An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Researchers have grown brain cells in a lab that have learned to play the 1970s tennis-like video game, Pong. They say their "mini-brain" can sense and respond to its environment. Writing in the journal Neuron, Dr Brett Kagan, of the company Cortical Labs, claims to have created the first ''sentient'' lab-grown brain in a dish. Other experts describe the work as ''exciting'' but say calling the brain cells sentient is going too far. "We could find no better term to describe the device,'' Dr Kagan says. ''It is able to take in information from an external source, process it and then respond to it in real time."

The research team: grew human brain cells grown from stem cells and some from mouse embryos to a collection of 800,000; connected this mini-brain to the video game via electrodes revealing which side the ball was on and how far from the paddle. In response, the cells produced electrical activity of their own. They expended less energy as the game continued. But when the ball passed a paddle and the game restarted with the ball at a random point, they expended more recalibrating to a new unpredictable situation. The mini-brain learned to play in five minutes. It often missed the ball -- but its success rate was well above random chance. Although, with no consciousness, it does not know it is playing Pong in the way a human player would, the researchers stress.

Dr Kagan hopes the technology might eventually be used to test treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. "When people look at tissues in a dish, at the moment they are seeing if there is activity or no activity. But the purpose of brain cells is to process information in real time," he says. "Tapping into their true function unlocks so many more research areas that can be explored in a comprehensive way." Next, Dr Kagan plans to test the impact alcohol has on the mini-brain's ability to play Pong. If it reacts in a similar way to a human brain, this would underscore just how effective the system might be as an experimental stand-in. As the "mini-brains" become more complex, Dr Kagan's team says they'll be working with bioethicists to ensure they do not accidentally create a conscious brain.

"We have to see this new technology very much like the nascent computer industry, when the first transistors were janky prototypes, not very reliable -- but after years of dedicated research, they led to huge technological marvels across the world," he says.

Google has announced what it's calling "the world's first laptops built for cloud gaming," less than two weeks after announcing plans to shut down Stadia. Forbes reports: Google says the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and Lenovo Ideapad Gaming Chromebook all have refresh rates of at least 120Hz, displays with up to 1600p resolution, immersive audio and, critically for cloud gaming, WiFi 6 or 6E connectivity. Some models have RGB keyboards too. Subject to availability, you may get a SteelSeries Rival 3 gaming mouse at no extra cost if you pick up one of these Chromebooks. All three laptops were benchmarked by GameBench to ensure that they're capable of running games at 120 frames per second at 1080p resolution. You should get input latency of under 85 ms as well. Google notes that's "console-class" input latency.

[...] Google is bringing some neat cloud gaming features to these Chromebooks. For one thing, the devices will support Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna and NVIDIA GeForce Now. In the latter case, Google worked with NVIDIA to ensure these Chromebooks support GeForce Now's highest RTX 3080 tier. That enables cloud gaming at 120 fps at a resolution of 1600p on these systems, which come with the GeForce Now app preinstalled. You'll also be able to install Xbox Cloud Gaming as a web app on your Chromebook. Additionally, these Chromebooks will come with three-month trials for both the GeForce Now RTX 3080 tier and Amazon Luna. Meanwhile, it could be pretty easy for you to find and start playing games on these services through ChromeOS. If you search for a game in the launcher (i.e. through the Everything Button), you'll see where it is available. You'll then be able to load up the game with a single click. To begin with, this feature will be compatible with GeForce Now and the Play Store. "It's good to see that Google hasn't entirely given up on cloud gaming," adds Forbes. "Still, the timing of this announcement comes at a very odd time."

Game developer Sam Chiet has found another use for Microsoft Notepad. The ingenious creator has gotten Doom (1993) to run at 60 FPS through the boring text editor in Windows. Tom's Hardware reports: Chiet highlighted that he didn't have to modify the Notepad application. Dubbed "NotepadDOOM," the project is fully playable. Although Chiet didn't explain how the mod works, has committed to launching NotepadDOOM for other Doom fans to try out. Chiet said in a subsequent tweet that "it'll take some work to polish NotepadDOOM into something releasable, but it'll almost certainly happen over the next couple days." John Romero, one of Doom's creators, was impressed and replied to Chiet in a tweet that the mod was "incredible."

