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Portal shooter Splitgate 2 is coming back with a new name and rebuilt experience after being pulled back to beta earlier this year, developer 1047 Games announced. The free-to-play Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will relaunch on December 17th across platforms including Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. "After months of community feedback, testing and rebuilding the entire experience, this is Splitgate refocused on what made it special in the first place: classic arena combat without factions, abilities, or extra noise," the developer shared in a blog post, along with a gameplay video. Splitgate 2 originally launched in June, but 1047 Games pulled it back to beta after deciding that the release had been rushed. For the new version, the company said, "we took the best of Splitgate 1 and Splitgate 2" and cut the parts that didn't fit, while refining the ones that did. "in the process, we not only rebuilt the game, we reconnected with the magic of the genre that built this studio in the first place: a return to the Arena." Here are some key changes made: Removed Splitgate 2's factions, abilities, and select equipment so the focus is back on classic arena combat without the extra noise. Rebuilt progression from the ground up so your time in game feels rewarding, with weapon and character cosmetics you can earn simply by playing. We've added a true Classic Arena mode with even starts and new map pickups, recapturing the feel of the original. Fine tuned combat to better match expectations for a modern arena shooter, with more meaningful gunfights and fewer "what just happened" moments. Completely overhauled the ranked system so your rank reflects your actual skill for players who love to climb and compete. Added key systems you have been asking for: Mode Select, Player Stats, Ranked Leaderboards, and Account Levels. Introduced five brand new maps and six fully reworked arenas, bringing the total map pool to 20. Added three new LMG primary weapons and the iconic Power Weapon, the Railgun. 1047 Games was savaged earlier this year by Splitgate players after co-founder Ian Proulx wore a hat at Summer Games Fest stating "Make FPS Great Again." Later, he posted to the studio's X account on Splitgate 2's release date that he was "not here to apologize" and that the hat was "not a political statement," finally admitting that it was all basically a publicity stunt.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/splitgate-arena-reloaded-tries-to-fix-what-splitgate-2-broke-130027714.html?src=rss
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Microsoft's Copilot+ initiative launched last year with a clear goal: To produce capable laptops for people eagerly anticipating AI-powered features. Read that sentence again, and it's glaringly obvious that Microsoft's plan was flawed from the start. Most consumers aren't nearly as hyped for AI features as the companies eager to foist artificial intelligence upon us. And those features aren't exactly compelling, either. Microsoft's Recall which snaps screenshots of your PC to create a database of everything youve done was dogged by privacy concerns from the start. And to be honest, I haven't found its ability to remember the files and websites I've opened to be that useful.Without any sort of killer AI app, most consumers weren't going to pay a premium for Copilot+ systems either. Not in this precarious economy, anyway. So it wasn't a huge surprise to see sales of Copilot+ systems going practically nowhere over the last year. In the third quarter of 2024, they accounted for less than 10 percent of systems shipped, according to data from Mercury Research (via Toms Hardware). The research firm IDC (via PCWorld) also found that Copilot+ systems made up just 2.3 percent of Windows machines sold in the first quarter of 2025 (and a mere 1.9 percent of the entire PC market).Instead of continuing to promote Copilot+, Microsoft now wants to "make every Windows 11 computer an AI PC". The new "Hey Copilot" voice commands and Copilot Vision, a feature that lets the AI assistant see what's on your screen, are both cloud-powered. That means you won't need the beefy 40 TOPS neural processing units (NPU) found on Copilot+ systems to use them. Microsoft spent the past few years touting NPUs as the gateway to useful AI features, like Recall and Windows Studio webcam effects, but only one of its new AI capabilities actually requires an NPU. (And even that is just a slight update to Click to Do, allowing you to send Zoom invitations by right-clicking on e-mail addresses.)It's easy to view the whole Copilot+ initiative as a cynical way to ramp up AI hype and push people towards expensive new laptops, especially as the October 14 Windows 10 end of support date loomed. But it also led to some genuinely useful changes: Microsoft made 16GB of RAM a standard for Copilot+ systems, along with 256GB of storage and the aforementioned 40 TOPS NPUs. The launch of Copilot was also the kick in the pants Microsoft needed to revamp Windows for mobile Arm processors. I never thought I'd love a Surface with a Snapdragon chip, but the improved Arm support on the Surface Pro and this year's smaller model finally won me over.The Dell 16 Premium sitting on a ledge.I wouldnt call the Copilot+ program a huge swing, but its still the sort of industry-wide cat herding thats rare to see in the PC space. Microsoft couldnt just snap its fingers and shift all PCs to efficient mobile chips with powerful NPUs, like Apple did with its own jump to M-series chips years ago. Microsoft had to wait for new NPU-equipped hardware from Qualcomm (and eventually Intel and AMD). It had to finally fix the Windows on Arm problem. And it also had to double-down on AI features that felt truly transformative. Its just a shame that consumers didnt seem to care.Microsoft said that Copilot+ systems accounted for 15 percent of premium PCs sold during last years holiday season, but the company hasnt released any new sales figures since then. This is the fastest adoption I've seen of a new category of hardware, and we've done it faster than the normal generational