The sweeping layoffs announced by Microsoft this week have been especially hard on its gaming studios, but one Xbox executive has a solution to “help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss”: seek advice from AI chatbots.

In a now-deleted LinkedIn post captured by Aftermath, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Turnbull said that he would be “remiss in not trying to offer the best advice I can under the circumstances.” The circumstances here being a slew of game cancellations, services being shuttered, studio closures, and job cuts across key Xbox divisions as Microsoft lays off as many as 9,100 employees across the company. 

Turnbull acknowledged that people have some “strong feelings” about AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, but suggested that anybody who’s feeling “overwhelmed” could use them to get advice about creating resumes, career planning, and applying for new roles.

“These are really challenging times, and if you’re navigating a layoff or even quietly preparing for one, you’re not alone and you don’t have to go it alone,” Turnbull said. “No Al tool is a replacement for your voice or your lived experience. But at a time when mental energy is scarce, these tools can help get you unstuck faster, calmer, and with more clarity.”

Microsoft has loudly embraced AI, having announced plans in January to invest $80 billion into AI infrastructure prior to this latest wave of job cuts. That environment might have made Turnbull think his recommendations were reasonable. More broadly, however, generative AI is viewed by some creatives as a threat to creative industries like gaming, which has already struggled with growing layoffs and studio closures over the last few years.

It’s unclear why Turnbull deleted his LinkedIn post, but if the comments on this repost made to Bluesky are any indication, creatives probably didn’t take too kindly to his suggestions.

You can read the full text of the deleted post below:

“These are really challenging times, and if you’re navigating a layoff or even quietly preparing for one, you’re not alone and you don’t have to go it alone.

I know these types of tools engender strong feelings in people, but I’d be remiss in not trying to offer the best advice I can under the circumstances. I’ve been experimenting with ways to use LLM Al tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.

Here are some prompt ideas and use cases that might help if you’re feeling overwhelmed:

Career Planning Prompts:

“Act as a career coach. I’ve been laid off from a [role] in the game industry. Help me build a 30-day plan to regroup, research new roles, and start applying without burning out.”

“What kinds of game industry jobs could I pivot to with experience in [Production/Narrative/LiveOps/etc.]?”

Resume & Linkedin Help

“Here’s my current resume. Give me three tailored versions: one for AAA, one for platform/publishing roles, and one for startup/small studio leadership.”

“Rewrite this resume bullet to highlight impact and metrics.”

“Draft a new LinkedIn ‘About Me’ section that focuses on my leadership style, shipped titles, and vision for game development.”

Networking & Outreach

“Draft a friendly message I can send to old coworkers letting them know I’m exploring new opportunities.”

“Write a warm intro message for reaching out to someone at [studio name] about a job posting.”

Emotional Clarity & Confidence

“I’m struggling with imposter syndrome after being laid off. Can you help me reframe this experience in a way that reminds me what I’m good at?”

No Al tool is a replacement for your voice or your lived experience. But at a time when mental energy is scarce, these tools can help get you unstuck faster, calmer, and with more clarity.

If this helps, feel free to share with others in your network.

Stay kind, stay smart, stay connected.”

Ploopy has announced another desktop accessory called the Ploopy Knob that can function like a control dial for adjusting volume, scrolling documents, or scrubbing through media on a computer. The Canadian company isn’t exactly a household name like Logitech, but Ploopy’s open-source peripherals offer a lot of customizability, and like its mouse and trackballs, you can customize the look of the Knob by 3D-printing your own hardware.

The Ploopy Knob is available now through the company’s website for $49.99 CAD (around $37). Unlike many of the company’s other products, which can be purchased as cheaper DIY kits you build yourself, the Knob is only available as a fully assembled product with software preinstalled that works right out of the box. However, since it’s open-source, you can download all the design files and software on Ploopy’s GitHub page if you want to source the parts and build your own from scratch.

Powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, the Ploopy Knob uses a position sensor with a 12-bit resolution and a polling rate of over 1kHz to track its rotational movements. The company says the Knob supports high-resolution pixel-by-pixel scrolling on Windows and Linux, but warns that the experience may not be as smooth on Apple computers. “macOS does smoothing for input devices automatically. This interferes with the code that runs on the Knob, meaning that pixel-by-pixel high-resolution scrolling doesn’t work on macOS. It still functions as a scrolling device, but the scrolling is in discrete steps.”

