Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the tough-news department: Electronic Arts (EA) has laid off around 300 employees across multiple departments, including about 100 at Respawn Entertainment. IGN reports: IGN understands that these wider cuts largely impacted EA's Experiences team, which includes groups such as EA's Fan Care team and various others working on customer support and marketing, though other EA departments saw reductions as well. As with other cuts at EA, those impacted will be given the opportunity to apply for other roles internally prior to being let go.
The roughly 100 jobs impacted at Respawn included individuals in development, publishing, and QA workers on Apex Legends, as well as smaller groups of individuals working on the Jedi team and two canceled incubation projects, one of which we reported on back in March, and the other of which was, per Bloomberg's reporting, a new Titanfall game. "As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we've made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth," an EA spokesperson said in an official statement. "We are treating our people with care and respect throughout this process, working to minimize impacts by helping affected employees explore new opportunities within the company when possible and providing support during the transition."
Posted by from MMO Champion
The Trading Post May 2025 - Rewards Preview
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
May’s Trading Post will bring you joy with new pets to add to your collection and more. This month, welcome Weechi the customizable pet to your collection. You can dress this adorable little buddy in several available costumes.
Visit T&W** (Tawney and Wilder) just outside the Mage District in Stormwind or the Zen’shiri Trading Post next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar to check out all the latest items*** they have available. Players can also visit the Trading Post in the capital city of Dornogal (The Foregrounds) on the Isle of Dorn, where representatives of both Tawney and Wilder and the Zen’shiri Trading Post are open for business.
Check Out What's in Stock for May
Mounts and Pets
Spring Harvesthog
“The Spring Harvesthog is at its most energetic in the early morning. It will spend most of its day snuffling for food or bellowing out calls for other harvesthogs.”
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the side-effects department: A new study [PDF] reveals AI-generated code frequently references non-existent third-party libraries, creating opportunities for supply-chain attacks. Researchers analyzed 576,000 code samples from 16 popular large language models and found 19.7% of package dependencies -- 440,445 in total -- were "hallucinated."
These non-existent dependencies exacerbate dependency confusion attacks, where malicious packages with identical names to legitimate ones can infiltrate software. Open source models hallucinated at nearly 22%, compared to 5% for commercial models. "Once the attacker publishes a package under the hallucinated name, containing some malicious code, they rely on the model suggesting that name to unsuspecting users," said lead researcher Joseph Spracklen. Alarmingly, 43% of hallucinations repeated across multiple queries, making them predictable targets.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Mythic Dungeon International Returns May 2!
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Start your timers and prepare to watch the most resilient runs yet—the Mythic Dungeon International returns! Watch the live broadcast starting May 2!
Spread the word and gather at the Gallagio—it’s time to watch Azeroth’s most daunting dungeoneers redefine reality and shatter world records! The premiere dungeon competition has returned in the latest season of The War Within and has followed our competitors into the depths of the Undermine.
Season 2 of the Mythic Dungeon International marks the start of a new competitive era for our PvE programming as we transition away from speedrunning and head toward a pushing format. As such, “The Great Push” will now be the primary format for our premiere PvE competition, with further twists such as a new Spec Variety rule in Season 2. Tune in to each stage of the competition and watch as world records are shattered and champions are crowned, starting with the Groups Stage!
For three weeks, hopeful heroes will compete in the MDI Groups for gold, glory, and their spot in the Global Finals! Eight teams will compete each weekend to discover their limits and push as high as possible in the assigned Mythic+ Keystones. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the highest-stakes competition yet— the Global Finals. With $300,000 and the Championship title up for grabs, these teams will surely bring their best to the weekend!
Details
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club Fixes are Now Live - April 29
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
During maintenance today, we made changes to correct the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club bug that resulted in some players exceeding the current intended cap of Renown level 9.
With fixes that are now live:
Renown
All players who were above the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club current Renown level cap of 9 have been reduced to 9.
To address the inconsistent advantage this issue provided to many players, all players who had any progress on the Gallagio Loyalty Rewards Club Renown track have been advanced to level 9.
The raid buff Loyal Customer and the movement speed buff Time is Money have been removed from all characters, and the relevant quests can be recompleted from Paula Piranha in The Incontinental Hotel.
Any obtained Furious Flarendo and Darkfuse Compactor mounts will be unusable to players until they reach the appropriate levels of the Rewards Club.
The High Roller title and Hero’s Path teleportation spell will be unusable to players until they reach the appropriate level of the Rewards Club.
Please note: Renown quests need to be re-completed from Paula Piranha. You may need to delete your existing Gallagio Loyalty Card: Silver (in your bags) in order for the first quest in the chain to become completable.
Thank you very much for your patience and understanding!
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: Bitcoin mining has crossed a critical economic threshold, with costs now exceeding market value for most operators. According to data cited by CoinShares, large public mining companies spend over $82,000 to produce a single Bitcoin -- nearly double last quarter's figure -- while smaller operations face even steeper costs of approximately $137,000 per coin.
With Bitcoin currently trading around $94,703, the math no longer works for most miners. The economics become particularly challenging in high-electricity-cost regions like Germany, where mining a single coin requires approximately $200,000. Industry analysts suggest larger mining operations are adapting by optimizing energy consumption and positioning their computational infrastructure for alternative uses. These companies can potentially lease their mining setups for other computational tasks during unprofitable mining periods, then resume mining when market conditions improve.
For individual miners, however, the era of profitable home operations appears effectively over, as industrial-scale facilities with strategic positioning and optimized technology have fundamentally altered the mining landscape.
A humble piece of sushi cleans mold off leftovers in the fridge. That’s the premise of Moldwasher, a small pixel art curio with serene ambient tunes that is coming to Steam later this year. It recently landed on the the r/powerwashingporn subreddit where it became a mini-sensation.
Last year, Stardew Valley received a massive free update because its creator, Eric Barone, didn’t want to stop improving the beloved cozy farming game even eight years after it had launched. But now, he sounds committed to moving on from Stardew Valley for a few years while he finishes up his previously announced next…
Thunderbolts, the next big Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, lands in theaters this weekend. But after a few misfires and meh movies, like February’s Captain America: Brave New World, it started to feel like the MCU couldn’t score a home run. Thankfully, according to critics, Thunderbolts might be the return to form…
Between Apex Legends, the Star Wars: Jedi series, and other projects, Respawn Entertainment has a lot on its plate, so it’s a little shocking to hear that EA is laying off even more members of the studio this year. It raises ongoing questions about what’s going on inside the team that’s seemingly working on everything …
“The Festival of Accord - Blossomdance” event is finally live in Monster Hunter Wilds. While there are a bunch of fun things that have been added or changed for the game’s first limited-time event, the biggest highlight is unlocking new cherry blossom-themed equipment to change your hunter’s appearance with. That…
After many years of Xbox and PC exclusivity, the Forza franchise is finally making its debut on PlayStation hardware with the release of Forza Horizon 5 on PS5. As exciting as it is for Sony fans to finally get a chance to dive into this exciting open-world racing series, it’s fair to wonder if these new players will…
< This article continues on their website >