You can see the iconic 1993 shooter running in its full glory on Chiet's YouTube channel. It's Notepad, so obviously, Chiet replaced the graphics with characters and numbers. The gameplay looks pretty smooth, although we did catch some screen tearing. However, that could be because Notepad can't write the text fast enough on screen.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II will require players to register with a phone number on Battle.net to play the game, in order to make players responsible for their actions. The game is set for release later this month on October 28th. The Verge reports: It's a repeat of the practice that caused issues for Overwatch 2 players last week, PCGamer reports. A Battle.net support page lists the upcoming CoD shooter as one of its three games that "require that you add a phone number to your Battle.net account" to play, alongside Overwatch 2 and 2019's Modern Warfare. The phone verification system, which Activision Blizzard calls SMS Protect, is meant to cut down on toxic behavior from players, preventing them from creating endless new accounts to evade bans or to cheat. "Limiting the number of free accounts that a single person can create helps keep players accountable for their actions and, in turn, reduces toxicity and cheating and ensures a positive community experience for all players," Activision Blizzard's support page reads.

The problem is that SMS Protect is designed for text-enabled mobile phones, and doesn't treat all phone numbers equally. A separate Battle.net support page notes that "mobile phones with prepaid plans may not work with the phone notification service." It also doesn't work with VoIP numbers. That restricts the service to players with postpaid cellular plans, which may not be affordable or easily accessible to many players around the world.

Requiring players to provide a phone number isn't new (Dota 2 and Rainbow Six Siege both require them for ranked play) but there haven't been widespread reports of problems with prepaid phone plans with these previous implementations. One player we spoke to was blocked from playing Overwatch 2 when they entered the same number they'd used to successfully play Dota 2 for years. It's unclear whether Activision Blizzard's phone number requirements will apply equally for Modern Warfare II players across both Battle.net and Steam, given the game is available across both PC digital stores.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: It's still possible to learn a lot of interesting things about old operating systems. Sometimes, those things are already documented (on a blog post) that miraculously still exist. One such quirk showed up recently when someone noticed how Microsoft made sure that SimCity and other popular apps worked on Windows 95. A recent tweet by @Kalyoshika highlights an excerpt from a blog post by Fog Creek Software co-founder, Stack Overflow co-creator, and longtime software blogger Joel Spolsky. The larger post is about chicken-and-egg OS/software appeal and demand. The part that caught the eye of a Hardcore Gaming 101 podcast co-host is how the Windows 3.1 version of SimCity worked on the Windows 95 system. Windows 95 merged MS-DOS and Windows apps, upgraded APIs from 16 to 32-bit, and was hyper-marketed. A popular app like SimCity, which sold more than 5 million copies, needed to work without a hitch.

Spolsky's post summarizes how SimCity became Windows 95-ready, as he heard it, without input from Maxis or user workarounds: "Jon Ross, who wrote the original version of SimCity for Windows 3.x, told me that he accidentally left a bug in SimCity where he read memory that he had just freed. Yep. It worked fine on Windows 3.x, because the memory never went anywhere. Here's the amazing part: On beta versions of Windows 95, SimCity wasn't working in testing. Microsoft tracked down the bug and added specific code to Windows 95 that looks for SimCity. If it finds SimCity running, it runs the memory allocator in a special mode that doesn't free memory right away. That's the kind of obsession with backward compatibility that made people willing to upgrade to Windows 95."

Spolsky (in 2000) considers this a credit to Microsoft and an example of how to break the chicken-and-egg problem: "provide a backwards compatibility mode which either delivers a truckload of chickens, or a truckload of eggs, depending on how you look at it, and sit back and rake in the bucks." Windows developers may have deserved some sit-back time, seeing the extent of the tweaks they often have to make for individual games and apps in Windows 95. Further in @Kalyoshika's replies, you can find another example, pulled from the Compatibility Administrator in Windows' Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). A screenshot from @code_and_beer shows how Windows NT, upon detecting files typically installed with Final Fantasy VII, will implement a fittingly titled compatibility fix: "Win95VersionLie." Simply telling the game that it's on Windows 95 seems to fix a major issue with its operation, along with a few other emulation and virtualization tweaks. "Mike Perry, former creative director at Sim empire Maxis (and later EA), noted later that there was, technically, a 32-bit Windows 95 version of Sim City available, as shown by the 'Deluxe Edition' bundle of the game," adds Ars. "He also states that Ross worked for Microsoft after leaving Maxis, which would further explain why Microsoft was so keen to ensure people could keep building parks in the perfect grid position to improve resident happiness."

