Sure, why not: Wordle is becoming a board game

Wordle players who can’t resist posting their scores on social media to show off their verbal smarts can now subject friends to this behavior in-person. Hasbro and New York Times Games announced a physical adaptation of the online word game phenomenon to be called Wordle: The Party Game, designed to be played with multiple players or teams.

Each round of Wordle: The Party Game begins with one player (the so-called “Wordle Host”) who writes down a secret word. The rest of the players will be given six tries to guess it, much like the online version. Players who take fewer attempts to guess the secret word will earn less points, and the player with the least points at the end of the game wins. The game comes with three Wordle boards, a secret word board for the host and dry-erase markers There’s also a set of physical green and yellow tiles that mimic the ones used in the game.

The board game will cost $19.99, and is available to pre-order today at Amazon, Target and Hasbro’s online store. Wordle: The Party Game is expected to hit stores in October, which will also be the one-year anniversary of the online game’s release to the public. Since its debut, the strangely addictive word game has been purchased by the New York Times and inspired a number of spin-offs, including Tradle, which has players identify countries by their exports and Heardle, a guessing game for popular songs. Earlier this week, Spotify purchased Heardle for an undisclosed sum.

Facebook test lets users have up to five profiles for the same account

Facebook is testing giving users the ability to create up to five profiles on the platform, a major change to its longstanding policy that only allows people to have a single account and identity on the service. The upcoming test was reported byBloombe…

GLAAD: Social media platforms don’t do enough to protect LGBTQ users

Social networks still aren’t doing much to safeguard LGBTQ people against abuse, according to GLAAD. Bloombergnotes the media monitoring organization has published its second-ever Social Media Safety Index, and has given failing scores to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube after examining their LGBTQ-oriented features and policies. While GLAAD found that all the platforms had strong policy commitments and barred hateful ads, their actions generally didn’t live up to those goals.

None of the five platforms did enough to restrict anti-LGBTQ content, the watchdog said. They also fell short on offering gender pronoun options, providing adequate moderator training, minimizing takedowns of legitimate content, banning non-consensual ad targeting and protecting the privacy of gender identity and sexual orientation data. Only TikTok and Twitter adequately barred targeted deadnaming and misgendering (maliciously using a trans or non-binary person’s pre-transition name or gender), while Facebook and Instagram were the only ones making sufficient promises to shield LGBTQ users from harm.

GLAAD made recommendations in the wake of the findings. It called for more policies against practices like deadnaming and unwanted ad targeting. The organization also wanted Facebook to outline how it enforces its LGBTQ policies, and YouTube to disclose how it minimized wrongful demonetization and content bans. There was also pressure on TikTok to publicly promise to diversify its workforce.

All five social networks defended their current approaches in statements to Bloomberg. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said it barred dehumanizing and violent anti-LGBTQ material, and will pull misgendering content upon request. Twitter said it already worked with GLAAD and was discussing the new recommendations. YouTube parent Google stressed that it made “significant progress” in pulling harmful videos, while TikTok highlighted both its anti-hate policies and recent tools to promote kinder comments.

As Bloomberg pointed out, though, there are still significant gaps in these protections. GLAAD is hoping the Safety Index will pressure companies to act, and that regulators will step in to demand greater accountability.

A docuseries based on Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist is coming to Hulu

Hulu has ordered a docuseries inspired by the influential hip-hop playlist RapCaviar from Spotify and Sony’s IPC studio, reportedThe Hollywood Reporter. RapCaviar Presents will feature the perspectives of artists like Tyler, the Creator, Jack Harlow, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Saweetie. The show has no official release date yet, but is expected to debut on Hulu sometime later this year.

For those who are unfamiliar with RapCaviar, both the 14-million follower strong playlist and companion podcast are known for launching the careers of once unknown artists such as Migos, Lil Uzi Vert and Kyle. For emerging hip-hop artists, getting a track featured on RapCaviar can quickly result in millions of streams and draw the attention of record labels. The creator of the playlist is Tuma Basa, Spotify’s global head of hip hop programming, who hand-picks the music himself.

Filmmaker Karam Gill (Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine) will serve as executive producer and creative director of the docuseries. The co-EPs are Av Accius and Marcus A. Clarke. The showrunner is Steve Rivo, the writer of the Showtime film about the world’s longest-running music video, You’re Watching Video Music Box.

If the appetite for original programming about music is strong enough, we could possibly see even more documentaries and shows in other genres from Spotify in the future. There’s even a fictionalized series about Spotify in the works. The Playlist, a scripted series about the music streaming service’s origin story, will debut on Netflix later this year.

