‘Outer Wilds’ will be upgraded for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S September 15th

Outer Wilds is getting a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade on September 15th, and it’ll be free for anyone who already owns the game on PS4 or Xbox One. Outer Wilds is a brilliant open-world mystery about exploring strange planets and unlocking the secrets of an endless time loop that’s consumed the solar system, and it first landed in 2019. It’s the first console and PC game out of indie studio Mobius Digital, and it’s picked up a handful of prestigious accolades since launch, including Best Game at the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards.

The native PS5 and Xbox Series upgrade will hit 60fps. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, a big and beautiful bit of DLC for the game, will also be upgraded and included in the new version.

The Switch version of Outer Wilds is set to come out after the new upgrade in September, and this is a delay from its original release window of this summer. Mobius Digital made all of these announcements during today’s Annapurna Interactive showcase.

‘As Dusk Falls’ review: A sluggish small-town soap opera

As Dusk Falls is an ambitious narrative adventure game that fails to execute its grandest ideas, hemorrhaging tension along the way. It attempts to tell a mature, action-packed tale about family and loss, but repeated missteps in logic and emotion stri…

The new Instagram map is like Google Maps but with more selfies

The map function on Instagram got a lot more useful today, in a Google-inspired kind of way. The new Instagram map supports searches and filters, allowing users to look up restaurants, attractions and other hot spots directly in the app, rather than simply viewing where a photo was posted. The updated map also features posts, stories and guides tagged by users, offering a glimpse into the local scene wherever you search.

The map supports hashtag searches and offers the ability to explore by tapping tagged locations in the feed or Stories. You can also type the name of an establishment, city or neighborhood directly into the Explore page and see results on the map. The new map allows users to save their searches in a collection and share locations with other Instagrammers, as well.

Using location stickers on posts and Stories will add that content to the search results on the new map, as long as your profile is public. Visually, the map features Instagram icons where the attractions are, allowing searchers to tap and see Stories or visit the profile pages of businesses they find interesting.

This is yet another step in Instagram’s plan to become a one-stop shop for social networking, commerce, traveling and, like, life in general. For instance, earlier in July, Instagram rolled out the ability to buy things directly in chat. Moves like these make it easier for users to simply stay on Instagram, rather than opening up Google Maps or Venmo and taking their ad-supported eyeballs elsewhere.

Scammers are blackmailing restaurants across the US with one-star Google reviews

For the past week, a handful of high-profile and Michelin-starred restaurants from San Francisco to New York City have been targeted in an extortion campaign weaponizing Google reviews. It appears to be a coordinated effort: The restaurants receive a barrage of one-star reviews on Google — you know, the ratings that show up when you search for anything on Maps — and then the owners receive an apologetic email asking for a $75 Google Play gift card in order to stop the digital bombing.

Kim Alter is chef and owner of Nightbird, a fine dining restaurant in San Francisco that was hit by this campaign. On July 5th, she shared an email she received from the extortionists after her restaurant was inundated with negative reviews. The email read as follows:

“Hello. Unfortunately, negative feedback about your establishment has been left by us. And will appear in the future, one review a day. We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice. The fact is that we live in India and see no other way to survive. We are begging you to send us google play gift card worth $75.”

The message then offered a link to buy the gift card on PayPal and an email address to receive the code. It concluded with another apology.

Alter shared the email on Twitter and tagged Google, asking for the company’s help in removing scam-related reviews. She tagged a handful of other acclaimed SF-based restaurants that were experiencing the same review bombing, including Sons & Daughters, Acquerello, 3rd Cousin, Marlena, Birdsong and Nari. But this wasn’t just a West coast thing — high-profile restaurants across the country received the same threats and negative reviews this past week, including Ever, Roux, EL Ideas and Sochi Saigonese Kitchen in Chicago.

A Google Maps spokesperson told The New York Times on Monday that the company was investigating the issue and removing reviews from people who didn’t actually visit these establishments. The Google Maps team explained in February how it used machine learning and live moderation to identify and stop review bombing, writing, “Our systems continue to analyze the contributed content and watch for questionable patterns. These patterns can be anything from a group of people leaving reviews on the same cluster of Business Profiles to a business or place receiving an unusually high number of 1 or 5-star reviews over a short period of time.”

This particular extortion campaign seems to fall in that final category, with restaurants receiving a bunch of one-star reviews at once, but owners like Alter had to take the issue to social media to get help from Google. One week after Alter’s tweet, it looks like the scam-related one-star reviews have been purged from the affected restaurants’ profiles — for now.

‘Skull and Bones’ finally arrives on November 8th, just four years behind schedule

Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s long-awaited open-world pirate simulator, is coming out on November 8th, 2022. It’s due to hit Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, Steam, the Epic Games Store, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, as well as Ubisoft Connect. 

This release date has been a long time coming — Skull and Bones was announced at E3 2017 and it was even playable at that show two years in a row, but Ubisoft has kept fairly silent on the pirate sim since 2018. In today’s stream, developers briefly explained what happened: Part-way through development, they rebooted the game as a grittier, more realistic experience than originally planned. Today, Ubisoft showed off the reimagined Skull and Bones with a live stream, cinematic trailer and gameplay video.

At its heart, Skull and Bones is an open-world, online experience with co-op elements, but players will be able to log into PvP servers as well. The core game is all about climbing the ranks to become an infamous pirate on the Indian Ocean, sailing, crafting, managing assets, battling and strategizing on the high seas during the golden age of piracy.