Christopher Slayton spent two months exploring black holes, identifying the colors of Saturn's rings and looking at his home planet from outer space. Mr. Slayton, 18, didn't have to leave his desk to do so. He set out to build the entire observable universe, block by block, in Minecraft, a video game where users build and explore worlds. From a report: By the end, he felt as if he had traveled to every corner of the universe. "Everyone freaks out about the power and expansiveness of the universe, which I never really got that much," he said. But after working for a month and 15 days to build it and additional two weeks to create a YouTube video unveiling it, "I realized even more how beautiful it is." Mr. Slayton, known as ChrisDaCow on his Minecraft-focused YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts, has been playing the game for almost a decade, and he's not a user of any other games, he said. He started posting videos of his "builds," which are landscapes he creates inside the game, on YouTube in 2019. This channel has become his main priority since he graduated high school this spring.

[...] Exploring and learning concepts via Minecraft can be seen as a generational shift, said Ken Thompson, an assistant professor of digital game design at the University of Connecticut. About two-thirds of Americans play video games, according to a 2022 industry report. Professor Thompson said young people, such as Mr. Slayton, could apply problem solving and critical thinking when tackling projects such as the universe creation. "There are very serious applications," he said, adding, "then there's also this wonderful science side of it where we're experimenting with systems that are otherwise really hard to conceptualize." In 2022, some students at his university held a commencement ceremony in Minecraft, organized by the gaming club, after the in-person event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. They created the campus and avatars representing students and even faculty to stage the virtual gathering.

An experienced poker player lost to a relative newcomer. But then, "Somehow, the Robbi Jade Lew-Garrett Adelstein scandal diving the poker world just got weirder," reports the New York Post: An internal investigation conducted by Hustler Casino Live — which streamed the game from Los Angeles — has shown that one of their High Stakes Poker Productions employees stole three $5,000 chips from Lew's stack after the broadcast concluded on September 29. The employee, Bryan Sagbigsal, was terminated from his position after he admitted to taking $15,000 in chips from Lew's stack...

The $15,000 worth of chips taken by Sagbigsal was seen as some as him taking his cut of a cheating scam.
"There is zero evidence that I cheated," Lew posted on Twitter, "simply because I did not. I have been thrust into a bizarre situation where I am being asked to prove my innocence continually, and as of yet, there is not a single thread of direct evidence illustrating my guilt. My accusers, now having exhausted buzzing seats, camera rings, microphone water bottles, and other spy paraphernalia, have now moved on to me having an alleged conspiring relationship with someone I do not know... who, in fact, stole from me."

As a precaution the casino's technology and security protocols are now being audited — but the publicity seems good for business. Hustler Casino Live is now calling the hand "The most insane hero call in poker history," and it's already racked up over half a million views on YouTube.

Here's what I see. (Am I missing something?)

After three of the five "community" cards were dealt face up, Garrett Adelstein had four of the five cards needed for a straight flush — leaving nine clubs in the deck left to draw for a flush, and an additional six that would've at least given him a straight. But with no help from the fourth "community" card, Garrett had just a 53% chance of winning. He bet $10,000, but instead of backing down Robbi raised him by $10,000. Garrett then tried an even larger bet, daring Robbi to go all-in with her $109,000 in chips — or fold. Did she sense that this suddenly-higher bet was a bluff? With nothing but a high-card jack, Robbi refused to fold — and won the hand when the fifth card failed to help either her or Garrett.

EU antitrust regulators are asking games developers whether Microsoft will be incentivized to block rivals' access to "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard's best-selling games, according to an EU document seen by Reuters. From the report: EU antitrust regulators are due to make a preliminary decision by Nov. 8 on whether to clear Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision. The EU competition enforcer also asked if Activision's trove of user data would give the U.S. software giant a competitive advantage in the development, publishing and distribution of computer and console games, the EU document shows. The planned acquisition, the biggest in the gaming industry, will help Microsoft better compete with leaders Tencent and Sony. After its decision next month the European Commission is expected to open a four-month long investigation, underscoring regulatory concerns about Big Tech acquisitions.

