Panic is not messing around with Playdate's second season. After starting off Season Two on the right foot with Dig! Dig! Dino!, Fulcrum Defender and the surprise rollout of Blippo+, the team has followed through with another strong pair of games for week two. The Whiteout and Wheelsprung are, like the week one games, polar opposites of each other: a somber, narrative-heavy post-apocalyptic adventure and a nutty dirtbike game with realistic(ish) physics. 

If you're looking for any throughline between them, I've got you. It's squirrels. You'll see. (Alright I may be reaching, but as both a journalist and a wildlife rehabilitator who is currently raising orphaned squirrels, just let me have this one).

This week also brought an update for the "intergalactic TV service," Blippo+, and it looks like we'll be getting new content for some time to come. The Season Two team wrote in an email accompanying the latest drop that "Blippo+ itself is going to update every week for eleven (!) weeks, every Thursday at 10AM PT [1PM ET]." Once it's all over, there will be reruns. We'll get a countdown for that on week 12, the team says. Now, let's get into the new games.

The Whiteout

Scenic Route Software

Minutes into playing Scenic Route Software's The Whiteout, I became certain that this was going to be another game that would make me cry. The narrative tone is heavy, the atmosphere is bleak and absolutely nothing about it suggests that anything is going to get better… ever. It feels hopeless from the start, but you have to keep trudging along anyway. (If you've ever read The Road, the feeling should be familiar). When I finally reached the end, though, I wasn't in tears — I was totally speechless, in a "mouth hanging open, empty inside" kind of way. It's stunning.

The Whiteout is narrative driven, picking up in a barren post-apocalyptic version of the US in which a snowstorm began one spring and never stopped. The events are set in current times — the onset of the snow occurred in spring 2025 — giving it an eerie, close to home kind of quality. Everything about it feels like something that could happen. As you play through its five chapters, the story is told through the playable character's musings about the past and present. It's all beautifully written, with numerous sentimental moments that felt genuinely heartbreaking.

It did manage to get a few smiles out of me though; the character makes cynical quips here and there, and a nefarious bunch called The Woodpeckers comes to be known simply as "the 'peckers," which got me every time. And the appearance of a squirrel just kind of hanging out in the background served as a refreshing sign of life amid the desolation. (I wondered while playing if the squirrel was a checkpoint, but I'd have to go through it all again to figure that out for sure.)

The gameplay entails mostly linear exploration, searching for resources, solving puzzles and making choices about your next moves. There's not much in the way of action, and you spend most of the game just walking with a slowness that is at times maddening. But, while I definitely would have appreciated the option to speed up even a little (a gentle jog, maybe?), the lethargy helps to illustrate how hard it would be to carry on in such conditions. Backtracking several times to get all the resources you need to progress in some areas is painfully tedious, so the relief when you do complete the action is real. Patience is key in this game.

I fear some people will give up on this title early because of the pace, and I implore you not to do that. It's worth every minute. It's also worth it to play with headphones, as recommended, to really let yourself be immersed in the setting. I stayed up half the night playing and got up early the next morning to finish it, and I'm still thinking about the ending I came to. There are multiple endings according to the creators, so I'll likely dive back in for another go once I've had more time to digest. The Whiteout is without a doubt the most memorable game of both Playdate seasons to date.

Wheelsprung

Nino van Hooff & Julie Bjørnskov

So, you played The Whiteout and now you're depressed. The Playdate team seems to have prepared for this, because the other game that dropped this week with the second release of Season Two may as well be the antidote. Wheelsprung is cute, charming and silly as hell. It's also a pretty challenging (and frustrating) physics game, but I do love a game that pisses me off a little.

The art of Wheelsprung is instantly recognizable as that of Julie Bjørnskov, one of the creators of Escape the Boardgame and Escape the Arcade, which is to say it's oozing whimsy. Bjørnskov made this one with programmer Nino van Hooff. The story is pretty simple: a family with a child who loves nuts — like, enough to scatter them all over the place in joy — has briefly left their home unattended, and you're a squirrel equipped with an absurdly flexible dirtbike who is on a mission to collect as many nuts as possible in their absence. There are nearly three dozen levels to complete, each of them an obstacle course you must figure out how to navigate on the two-wheeler. There's also a level editor to create your own tracks.

