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Your game collection says a lot about you. With a cute new game, you can also give your collection a space that's just as personalized. BOXROOM is a building sim where the whole purpose is creating a space to show off your game library. You can select furniture, paint and lighting, then you choose games from your Steam library to display on your virtual shelves. Titles appear in game boxes, giving it a throwback feel to the days where a game collection had to be physical. Once complete, the room serves as a launcher, allowing you to boot up a title from the game box. The demo is available now, and the team said that BOXROOM will launch in early access soon.  This is a fun idea, although it's unlikely that you'd fit your entire collection into even this virtual space if your Steam library starts to number in the hundreds, or even thousands, of games. As with an IRL space, you'd need a warehouse rather than a cute, cozy room. But if you wanted to have a curated selection of your go-to titles in a customized virtual space, this might be a fun addition to your already sizable collection. Or, if you want a virtual reality take on a similar idea, EmuVR might be worth a look.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/boxroom-lets-you-build-a-cozy-game-room-for-your-steam-library-215349560.html?src=rss

We're living in the golden age of retro console modding. If you have an old Game Boy Advance lying around, it's possible to give it a new lease on life with aftermarket parts like an IPS display and USB-C charging. But as amazing as those mods are, most still require an original GBA motherboard with a working processor and RAM. That's what makes the PlayStation Hybrid from YouTuber Secret Hobbyist so cool. Over the past couple of months, they've been working to design, prototype and build the ultimate PlayStation PCB, one that incorporates the best parts of different model revisions while adding a couple of modern conveniences. The specific motherboards Secret Hobbyist's PCB pulls parts from are the PM-41 v2 and the PU18, with the former being a PSOne board while the latter was sourced from a "phat" model. The decision to incorporate parts from different PlayStation variants makes a lot of sense if you know something about the history of the console. Between the release of the PlayStation in 1994 and the smaller PSOne in 2000, Sony made multiple revisions to the original design to address hardware issues and eke out cost savings. One component that you can find on older models, but not the PSOne, is an Asahi Kasei-made digital-to-analog audio converter (DAC). Over the years, this DAC has gained something of a cult following among audiophiles, with some of the earliest models like the SCPH-1000 and SCPH-3000 being particularly sought after as CD players because they also came with RCA outputs, a feature Sony later cut from subsequent revisions. As for the PU18, it has a part that makes it compatible with the X Station, a CD replacement that allows a modded PlayStation to read games from a microSD card.   From the PSOne, Secret Hobbyist sourced the console's GPU and CPU, which are more power efficient than the ones found on its older siblings. Lastly, they incorporated an FPGA chip from a Hispeedido mod kit to make their hybrid PlayStation capable of outputting video over HDMI. The final result is a custom PCB that is even smaller than the PSOne's PM-41 v2, draws less than two watts of power and works with modern displays. That power draw means the Hybrid PlayStation could be engineered to be a handheld. Secret Hobbyist still has yet to design an enclosure for their new Frankenstein console, but judging from the comments on their video, people are excited to see the final result. In the meantime, be sure to watch the full video to learn more about the project and see some incredible soldering work.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/this-frankenstein-playstation-pcb-reads-games-from-microsd-and-outputs-video-over-hdmi-211002114.html?src=rss

Another day, another announcement of game industry job cuts. The latest restructuring is happening at Eidos Montreal, which stated that 124 people are being laid off. As with so many similar cuts, the studio's LinkedIn post credited the downsizing to "a result of changing project needs and impacts across production and support teams." The company is also parting ways with its studio head, David Anfossi. Eidos Montreal has worked on titles within the Deus Ex and Tomb Raider franchises, as well as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel's Avengers games. It is one of the many companies owned by Embracer Group, which snapped up a bunch of studios but has been stuck in a downsizing in a loop following an expensive restructuring of its own gaming empire during 2023 and 2024. That activity reportedly included axing a planned new Deus Ex game that Eidos Montreal was working on.The post from Eidos Montreal didn't specify what projects it is currently active on, although it has said it is involved with the upcoming Grounded 2 from Obsidian Entertainment and the reimagined Fable from Playground Games.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/deus-ex-game-studio-eidos-montreal-cuts-124-jobs-205057796.html?src=rss