Games developers, publishers and distributors were asked whether the deal would affect their bargaining power regarding the terms for selling console and PC games via Microsoft's Xbox and its cloud game streaming service Game Pass. Regulators also wanted to know if there would be sufficient alternative suppliers in the market following the deal and also in the event Microsoft decides to make Activision's games exclusively available on its Xbox, its Games Pass and its cloud game streaming services. They asked if such exclusivity clauses would reinforce Microsoft's Windows operating system versus rivals, and whether the addition of Activision to its PC operating system, cloud computing services and game-related software tools gives it an advantage in the video gaming industry. They asked how important the Call of Duty franchise is for distributors of console games, third-party multi-game subscription services on computers and providers of cloud game streaming services.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering is celebrating its 30th anniversary by releasing packs of cards that cost $999. It's called Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition and will contain some cards that haven't been reprinted in decades, all with their original art. Nine hundred ninety-nine dollars will buy a collector four sealed booster packs. "Each pack contains 15 cards, 13 cards in the modern frame -- 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 7 commons, and 2 basic lands -- plus one basic land in the retro frame, one additional retro frame card, and a token," according to Magic's website.

These cards are purely collector's items. They're not tournament legal and have different backing than the original cards. It's also a limited edition print run. Magic publisher Wizards of the Coast hasn't said how big that run will be, just that it's limited and that card shops will receive a limited supply with the bulk of the cards being sold online. The set includes reprints of cards, some of which haven't been reprinted in decades, including the Power Nine, nine powerful cards from the early sets that include the iconic Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall. These were some of the earliest cards to be restricted from tournament play because they were overpowered; they were eventually discontinued. A Black Lotus sold at auction in 2021 for $511,000. This new limited edition Black Lotus won't likely reach those lofty pricing heights. Again, these cards can't be used in tournament play and are only meant to be a collector's item. Customers will be buying packs in sets of four for $999, so they're paying $250 for a booster pack they can only ever display and never play with. The community is upset.

Overwatch 2 will no longer require existing Overwatch players to cough up a phone number, as Blizzard rolls back the controversial anti-cheat system. TechRadar reports: All Overwatch 2 players were originally required to link an active phone number to their Battle.net account to play the hero shooter. Blizzard hoped the SMS Protect authentication system would help users verify their accounts, and prevent disruptive and abusive players from returning to the game after being banned. [...] Overwatch's phone number authentication system has proven controversial among the game's community. Several types of phone numbers, including those linked to pre-paid SIM cards and VOIP phones, can't be used for authentication, locking many would-be players out of the sequel. Even those who'd purchased the original Overwatch -- which was replaced by the free-to-play sequel and is no longer accessible -- originally found themselves unable to play Overwatch 2 if they didn't have a phone number of the right type. Similarly, many who'd bought the game's Watchpoint Pack ahead of its launch found they couldn't access the game to enjoy the $39.99 starter bundle.

"We have made the decision to remove phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players," Blizzard said in a forum post announcing the end of the system. "Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle.net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play. We are working to make this change and expect it to go live on Friday, October 7." But the policy change won't benefit everyone. Blizzard says: "Accounts that were not connected to Battle.net, as well as new accounts, will still have to meet SMS Protect requirements."

An investigation into the career of Hans Niemann, the chess grandmaster embroiled in an alleged cheating scandal, has found a disturbingly widespread pattern of suspicious behavior far beyond what the 19-year-old had previously publicly admitted to. The Daily Beast reports: The 72-page report, compiled by online platform Chess.com and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleges that Niemann had "likely cheated" in more than 100 online matches, including several played for prize money. The Chess.com report noted the "many remarkable signals and unusual patterns in Hans' path" as an in-person chess competitor, but did not accuse him of cheating in any classical over-the-board matches, instead suggesting that "further investigation" was merited.

The chess world's governing body, FIDE, is conducting its own inquiry into Niemann's playing after Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian world champion, all but directly accused Niemann of cheating in a game last month. Following the scandal, the younger American player confessed to having cheated -- but only twice, in instances he chalked up to his age, having been 12 and 16 years old when the incidents supposedly occurred.

CD Projekt Red just announced a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, currently codenamed Project Orion. The developer tweeted its long-term development plan Tuesday, sharing that Project Orion will "take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe." From a report: Adam Kicinski, CD Projket's president and CEO, said in a video published to YouTube that the next three games in the developer's pipeline are based in The Witcher franchise, meaning that Cyberpunk 2077's sequel is well off in the future. He called the sequel an ambitious title that will require expanding CD Projekt's more than 1,200 person studio even further; the studio will open a new hub in Boston, which will focus on Project Orion alongside its Vancouver location as CD Projekt Red North America.