The squirrel's dirtbike is basically a Dr. Seuss contraption, and it's capable of some pretty impressive maneuvers. Lean in either direction using the D-pad and it can do a wheelie. Hit the down arrow and it'll instantly turn you to face the other way. But you must always be conscious of your balance. Allowing the squirrel's helmet to so much as tap an obstacle will result in a run-ending wipeout, as of course will all-out crashing. This game forces you to get extremely creative to traverse complicated tracks. There's a leaderboard and ideally you want to finish with the fastest time possible, but for a handful of levels my main goal at first was just figuring out how to make it to the end at all.

I don't want to give away too many hints about how to excel in this game, but I sure have spent a surprising amount of time driving my bike upside down dangling from one wheel, or rocking the bike back and forth to creep forward like an inchworm. It is absolutely ridiculous, and lots of (somewhat rage-inducing) fun.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playdate-season-2-review-the-whiteout-and-wheelsprung-130014285.html?src=rss

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© Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

I have not played a single boxing game outside of Wii Sports this century, but that could be about to change. Summer Game Fest Live brought us the reveal of Felt That: Boxing, which stars puppet pugilists.

This project from the appropriately named Sans Strings Studio and Seth Green's animation company, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, is billed as "a comedic, over-the-top boxing game set in a world where the charm of furry puppets collides with the fury of boxing." The clip is structured like a trailer for an underdog sports movie and it is just delightful. 

The snippets of gameplay suggest there will be training minigames that include dodging slices of burnt toast that a trainer hurls at your puppet (who is named Fuzz-E) and, uh, plunging a toilet. According to the description on the YouTube video, the developers are aiming to make the "boxing mechanics are intentionally ridiculous, favoring fun over precision, with [puppet] limbs flailing about with an insane sense of chaos." Lovely.

This trailer was immediately the most interesting thing during SGF Live up to that point. Felt That: Boxing does not yet have a release window, but you can wishlist it on Steam now, like I just did.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/heres-a-silly-puppet-boxing-game-you-never-knew-you-needed-215616201.html?src=rss

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© Sans Strings Studio

There will be no shortage of gaming news to come out of Summer Game Fest 2025, but don't forget about the first-ever Frosty Games Fest that will highlight more than 50 video games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The showcase will kick off its YouTube and Twitch livestreams on Saturday June 7 at 7PM ET.

Organized by industry professionals from the region, Amy Potter, Kieron Verbrugge, Lucy Mutimer and Pritika Sachdev will take us through some upcoming and recently released games from Oceania. If you prefer, you can also tune into the event with various co-streamers, which can be found at Frosty Games Fest's Bluesky account.

To close out Saturday's festivities, Frosty Games Fest will shine a light on titles like Sub-Verge, a psychological narrative puzzle game that takes place underwater from Interactive Tragedy, Limited, and Winnie’s Hole, a turn-based roguelite based on the Winnie the Pooh franchise from Twice Different. The Melbourne-based 10PM Club will also debut its teaser trailer for REAPRIEVE, where you follow a grim reaper at an office desk who's tasked with deleting a soul's memories. Be sure to follow our live reporting of Summer Game Fest 2025, where we'll be on site to cover the latest gaming announcements.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-frosty-games-fest-at-summer-game-fest-2025-220039256.html?src=rss

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© Frosty Games Fest

We're expecting a ton of AAA and indie game announcements during Summer Game Fest 2025, but the Southeast Asian Games Showcase will highlight the best games coming out of the region. The event will offer some exclusive reveals, new trailers and update announcements on more than 45 titles from Southeast Asian game developers. You can catch all the news through the YouTube livestream, which will start Saturday, June 7 at 3PM ET.

The showcase teased some updates with Polychroma Games' Until Then, a narrative adventure game set in a fictional Filipino city, Bit Egg's Lost & Found Co., a quirky hidden object game, and kopiforge's SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure that's equal parts co-op cooking and combat. 

