AI gets a new Runway
You might be tired of the constant spew of AI news, but it isn’t going away. Every company with a working bank account is in on the hype. Some are producing some rather extraordinary tech. One such company is Runway, and it’s just stepped up AI’s game. Specifically, it just launched the second generation of its Motion Brush tool, which brings aspects of a still image to life in just a couple of seconds.
It’s capable of animating small stuff, like the swirling smoke from a cigarette or a bird’s early morning stretch. It’s best showcased by Rory Flynn on X.com, who has gone and created some stunning ‘videos’ since the tool’s release to show off the tool’s powers. The videos produced are generally only four seconds long (especially if you’re a free user), creating a powerful tool for content creators who want extra b-roll while they spout criticisms of whatever new Star Wars show or movie is popular.
We just had to give it a go for ourselves. Signing up is free, though doing so does invite a few limitations, the biggest being the 105-second credit limit that can’t be replenished without punching in some credit card numbers. Still, email addresses and password generators are free, right? If email spamming doesn’t sit right with you, there are different tiers available, though they’ll set your wallet back a fair bit.
First, we took to Canva’s text-to-image generator to get us a simple still of a waterfall. We ran it through Runway’s Gen-2 Motion Brush tool – highlighting the parts that would be moving if it were a video and voila. Less than a minute later, Runway spat out a four-second-long video of a waterfall (pictured above), free of charge.
If this is what Runway can pull off, we’re keen to see what those companies with budgets larger than South Africa’s GDP – OpenAI, Meta, Stability, Google, and Microsoft – will create in the next few months.
Sony’s next big step into mobile
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) just signed a “strategic global business partnership” with NCSoft, a South Korean company you’ll probably know better by the fruit it bears – Guild Wars and Lineage – two massively online multiplayer titles. It’s big news for Sony and NCSoft. A partnership that’ll see both companies “collaborate in various global business fields, including mobile”? Sign us up.
It’s that “various global business fields” statement that caught our eye. No specific plans or games were mentioned or even hinted at in either company’s announcements of the team-up. Still, it indicates that Sony’s primary goal is to use NCSoft’s tech to bolster its mobile division and leaves the door open to something a little bigger.
When asked about Sony’s odd phrasing by Digital Trends – whether it meant the partnership would produce console games or not – a Sony spokesperson said that the Japanese conglomerate doesn’t have any news to share on that front. Neither company had much to say about when we could expect news, either. We know the two are cooking up something (or multiple somethings), but don’t get your hopes up for anything Sony-branded in the mobile market quite so soon.
“Partnering with NCSOFT advances our strategy to expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation’s reach to a wider audience,” said Jim Ryan, president and CEO of SIE. “Like SIE, NCSOFT shares a similar vision in creating high-quality, impactful entertainment experiences for players everywhere, and together we’re excited to collaborate to push the boundaries of gaming further.”
Attack on Titan’s best game is fan-made
Feeling listless? Like life doesn’t matter anymore? If that’s you, we get it. We too have seen the ending of Attack on Titan and we’re still having difficulty getting over it. It wouldn’t be all bad if Omega Force – the developers behind the series’ games – had, you know, delivered a product worth spending a few bucks on. A fan by the name of SwammyXO (on X.com) has taken it upon himself to deliver exactly that. For free.
Yup, there’s now a fan-made Attack on Titan and it looks, for want of a better word, rad. SwammyXO recently tweeted that the game was complete, with the tagline: “Fight Titans! Host your own Lobbys! Play with your homies!” Uh, we’ll get right on that, thanks. The tweet also came with a look at the fast-paced action that the “official” games are so lacking.
That alone was enough to catch our attention. Throw in the added multiplayer support, and you’ve got a winner on your hands. Unfortunately, Swammy won’t be reaping any monetary reward. We’re hoping that the praise of the AoT fandom is enough to keep the lights on (it isn’t).
The game’s creator posted a video to YouTube detailing more about the game’s development, noting that there would be around four or five updates taking place before it is deemed as a final build. That means the squashing of bugs picked up by players and the addition of new character models from the manga and series. The video is also where you’ll find links (in the description) that’ll get you playing before the end of the day.
Finally! We get a look at the Fallout TV series.
Bethesda hasn’t had the strongest of years in recent memory. From being a leader in the RPG space, the formula – for that’s exactly what it is – has gone stale with time. In short, it’s what went so wrong with the company’s space epic: Starfield. Bethesda is hoping to recapture its fans (and entrap a few new ones) through TV. Specifically with the Fallout TV series, which just dropped a slew of new images.
The series, which has been in development for some three years under the Prime Video banner finally has something to show for its efforts. It’s not a trailer, but some plain-old stills that show off stuff like the Brotherhood of Steel, Vertibirds, and of course, Walton Goggins’ Cowboy Ghoul. We know that the series is dropping on Prime Video come 12 April 2024, so a full-blown trailer can’t be too far off.
Still, the images we do get a glance of look… half-decent. Videogame to TV adaptations are becoming increasingly popular as time passes, with HBO’s The Last of Us show doing a lot of the recent heavy lifting. We know that the series is a fresh take on the Fallout universe and won’t be covering any of the story beats from Fallout 3 or 4. It’s also got the brother of Christopher Nolan – Jonathan Nolan – at the helm, so we’re a little more confident in its abilities than say, The Rings of Power.