Axios has rediscovered a long-lost exclusive release for the original Xbox, which was developed by the team behind a series of acclaimed Star Wars games and quietly canceled by Microsoft two decades ago.
Why it matters: Knights of Decayden (sometimes spelled as Decadyn) has been largely unknown to the public until now and helps highlight a hidden part of early Xbox history.
Hasbro and the New York Times are partnering to turn the popular word puzzle game Wordle into a board game, the companies announced Thursday.
Flashback: Wordle, a daily word game which was bought by New York Times for an undisclosed price in January, went viral after it was first released to the world last October.
That question has been posed to entrepreneurs by venture capitalists so often that it's become a cliché. But not when asked of Richard Socher, the former Salesforce chief scientist who founded a web search startup called You.com.
Driving the news: You.com today is announcing $25 million in Series A funding led by Radical Ventures.
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to begin exploring how its broadband affordability programs can be better tailored to help survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
The big picture: Domestic violence affects more than 12 million people a year, with advocates warning that pandemic lockdowns led to an uptick in cases.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Federal Trade Commission Thursday, the latest in a heated back-and-forth between the country's biggest business lobby and the government's consumer protection agency.
Driving the news: The Chamber filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the FTC for "its lack of transparency and accountability," per an announcement.
Celsius Network on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the embattled crypto lender halted customer withdrawals in the face of insolvency. Celsius is casting its bankruptcy as a restructuring rather than a liquidation.
Why it matters: The firm is just one among several platforms in crisis amid the great debt unwinding that marks this crypto winter, leaving their customers—many of whom were regular people drawn in by the firm's promises of uber-high yields—in the lurch.
The Biden administration is open to cutting bait on an expansive China competitiveness bill and encouraging Congress to focus solely on passing some $52 billion for the semiconductor industry before leaving for August recess.
Driving the news: In an interview with Axios, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the country doesn't have the luxury of waiting for the House and Senate to hash out all the differences on their competing versions of the stalled legislation.
Valve’s new handheld console the Steam Deck has received a wave of positive reviews, but it also has helped to set a new standard in what an open device can offer.
Why it matters: Gaming devices, like PlayStations and iPhones, have classically restricted what they can play and where users can buy games. A new wave of consoles with open designs is giving players free rein to load any software they want and tinker with devices.
A new Walking Dead project debuting on Facebook this week will unfurl a months-long story that is shaped by the decisions of thousands or even millions of people playing a connected video game.
Why it matters: Its creators at GenVid call it a MILE, or massively interactive live event, and pitch it as part of the future of entertainment.
Amazon's video doorbell Ring has shared footage with law enforcement multiple times this year without users' consent, the company said in a letter made public Wednesday.
Why it matters: The proliferation of video doorbells has raised complicated questions surrounding privacy and law enforcement access to footage.
Unity Software, a San Francisco-based interactive gaming engine, agreed to buy Israeli app monetization company IronSource for around $4 billion in stock.
Why it matters: IronSource is the latest in an escalating series of SPAC splats, despite profits and increasing revenue, as it went public just one year ago via a Thoma Bravo-sponsored SPAC at an implied equity value of $11.1 billion.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok all get failing marks when it comes to protecting LGBTQ users on their social networks, according to a new report from GLAAD.
Why it matters: Civil rights groups say there is a direct connection between the online harassment and discrimination faced by members of underrepresented groups and real-world violence and erosion of civil rights.
Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk reads much like the filing in a divorce proceeding: A few substantive charges mixed in with a bunch of dirty laundry and the complaints of a former lover who now feels jilted.
Driving the news: Twitter on Tuesday made good on its threat to sue Elon Musk for trying to back out of his $44 billion takeover, filing a 62-page complaint, augmented with another 180 pages or so of exhibits.
Creepy or cool? New products that let people keep relatives "alive" via AI are proliferating — offering, say, an interactive conversation with a recently departed dad who took the time to record a video interview before he passed.
Why it matters: As interest in genealogy and ancestryproliferates, these tools let families preserve memories and personal connections through generations — even giving children a sense of the physical presence of a relative who died before they were born.
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