Right before the Southeast Asian Games Showcase, you'll be able to catch the Latin American Games Showcase at 2PM ET and the Women-Led Games Showcase at 1PM ET, both on June 7. For the rest of the Summer Game Fest 2025, tune into Engadget's coverage, where we'll have in-person reports on some of the biggest gaming announcements expected during the event.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-southeast-asian-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-181518526.html?src=rss

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© Southeast Asian Games Showcase

Summer Game Fest 2025 is just around the corner and it'll be a weekend packed with video game news. The event kicks off on June 6, with roughly a dozen livestreams scheduled to take place from then through June 8. Among them is the Latin American Games Showcase, which will highlight over 50 titles from Latin American indie developers. You can tune into the YouTube stream on Saturday, June 7 at 2PM ET (11AM PT).

Last year's Latin American Games Showcase at SGF gave us a glimpse at a ton of games to be excited about, like the recently released title, Despelote, that's both memoir and soccer game. We don't know yet what the 2025 showcase will bring, but there's sure to be some gems. Before the Latin American Games Showcase on Saturday, Summer Game Fest Live will usher in the festivities on June 6 at 5PM ET (2PM PT).

We have all the info you need to know right here ahead of Summer Game Fest and will be on the ground getting some hands-on time with many of the games you'll see featured in the showcases, so be sure to check back in for the latest news.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-latin-american-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-210009391.html?src=rss

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© Summer Game Fest

The Women-Led Games Showcase will be returning for its second year at the Summer Game Fest 2025. It will feature 39 titles from women-led and majority women development teams, and viewers can expect to see deep dives, release announcements and information on DLCs during the event. The Showcase will take place on June 7 at 1PM Eastern time and will be streamed live on Twitch and YouTube, which is embedded below. You can also watch the stream through various co-streamers' Twitch channels that you can find from the Women-Led Games' X account. Take note that the team will also be running a Steam sale event from June 6 to 13 for women-led titles.

In addition to this showcase, Summer Game Fest 2025 will also feature several other events, such as Day of the Dev for indie titles and Wholesome Direct for cozy games. There will be a showcase for titles created by Latin American developers, a Green Games event for titles that make direct contributions to green initiatives and an Xbox Games Showcase for updates on titles from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. You can also watch the live premiere for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach on June 8 at 10PM Eastern time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-women-led-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-190005489.html?src=rss

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© Summer Games Fest

Disney has taken another step into the hyper-competitive world of live sports broadcasting. According to The Guardian, the entertainment conglomerate has secured a five-year deal to broadcast live Women’s Champions League soccer matches on Disney+ across multiple European broadcast territories, including the United Kingdom. 

From the NFL on YouTube to the Grammys on Disney+, the broadcast rights to live events have become a hot commodity as streamers look to make inroads into one of cable TV’s biggest selling points. And in recent years, broadcast rights for women’s sports leagues have become more competitive as the category’s growth in viewership accelerates.

Amazon has been streaming WNBA games since 2021, and last year Netflix secured the rights to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Disney’s investment in streaming the best in European women’s soccer signals an important continuation of that trend.

According to the same report by The Guardian, Disney made a “hugely competitive offer” for the streaming rights, and is said to be investing not only in the rights themselves, but in extensive coverage with high-caliber production. The deal was entered into in agreement with UC3, the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association, which means club representatives were involved in the discussions.

In the United States, the broadcast rights for the Women’s Champions League are held exclusively by DAZN; the platform currently streams 19 matches for free in addition to more for subscribers. YouTube had signed on as a streaming partner in the US for all games from 2021 to 2023, but didn’t renew that deal when it ended.

The deal reportedly includes some free-to-air coverage of the Women’s Champions League in the United Kingdom, though there are no details yet on which games or how many exactly. So if you’re in the UK, don’t forget to renew that TV license.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-will-reportedly-stream-womens-champions-league-soccer-matches-across-much-of-europe-155854592.html?src=rss

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© Fran Santiago - UEFA via Getty Images

The team behind GeoGuessr is withdrawing the location-guessing game from the Esports World Cup (EWC) after fans protested its decision to participate in the event. Community members pulled many popular custom maps from the game after it emerged the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, was going to hold a tournament at the EWC, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July.