Instagram creators can now lock photos and Reels behind a paywall

Instagram has been building out its creator subscription program this year and now it’s slotting a couple of key pieces into place. Creators can now share subscriber-only feed posts. Those Reels and photos will have a purple badge with a crown symbol t…

A single-player Aliens game is in the works for PC, consoles and VR

Between Alien: Isolation, Aliens: Fireteam Elite and the upcoming Aliens: Dark Descent, fans of Aliens games already have a number of titles to enjoy or look forward to. Now, Survios is adding another one to the mix. 

The studio is working with 20th Century Games on an untitled Aliens game for PC, consoles and virtual reality. It will be a single-player, action-horror game. The developer will reveal more details at a San Diego Comic-Con panel on July 21st.

To date, Survios’ games have mostly been for VR, including a racing title called Sprint Vector and a licensed The Walking Dead offering. It has made one non-VR game so far, a boxing title based on the Rocky/Creed franchise. The studio’s Aliens game is likely some time away — Survios is still putting together a team to work on it. However, VR is typically a good fit for horror games. Alien: Isolation’s VR mode alone might be enough to convince you of that.

Twitter suffers worldwide outage

Twitter’s recent troubles include more than its battle with Elon Musk. The social media giant has suffered a global outage that started shortly after 8AM Eastern. Users reported a variety of glitches, including generic “error” messages and even broken website alerts. The issue affected both Twitter’s web version as well as apps, including third-party clients. The service appeared to be recovering as of 9AM ET, but the collapse still put a damper on many morning tweets.

We’ve asked Twitter for comment. The company’s status page made no mention of platform problems during the outage.

This isn’t the first significant downtime for Twitter this year. There were two partial outages in February that limited posting and loading tweets for some people. This new failure is considerably more substantial, however, and it brings further attention to Twitter’s uncertain future now that Musk is trying to cancel his $44 billion acquisition.

Nintendo is buying an animation studio to help create its own ‘visual content’

Nintendo has acquired the Japanese CG production company Dynamo Pictures and plans to rebrand it as “Nintendo Pictures,” the company announced. Its aim with the new subsidiary is to develop visual content using Nintendo IP and focus on “the planning and production of visual content including CG animation.” Dynamo worked with Nintendo before on the Metroid: Other M game also has credits on anime TV series like Evangelion: 2.0. 

Nintendo is gearing up for its Super Mario Bros. movie starring Chris Pratt, which was recently delayed to April 2023. The live adaptation of Detective Pikachu based on the Pokémon franchise was successful enough that a sequel is in the works, but the last major cinema release was way back in 1993 with Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins. 

Movies and TV series based on gaming IP are a popular trend at the moment, with movies like Sonic based on Sega’s popular character seeing impressive success. Sony recently released an Uncharted film and HBO is producing a TV series based on The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal. With its latest acquisition, Nintendo could be ready to bring more of its content to the small and big screens, which is (hopefully) good news for fans of its games. 

PS Plus Extra and Premium games for July include ‘Stray’ and ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’

Sony has announced the first new batch of games for its higher PlayStation Plus tiers since it revamped the service. Along with the three titles that are available for PS Plus Essential members and those in the current Extra and Premium libraries, subscribers will have access to a bunch more games as of July 19th.

One of those is Stray, a cyberpunk adventure game in which you play as a cat with a drone companion. It’s the first time that a third-party title will be available on a higher PS Plus tier on its release date. You’ll have access to the PS4 and PS5 versions. 

Members will also be able to check out PS5 blockbuster Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. The PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake was previously available to claim through PS Plus. However, for a while, those who snagged it were unable to get Intergrade without paying for the full game. Square Enix eventually relented and offered an upgrade path.

Also on July 19th, Extra and Premium members can play Marvel’s Avengers on PS4 and PS5 at no extra cost. Things haven’t exactly goneincrediblywell for that but the gameplay is solid. Crystal Dynamics just added the latest playable character, The Mighty Thor (Jane Foster), a few weeks ago.

On top of those, you’ll have access to a bunch more Assassin’s Creed games, Saints Row entries and some other games:

  • Assassin’s Creed Unity (PS4)

  • Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (PS4)

  • Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered (PS4)

  • Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry (PS4)

  • Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection (PS4)

  • Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (PS4)

  • Saints Row Gat out of Hell (PS4)

  • Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition (PS5)

  • Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure (PS4)

  • Jumanji The Video Game (PS4)

  • Paw Patrol on a Roll! (PS4)

  • ReadySet Heroes (PS4)

Premium members will be able to dive into a couple more PlayStation Portable titles in the form of No Heroes Allowed! and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival as well. That’s a fairly solid slate of additions overall, with something for just about everyone.

Sony says it will continue to shakeup the PS Plus lineups on a monthly basis. It will refresh the Essential library at the start of each month and add new games to Extra and Essential a couple of weeks later. Bear in mind that games will cycle in and out of the Extra and Essential tiers, but you’ll have access to Essential titles you claim as long as you maintain a PS Plus subscription.