As with the company’s other peripherals, the Ploopy Knob uses the open-source QMK firmware, which runs entirely on the device so you don’t need to install additional software on your computer.

Once upon a time in America, there was a tyrant. And Congress rejected him totally.

The tyrant, of course, was King George III, the target of the Declaration of Independence. We take it for granted now, but the Declaration was an enormous political innovation - in it, the country that became the United States of America laid claim to certain "unalienable" rights, rights that took precedence over any king or crown.

To protect those rights, our Founders declared that the People were allowed to "alter" or "abolish" the government - in this case, British rule over the American colonies.

Read the full story at The Verge.

I walked into Blackdot's tattoo studio in Austin's east side on a sweltering May afternoon. After shaking my sweat-soaked hand, founder and CEO Joel Pennington led me up into an office building and opened the door to a small, three-room space. Critics have unflatteringly compared the studio to a sterile hospital room - a comparison not entirely without merit. In a corner room, the machine I had come here to see loomed: a humming, fridge-sized device reminiscent of an old X-ray unit. Blackdot calls it the world's first "automatic tattooing device."

The space was filled with signs of the path traveled so far. Pennington handed me several slab …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been given the thinner, sleeker glow-up we expected, if leaked hands-on photos are any indication. The trio of images posted by leaker @Jukanlosreve seemingly show what the next-gen Galaxy foldable will look like in the real world from a few different angles.

The new photographs mostly line up with what we’ve seen in previous renders, including the larger, slimmer chassis that’s reported to be around 4.5mm thick when open. That’s slimmer than its 5.6mm Galaxy Z Fold 6 predecessor and allows it to better compete against some of the slimmest foldables on the market from rivals like Google and Oppo. We won’t know its official measurements until the launch event next week, but given the SIM tray appears to occupy all available vertical space, it looks very skinny indeed. The speakers and microphone are also visible along the bottom edge of the device.

The redesigned camera array on the rear is distinct from that featured on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, replacing the chunky black rings around the camera lenses with slim silver ones. It contrasts nicely with the striking blue color option, which might be the “Blue Shadow” colorway mentioned in previous leaks.

We also have some new Galaxy Z Fold 7 specs courtesy of an EU smartphone label revealed by MysteryLupin, which lists the device as having the same battery life as its predecessor, that’s expected to last for up to 40 hours and 28 minutes on a single charge. The phone reportedly has an IP48 rating, which means it can be submerged under water for short periods of time, but it’s still susceptible to fine dust particles (like many foldables).

We’re expecting to find out more at Samsung’s Unpacked event on July 9th, where the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is expected to be launched alongside the latest Z Flip 7. A new trifold Galaxy phone may also be unveiled at the event, bolstering Samsung’s lineup of foldable devices.

The new Fairphone 6 is smaller and more modular than older models in the series, but it’s just as repairable. The phone picked up a perfect score in iFixit’s teardown test, despite no longer offering tool-free battery replacements.

It helps that the only tool you do need — throughout the phone — is a T5 Torx screwdriver, and only seven screws sit between you and a battery swap. Fairphone itself has shown you can get from shutdown to reboot with a new cell in just two minutes, so it’s still a simple swap. The company says that the screws are required for the slimmer soft-pouch battery.

The only glue throughout is found on the phone’s mainboard, which is just about the only repair Fairphone doesn’t recommend you make yourself: almost everything else, from the USB-C port to the individual camera sensors, can be replaced with minimal effort. Replacement parts will be available from Fairphone and iFixit, and the phone’s replaceable backplate also enables a line of swappable accessories similar to those found on the CMF Phone Pro 2.

iFixit also rated the phone highly for its IP55 rating — not the best around, but impressive for a phone sealed with screws rather than glue — and for the company’s longterm support. Fairphone is guaranteeing seven years of Android OS updates and eight years of security patches, with a five-year warranty and a loyalty program that rewards you for hanging onto your phone and repairing it.

Despite the high score, iFixit acknowledges that you do compromise on specs by opting for the Fairphone 6. Its dual rear camera is fairly basic, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 chipset is no powerhouse. Even the USB port is limited to sluggish USB 2.0, though the 6.3-inch 10-120Hz LTPO OLED display is more impressive.