Map creators who removed their community creations from GeoGuessr claimed that the EWC is "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." Many other prominent game franchises will be featured at the event, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rocket League, Street Fighter and EA Sports FC.

In a statement posted on X and Reddit, GeoGuessr AB CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell said the community stated loud and clear that the decision to take part in the EWC "does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for." As such, the team is pulling out of the event.

Here is Antell's full statement:

Hi everyone,

I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr’s core mission of let everyone Explore the World.

Since Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we’ve always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for you.

That said, you - our community - have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for.

So, when you tell us we’ve got it wrong we take it seriously. That’s why we’ve made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

We will come back with information on how the wildcards will be distributed as soon as possible.

Thank you for speaking up and sharing your thoughts.

/Daniel

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/geoguessr-pulls-out-of-the-esports-world-cup-after-a-community-protest-151138984.html?src=rss

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© GeoGuessr AB

Update: GeoGuessr will no longer participate in the EWC, GeoGuessr AB said in a statement. Our original story follows:

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A group of GeoGuessr map creators have pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the Esports World Cup 2025, calling the tournament "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." The protestors say the blackout will hold until the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, cancels its planned Last Chance Wildcard tournament at the EWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 21 to 27.

GeoGuessr is a browser game where players try to pinpoint locations using only Google Street View images, and it relies on community mapmakers to stay relevant. The blackout, which began on May 21, includes "dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps," according to a statement the group shared on Reddit. The removed maps have been played tens of millions of times.

One of the largest GeoGuessr communities, Plonk It, has also removed its Map Directory and shared the mapping community's open letter. That statement reads in full as follows:

We've hit up GeoGuessr AB for a comment on the blackout and will update this story as we hear back.

The EWC is a huge, multi-game event owned and operated by the Saudi government and held in the country's capital city. It's an evolution of the Gamers8 tournament and this year marks the second EWC-branded competition; it's due to take place in July and August with a total prize pool of $38 million, split among 24 games. Franchises participating in the 2025 event include Rocket League, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Dota 2, Valorant, Street Fighter 6, EA Sports FC and PUBG.

It's difficult to compete in esports without running into Savvy Games Group, the video game arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Alongside hosting the EWC, Savvy has financial stakes in Nexon (10.2 percent ownership), Electronic Arts (9 percent), Embracer Group (8.3 percent), Nintendo (7.5 percent), Capcom (5 percent) and Take-Two Interactive (6.8 percent as of 2023). Savvy also runs ESL FACEIT Group, which contains the Electronic Sports League, a longstanding and significant esports event company. The New York Times reported last year that the Saudi government plans to invest $38 billion in the video game industry by 2030.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long documented the abuses of the Saudi government. HRW describes Saudi Arabia's human rights record as "abysmal," and specifically calls out the PIF as a reputational whitewashing tool. Saudi authorities have been accused of sportswashing in traditional sports as well, specifically through the country's ownership of LIV Golf and Newcastle United FC.

In February, Riot Games — the operator of League of Legends, Valorant and Teamfight Tactics, and arguably the largest name in esports — signed a three-year deal with the Esports World Cup Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Riot defended the partnership, arguing that the resulting financial boon for players and the esports industry outweighed other concerns.

"We know some of you may not feel great about our decision to partner with the EWC in this way, and we respect that," Riot's statement read.

Though corporate support for the EWC remains strong, the GeoGuessr mapping community isn't alone in rejecting this year's tournament. Street Fighter 6 player Christopher Hancock, who plays as ChrisCCH for FlyQuest, recently declined his spot at EWC 2025. In a social media statement, Hancock said, "I gave this decision a lot of thought and ultimately decided that, due to the nature in which the event is funded and managed, I do not feel comfortable participating in it." He added that the partnership between the Capcom Pro Tour and the EWC effectively forced him to work with the Saudi-backed group.

"Choosing to not participate in any EWC qualifiers would effectively mean retirement from competing," Hancock said. "I find it regrettable that this event has become so deeply embedded in the [fighting game community], but I have not yet made a decision on whether I will stop competing in events associated to it altogether."

