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Halo’s co-creator wrote a novel about AI taking over the world

Concept art of solider robots.

Back in 2019, author Margaret Stohl was handed a manuscript written by Jason Jones, who's best known as the co-creator of sci-fi gaming series Halo and Destiny. The two had worked together at Bungie, and Jones wanted Stohl's opinion on a book he was writing about AI taking over the world. It was an oral history of the fictional events, with around 100 characters spread across 40 countries, all detailing the AI uprising from their own perspectives. Pretty quickly Stohl realized that this idea could be much more than a single book.

"I was floored but not surprised," she says of her reaction to the original manuscript. "He's a worldbuilder who …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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No Man’s Sky is coming to the iPhone and iPad

A screenshot for the video game No Man’s Sky.

The No Man's Sky universe is about to get a little bit smaller - but in a good way. Hello Games announced that its long-running sci-fi exploration game will be coming to iOS, with versions for both the iPhone and iPad available starting on October 28th.

According to Hello's Sean Murray, the mobile version of the game is essentially the full No Man's Sky experience. "I guess I should say this is not No Man's Sky Lite," he wrote in a blog post. It includes all of the game's many, many updates that have come out since launch - like the gigantic Voyagers expansion from last year - and the only major features missing will be multiplayer and the …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Horror is big business

Resident Evil hospital scene

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on how pervasive horror has become, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback, arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

Resident Evil has been around for 30 years, but the survival horror series is more popular than ever. The most recent game, Resident Evil Requiem, has sold 8 million copies since it launched in February, already making it the 14th best-selling game that Capcom has ever made. At the same time, a reboot of the Resident Evil film series from Weapons director Zach Cre …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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The humble Playdate has become one of gaming’s best deals

A photo of the Playdate handheld video game console.

The Playdate, Panic's tiny yellow handheld that launched in 2022, has slowly but surely become a great deal - which is a good thing, because everything else in gaming has only gotten more expensive. Despite being a weird device with a black-and-white screen and a crank jutting out the side, the Playdate has managed to cultivate a strong and constantly growing library of games. And with the handheld's new season 3 of games, the deal has only gotten better.

Playdate's "seasons" are basically curated collections of games that are released over a short period of time. For season 3, there are eight games in total, with two launching weekly over …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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