shift of silicon, James Howell, Microsofts VP of Windows marketing, said in a conversation with Engadget. Copilot+ PCs continue to be a transition that we are pushing for and prioritizing. But I can't give you the exact numbers beyond that Just for the last two or three months, we've been doing pretty well with year-on-year growth in the Windows business.Surface Pro Copilot+Devindra Hardawar for EngadgetWhile Microsoft ultimately doesnt have much to show for the Copilot+ initiative, the steady progression of hardware will lead to AI PCs dominating over the next five years. The research firm Omdia predicts that AI PCs will account for 55 percent of computers shipped in all of 2026, up from 42.5 percent of systems in Q3 2025. By 2029, Omdia predicts AI PCs will make up 75 percent of all systems shipped, giving Windows 80 percent of the AI PC market. Omdia AI PC shipment predictionsOmdiaIts important to note that this steep adoption curve [for AI PCs] is driven more by the product roadmaps of the PC market, rather than consumers and businesses seeking PCs specifically for AI, according to Omdia research analyst Kieren Jessop. For businesses, and consumers especially, AI-capable PC adoption is more a function of a customer going to purchase a device and that device just so happens to have an NPU.Microsoft was basically right: AI PCs are the future. But it turns out the AI features people actually want to use like ChatGPT, Sora and Microsofts own Copilot are mostly powered by the cloud, making onboard NPUs superfluous. That wont be true forever. There are tangible security, speed and convenience benefits for onboard AI processing, like transcribing sensitive audio instead of sending it to the cloud. But for now, those AI workloads are relatively niche, and theyre not enough to make the Copilot+ a true success by any measure.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/microsofts-copilot-ai-pc-plan-fizzled-but-it-still-served-a-purpose-130000239.html?src=rss
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Spinning off from the action-camera company Insta360, Antigravity now has its debut drone on sale. With 360-degree cameras that capture 8K and offer you a truly unconstrained view of the skies, the A1 is a different drone from everything else out there. Sorry, DJI. Instead of typical drone joysticks, you get a motion controller that lets you point and shoot like video game gesture controls, while crisp FPV goggles put you right inside the cockpit. Engadget Its easy to fly after takeoff, but the A1s myriad parts are often tricky to sync together and pulling video down to the companion app is even trickier. Going on specs alone, like speed and camera sensor size, it doesnt stand up to cinematic drones from the likes of DJI. Still, its not meant to be a cinematic drone. Its a hybrid mix of flight experience, FPV drone and a not-miss-a-thing camera drone. Its truly unique and fun. Mat Smith The other big stories (and deals) this morning The best Christmas gifts to give everyone on your 2025 holiday shopping list A shaky year for American EVs could set the tone for 2026 Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review Amazon Lunas December lineup includes Hollow Knight, Lego 2K Drive and a few Fallout games Amazon halts its incredibly poor AI anime dubbing beta Ridiculed by all. Amazon has quietly removed its terrible AI-generated English dubs for several anime shows on Prime Video, following widespread ridicule from viewers and the industry. AI dubs were recently added to Banana Fish, No Game, No Life and Vinland Saga, where they were labeled AI beta in the Languages section of the app. For shows lacking an English-language dub, it was a seemingly cheap way to consume anime for Amazon. However, it quickly became clear that the dubs were really quite bad. Baaaad. Voice actor Daman Mills called the AI-generated dub for Banana Fish a massive insult to us as performers in a post on X. Continue reading. Amazon thinks about ending ties with the US Postal Service The company continues to invest heavily in its own shipping network. An Amazon double today. According to The Washington Post, Amazon is considering discontinuing use of the US Postal Service and building its own shipping network to rival it. The e-commerce behemoth spends more than $6 billion a year on the public mail carrier almost 8 percent of the services total revenue. Thats up from just under $4 billion in 2019. That split might be due to a breakdown in negotiations between Amazon and the USPS rather than Amazon proactively pulling its business. Amazon has invested heavily in all kinds of delivery methods, including shipping logistics, buying its own Boeing planes, launching its own electric delivery vans and slowly building a drone delivery network. Continue reading. Amazons Kindle Scribe Colorsoft finally has a release date December 10, just in time for the holidays. Engadget A triple? Sorry. Amazon didnt have a specific release date to share beyond later this year for its latest Scribe slates. And talk about brinkmanship! Here we are in December. The company says the devices will be available on December 10. This is the third generation of the Kindle Scribe line of E Ink writing tablets the first time Amazon has three versions of the Scribe. At the entry level, the Scribe without a front light starts at $430, while the model with a light starts at $480. The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will start at $630. You always have to pay more for color. Continue reading. Nikon ZR camera review A highly capable cinema camera at a reasonable price. The Nikon ZR could be a breakthrough for content creators, largely because it incorporates technology from RED a company now owned by Nikon. The combination of professional-grade video quality (specifically RED RAW) and autofocus comes at a fraction of the cost of dedicated cinema rigs. There are some compromises on battery life and the lack of a viewfinder, but the ZR arguably offers the best video quality for the money. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-orning-after-engadget-newsletter-121538076.html?src=rss
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