WEBVTT - Tech News: Microsoft Shuts Down Multiple Video Game Studios 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.120 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.319 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.959 tech are you. It's time for the tech news for 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.880 the week ending on May tenth, twenty twenty four, and 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.920 first up is a potential retraction. So not long ago, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.279 I talked about how an Apple analyst named Ming chi 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.320 Quo said that Apple had significantly scaled back its production 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.400 plans for the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. So 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.479 if you'll recall this, analyst said that Apple initially planned 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.400 to produce seven hundred and fifty thousand to eight hundred 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.160 thousand units, but subsequently cut back to around four hundred 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.400 and fifty thousand units in the wake of less demand 0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:00.000 than anticipated. But other analysts have argued that Apple's play 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.120 and from the get go, was to ship around half 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:05.360 a million units this year, so that four hundred and 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:10.040 fifty thousand number isn't really that far off from that estimate. 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.760 So I guess this is what I get for talking 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.560 about analysts who make their living scrutinizing a company that's 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:21.120 famously very quiet. It only communicates stuff when it darn 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.480 well feels like it. So either the Vision Pro isn't 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.240 selling as quickly as Apple once or it's on the 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.000 right track. I don't know the right answer. And we 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.440 have a couple of other Apple stories for this week, 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.800 so we might as well stick with Apple. So Apple 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.839 held an event at which it unveiled a new iPad 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.640 pro model this week, which the company says is the 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:47.520 thinnest one yet also fun side note, Apple also subsequently 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.520 apologized for an ad that talks about it being the 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.680 thinnest iPad pro because the ad showed an enormous hydraulic 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:59.040 press crushing stuff like musical instruments and stereo equipment and 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.440 paint containers and more, and that really upsets some artists 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.200 who traditionally have been among the most enthusiastic customers of 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.280 the iPad, and so Apple said, whoops, sorry about that. Anyway. 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.840 The iPad pro comes in thirteen and eleven inch sizes. 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:18.000 It's got an M four processor and an ultra retina 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.120 XDR display. It's supposed to be real pretty. Apple says 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:27.079 it is quote an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.080 end quote. So you know, buzzwords of the day it 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.760 is available starting May fifteenth. You can pre order it now, 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.160 and the base model for the eleven inch version that's 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.840 Wi Fi only starts at nine hundred and ninety nine dollars, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.000 and obviously the price goes up from there depending upon 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.240 the size and the features you want, how how much 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.520 storage you want in it, et cetera. Also, if you 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.120 want the new Apple Pencil Pro to go with it, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.160 that'll set you back an extra one hundred and twenty 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:04.080 nine bucks, So yay. Speaking of Apple and AI, the 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.440 Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has a new project 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.040 code named ACDC, which is not a reference to the 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:16.200 Australian rock band. Instead, ACDC stands for Apple Chips in 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.760 Data Center and that part of this project involves Apple 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.880 developing its own chips for data centers that are running 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.000 AI applications. So, according to The Wall Street Journal, Apple's 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.040 plan is to hone in on data centers that run 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.240 actual AI implementations as opposed to data centers that are 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.960 used to train AI models. So why is Apple not 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.440 getting into the training area. That's largely because Nvidia has 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.160 a huge head start as far as developing chips for 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.600 AI training purposes, and Apple would rather aim for a 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.200 different spot on the AI food chain. Whether Apple's ACDC 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.320 plan will shake me all night long remains to be seen. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:03.000 Microsoft's top brass made some big and somewhat controversial decisions 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.560 this week. One of those decisions affects executive compensation and 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:12.040 it links it to cybersecurity. So essentially the new Secure 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.920 Future Initiative or SFI, which is a kind of an 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.839 umbrella plan at Microsoft, the new version is tying security 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:25.159 milestones to part of executives pay. Now which part of 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.800 executives pay, I don't know how much of executives pay 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.839 will be tied to this, I don't know, but the 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.520 message is pretty clear. Microsoft wants to reverse the trend 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:39.040 of recent security intrusions, which is not a surprise for 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.000 multiple reasons. I mean, among the things that Microsoft does 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.520 is it hosts services that are used by other companies, 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.720 and if Microsoft can't demonstrate that it is secure, then 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.480 it loses all that business. You know, having bad security 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.920 is a bad business plan. Plus, the US government, in 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.400 the form of Homeland Security, has been very very much 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.800 concerned about Microsoft's failure to detect and stop some high 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.479 profile hacker attacks. So not a big surprise that Microsoft 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.360 is telling executives, hey, we need to get on this 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.479 or else you're not gonna get all your bonuses. But 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.360 I said, Todd Brass made some big decisions, which is plural, right, 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.200 not just tying executive pay to security. So among those 