This isn’t the first Fairphone to fare so well. Every model since the Fairphone 2 has received a 10/10 in iFixit’s teardown tests, a score that no other phone has ever managed. The Fairphone 6 is available now in Europe for €599 (around $705), from Fairphone and other retailers. It costs considerably more in the US, at $899, where it’s only available from Murena and ships running /e/OS, Murena’s privacy-focused and de-Googled take on Android. It’s available to preorder now, and ships in August.

Bicycle phone mounts have been a regular part of my life in bike-obsessed Amsterdam ever since 2008, when I got my first phone with built-in GPS and turn-by-turn navigation. I've used dozens of mounts since, until they were either lost, broken, or stolen, or something better emerged.

I could have saved a ton of money and annoyance had the $49.95 Loop Micro Mount been available all those years ago.

For the last few weeks, I've been testing the ultra-compact Micro Mount. It took all of three minutes to unbox and screw into my bike's stem cap. Then it just sits there discreetly, out of the way until I expand its jaws to help guide me into pla …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Slate Auto’s American-made electric pickup — the one with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen — is no longer priced “under $20,000.” The increase is a result of Trump’s “Big, beautiful bill,” which will end the federal EV tax credits on September 30th when signed into law later today.

That sub-$20,000 price for the Indiana-built pickup was a big selling point for the EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, and was only possible after applying the $7,500 tax credit to the retail price. The price promotion was scrubbed from the Slate Auto site as recently as yesterday, according to TechCrunch. The website now shows an expected price of “mid-twenties.”

Slate’s under $20,000 price tag for a vehicle it won’t start delivering until late 2026 was always accompanied by an asterisk, with fine print highlighting federal incentives that were “subject to change.” And change was certainly expected: Trump campaigned heavily on the promise to end President Biden’s fictitious “EV mandate,” because electric cars are for socialists in MAGA world.

Trump’s embrace of oil and gas, while simultaneously dismantling incentives meant to spur the adoption of EVs and clean energies, is a gift to Chinese makers of electric cars, solar panels, and batteries. The US is now on course to own the past while China is firmly positioned to dominate the future.

The most frequently curated content on the White House Wire, the Trump administration's attempt to aggregate pro-Trump "real news" from across the right-wing media, doesn't come from Truth Social, Breitbart, or even Fox News. It comes from YouTube - notably, from the White House's own channel.

The White House Wire was launched at the end of April on the official WH.gov page, around the time that the Trump comms team began ramping up its war on the mainstream journalists and outlets who covered them critically. At that time, they'd revoked the Associated Press' credentials after the outlet refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf …

Read the full story at The Verge.

You want your games to play the smoothest they possibly can - but sometimes, screen technology gets in the way. That's why some of the latest TVs and handhelds feature variable refresh rate (VRR) screens that can compensate when your graphics can't deliver a consistent 60 or 120 frames per second.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has a VRR screen - and originally, Nintendo advertised that the Switch 2 would also work with your VRR-capable TV. But Nintendo soon scrubbed mentions of docked VRR from its website, and on May 16th, it apologized. "Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR in handheld mode only," the company told Nintendo Life, apologizing for "the in …

Read the full story at The Verge.

A Freedom of Information Act request has produced letters that the US Department of Justice sent to Google, Apple, Amazon, and several other companies in order to assuage their concerns about breaking a law that banned US web services from working with TikTok.

The documents — obtained by Zhaocheng Anthony Tan, a Google shareholder who sued for their release earlier this year — show Attorney General Pam Bondi and her predecessor Acting Attorney General James McHenry III promising to release companies from responsibility for violating the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required US companies to ban TikTok from app stores and other platforms or face hundreds of billions of dollars in fines. The law was intended to force a sale of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, due to national security concerns.

Additionally, the letters say the Justice Department will step in to prevent anyone else from attempting to enforce penalties, a promise that includes filing amicus briefs or “intervening in litigation.” McHenry apparently sent the first round of letters on January 30th, ten days after Trump signed an executive order delaying enforcement of the law, which took effect the day before his inauguration. A series of follow-up letters were sent by Bondi, including a round dated April 5th, just after Trump extended the delay on enforcing the law to mid-June.

The letters’ existence was known, but until now, their text had not been released. The full list of recipients includes the operators of app stores, cloud hosting services, and more:

• Apple
• Google
• Amazon
• Microsoft
• Akamai Technologies
• Digital Realty Trust
• Fastly
• T-Mobile US
• Oracle
• LG Electronics USA

Trump has since issued a third extension, which expires in mid-September, while promising a sale of TikTok by ByteDance to a non-Chinese owner remains underway. It is unclear whether any of the orders have a valid basis in law.

