No way Nintendo took a hit to sales from prices + tariffs on purpose, not to mention spending legal fees, just so they’d get the money they would have got from being greedy assholes which they already were.

It only took a month before Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa foreshadowed tariff-linked price increases, a game industry news site closely monitoring Nintendo’s tariff moves reported. In May, Furukawa conceded that software wasn’t as impacted, but “hardware involves special factors such as tariffs,” which Nintendo must take into account, “while conducting careful and repeated deliberations when determining price.”

However, Furukawa said that the overall calculus for Nintendo weighed against increasing the Switch 2 price even more to cover tariffs, because seemingly Nintendo feared a higher price point would rob Switch 2 of sales and its games of exposure.

I’d argue even that’s better than what we’re getting now. If you’re looking for a car and they’re all in the most popular colour by default, then A. There’s a good chance you’re happy with it; B. You can change it later; but most importantly C. you already want a car. You’ve already bought into the product and are just quibbling about colour. This is seeing all the streetcars in LA being torn up, and a GM salesman is enthusiastically explaining how to get a driving license because it’s what everyone’s doing now they’ve ensured there is no choice.

The initiative to create the social media platform W is supported by an advisory board and former ministers and business representatives, primarily from Sweden.

Welp, that URL’s borked.

As far as I know none of the EU member countries have their own Mastodon servers and most politicians at least here in Sweden seem to be using either X or (the technically minded “progressives”) Bluesky, while they complain about American Big Tech.

Ireland has Mastadon.ie, it’s not official but it is at least a server there.

It’s not just records from hospitals.

The company is encouraging users to connect their personal medical records and wellness apps, such as Apple Health, Peloton, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, and Function, “to get more personalized, grounded responses to their questions.” It suggests connecting medical records so that ChatGPT can analyze lab results, visit summaries, and clinical history; MyFitnessPal and Weight Watchers for food guidance; Apple Health for health and fitness data, including “movement, sleep, and activity patterns”; and Function for insights into lab tests.

It’s noted in the article.

When asked if ChatGPT Health is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gross said that “in the case of consumer products, HIPAA doesn’t apply in this setting — it applies toward clinical or professional healthcare settings.”

One of my favourites is Fortress (1992). This has an 38% rotten and a 40% popcorn meter rating on Rottentomatoes.

I’d like to take this moment to say I fucking love Fortress and I wish it had the bigger budget it lost when Arnold pulled out of the project.

It reminds me of the gameplay footage played on short videos to provide visual content while audio is playing, or games optimised for streamers to play and overreact to. They aren’t games that are intended to be played and provide enjoyment that way, but as tools for others to turn into enjoyment from playing them, and then their audience gets that enjoyment from participation or simply watching.

This is just a picture, is there supposed to be an article?

Base 44. Base 44, over and over and over again on my account with the history turned off.

Yeah that was my instant thought.

“I’d have taken it into a different direction so you’re not competing with the modern-day GTA games,” he added. “You’re zagging when everyone else is zigging, so to speak.”

My dude all you’re doing is going from ripping off Rockstar’s San Andreas, to ripping off Rockstar’s Mafia games instead.

I’ve been wanting to play a game with this concept (but taking it serious) for a while; breaking into vehicles / buildings that have had all sorts of disasters happen to them, and trying to repair them enough to delay their destruction and cut a safe passage out for survivors, while not dying in the process. Fighting wind and rain, fire and flood and rising seas as the environment does its best to kill you.

Or imagine every music you listen to has to be vastly different from anything else.

Yeah…imagine if you could sue because someone put out a song with a beat almost identical to your own, which is what Sony is alleging happened here: https://americansongwriter.com/ice-ice-baby-and-the-david-bowie-queen-legal-battle-that-tainted-vanilla-ices-career/

If Meta actually stopped collecting data on users who instead pay them in a straightforward money => experience transaction this would be a great improvement. Except, of course, you know they won’t.

It added that Microsoft “is not in the business of facilitating the mass surveillance of civilians.”

Damn, first I’ve heard of it. The NSA must be running Linux.

Even lawyers can’t get you out of trying to patent something that was clearly already in the market. Previously, Nintendo’s patent lawsuits had been for specific mechanics such as throwing a ball to capture npc animals.

It sounds incredibly vulnerable to this exact argument. Patents aren’t valid if it’s been invented already.

RAS Syndrome

I thought him including video of a trump rally was too blunt, the audio was enough. I enjoyed the implication he was making about the game’s difference between the US and south american superweapons, which isn’t openly stated and doesn’t have to be.

It’s a shame, because their launch site in Bowen is much closer to the Equator than the continental US. When/if they get it right, they’ll be able to need far less fuel than US launch sites.