Gaming

Little Umbrella’s next Jackbox-style game pits you and your friends against an AI game show host 

Web-based party games are making a comeback, now with the infusion of generative AI. Among the startups joining the trend, the current forecast looks good for one startup, Little Umbrella, which leverages AI for its social party games.  The company announced on Thursday its $2 million seed funding round. Little Umbrella plans to use the […]

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Peacock is experimenting with mini-games and short videos

As Peacock continues to trail behind major players in the entertainment industry like Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube, the streaming service is adopting strategies similar to its rivals with two new initiatives: mini-games and a short-form vertical video feed. The company previewed these experiments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday. Starting this

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FTC distributes $72M to Fortnite customers tricked into making unwanted purchases

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced that it’s sending the first round of payments to consumers tricked by Fortnite maker Epic Games into making unwanted purchases, with refunds totaling over $72 million. The settlement, first announced in December 2022 and finalized in March 2023, fined the game $245 million for its “counterintuitive, inconsistent,

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Bye-bye bots: Altera’s game-playing AI agents get backing from Eric Schmidt

Autonomous, AI-based players are coming to a gaming experience near you, and a new startup, Altera, is joining the fray to build this new guard of AI agents. The company announced Wednesday that it raised $9 million in an oversubscribed seed round, co-led by First Spark Ventures (Eric Schmidt’s deep-tech fund) and Patron (the seed

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Twitch’s TikTok-like discovery feed is rolling out to all users

Twitch is officially rolling out its new TikTok-like discovery feed to all users this week, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feed, which is launching as a tab within the Twitch iOS and Android apps, allows viewers to scroll through bite-sized bits of content to discover new streamers. The official launch follows Twitch’s earlier

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Fintech gaming startup Sanlo’s webshop tool could help developers avoid costly app store fees

Sanlo, a fintech startup that helps gaming companies manage finances, announced Wednesday the closed beta launch of its webshop tool, giving select game developers and studios a plug-and-play solution that works alongside their existing tech stacks. Gaming companies can sign up for a demo starting today. With Google and Apple charging a 30% fee for

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Apple pulls a Game Boy emulator for App Store violations, but says game emulators are allowed

Apple has removed iGBA, a Game Boy emulator app for the iPhone, after approving its launch over the weekend. The app was among the first to capitalize on Apple’s newly relaxed rules around retro game emulators, a move the tech giant made after EU regulators forced Apple to open up to App Store competitors, like

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