No more Mahi Mahi?
We’ve been thirsty for news, any news on the release of Dolphin on Steam ever since it was announced for a Q2 release in March of this year. We’ve quenched our thirst – though not in the way we were hoping. Nintendo has hit the open-source emulator with a Cease and Desist letter, coupled with a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice, placing the entire project’s Steam future in jeopardy, according to the developer’s blog post.
“It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.”
While emulators themselves are legal, Nintendo does raise a solid point of contention – specifically with Dolphin’s distribution of the Wii AES-128 disc encryption, explains Pierre Bourdon, a recent ex-member of the Dolphin team in a series of posts on Mastodon. Where most other emulators would require users to provide their own key, Dolphin has been shipping out their build with the Wii’s “common key” embedded in the source code for years.
As for what this all means, we can’t be sure. Should the Dolphin team file a counter-notice, it would give Nintendo two weeks to scrounge up as many lawyers as it possibly can to put a stop to the emulator’s distribution on Steam. Whether Nintendo or Dolphin will pursue further legal action remains to be seen.
Source: PC Gamer
AI, but for videogames
As much as we detest the incessant AI speak that’s gripped the world this year, Nvidia’s recent announcements at Computex 2023 actually have us a little excited about the future of AI in gaming. And… a little terrified.
The announcement involves a demo showing off an astonishing render of a cyberpunk-style ramen shop. To interact with the owner, players will need to speak to him using a microphone. All of a sudden, Nvidia’s “peek at the future of games” statement doesn’t seem quite so silly now.
Rather than picking text from a predetermined dialogue tree, Nvidia’s demo has the ‘player’ speaking to NPCs around them who will answer back conversationally providing information based on what they’re asked. The demo shows a player asking “Hey Jin, how are you?” who replies with “Unfortunately, not so good”, before continuing the conversation – eventually leading to a plotline surrounding a crime lord and an underground fight club.
Sure, the dialogue isn’t stellar. But it’s worth remembering that this is a proof of concept – whose entire purpose is to show that it can function, rather than function well. Nvidia built this demo with the help of Convai to promote the tech used to make it – Nvidia ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) for Games – which can run locally and in the cloud. And, speaking with The Verge, Nvidia’s GeForce Platinum VP said that the tech was scalable to more than one NPC at a time, meaning they could theoretically talk to one another.
Yet, we seem to be so sure that we are the simulation makers, rather than the subjects.
Source: The Verge
WhatsApp’s done it again
WhatsApp is continuing its latest streak of half-decent updates, with the folks over at WABetaInfo unearthing a new, much-requested feature – screen sharing – in the app’s latest beta build for Android.
Judging from the screenshots above, screen sharing will be implemented through a new button on the messenger’s control panel during video calls. Tapping it will raise the prompt: “WhatsApp will have access to all of the information that is visible on your screen or played from your device while recording or casting. This includes information such as passwords, payment details, photos, messages, and audio that you play,” with users given an option to ‘Start now’ or ‘Cancel’.
It’s nice to see WhatsApp adding yet another feature to give Microsoft’s Teams or Zoom a run for their money. Though its true purpose, becoming a portal for family tech support, is still yet to be uncovered. Let’s keep this one quiet around the geriatrics, yeah?
Source: WABetaInfo
Naughty Dog announces delays
Last week’s PlayStation Showcase left a lot to be desired. Sure, we got a ten-minute look at Spider-Man 2, Ghostrunner 2 and a few other titles that piqued our curiosity. But Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer project was mysteriously absent, despite rumours it would make an appearance at the event.
It turns out things haven’t been going so smoothly in that project’s development. In the same announcement, the developer did share that a “brand new single-player experience” was in development but chose not to elaborate on the issues plaguing The Last of Us multiplayer game, though Bloomberg later reported on the incident. Unfortunately, Naughty Dog also chose not to provide a new release window leaving the game’s fate up in the air.
“The team working on the game was scaled back after a recent evaluation, said the people, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. A small group remains on the project while the company reevaluates the direction. While the game has not been cancelled, many of its developers have been moved to other projects.”
Source: The Verge