Back in March, cross-platform end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS was announced, and Google Messages is beginning to test the new Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol.
Experts say that as generative AI becomes more sophisticated, it's becoming harder and harder for the average listener to distinguish between human and machine.
Gen Z — it’s a group that can feel like an elusive, rare species to today’s publishers. How do these young adults get their news? And are they even consuming news at all in the traditional sense?
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After protests from creators over a delay in the launch of Fortnite’s official “Squid Game” integrations, Epic Games has said it will better coordinate future IP rollouts to align with the original properties’ release dates.
“Squid Game” is Netflix’s most popular series of all time, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at Fortnite. The platform is currently devoid of any creator-made “Squid Game” experiences — and not due to any lack of interest on creators’ part. Creators on one of the top gaming platforms are currently unable to monetize what has become one of the world’s most prominent media properties during the hype period following its June 27 release.
Fortnite has long been home to fan-made “Squid Game” islands, with titles like “Octo Game 2” and “Squid Guys” building organic audiences on the platform since the first season dropped in September 2021. But afterEpic Games announced an official “Squid Game” licensing agreement with Netflix last month, the company started to crack down on these unlicensed experiences, removing them from the platform entirely. So far, the only sanctioned integration is a“Squid Game” section within “Reload,” an experience created in-house, not by the creator community.
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Instagram is ramping up efforts to drive interest in its Creator Marketplace with a brand new, 26-page how-to document for marketers — aimed at making the whole process quick and painless. All they need is a business account and access to Meta’s business suite to get the ball rolling.
In July 2022, Instagram started testing its initial marketplace feature, but it was only available on an invite-only basis to select business and creator accounts. Three years later, the image-based platform has opened the doors to what the set-up guide describes as “the best place for brands to discover and evaluate creators for partnership ads”. As the guide states: “you will learn how to access creator marketplace, and discover, evaluate, and connect with creators for your next campaign.”
Having seen the importance of creators to Instagram, it’s no surprise that Meta wants to go one step further and make the collaboration between brands and creators as seamless as possible. And it probably helps that the feature helps keep Instagram in line with its main platform competitor TikTok and its own creator marketplace.
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This week’s Media Briefing looks at the rise of the AI browser war, and what this means for publishers who are already feeling the pressure of declining referral traffic due to AI search tools.
AI browsers could accelerate the decline of search traffic, and push publishers to find more ways to make money from AI companies, execs said.
Google Discover adds AI summaries, Washington Post creates new “Futures” team, and more.
What the AI browser war means for publishers
Some days, it feels like publishers are stuck inside a disintermediation hamster wheel.
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The 2025 upfront season is starting to wrap, with sources claiming digital is on the precipice of dominating spend, bringing a new paradigm to negotiations.
Clients’ pricing models often favor cheaper CPMs… the challenge is streaming video is expensive
Anonymous townhall participant
It’s one where sellers’ ability to offer granular measurement of ROAS, and decipher how CPMs are structured, matters as much as the stars of a primetime show when it comes to winning the lion’s share of advertiser budgets. As ad spend on streaming prepares to surpass media investment on linear TV at the upfront negotiations, this is especially the case.
Earlier this week, such debate dominated Digiday’s first-ever CTV Ad Strategies event, hosted in midtown Manhattan, where attendees voiced their frustrations about the fusion of these previously distinct worlds, as well as their successes.
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Apple is expanding its collection of Apple News+ Puzzles with yet another new game. This time, Apple is tapping into something we all know and love: emoji.
The new Emoji Game was initially announced as part of iOS 26 at WWDC. The game, however, is now rolling out to all iPhone users running iOS 18.4 and later as well as iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4.
Sponsored by 1Password: For a limited time, get $20 off the easiest way to stay secure online with 1Password—featuring a new passkey feature that lets you go passwordless on compatible apps and sites.
It’s Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and the venture capital faucet is wide open. Today’s tech funding news slate spans everything from AI-driven utilities and autonomous bulldozers to crypto stablecoins and battlefield power systems. We’re running a little behind today—but trust […]
The battle between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the three former executives at its developer Unknown Worlds continues. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire — the three executives who Krafton terminated earlier this year — have filed a lawsuit detailing the alleged attempts by Krafton to torpedo the early access release of Subnautica 2 with the express purpose of avoiding paying a promised earnout bonus of $250 million.
“Krafton’s actions have already severely damaged fan anticipation and undermined the potential release of Subnautica 2,” the lawsuit says.
That earnout was promised by Krafton to the former executives and roughly 100 developers and was to be paid should Unknown Worlds hit revenue goals by the end of 2025. Subnautica 2, slated for early access release sometime in late 2025, would have all but assured those goals were met.
According to the lawsuit filed today in a Delaware chancery court, Krafton also knew Subnautica 2 was on track to meet if not exceed the revenue target to trigger the payout and began to take steps to essentially prevent that. The original Subnautica, an underwater survival adventure game, was a critical and commercial success, and its sequel has become the second most wishlisted game ever on Steam.
The lawsuit details a meeting between Krafton’s US and Korean employees concerning the marketing strategy for Subnautica 2. After that meeting, Krafton’s US employees, who worked closely with the Subnautica 2 team, reported that Kafton’s attitude about the game had changed.
“Upon their return, the El Segundo team—Krafton employees—reported to Gill that Krafton’s leadership was not focused on a successful launch, but instead on how it could convince Unknown Worlds to delay the game.”
The lawsuit additionally states that Krafton’s US employees explicitly revealed to the Unknown Worlds founders that “Krafton’s legal team was combing through the agreements looking for any opening to terminate the Founders if they proceeded with the planned release.”
The lawsuit provided the details of the deal in which Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds back in 2021. The lawsuit says that part of that deal was an agreement that the founders would maintain control of the company and the release schedule of Subnautica 2, while Krafton could not impede the game’s development nor fire Unknown Worlds’ founders without cause.
According to the lawsuit, Krafton launched a campaign to do both. Krafton allegedly failed to follow through on several of its development responsibilities for Subnautica 2 including pulling marketing and localization support. “Indeed, one of Krafton’s El Segundo publishing employees reported to Gill that Krafton Headquarters told all Krafton teams to stop all creative tasks related
to Subnautica 2.”
The lawsuit claims that Krafton took these obstructionist actions to delay the game to explicitly avoid the $250 million payout. At a meeting between Krafton CEO Changhan Kim and Charlie Cleveland, Kim allegedly stated that, “if Unknown Worlds released the game on its planned timeline […], it could be disastrous financially and hugely embarrassing for Krafton.” Krafton declined to comment.
After the initial story broke regarding the alleged reason for Subnautica’s delay, Bloomberg reported that Krafton agreed to extend the timeline for the earnout to account for Subnautica 2’s later release. Previously, the company denied that it delayed Subnautica 2 for any other reason but to polish the game. Earlier this week, an internal document regarding Subnautica 2’s development were leaked on Reddit. The document, consisting of two pictures taken of a computer screen, outlined the content originally planned for the game’s early access launch and how some material had to be changed or removed to meet the release date. Krafton acknowledged the veracity of those documents saying, “Given these circumstances, Krafton has determined that transparent communication is necessary and has chosen to confirm the authenticity of the document,” possibly to bolster its argument that Subnautica 2 was not ready for its early access release.