One name is popping up a lot across tech startup social media right now, and you might've heard it: Soham Parekh. On X, people are joking that Parekh is single-handedly holding up all modern digital infrastructure, while others are posting memes about him working in front of a dozen different monitors or filling in for the thousands of people that Microsoft just laid off.

From what social media posts suggest, Parekh is actually a software engineer who seems to have interviewed at dozens of tech startups over the years, while also juggling multiple jobs at the same time. Several startups had this revelation on July 2nd, when Suhail Doshi, fo …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Republican-controlled US Congress has passed a budget bill that includes cuts to social programs like Medicaid and more funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside provisions that discourage wind and solar energy production. Passed after a marathon debate in both houses, it will allow President Donald Trump to realize policy goals he’s so far attempted to push through executive orders and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump intends to sign the bill in a 5PM ET ceremony on Friday, July 4th.

The new budget moves funds away from Medicaid, clean energy tax credits, and other public services and toward Trump’s attempt to mass-deport both documented and undocumented immigrants. The bill extends a number of tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy Americans while reducing spending and eligibility for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), likely kicking millions off both programs despite objections from some initial Republican holdouts. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who ultimately voted for the bill, expressed concerns that “we can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities.” 

During a period of intense demand for electricity — including from companies like Meta, OpenAI, and other Silicon Valley AI giants — the budget also makes it more difficult for wind and solar companies to receive tax credits. It winds down tax credits for EVs, likely rendering electric options more expensive for car buyers. And it requires the FCC to sell 800MHz of spectrum that will likely be drawn from the 6GHz band, which is currently left free to provide more capacity for Wi-Fi services.

While much of the budget fight concerned Medicaid and the national debt, there were also protracted negotiations over a planned 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI systems. Lawmakers ultimately voted against that rule, which was opposed by not only Democrats but many state-level Republican politicians. An excise tax on wind and solar power companies that couldn’t meet strict requirements barring “material assistance” from certain foreign entities including China was similarly removed, although the bill still deals a serious blow to the renewable energy industry. Congress also scrapped a ban on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care, though it will deny Medicaid funding to reproductive health care group Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, the budget provides $45 billion for immigration detention facilities and around $30 billion for ICE personnel and operations costs, on top of tens of billions of dollars in other immigration enforcement-related funding that the nonprofit American Immigration Council says will overall make ICE “the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the entire federal government.”

This increase will allow Trump to continue an ever-expanding mass deportation program, which has seen masked ICE agents target immigrants in workplaces, courtrooms, and on city streets. The administration has widened its net to catch not only undocumented residents, but people who hold visas or green cards or were granted temporary protected status, as well as naturalized citizens; Trump mused earlier this week that his “next job” could be expelling native-born citizens for crimes like murder and said he would consider deporting his former “First Buddy” Elon Musk. Since the Supreme Court recently denied a nationwide injunction on Trump’s termination of 14th Amendment birthright citizenship, the administration could even target a freshly created class of stateless newborn babies later this month.

In addition to expanding arrests, the funding will likely also help continue the creation of new surveillance and detention systems, like a centralized national citizen database that has been reportedly constructed with help from DOGE. As Congress debated the budget bill this week, Trump toured a newly opened Florida detention center built with FEMA funds; the rapidly erected facility — which Republicans celebrated by releasing merchandise with the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz” — flooded during a rainstorm soon after.

E Ink has developed a new touchpad for laptops featuring the same electronic paper technology found in e-readers. It’s not the first company to look at the ever-growing size of laptop touchpads and see the potential of additional functionality, but instead of serving as a second smaller screen for the computer’s OS, E Ink is positioning its touchpad as a dedicated home for AI applications and assistants.

A mockup image shared by the company features a laptop with a touchpad upgraded with a color E Ink screen similar to what’s in use by devices like the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft. Instead of it being an extension of a laptop’s main screen, E Ink envisions its new touchpad as being a separate place where AI-generated text summaries could appear under your hands while working on a document, or you could maintain a constant conversation with an AI chatbot without having to juggle desktop windows.