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.120 big decisions were some pretty sad ones, like closing multiple 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.880 video game developer studios. Microsoft is one of the few 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.120 really big companies that have scooped up a bunch of 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.400 smaller companies in the video game space in recent years, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.640 and now some notable studios are getting shut down. Among 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:45.360 those are Austin Arcane, which recently produced the vampire shooter 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:50.120 game Redfall. Notably, Redfall got a very lukewarm reception, but 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.920 from one I understand, the team behind Redfall was put 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.400 in a pretty impossible situation. It's sounded to me like 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.320 there were a lot of shifting priorities during development that 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.599 we're coming from leadership, and when that happens, it's pretty 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:07.599 much impossible to deliver upon expectations because the expectations themselves 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.599 keep changing. But in addition to Austin Arcane, Microsoft is 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.400 also shutting down Tango Game Works, which recently produced the 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.640 acclaimed game Hi Fi Rush Alpha Dog Games is also 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.279 on the chopping block. That company makes mobile games, and 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:29.120 Zenemax Online Studios is to absorb another company called Roundhouse Studios, 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.480 which will be no more. The closures are going to 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:37.640 affect previous promises that were you know about unreleased content 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.400 for titles like Redfall. So if gamers actually shelled out 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.880 money for stuff that was supposed to include DLC, that's 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.760 you know, supposed to be coming down the pipeline. Well, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.400 now that DLC is gone, it's been scrapped. But Microsoft 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.640 says it will make good on those various deals. No 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.279 word yet on how many staff are going to be 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.440 laid off. Some people are going to be show to 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.800 new teams, but other people will be let go. And 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.640 it's a really tough time in the video game industry 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.160 in particular, but tech in general right now. And just 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.960 as a matter of contrast, I feel I should also 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.320 point out Microsoft currently has a market capitalization of more 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:25.040 than three trillion dollars. It is a three trillion dollar company, 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.880 you know, I think that's something that should be kept 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.720 in mind as we hear about how many people are 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.640 getting laid off from this three trillion dollar company. Also, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.680 the day after the announcement talk about tone death. The 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.640 head of Xbox Game Studio said in a town hall 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.120 call that quote, we need smaller games that give us 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:51.160 prestige and awards end quote. But literally that was Hi 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.480 Fi Rush. High Fi Rush was a smaller game. It 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.400 was released in a surprise release. No one had even 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.680 heard about the darn thing when it came out, and 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.000 it actually won some awards, so it meets those criteria. 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.320 And the day when this guy says we need games 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.000 that are going to be small and prestigious was the 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.280 day after they had shut down a studio that had 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.360 made a game like that. So yeah, very much mixed 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.760 messages and very upsetting. All right, up next, we'll talk 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.360 about some more trouble in big tech. Google reportedly had 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.000 a bit of a tense all hands meeting this week. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.920 The company recently posted an extremely positive earnings report for 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:35.040 the company, like they did gangbusters business this past quarter. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.680 But this comes at a time when Google's also been 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:43.080 making some pretty drastic cuts across its businesses, including significant layoffs. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:47.240 So employees had left comments wanting to know what the 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.160 company was going to do to address issues with morale, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.760 which is a good question because it sucks to work 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.800 for a company where you or your coworkers are worried 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.720 about getting laid off every day while the company itself 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:03.679 seems to be flourishing. That kind of disconnect is really upsetting. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.840 Staffers argued that Google has done very well, but in 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.040 the meantime quote many Googlers have not received meaningful compensation 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.520 increases into quote. That's according to one staff member who 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.840 left a comment on this town hall Zoom meeting or 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.439 call meeting. I guess I don't know if it was 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.240 over Zoom probably wasn't with it being Google anyway. Others 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.120 pointed out that Google was investing billions of dollars in 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.400 AI and spent like tens of billions of dollars in 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.480 stock buybacks, and instead maybe Google should have been spending 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.400 that money on the people who work at the company. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:38.840 It sounds like it was a really uncomfortable meeting, and 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:43.240 you know, to their credit, the executives actually had responses 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.200 to these. They didn't just sit there silently waiting for 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.840 the clock to run out so that they could leave 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.000 the meeting. They actually did say, you know, and tried 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.760 to express what the strategy was. But I think it 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.680 was such a hard time at Google that those answers 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.680 probably weren't met with a lot of satisfaction. But here's 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.800 hoping that everything gets sorted out fairly. Okay, we've got 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:06.960 a lot more news to talk about, but before we 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:18.959 get to that, let's take a quick break. So we're back. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.600 So over at Tesla, we saw even more job cuts 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.000 this week. That's been going on for a while now. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.520 According to the Register, this latest round of cutbacks impacted 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.240 engineers and developers. This appears to be part of the 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.000 larger move for Tesla to downsize by around fourteen thousand 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.280 jobs total compared to where it started out the year. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.199 The company also appears to have put a hiring freeze 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.239 in place, at least in North America. So according to Gizmoto, 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.880 Tesla went from having three four hundred job listings across 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.360 North America down to just three job postings across the 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.839 entire continent, which is a big old wolf. And then 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:58.400 Tesla's head of product a guy named rich Otto, which 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.240 to me is hilarious. His name is rich Auto and 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.880 he worked for Tesla anyway, He's left. He has resigned 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.440 and said he is donezo with Tesla. He had worked 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.680 there for nearly seven years. Actually came from Faraday Future, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.560 another electric vehicle startup. That one went belly up, but 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.600 Auto did not mince words about his decision for leaving. 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.160 He posted on LinkedIn that the moves that Tesla had 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.600 absolutely disrupted employee morale and made it hard to create 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.480 a long term vision for the company, and he couldn't 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.000 really work there anymore, so said it was time for 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.319 a change and he resigned. Video games are going to 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.760 be popping up throughout this episode. We're back to it 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.840 right now. We had talked previously about Microsoft shutting down 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.120 some studios. This one's going to be a quick one. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.720 Nintendo has announced that it is pulling x slash Twitter 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:51.240 integration from Switch platforms. So previously Switch owners could post 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.840 images from gaming sessions to their connected x formerly known 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.800 as Twitter accounts, but Nintendo is following the lead of 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.120 Sony and Microsoft, which have already ended similar support for 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.400 such integrations. Nintendo did not explain why it made this decision, 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.800 but the educated guess is that it's tied to x 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.920 slash Twitter hiking up the price of its API policies, 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.640 which means that if you build an app that taps 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.559 into x now you have to pay a pretty substantial 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.440 amount of money depending on how frequently your app does that. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.480 So my guess is Nintendo said, we're not seeing benefit 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.600 from this particular feature, let's just cut it because it's 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.800 costing us money. Rumor has it that open ai will 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.920 announce an AI powered search product next week. Reuter's reports 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.760 that the plan is to unveil the search offering on Monday, 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.800 although this is not set in stone. We've been hearing 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.920 some scuttle butt that open ai has an AI backed 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.480 search engine in the works for a while now, and 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:52.920 it seems like this is pretty much a direct shot 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.880 at Google's dominance in the space. This also explains why 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.400 Google has invested billions in AI research and development, because 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.200 the company is terrified that AI is going to drink 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.240 its milkshake. If open ai does announce something on Monday, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.320 then really it is a big slap in the face 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.240 of Google because Google is launching its annual Io Developer 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.880 conference on Tuesday, and undoubtedly that conference is going to 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:20.000 include a lot of talk about AI. So yeah, shots fired. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.680 Some users over at stack overflow, which serves as a 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.360 question and answer site for software developers, are really getting 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.200 ready to do some digital vandalism. In fact, some folks 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.880 have been doing it already. Now the reason they're unhappy 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.160 has to do with open Ai. Stack Overflow recently announced 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.680 a partnership with open ai, and some users are really 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.880 steamed about this. So, to begin with, stack overflow was 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.880 upset at open ai because of the assumption that open 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:51.960 ai was scraping stack overflow for information to train up 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.800 AI models. But then this actual official partnership forms, and 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.680 now some of the folks who have been providing answers 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.319 in stack overflow are really upset because they don't want 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.720 their knowledge to be used as training data for AI. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.960 And they were never consulted or asked about this, you know, 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.640 in advance. It just happened. Now some of them have 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.560 already started to go into their old answers and attempt 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.360 to delete or deface them to foil AI training. But 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.760 that doesn't really seem to have helped much because according 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.400 to Ours Technica, stack overflow employees have been suspending users 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.480 who are doing this. So if you have provided an 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.280 answer and you've gone in and changed it, you could 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.360 get suspended for a given amount of time, like a week, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.520 and they also revert your changes back to what they 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.160 were before, so all that effort goes to nothing anyway. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.560 But it does sound like users are expressing themselves and 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.760 making it known to stack overflow that they are not 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:58.480 happy with this particular arrangement, and I'll be curious to 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.760 see if stack overflow does anything to try and smooth 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.000 this all out, or if they just try and take 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.800 a weight and hope that it goes away approach. TikTok 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.400 announced this week that it will be including a digital 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.040 watermark on content posted to the platform that was generated 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.120 by AI. The company also said it would remove realistic 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.880 AI content that is not labeled as AI, and this 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.120 is all in an effort to curtail attempts to use 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.280 AI to spread misinformation. The digital watermark doesn't just magically 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.240 detect AI though, It's not like it has some killer 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.520 ability to know when something was AI generated. This is 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:40.040 actually an industry standard that some but not all, generative 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:45.040 AI tool makers will incorporate in their tools. So if 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.000 you were to use their tool to create something, there'd 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.080 be this digital watermark there, and that would be what 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:56.160 TikTok would detect and then apply its AI generated watermark 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.160 on top of whatever was being posted to TikTok. But 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.640 if the tool may doesn't incorporate the standard, well then 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.480 TikTok doesn't know magically that it was AI generated. So 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.640 it's not a perfect cure. It just works with the 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.880 companies that are all agreeing to play by this set 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:17.760 of rules. Streaming services continue to try and reinvent cable TV. 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.360 This week, Disney and Warner Brothers Discovery revealed that US 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.440 customers will be able to purchase bundled services this summer 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.880 that include Hulu, Disney Plus, and Max for an unannounced 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.320 amount of money. Like they don't say how much the 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.200 subscription is. Users will have a choice between ads supported 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.200 and ad free tiers of service. Hulu already has options 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.520 to add on access to Max as well as to 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.000 Paramount Plus. So yeah, we're edging closer to having bundles 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.960 of streaming services resemble what used to be cable television offerings, 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.000 or actually what still is cable tv. It's just that 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.040 cable tv is really starting to kind of die off. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.440 But then everyone has been struggling to find a way 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.520 to make streaming a profitable business, so this isn't that surprising. 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.040 And now for some more video game news, Roadblocks announced 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.480 it was cutting back its annual bookings forecasts, so essentially, 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.240 this is an estimate of how much revenue the company 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.560 expects to earn in the upcoming quarters, and Roadblocks said 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.560 it estimated a lower amount than was previously you know, estimated, 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.520 And obviously that got investors in a tizzy because numbers 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.840 supposed to go up. No, like when number not go up, 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.360 grow grow grow. Sorry, the older I get, the grouchier 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.840 I am about late stage capitalism anyway. In other video 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.080 game financial news, EA confirmed that the company is looking 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.439 at introducing ads in Triple A video games in the future. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.960 Advertisements in games is not a new thing. There's been 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.560 everything from brand integrations to full on commercials to those 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.040 annoying little ads that pop up in mobile games, and 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.080 so they've been part of the industry for a while. 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.720 But you don't typically see very many of those pop 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.800 up in a seventy dollars triple A title because you know, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.879 customers get grouchy if they've spent seventy bucks on something 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.320 and then they have to watch ads in it. EA 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.760 CEO stressed that any ad integrations would be quote very 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.159 thoughtful end quote, which is good to hear from a 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.960 company that was voted as the worst in America two 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.680 years in a row and happier video game news. Nintendo 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.199 confirmed that the successor to the Switch is coming and 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.479 that the company will announce it this fiscal year. However, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.680 Nintendo's fiscal year starts in April, so that means it 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.560 may not be until the end of March next year 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.840 that we hear anything. But it is coming. It just 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.240 is not going to be part of Nintendo Direct in June. 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.639 That is not going to be when the company announces it. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.200 They've already confirmed there will be no information about it 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.080 at that event. However, you know, the Switch is seven 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.479 years old, it's not really a surprise that the company 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.760 is prepping a follow up. One last story for this week. 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.320 It was supposed to be a test launch for the 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.960 Boeing Starliner spacecraft with an actual crew abord it this week, 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.359 but engineers detected a malfunction in a pressure regulation valve 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.679 on a liquid oxygen tank aboard the Atlas five launch 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.720 vehicle that ended up necessitating scrubbing the mission. It was 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.719 another frustrating setback for Boeing, which is obviously dealing with 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.080 some really serious problems unrelated to the star Liner at 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.040 the moment, so the earliest date for another attempt is 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.960 May seventeenth, at six sixteen pm if everything is ready 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.119 to go by then. At that point, the star Liner 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.960 will be lifted by rocket up into orbit and then 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.560 head off to the International Space Station. So we'll have 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.760 to see if that actually happens next week. All right, 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.160 that's it for this week's tech News. I hope you're 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.840 all well, and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:51.480 Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.480 visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:56.639 to your favorite shows.