We always love to see new players stepping up in the industry and delivering some of the most iconic games fans have ever seen. But recent times have witnessed the rise of veteran developers taking posts instead, trying to turn their experience into something good.

Aqua Racer is a racing Roblox game created by StarCrystal Games.

'From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free!'

Labor Pains: Longshoremen's 'Batman Supervillain' Leader Blinks; Boeing Workers Continue Strike-cation

WATCH: West North Carolina Cries for Resources While FEMA Lets Them Languish on the Tarmac

Hilarious: Kamala Praises Liz and Dick Cheney As Liz Comes Out to Campaign for Her in Wisconsin

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered employees $30,000, or six months of salary, to leave the company if they didn’t agree with his battle against WP Engine. In an update on Thursday night, Mullenweg said 159 people, making up 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer. Automattic, which is in charge of WordPress.com and its commercial services, has been involved in a public dispute with WP Engine after Mullenweg called the third-party hosting service a “cancer” to the WordPress community and banned it from accessing WordPress.org. Mullenweg has claimed WP Engine is violating the WordPress trademark and criticized the company for not giving back to the WordPress open-source project. On Wednesday, WP Engine, which is owned by the private... Continue reading…

Each case includes two matching Bic EZ Reach lighters. | Image: Bic Bic, the company best known for ballpoint pens, razors, and lighters, has just revealed a collaboration that no one could have possibly had on their 2024 bingo cards. Its new Hold the Phone case has a molded cutout on the back to hold one of Bic’s EZ Reach lighters, specifically those designed by Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg as part of a collaboration with the company. Just two color options will be available starting today at 10AM ET in limited quantities: a blue version designed to complement the EZ Reach lighters Stewart helped design and a purple one for Snoop Dogg’s. They’re $49.99 each, made of urethane rubber, and Bic recommends letting the lighters cool for five seconds after use before inserting them back into the case. iPhones... Continue reading…

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The new Microsoft Copilot is a big departure. It shed some of its Bing-y styling and increasingly corporate vibes in favor of something warmer and friendlier, all in an effort to be more than just a work tool. It might just be a website redesign, but it feels like a shift in how Microsoft perceives the future of AI assistants. On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to make sense of that future. Everyone seems to believe in the potential for “agentic” AI, which can use apps and devices on your behalf, but most current tech along those lines feels woefully unfinished. As they get warmer and fuzzier, though, maybe the whole Getting Things Done aspect of AI doesn’t matter so much. We try to figure out where we’re headed next and how long... Continue reading…

Image: Hasbro Epic is trying to turn Fortnite into an ecosystem of games and has enticed the likes of Lego to build experiences for the platform. Now, Hasbro is jumping in as well, with plans to create Fortnite adaptations of its most popular board games. The first is called Murder Mystery: Clue, and it’s available today. It’s not exactly a board game (see the screenshot above) but, rather, a reimagining in the form of a multiplayer murder mystery that takes place over multiple rounds, a style that has proven popular in games like Among Us. (Epic launched its own take on the genre with a limited-time Fortnite mode back in 2021.) Hasbro is also planning a version of Guess Who? for later this month and Connect Four in December. The games were built... Continue reading…