Alongside the GeoGuessr map blackout, the community protest added one new, short challenge to the game called How to Run A Dictatorship. It takes players through five locations around Riyadh, documenting the alleged government-sanctioned torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and oppression of women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and political dissenters occurring in these places. The challenge takes just a few minutes, so feel free to experience it yourself.

Update, May 22, 11:14AM ET: Added a note about GeoGuessr's withdrawal from the EWC with a link to our latest story.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/geoguessr-community-maps-go-dark-in-protest-of-ewc-ties-to-human-rights-abuses-221037118.html?src=rss

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© GeoGuessr AB

The upcoming Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World was originally intended for the OG Switch console, according to an interview with the game's developers. This was the goal until the dev team realized that the console couldn't handle it.

"It was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” said programming director Kenta Sato. A big sticking point seemed to be that the original Switch would have had to run the game at 30FPS. Mario Kart games have always run at 60FPS, for obvious reasons. You can't simulate speed without, uh, simulating speed.

Developers pecked away at the "tough situation" until finally deciding to create more DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a way to bide time as the team figured out what to do.

"As we’d decided to release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — Booster Course Pass, we thought that would give us a bit more time to continue development," said producer Kosuke Yabuki. "That’s when the conversation of moving it to the Nintendo Switch 2 system came up, and this suddenly opened up a bunch of possibilities on what we could do. It was truly a ray of hope.”

This interview also revealed that the game has been in development since 2017, which is a heck of a long time. However, it makes a certain amount of sense given that the original Mario Kart 8 came out in 2014.

The upcoming racer was always set in an open world and it was never going to be called Mario Kart 9. The developers wanted to "take the series to the next level." The big, connected world seems to do just that.

"I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we’d been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses," Yabuki continued. "That’s why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this.”

I personally think the company made the right call by delaying this game until the Switch 2. Recent first-party Switch titles have experienced massive framerate issues, and there's no way the console could have handled races with 24 participants. In any event, we only have a couple of weeks until we get to play Mario Kart World, if you've successfully reserved the Switch 2 for the June 5 launch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/mario-kart-world-was-initially-planned-for-the-original-switch-174704456.html?src=rss

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© Nintendo

Netflix has released its first teaser trailer for the final season of Squid Game. Based on the scenes the streaming service included in the video, the games will be restarted after a failed uprising led by the show's protagonist Seong Gi-hun, or Player 456. While Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, it hinted strongly that the rebellion will fail to end the games right then and there. 

In the teaser, Player 456 could be seen being brought back into a room full of players inside a coffin. And after he wakes up, the games resume, players are segregated into groups, mother and son are separated and, curiously, a baby could be heard crying by the end of the teaser. We also get glimpses of Jun-ho as he searches for the island where the games are being held and his brother In-ho, who resumes his role as the games' Front Man after pretending to be a player in the previous season. 

Squid Game is a Korean survival thriller with themes revolving around class struggle and social inequality. In the story, ordinary people, often buried in debts and desperate to earn money, are locked in a facility where they're forced to play games. Only one person wins the pot of money players collectively earn by winning games. Everybody else? Well, they die. Seong Gi-hun, the first season's winner, chose to come back for another round in order to dismantle the organization running the games, and the third season will show the culmination of his efforts. Squid Game season 3 arrives on Netflix on June 27. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-teases-squid-games-final-season-035721654.html?src=rss

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© Netflix

As Big Tech pours countless dollars and resources into AI, preaching the gospel of its utopia-creating brilliance, here's a reminder that algorithms can screw up. Big time. The latest evidence: You can trick Google's AI Overview (the automated answers at the top of your search queries) into explaining fictional, nonsensical idioms as if they were real.

According to Google's AI Overview (via @gregjenner on Bluesky), "You can't lick a badger twice" means you can't trick or deceive someone a second time after they've been tricked once.

That sounds like a logical attempt to explain the idiom — if only it weren't poppycock. Google's Gemini-powered failure came in assuming the question referred to an established phrase rather than absurd mumbo jumbo designed to trick it. In other words, AI hallucinations are still alive and well.

Google / Engadget

We plugged some silliness into it ourselves and found similar results.