Players start with a small ship and as they progress, they’re able to craft larger and more intricate vessels, customizing along the way. As captain, players have to manage the crew, and ensure they’re well-fed and happy enough to stop any thoughts of mutiny. If the ship sinks, players start over and can recover their cargo, as long as another pirate doesn’t get there first.

Ubisoft is set to host another showcase on September 10th, this one focused on Assassin’s Creed and some of its other, less piratey, properties.

NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark

NASA has lost contact with CAPSTONE, a tiny satellite that left Earth’s orbit on July 4th. CAPSTONE is a cubesat weighing just 55 pounds, and it’s headed for the Moon as part of NASA’s plan to get humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. 

The small satellite stopped communicating with engineers on July 4th shortly after deploying from an Electron rocket bus and exiting Earth’s orbit. A NASA spokesperson told Space.com that the team has solid trajectory information for CAPSTONE and handlers are attempting to re-establish contact with the cubesat. 

“If needed, the mission has enough fuel to delay the initial post-separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days,” the spokesperson told the site.

CAPSTONE spent six days building up speed in-orbit on a Rocket Lab Electron booster and finally deployed yesterday, on a path to the Moon. The plan is for CAPSTONE to enter a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon on November 13th, serving as a test for NASA’s Artemis mission. With Artemis, NASA plans to install a space station called the Lunar Gateway in the Moon’s orbit, serving as a permanent floating base for lunar visitors, complete with living quarters and a laboratory.

NASA plans to kick off its Artemis 1 mission between August 23rd and September 6th with the deployment of an unmanned Orion module, which will orbit the Moon and provide data about how the trip might affect the human body. After that, four astronauts will take off for the lunar satellite. Finally, some time after 2025, NASA plans to put humans on the Moon again.

Ubisoft will drop details on Assassin’s Creed and more games on Sept. 10th

Ubisoft will share updates and announcements about its roster of projects in a showcase on September 10th at 3PM ET. The event will be streamed on Ubisoft channels on YouTube, Twitch and the studio’s official website, and it’ll include news on “multiple games and projects from Ubisoft teams around the world,” according to spokesperson Youssef Maguid.

Back in June, Ubisoft confirmed plans to share information about the future of Assassin’s Creed during a special event in September, and this appears to be that. Ubisoft is currently working on two Assassin’s Creed projects: one is a live multiplayer experience spanning multiple time periods codenamed Infinity, and the other is a standalone series installment codenamed Rift. Early reports indicate Rift started out as an expansion to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it stars Basim Ibn Ishaq from that title.

Alongside Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft is the caretaker of Far Cry, Rabbids, Beyond Good & Evil, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rayman and Prince of Persia. A remake of the original Prince of Persia has been bouncing around Ubisoft’s studios for a few years and is now in development in Montreal, due out some time after April 2023.

Ubisoft is also hosting a broadcast for its open-world, online pirate simulator Skull and Bones on July 7th at 2PM ET. Skull and Bones has been kicking around since 2017 and it was even playable in 2018, but updates since then have been few and far between.

Activision Blizzard shareholders approve plan for public report on sexual harassment

Activision Blizzard shareholders on Tuesday approved a plan for the company to release an annual, public report detailing its handling of sexual harassment and gender discrimination disputes, and how it’s working to prevent these incidences. The proposal was initially made in February by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Under the proposal, Activision Blizzard will have to publicly disclose the following information each year:

  • The number and total dollar amount of disputes settled by the studio relating to sexual harassment and abuse, and discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, service member status, gender identify, or sexual orientation — covering the last three years

  • What steps Activision Blizzard is taking to reduce the average length of time it takes to resolve these incidents internally and legally

  • The number of pending complaints facing the studio relating to sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination, internally and in litigation

  • Data on pay and hours worked, as required by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing

The DFEH sued Activision Blizzard in July 2020, alleging executives there fostered a culture of rampant sexual harassment and systemic gender discrimination. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also sued the studio over these allegations in 2020, and Activision Blizzard settled with the federal agency in March, agreeing to set up an $18 million fund for claimants. Activists, employees and the DFEH have argued that this settlement is too low, and former employee Jessica Gonzalez appealed the ruling in May. The DFEH estimates there are 2,500 injured employees deserving more than $930 million in compensation.

“For years, there have been alarming news reports that detail allegedly rampant sexual abuse, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation directed toward female employees,” a statement in support of the proposal to shareholders reads. As an investor-focused document, it outlines the ways in which systemic discrimination and sexual abuse can damage the studio’s revenue streams and its ability to retain employees, saying, “A report such as the one requested would assist shareholders in assessing whether the company is improving its workforce management, whether its actions align with the company’s public statements and whether it remains a sustainable investment.”

While Activision Blizzard is facing multiple lawsuits and investigations in regards to sexism, harassment and discrimination, some employees at the studio are attempting to unionize with the help of the Communications Workers of America. This would be the first union at a major video game studio and could signal a shift in the industry’s longstanding crunch-centric cycle. At Tuesday’s annual meeting, Activision Blizzard shareholders denied a proposal that would’ve added an employee representative to the board of directors, with just 5 percent voting in favor, according to The Washington Post.

At the same time, Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal worth nearly $69 billion. Microsoft has pledged to respect the rights of workers to unionize. And all the while, Activision Blizzard is still making games.