Techno Blender
Digitally Yours.

Sony aims for June 13th US launch for revamped PlayStation Plus

Sony is aiming to launch its revamped PlayStation Plus tiers in the Americas on June 13th, the company announced Friday. Sony is targeting a launch date first in markets in Asia (with the exception of Japan) on May 23rd, followed by a Japan launch on June 1st, an Americas launch on June 13th, and a Europe launch on June 22nd. Sony first announced the new tiers in March, with the premium options offering perks like access to a collection of games to download or stream and the ability to play classic PlayStation, PS2,…

TCL 30 V 5G review: Verizon 5G and not much else

If you find yourself face to face with the TCL 30 V 5G, chances are you’re at a Verizon store or on Verizon’s website contemplating its prospects as a “free” phone. Free is nice! But free may even be too steep for the 30 V 5G. The 30 V 5G’s full retail price, which few people will opt to pay upfront, is $299. That gets you a nice, big full HD display, a healthy 128GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and a 4,500mAh battery that easily lasts over a day. Those specs are just fine — even good for a budget phone where lower-res 720p…

Instagram is testing a way to make Reels using formats from other posts

Instagram’s testing out a new feature, called Templates, that will let creators make Reels by borrowing formats from other videos on the platform, according to a report from Insider (via TechCrunch). The feature appears somewhat similar to TikTok’s own templates tool, which allows creators to drop their own content into a premade sequence. Reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi spotted an early version of Templates in January, while marketing manager and influencer Josephine Hill has already gotten to experience the…

Borderlands 3 is finally getting crossplay support with PlayStation consoles

Gearbox Software added crossplay to Borderlands 3 last year, but Sony’s platforms didn’t support the feature at first. That will change soon, as the company announced at PAX East that full crossplay support — including with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 — will be arriving sometime in the spring, GameSpot reports. When the feature is available, PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Stadia players will all be able to play the game with each other. Sony has been resistant to enabling crossplay on some games in the past,…

21 Raven Software QA employees will be allowed to have a union election

Twenty-one Raven Software QA employees have until May 20th to submit their ballots in a historic video game industry union vote. Today the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decreed that voting for the union would commence and that the voting unit would be composed of those 21 employees, against Activision Blizzard’s argument that the voting unit should be opened to all Raven employees. In a statement to The Verge, Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George said: While we respect the NLRB process, we are…

Halo Infinite’s long-awaited campaign co-op mode is slated for August

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is targeting a “late August” launch for the game’s long-awaited network co-op campaign mode, the game’s head of creative Joseph Staten says in a new Halo Waypoint blog post. As part of a new roadmap included in the post, Staten also shared that 343 is targeting an open beta for Halo Infinite’s Forge mode in September. 343 Industries announced months ahead of Halo Infinite’s December release that co-op and Forge mode wouldn’t be available at launch. The developer then said it was…