Meta is testing a new subscription service for Instagram that offers users "exclusive" features like the ability to post Stories for longer than 24 hours. Screenshots promoting "Instagram Plus" have been spotted by users in the Philippines and Mexico in recent days. According to screenshots shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra, a subscription to Instagram Plus comes with a number of Story-focused features not otherwise available to Instagram users. This includes the ability to create multiple "audiences" for Stories posts, see info about who has rewatched your Story, search the list of people who have viewed your Story, preview Stories posts, extend Stories longer than 24 hours and create  "spotlight" Stories. It also mentions something called “super hearts” for reacting to Stories.A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the test to Engadget, saying that Instagram Plus is currently available in “a few countries,” but didn’t say which. A dedicated help page on Meta's website says that this feature is not available to everyone right now.”  The spokesperson confirmed the feature list shown below, and added that “preview” would allow people to see some of another user’s Story without “showing up as a viewer” and that Stories posts could be extended for an additional 24 hours. “Our hope from these tests is to understand what’s most valuable to people in a premium feature set,” the spokesperson said.A list of features that come with Instagram Plus subscriptions.ThreadsIt seems that early versions of the service are priced fairly cheaply, with the prices in the Philippines landing at 65 PHP (about $1.07 in USD) a month and in Mexico at $39 MXN (about $2.15 in USD) a month. Meta is also offering prospective users a free one-month trial of the service. The idea seems to be closely modeled after Snapchat+, which also offers bonus features to the app's power users. Launched in 2022, the service has racked up more millions of subscribers and has become a significant driver of non-advertising revenue for the company. Now, Meta is looking to boost its subscription revenue too. The company said earlier this year it would test new types of subscriptions, including those focused on AI features. Elsewhere, Meta has also been pushing its Meta Verified subscriptions more aggressively. Over the last several weeks, I've repeatedly seen promotions for discounted Meta Verified plans with an initial one-month trial starting at $1 (the cheapest Meta Verified plans typically start at $14.99/month). The company has also recently tested link-sharing features in Instagram captions for subscribers and limits on link-sharing on Facebook for non-subscribers. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-testing-an-instagram-plus-subscription-service-with-exclusive-features-181215180.html?src=rss

Match Group and its subsidiary OkCupid has finally settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission that dates back to its alleged sharing of user data back in 2014. According to the lawsuit, the FTC accused OkCupid of inappropriately sharing personal user data that includes photos and location info with a third party company, Clarifai, which offers AI-powered software for uses like facial recognition and content moderation. According to the FTC, OkCupid's privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn't share a user's personal information with others, except for some cases including "service providers, business partners, other entities within its family of businesses." However, the lawsuit accused OkCupid of sharing three million photos of its users to Clarifai, which the FTC claims is a "unrelated third party" that didn't fall under the allowed entities. On top of that, the lawsuit alleged that OkCupid didn't inform its users of this data sharing, nor give them a chance to opt out. "While we do not admit any wrongdoing, we have settled this matter with the FTC with no monetary penalty to resolve an issue from 2014 and move forward," an OkCupid spokesperson told Engadget, adding that the allegations don't reflect how OkCupid operates today. "Over the years, we have further strengthened our privacy practices and data governance to ensure we meet the expectations of our users." Moving forward, the settlement would "permanently prohibit" Match Group, which owns OkCupid, and Humor Rainbow, which operates OkCupid, from misrepresenting what kind of personal information it collects, the purpose for collecting the data and any consumer choices to prevent data collection. Even after the 2014 incident, OkCupid was found with security flaws that could've exposed user account info but, which were quickly patched in 2020.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/okcupid-settles-ftc-case-on-alleged-misuse-of-its-users-personal-data-175159228.html?src=rss