Elden Ring, the epic dark fantasy title created by Hidetaka Miyazaki in collaboration with George RR Martin, has won the prestigious game of the year prize at the Game Awards. The title beat off stiff competition from God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West and Stray to win the event’s biggest prize. The ceremony has become one of the most influential nights in gaming, as it blends...
Instagram has launched a new tool to let you know if your posts are barred from being recommended to other users. Previously, people were not told if intervention by a platform meant posts did not appear in other people’s feeds – a process known as “shadow banning”. Instagram does not use that term. It says the new tool will inform users if there are restrictions on their...
A commercial DJ, K-pop rapper, and a space YouTuber are to go on a trip around the Moon, after they were picked by a Japanese billionaire for a private SpaceX flight. Businessman Yusaku Maezawa revealed his crew on Friday after a global search for creative individuals last year. American DJ Steve Aoki and Korean star TOP are the most high-profile picks. The flight, scheduled for next year, could...
The US is entering a legal battle with Xbox-maker Microsoft to block its plan to purchase the gaming firm behind hit titles such as Call of Duty. Regulators cited competition concerns, saying they feared that if the deal went through, Activision Blizzard’s games would stop being offered on non-Microsoft gaming consoles. The Activision purchase was set to be the biggest in Microsoft history...
Cleaners at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco have told the BBC they were sacked without severance pay. One of them told the BBC a member of Elon Musk’s team had said their jobs would be replaced by robots. A California state senator said Mr Musk was treating the former staff “like garbage”. San Francisco’s city attorney, David Chiu, said he’s...
Disgraced crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried says he hopes to start a new business to make enough money to pay back victims of the FTX collapse. The 30-year-old faces several federal investigations into his former company’s handling of funds. Speaking in a luxury complex in the Bahamas, the former billionaire denies fraud but says he was “not nearly as competent as I thought I was”...
Sir Elton John has become the latest celebrity to leave Twitter since its acquisition by Tesla boss Elon Musk. The singer, a headline act for next year’s Glastonbury Festival, blamed the platform’s “change in policy” around misinformation without elaborating. Twitter stopped taking action against accounts spreading misleading information about Covid-19 last month. In...
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said they never cited privacy as a reason for stepping back from royal life. Prince Harry and Meghan’s global press secretary said a “distorted narrative” had been created. It follows suggestions from some commentators that their Netflix series, which launched this week, is at odds with their reasons for leaving the UK. The statement said this...
An MI6 spy found dead in a padlocked holdall in his central London flat had accessed bondage websites several times, police have revealed. Gareth Williams, 31, from Holyhead on Anglesey, had also visited a drag show and owned £15,000 worth of women’s designer clothing, detectives said. Mr Williams’ naked body was found at his Pimlico flat in August. Police believe other people helped...
The body of Helen Anderson, 41, of Finsbury Park, north London, was found in undergrowth beside a slip road on the A3 in Guildford on 23 August. The images were taken outside Sirwan Supermarket, Lordship Lane, Tottenham, between 23:00 and 23:40 BST on Saturday, 21 August. Police believe the people on CCTV could help reveal Ms Anderson’s last steps. Last week, police released CCTV images of...