A limited but working jailbreak for the PlayStation 5 hardware has reportedly been released, potentially enabling players to install unsigned or unofficial software. From a report: The news was reported on Twitter by modder Lance McDonald, who previously made a name for himself by releasing an unofficial patch that made Bloodborne run at 60 frames per second on PS4. Although McDonald doesn't appear to have discovered the PS5 jailbreak himself, he does show footage of it in action.

As well as showing that the jailbreak gives him access to a debug menu, he also shows that it enables him to install a PS4 PKG file (i.e. a backup of a game), proving this by installing the now-delisted PT demo. At this stage the jailbreak is allegedly extremely limited -- it's only said to work on PS5 consoles with firmware version 4.03, which was released in October 2021 and replaced with version 4.50 in December 2021. According to the exploit's creator, it may be possible to apply the jailbreak to PS5 consoles with earlier firmware versions than 4.03, but later firmware versions won't work at the moment.

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan reportedly flew to Brussels last month to meet with European Union regulators currently scrutinizing Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The visit was first reported by Dealreporter sources (paywalled). Video Game Chronicle reports: As has been widely publicized in recent weeks, PlayStation's concerns over the deal are around the future release arrangements for the Call of Duty series -- which is regularly PlayStation's annual best-seller -- and whether it will be pulled from their platforms. Google is also said to have voiced its concerns to EU regulators, according to the same sources.

Last month, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Microsoft had committed to making Call of Duty available on PlayStation for "several more years" after Sony's current marketing deal with Activision expires. However, SIE CEO Ryan, who is reportedly seeking access to future Call of Duty games on equal terms and in perpetuity, responded publicly by calling Microsoft's proposal for keeping the series on PlayStation consoles "inadequate on many levels." "By giving Microsoft control of Activision games like Call of Duty, this deal would have major negative implications for gamers and the future of the gaming industry," Sony claimed. "We want to guarantee PlayStation gamers continue to have the highest quality gaming experience, and we appreciate the CMA's focus on protecting gamers."

According to Polyon, players will be required to link a phone number to their Battle.net accounts if they want to play Overwatch 2. "The same two-factor step, called SMS Protect, will also be used on all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 accounts when that game launches, and new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare accounts," the report adds. From the report: Blizzard Entertainment announced SMS Protect and other safety measures ahead of Overwatch 2's release. Blizzard said it implemented these controls because it wanted to "protect the integrity of gameplay and promote positive behavior in Overwatch 2." Overwatch 2 is free to play, unlike its predecessor. Without SMS Protect, Blizzard reasoned that there is no barrier to toxic players or trolls creating a new account if an existing one is sanctioned. SMS Protect, therefore, ties that account to something valuable -- in this case a player's mobile phone.

SMS Protect is a security feature that has two purposes: to keep players accountable for what Blizzard calls "disruptive behavior," and to protect accounts if they're hacked. It requires all Overwatch 2 players to attach a unique phone number to their account. Blizzard said SMS Protect will target cheaters and harassers; if an account is banned, it'll be harder for them to return to Overwatch 2. You can't just enter any old phone number -- you actually have to have access to a phone receiving texts to that number to get into your account.

Overwatch 2 lead software engineer Bill Warnecke told Forbes that, even if accounts are no longer tied to Overwatch's box price -- because the game is now free-to-play -- Blizzard still wants players to make an "investment" in upholding a safe game. "The key idea behind SMS Protect is to have an investment on behalf of the owner of that account and add some limitations or restrictions behind how you might have an account," Warnecke said. "There's no exclusions or kind of loopholes around the system." The report notes that Blizzard has refunded one player after they contacted customer support and said they didn't have a mobile phone, but it's unclear if this policy will apply more broadly.

