Aggregator

A new survey of over 300 US and UK gaming executives found that 72% view Steam as a monopoly. "Furthermore, 88% said that at least three-quarters of their revenue came from Steam, while 37% reported that the platform accounted for 90% of their total revenue," adds Techspot. From the report: Atomik Research conducted the recent survey on behalf of Rokky, a company that helps game publishers minimize the impact of grey market key resellers on prices. In addition to opinions on Steam, developers also answered questions about the PC market's biggest challenges. The increasing popularity of free-to-play games such as Fortnite, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike 2, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Roblox topped the list of concerns for 40% of respondents. Approximately a third mentioned market saturation and discoverability, echoing data that suggests there aren't enough players for the thousands of new titles released on Steam each year. A similar portion of survey respondents also expressed concerns regarding subscription services.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cruz Beckham's older girlfriend dedicated an Instagram post to Sir David on Wednesday, after he received his knighthood.

John Cleese was was reunited with his Monty Python co-stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam at the London screen of his new documentary on Wednesday.

The BBC are said to be plotting to make a big announcement for the comeback of their hit police drama, after a five-year hiatus off screens.

The Big Brother host, 37, took to social media on Tuesday to share a glimpse into the couple's relationship.

London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and West Yorkshire counterpart Tracy Brabin were also flying to Rio de Janeiro for local leader summits. Officials would not say how many civil servants were attending.

Rama Duwaji is far from the usual US politician's spouse. While their normal fate is to be dragged around the election ­circuit, Ms Duwaji has not accompanied her spouse on the campaign trail.

Experts today urged people to focus on eating well, exercising and not smoking to help keep the heart healthy and reduce dementia risk.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Google Maps is heading in a new direction with artificial intelligence sitting in the passenger's seat. Fueled by Google's Gemini AI technology, the world's most popular navigation app will become a more conversational companion as part of a redesign announced Wednesday. The hands-free experience is meant to turn Google Maps into something more like an insightful passenger able to direct a driver to a destination while also providing nearby recommendations on places to eat, shop or sightsee, when asked for the advice. "No fumbling required -- now you can just ask," Google promised in a blog post about the app makeover. The AI features are also supposed to enable Google Maps to be more precise by calling out landmarks to denote the place to make a turn instead of relying on distance notifications. AI chatbots, like Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT, have sometimes lapsed into periods of making things up -- known as "hallucinations" in tech speak -- but Google is promising that built-in safeguards will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong road. All the information that Gemini is drawing upon will be culled from the roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps' database of reviews accumulated during the past 20 years. Google Maps' new AI capabilities will be rolling out to both Apple's iPhone and Android mobile devices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The beloved presenter, 65, first crossed paths with Steve - then a cameraman - during her TV-AM days in the 1980s, and the pair went on to tie the knot in 1992.

Brooklyn Beckham was besieged by disappointed fans with comments about missing his father's knighthood in one of his previous Instagram posts.

Some clever networking hacks open the door

AI search provider Perplexity's research wing has developed a new set of software optimizations that allows for trillion parameter or large models to run efficiently across older, cheaper hardware using a variety of existing network technologies, including Amazon's proprietary Elastic Fabric Adapter.…

Kim Kardashian turned up the heat for her fans, dropping behind-the-scenes snaps from her jaw-dropping nude shoot for RE-EDITION magazine.

Joey Barton claimed on Wednesday that he posted tweets linking Jeremy Vine with convicted paedophiles to build up a boxing-style rivalry between them which would benefit the TV presenter.

Scientists have called for a ban on SUVs in Britain, as figures show the supersized cars are more likely to be involved in fatal collisions.

A new bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley would require companies and federal agencies to report quarterly on AI-related workforce changes, including layoffs, new hires, and retraining efforts. The data from the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act (PDF) would then be compiled by the Department of Labor into a publicly available report. "This bipartisan legislation will finally give us a clear picture of AI's impact on the workforce," Warner said in a statement. "Armed with this information, we can make sure AI drives opportunity instead of leaving workers behind."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Kanye West is not laidback about what his wife Bianca Censori does with her body.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 plane exploded shortly after taking off from Kentucky 's Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville overnight.

Degraded performance and possible dependency problems across AZs

Microsoft has warned of a “thermal event” impacting Azure users in its West Europe region, and perhaps elsewhere.…

The 53-year-old empty nester - whose daughter Apple Martin also sings - called it 'a night in NYC to remember'