The idea is reminiscent of laptops that companies like Asus have already released featuring upgraded touchpads that double as secondary displays, but they typically feature  smartphone-sized LCD screens that are often too small to effectively use applications designed for larger computer screens. A full color screen under your hands can also be a distraction and potentially reduce a laptop’s battery life. The use of E Ink screens has expanded outside e-readers to include colorful signage and digital notepads, but the technology is still best suited to displaying text.

Similar to Apple’s now discontinued Touch Bar, E Ink also says the touchpad display could provide quick access to frequently used shortcuts, display notifications or the weather, or provide temporary playback controls without having to sacrifice a laptop keyboard’s row of function keys. It would also help reduce battery anxiety, because unlike LCD or OLED panels, E Ink’s display technology only consumes power when it’s being updated. That’s a big benefit given the higher demands of AI tools on a laptop’s battery life.

What’s not currently known are more in-depth technical specifications. Aside from the touchpad potentially using color e-paper displays, E Ink hasn’t revealed if it will adapt one of its current panels, or if it’s developed an entirely new one with increased resolutions. Today’s announcement specifically references compatibility with Intel-based AI PCs, but E Ink didn’t go into details about whether the touchpad display would be powered by a laptop’s primary OS, or if it would feature its own. The company also didn’t provide a timeline for when these touchpads might start showing up in laptops or which hardware makers may be interested.

If you’re looking for an affordable way to kick off your July 4th weekend, Paramount Plus has a deal worth checking out. Just in time for the July 17th premiere of the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, new subscribers can enjoy two months of  Paramount Plus Premium (normally $12.99 per month) or Plus Essential (regularly $7.99 a month) for just $0.99 per month as part of the Summer Sale. 

Either deal includes all the features of the base Paramount Plus Essential plan, but the Paramount Plus Premium plan offers better value by providing extra perks at the same discounted price. Premium grants access to both Paramount Plus and Showtime, so you can stream Star Trek shows as well as Yellowstone prequels 1883 and 1923, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Chi, Dexter, Billions, and Yellowjackets. The plan also includes a wide variety of acclaimed films, ranging from Love Me, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Gladiator 2 to classics like The Godfather and Pulp Fiction.

Paramount Plus Premium (monthly)

Paramount Plus Premium grants you ad-free access to live sports as well as movies and shows from both platforms, including Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Yellowstone catalog, Star Trek shows, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Twin Peaks, Dexter, and more.

Where to Buy:

• $12.99 $0.99 at Paramount (monthly)

What’s more, Paramount Plus Premium will also let you livestream the upcoming 2025 NFL season, watch 24/7 live news from CBS News, and catch UEFA Champions League matches. And unlike the base plan, Premium is ad-free and allows you to download content to your mobile device for offline viewing, making it perfect for streaming on the go. 

Unfortunately, after the two-month promotion period ends, prices return to normal: $12.99 per month for Paramount Plus Premium or $7.99 for Plus Essential. If you’d rather not pay for either, be sure to set a reminder to cancel.

Whether you’ve still got the original band that came with your Apple Watch, or if you’re hungry for more band color options, Woot has a bevy of bands available at up to 70 percent off their normal prices. The Solo Loop band is the most affordable option, costing just $14.99 at Woot in a range of delightful colors and several sizes. This model typically costs $49 new when purchased directly through Apple, but now you can get three for around that price.

Woot also has Braided Solo Loop bands available, for those who want something that looks a little more sophisticated. One other perk of this band is that it’s breathable, which is a boon if you use your Apple Watch during workouts. These usually cost a pretty penny at $99 each, but they’re $29.99 a pop at Woot in various color schemes. Just make sure you follow Apple’s sizing guide before you commit to a size. Click this link, then select the “Start your measurement” button.

Apple Watch Solo Loop band

Where to Buy:

• $49 $14.99 at Woot

Apple Watch Braided Solo Loop band

Where to Buy:

• $99 $29 at Woot

In terms of compatibility, the 38mm, 40mm, 41mm, and 42mm bands are compatible with watch cases of the same size. Same goes for the 44mm, 45mm, 46mm, and 49mm bands. The Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop bands aren’t compatible with Apple Watch models that came out before the Apple Watch SE and the Apple Watch Series 4.

