Tech

F1 22 — the official game for the ongoing 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship — will be released on July 1, Electronic Arts announced on Thursday. The successor to F1 2021 will let players race in the latest season with redesigned cars, updated rules, and gameplay options. Gamers will also be able to test out the new Miami International Autodrome. The PC version of the game also comes with VR compatibility, but there's no word from EA on whether F1 22 will come with PSVR support.In an announcement posted to the…

Sony is reportedly working to bring advertisements to free-to-play PlayStation games, according to a report by Insider. The ads would appear in games and are meant to give game developers a way to monetize their work and encourage them to continue building free-to-play games. The in-game ads are expected to launch by the end of the year and would appear in inconspicuous places within the game, like billboards. Players could also get rewards for watching advertisements, and the ads would be sold through a private…

Update April 21st, 6:33PM ET: Sony has sold out of PS5 consoles for now. A year and a half since its release, the PlayStation 5 is still extremely difficult to get your hands on. Sony has been one of the most reliable retailers when it comes to console restocks, though it usually reserves them for invite-only restocks that you have to register in advance for. This is one of the rare moments where Sony is opening up a public queue, so if you’re still in the market for this rare console, either the disc-based PS5 for…

Valve has quietly updated the specs to its still-unreleased official dock for the Steam Deck handheld gaming PC, as reported by Review Geek. The Steam Deck tech specs page originally said the dock would have one USB-A 3.1 port, two USB-A 2.0 ports, and an Ethernet port for networking, but the page now says that all three USB-A ports will use the much faster 3.1 standard, and it now specifies that the Ethernet port will actually be a Gigabit Ethernet port. According to the Wayback Machine, Valve’s Steam Deck tech specs…

You can’t keep a good Sonic game down. As Sonic fans flail about, overjoyed that Sonic Origins will be launching soon, some fans expressed dismay that the franchise’s blue-headed stepchild Sonic Spinball seems to have been forgotten in all these anniversary bundles and rereleases yet again. Nintendo heard those cries of injustice and is adding the “what if Sonic was a pinball?” game to the Sega Genesis library in the Switch Online Expansion Pack. Released in 1993 on the Sega Genesis, Sonic Spinball is a clunky pinball…

The EU has agreed on another ambitious piece of legislation to police the online world. Early Saturday morning after hours of negotiations, the bloc agreed on the broad terms of the Digital Services Act, or DSA, which will force tech companies to take greater responsibility for content that appears on their platforms. New obligations include removing illegal content and goods more quickly, explaining to users and researchers how their algorithms work, and taking stricter action on the spread of misinformation.…

Those squid kids finally have a release date. Nintendo has announced that Splatoon 3 will hit the Nintendo Switch on September 9th. The colorful shooter was previously pegged to launch sometime this summer. Like past entries in the series, Splatoon 3 is a four-on-four shooter that’s like a cross between paintball and Call of Duty where teams of humanoid creatures called Inklings and Octolings compete to paint a battlefield a particular color. The lack of violence and vibrant tone have helped differentiate…

When the Framework Laptop launched, it had all the potential in the world to be both a great laptop and a repairable, upgradeable one. But — and there’s always a but — it was only ever going to work if the ecosystem worked. Framework needed to build a market around the laptop, so it can be bigger than one company’s feature ideas and release cycles. And more immediately, it needed to prove that it was invested in the idea itself, that Framework wouldn’t just move on to newer and shinier things that break from its…

Meta held its 2022 games showcase this past week, lifting the curtain on several new virtual reality games in the works for the Quest 2 headset. We’ve got a roundup of the titles that we’re most excited about right here. In celebration of the event, Meta has slashed prices on several VR games that see discounts only on a few occasions each year. So, whether you just bought a Quest 2, or you just want to fill out your library a little more, check out these deals. I’ve highlighted a few deals that I think are…

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,…