Stadia, Google's ill-fated attempt at a cloud gaming service, will shut down in January. Players will be refunded for all their hardware and software purchases, except for Stadia Pro subscriptions. As it turns out, some folks will be able to keep playing certain games elsewhere. Ubisoft will help people who bought its titles on Stadia to transfer their purchases to PC. From a report: "While Stadia will shut down on January 18th, 2023, we're happy to share that we're currently working to bring the games you own on Stadia to PC through Ubisoft Connect," Ubisoft senior corporate communications manager Jessica Roache told The Verge. "We'll have more to share regarding specific details as well as the impact for Ubisoft+ subscribers at a later date." Google has already shut down the Stadia store, so if you were thinking of buying an Ubisoft game, getting a refund, then gaining access to the PC version for free, you're out of luck. Ubisoft hasn't revealed when it will offer Stadia players access to their games on Ubisoft Connect. It also hasn't confirmed whether Stadians will be able to transfer their save data over to PC. That said, the Ubisoft+ subscription service includes a cloud save feature, so hopefully the company can figure out a way to maintain players' progress if they switch to a PC version.

Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service. From a report: The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023. Google will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store as well as all the games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store. Google expects those refunds will be completed in mid-January. "A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia," Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog post. "And while Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected so we've made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service." Employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company. Harrison says Google sees opportunities to apply Stadia's technology to other parts of Google, like YouTube, Google Play, and its AR efforts, and the company also plans to "make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed," he wrote.

Saudi Arabia's government-funded gaming conglomerate The Savvy Gaming Group will invest $37.8 billion in gaming as part of a controversial effort to expand the kingdom's role in the sector. From a report: Savvy is primed to buy up a lot of gaming companies and start many of its own. Savvy has earmarked more than $13 billion "for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher to become a strategic development partner," according to the kingdom's press agency. Another $18 billion is pegged for minority investments. Savvy's efforts are expected to establish 250 game companies and create 39,000 jobs, the press agency noted. The investments are announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Podcasters are always hunting for new, flashy places to promote their shows, ranging from billboards to floats in parades to airplane banners. Some networks, though, have uncovered a less-glamorous, yet highly effective way to gain millions of bankable listeners: loading up mobile games with a particular kind of ad. Each time a player taps on one of these fleeting in-game ads -- and wins some virtual loot for doing so -- a podcast episode begins downloading on their device. The podcast company, in turn, can claim the gamer as a new listener to its program and add another coveted download to its overall tally. The practice allows networks to amass downloads quickly by tapping into a wellspring of hyperactive video-game users. But it also calls into question who a legitimate podcast listener is and what length of time should be required to count as a download.

Podcasts typically rely on downloads as the primary metric for ad sales. When an individual taps on an in-app play button on their mobile device, an entire episode begins downloading so they can listen to it even in the absence of a good internet connection -- say, on an airplane or in the subway. An episode's ads are inserted at that moment of download, meaning that even if a consumer only listens to 10 minutes of a 30-minute show, the mid-roll ad at the 15-minute mark is often ready to be heard -- not to mention, counted by the sales team. To date, the podcast industry has said next to nothing about its embrace of this video-game strategy. "Not all impressions are created equal," said Larry Chiagouris, a marketing professor at Pace University. "I'm not saying [this tactic is] not ethical or illegal, but it raises issues. If someone is trying to play a game and that's the purpose of this interaction, they may just be eager to play the game and are not that interested in the information being shared."

The PC beta for Modern Warfare 2 was only online for just over a weekend, but cheat developers quickly managed to create wallhacks anyway, according to videos created by multiple cheat developers. From a report: The news highlights the constant cat and mouse game between cheat developers and the companies that make competitive video games, and shows that Modern Warfare 2 will be no different. Warzone, the massively popular free-to-play battle royale game built on top of Call of Duty's mainline games, was notoriously overrun by cheaters before publisher Activision and the development studios working on the game introduced a new anti-cheat mechanism called Ricochet. "I started developing a MW2 beta cheat right away. I was done the same day, the first day of the beta. My users got access once the cheat was complete & tested," Zebleer, the pseudonymous administrator of Phantom Overlay, a cheat provider that has a long history of selling cheats for Warzone, told Motherboard in an email.

[...] EngineOwning, another cheat developer, published a video to their Twitter account over the weekend appearing to show their own product in action, although it didn't seem to be ready for the beta. "Our MW2 cheat is now done and we're currently in close testing," the tweet read. "This means our cheat will be ready when the game launches, with all the features you'd expect." The Anti-Cheat Police Department, a researcher who has tracked the cheating ecosystem and who reports offending players, claimed in their own tweet that "Ricochet has this shitty cheat detected they are just a scam operation at this point."