Other deals we’re excited to share with you

• If you have an original Switch, a Steam Deck, or a different handheld gaming system, you’ll need a microSD card to expand its internal storage. Today you can do that on the cheap, as Lexar’s 512GB microSD card is $26.99 at Amazon. It’s normal to see prices for this amount of storage sell for around $40, but this is a particularly great price ahead of Prime Day 2025.
• Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are pretty cool, but at $299, they are a tad expensive outside of a sale. If you’d like to try out smart glasses — ones without a built-in camera — then perhaps you’ll be interested in Amazon’s bundle, which includes its latest Echo Frames glasses and a Echo Spot speaker for $129.99. The glasses are currently $129.99 alone, so you’re getting the capable bedside speaker for free in this bundle — if you have Amazon Prime, that is.
• It’s been a couple of weeks since I last shouted from the rooftops that the LG B4 48-inch OLED TV is a great value at Best Buy. It bears repeating that you can get this great TV for $549.99, which sports a 120Hz refresh rate, four HDMI 2.1 ports, and unbeatable picture quality. If LG’s C-series OLEDs are out of your price range, you’re not really missing out on much by opting for the B4 instead. The C4 and C5 are brighter, but for some, the premium may not be worth it when something as good and affordable as the B4 exists.

On Monday, the long-running indie rock band Deerhoof made an announcement: it was pulling its music from Spotify.

The impetus was Spotify founder Daniel Ek's newest investment in Helsing, the German defense group that makes AI and drones. Helsing raised 600 million euros in its most recent funding round, which was led by Ek's venture capital firm Prima Materia. "Helsing is benefiting from a surge of investment in defence groups, as a highly charged geopolitical environment spurs nations all over the world to increase military spending and the war in Ukraine triggers a rethink of battlefield technology," the Financial Times wrote of the inve …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The tragedy of a niche product is if it sees any success, two things will happen. First, rivals big and small will copy its ideas. Then, to combat that existential threat and appease investors, there'll be an appeal to the larger mass market. A handful of niche products survive the transition to the mainstream. Most don't. (See: Nest, Mirror, VSCO, Vine, Birchbox, etc.) It's a tale as old as products, and where we currently find Whoop.

Whoop is a fitness tracker, but it differs in a few key ways. It doesn't have a screen, focuses heavily on sleep and recovery from physical strain, and notoriously relies on a subscription model. A few years …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 will make the jump to the Xbox Series X and S consoles on August 26th, costing $39.99. This is the first PlayStation-published title to launch on Xbox. The title will ship with cross-play between all platforms.

The cooperative PvE third-person shooter was an unexpected hit when it first launched simultaneously on PlayStation 5 and PC in early 2024. It soared in popularity on Steam, where it earned an “overwhelmingly positive” rating, which flipped to “overwhelmingly negative” when Sony introduced (then swiftly reversed) a decision to require a PSN login for PC players. Xbox’s press release makes no mention of a PSN login, so it likely won’t be required here.

Helldivers 2 is a gem of a game that’s high on hijinx. What initially seems like a serious sci-fi title often gives way to funny, emergent moments, thanks in part to its Stratagem system, which requires you to input complex button combos while facing down swarms of enemies. There are a variety of missions you can take on against aliens, robots, and the newer Illuminate species. And, since it’s a live-service title, the lore and the stakes are always evolving (and the developers often troll players). It’s a fun world to be immersed in, even if you’re just grinding the free battle pass for weapon upgrades.

My former Polygon colleague Cass Marshall wrote some incredible Helldivers 2 coverage, which has the power to convince just about anyone that they were missing out on a good time. I mean, just look at these headlines below.

Correction, July 3rd: The post originally said that the game first launched in 2023, but it debuted in 2024.

At 468-pieces it’s no where near as elaborate as Lego’s buildable Pac-Man machine, but this 6-inch tall Arcade Machine set will only set you back $39.99 when it launches on August 1st, 2025.

At this scale Lego wasn’t able to make this arcade machine playable like Pac-Man is, but it still managed to include some fun details. On the outside the machine features a generic Space game with tiny controls, matching cabinet artwork, a marquee, and a coin slot that actually accepts coins.

Opening the arcade machine reveals a miniature gaming room inside with a minifigure, several tiny consoles, a TV, and lots of decor highlighting other Lego sets, including the Galaxy Explorer sitting on a shelf. You’ll also find an even smaller arcade machine inside featuring an online puzzle game called Junkbot that was originally available to play on Lego’s website back in 2001.