Following up on my earlier post on Valve’s righteous objection to selling game console hardware at a loss, I should have noted that PlayStation Plus starts at $11/month (and goes up to $20/month) and Xbox Game Pass starts at $10/month (and goes up to $23/month). One draw of these subscriptions is access to a library of game titles — but another one is that you need one of these subscriptions to play online multiplayer games. Not every game demands online access but many (most?) do. There are very few serious PlayStation and Xbox gamers who don’t pay for a subscription, and within a few years those subscriptions cost more than the (subsidized) hardware. It’s not just about licensing fees for game titles players purchase anymore.

Valve didn’t make any hay over this point, but should have. Because Steam Deck and Steam Machine are fundamentally more like PCs, all you need to play online multiplayer games is a free Steam account.

Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago, to start a new venture capital firm with Morgan Beller, according to TechCrunch. The new firm will target early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech, areas where Kutcher believes the next generation of transformative companies will be […]

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Ty Roush / Forbes:
Alex Karp calls US reliance on AI labs for military tech “effing insane”, pans AI fees for businesses, and touts Palantir's Nvidia Nemotron deal for US agencies  —  Topline  —  Palantir CEO Alex Karp on Wednesday called the AI industry “effing insane” in a heated interview on CNBC …

Hyundai and Kia have unveiled an in-vehicle sanitization system that uses far-ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and viruses inside a car cabin, even while passengers are present. The technology, called Plasma Care UVC, is what the companies describe as the first system of its kind designed for production vehicles. Conventional ultraviolet sterilization poses a risk […]

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The 'Burbs, an adaptation of Tom Hanks' 1989 movie, is one of the most highly recommended shows of the year and already has a season 2 in the works.