said to be working on a new album after reportedly deciding to scrap plans for a comeback tour in Europe. It's claimed that the group have more than a dozen songs ready to go after spending time in the studio. Bandmates Mick Jagger, 81, Keith Richards, 81, and Ronnie Wood, 78, are said to have been working in Metropolis Studios in London since April. It's reported that they are now in discussions over the release of their 25th studio album. It's been suggested that the trio have collaborated again with producer Andrew Watt. He worked with the Rolling Stones on their last album Hackney Diamonds, which topped the UK Albums Chart following its release back in 2023. According to the Sun, Mick, Keith, and Ronnie are working on the new album after scrapping plans for a summer tour in the UK and other countries. The band's potential European tour had been rumoured earlier this year. A source told the outlet: "Mick, Keith and Ronnie have been secretly recording their new record with their drummer Steve Jordan." It's claimed that the band are "happy" with 13 songs and are discussing when to release it. The source went on to discuss the rumoured tour, saying that it didn't work out. They said: "Originally, the plan was for them to bring their huge US tour to the UK and Europe this summer, but promoters couldn't get the dates to work." They continued: "Instead the Stones decided to get back into the studio and put down their next album." The source suggested that it's "massive" news for fans who didn't get a chance to see the acclaimed band perform live this year. There was speculation over a possible tour in January. It was suggested at the time that the band could return to the UK with their Hackney Diamonds tour to play four dates at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the capital city. A source told the Daily Mail that Mick, Keith and Ronnie couldn't wait to bring the tour to the UK. They said: "They've been planning it for months and are itching to get back out on the road and do what they do best, which is perform." Prior to subsequent reports that the tour plans had been shelved, it was initially suggested that they would also visit other locations in Europe. There was speculation that the other shows would be in Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris. The speculation came following the Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds in the US and Canada last year. The trio performed at a host of venues, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood and BC Place in Vancouver, whilst on the tour. The tour was in support of their album Hackney Diamonds, which was released the previous year. It was their eighth studio album to top the charts in the UK, following in the footsteps of albums like Aftermath and Emotional Rescue. The Mirror has approached the Stones spokesperson for comment.
The Verge
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Discord might use AI to help you catch up on conversations
Discord has become the place for gaming communities on the internet. The company just celebrated its 10th anniversary, and its impact is now big enough that it's available directly on PlayStation and Xbox and was ripped off by Nintendo for the Switch 2's GameChat. But as it tries to grow, one of the big challenges Discord faces is that, for big or longer-running communities, it can be hard to know where to start, hard to catch up to the speed of real-time conversations, and hard to sift through the potentially huge amounts of conversations and channels. A lot of communities used to form around forums, but Discord just isn't a good replacement for that kind of structured messaging, as covered by Aftermath 's Luke Plunkett. 'This is something we want to solve,' Peter Sellis, Discord's SVP of product, tells The Verge. 'It is not our intention to lock a bunch of this knowledge into Discord.' One way Discord wants to tackle the problem is add features that are 'more amicable to structured knowledge sharing, like forums, that we could probably do a better job of investing in and is something we want to do for game developers,' Sellis says. Another involves LLMs. 'There's an incredible opportunity now with large language models and their ability to summarize conversations,' he says. That could help Discord take a long conversation between multiple people — 'what is essentially a really poorly structured shareable object,' he says — and boil it down to 'something that could be more shareable and then potentially syndicated to the web.' Sellis couldn't share many other details, and couldn't give a timeline for when any of this might be ready: 'I haven't seen a solution that we feel great about yet.' Discord wants to do it right, he says — especially because a solution that makes information more easily accessible outside of Discord could involve a lot of work for server moderators and admins. 'We have a very sensitive radar for stuff that causes them a bunch of work that doesn't give them the return they need,' he says. (It's wise not to piss off your moderators.) None of this was imminent, if it even happens at all. That said, 'I assure you that this is something that people within Discord feel the pain of themselves,' Sellis says. 'And when our engineers and product designers and product managers feel it personally, they generally want to solve it.' Another big challenge Discord faces is how to build the product to serve both the needs of giant community servers and the tiny servers where groups hang out — especially when, according to Discord, 90 percent of 'all activity on Discord' happens in 'small, intimate servers.' Sellis calls it 'one of the biggest challenges for the team' — but also says that it's 'honestly the biggest opportunity.' He says that Discord thinks about how it can make people 'feel comfortable in both these spaces, understand that there are different types of spaces, and the technology is familiar, but still different in both of these places.' Sellis says that the biggest Discord server is Midjourney, a key company in text-to-AI image generation that lets you generate visuals right inside Discord. Midjourney became popular because it turned the 'single-player game' of generating AI images into a multiplayer community. 'You can just watch people try things, experiment, fail, succeed, embarrass themselves, etc. And that made it kind of like a collective action.' He says Discord is seeing something similar with the recently launched Wordle app on the platform, too, which lets you compete with your friends. That all speaks to some of Discord's larger vision. Sellis is seeing a trend that 'everything is starting to kind of look like a game' and 'Discord can be used as a social layer on any game to essentially improve its engagement, its socialness, and its multiplayer capacity. That's something we like and are going to lean into.' And as for Nintendo's GameChat? 'I would say imitation is a very sincere form of flattery,' Sellis says. 'Hard to imagine being more flattered than being copied by Nintendo.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Trump Eyes Energy Relief, Jim Rickards Says the Key Could Be a $150 Trillion U.S. Resource Hidden in Plain Sight
A Supreme Court Ruling Has Changed the Rules—and the Energy Equation Could Shift Fast WASHINGTON, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With inflation lingering and gas prices still straining household budgets, a bold energy shift may be underway. And according to former CIA advisor Jim Rickards, it's not coming from OPEC, pipelines, or subsidies. 'We could see gas prices fall to $2 a gallon—maybe even less,' Rickards says. 'And the power to make that happen isn't in the hands of oil companies anymore.' Instead, he points to a $150 trillion domestic resource buried under U.S. soil—an energy-rich 'inheritance' the federal government has held for over a century, but never fully used. THE COURT CASE THAT CHANGED THE GAME The breakthrough came with the 2024 Supreme Court decision to overturn the Chevron Doctrine—a decades-old legal precedent that had allowed federal agencies to broadly interpret and enforce regulations. 'Now, courts—not unelected bureaucrats—are driving the conversation,' Rickards says. 'That opens the door for a resource strategy that puts America first.' THE REAL POWER: ENERGY SECURITY, NOT DEPENDENCY What lies under U.S. federal lands could include trillions in raw materials: copper, lithium, silver, and rare earth elements. These are the same resources that power our grids, feed our AI, and make energy independence possible. 'We've fought to secure foreign oil,' Rickards says. 'Meanwhile, we've ignored what's already ours. That's finally starting to change.' OIL COMPANIES MAY NOT LIKE IT — BUT VOTERS MIGHT With executive orders from Trump already in motion, Rickards believes this legal shift could be used to fast-track access to lower-cost energy—without relying on global suppliers or Big Oil. 'It's not about breaking the system,' he says. 'It's about remembering we don't need to be held hostage by it.' A full interview revealing how this shift could work—and what comes next—is now available to the public at no cost. About Jim Rickards Jim Rickards is a lawyer, economist, and former advisor to the CIA, Pentagon, and U.S. Treasury. He's widely recognized as an expert in financial warfare, energy economics, and national security strategy. His bestselling books include The Death of Money, Aftermath, and Currency Wars. Media Contact:Derek WarrenPublic Relations ManagerParadigm Press GroupEmail: dwarren@ in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