Google's answer claimed that "You can't golf without a fish" is a riddle or play on words, suggesting you can't play golf without the necessary equipment, specifically, a golf ball. Amusingly, the AI Overview added the clause that the golf ball "might be seen as a 'fish' due to its shape." Hmm.

Then there's the age-old saying, "You can't open a peanut butter jar with two left feet." According to the AI Overview, this means you can't do something requiring skill or dexterity. Again, a noble stab at an assigned task without stepping back to fact-check the content's existence.

There's more. "You can't marry pizza" is a playful way of expressing the concept of marriage as a commitment between two people, not a food item. (Naturally.) "Rope won't pull a dead fish" means that something can't be achieved through force or effort alone; it requires a willingness to cooperate or a natural progression. (Of course!) "Eat the biggest chalupa first" is a playful way of suggesting that when facing a large challenge or a plentiful meal, you should first start with the most substantial part or item. (Sage advice.)

Google / Engadget

This is hardly the first example of AI hallucinations that, if not fact-checked by the user, could lead to misinformation or real-life consequences. Just ask the ChatGPT lawyers, Steven Schwartz and Peter LoDuca, who were fined $5,000 in 2023 for using ChatGPT to research a brief in a client's litigation. The AI chatbot generated nonexistent cases cited by the pair that the other side's attorneys (quite understandably) couldn't locate.

The pair's response to the judge's discipline? "We made a good faith mistake in failing to believe that a piece of technology could be making up cases out of whole cloth."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/you-can-trick-googles-ai-overviews-into-explaining-made-up-idioms-162816472.html?src=rss

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© Google / Will Shanklin for Engadget

I try to play as broad a swathe of games as I can, including as many of the major releases as I am able to get to. Baldur's Gate 3 garnered near-universal praise when it arrived in 2023, and I was interested in trying it. But when I watched gameplay videos, the user interface seemed distressingly busy. There were far too many icons at the bottom of the screen and my brain crumbled at the sight of them. I am yet to try Baldur's Gate 3.

Two years later, I had similar feelings ahead of checking out Overwatch 2's Stadium, a major new mode for a game I play nearly every single day. Blizzard gave members of the press a spreadsheet that detailed all of the possible upgrades and powers for each hero, as well as a list of modifiers that any character can use. With two dozen or so unlockables for each of the 17 heroes that will be in Stadium at the jump and about 70 general upgrades, that's hundreds of different options Blizzard is adding to the game all at once.

As I scrolled through the list, I was surprised that a feeling of dismay washed over me. I started to worry that Stadium might not be for me.

Figuring out how to combine the items and powers in effective ways for so many different characters seemed completely daunting. It doesn't help that I'm growing tired of more and more major games having RPG elements with deeper character customization. Taking some of the decision making out of my hands by giving a character a defined set of abilities and weapons with no stat or gear upgrades to worry about is more my speed.

Thankfully, Blizzard has some good ideas on how to welcome players into this new mode. And, as it turns out, once I actually started playing Stadium, my anxious feelings swiftly melted away and I had a great time with it.

Blizzard bills Stadium, which will go live for all players as part of season 16 on April 22, as the third pillar of Overwatch 2. It will nestle alongside the Competitive and Unranked modes and only be available in a ranked format.

Stadium is a very different take on Overwatch 2. For instance, it has a more sports-like presentation. Thanks to some tweaks to maps that seem a little out of the Apex Legends playbook and a new, looser announcer, it feels a bit more like a spectator sport than the lore-infused Competitive and Unranked formats. The maps in Stadium are either new stages or condensed versions of existing ones, with rounds typically lasting just a few minutes each.

On paper, Stadium is a more tactical spin on Overwatch 2, though with a vastly different approach than the likes of Valorant or CS:GO. Neither of those games really landed for me (I retired from Valorant with a very modest undefeated record), adding to my concern that I wouldn’t gel with Stadium.

This is a best-of-seven, 5v5 format built around customizing your hero during a match with various upgrades. What's more, this is the first time players can opt for a third-person view at all times. The first-person view is still there if you prefer it.

It's a little redundant to think of Stadium as Blizzard's answer to Marvel Rivals. It's been in development for over two years — it was conceived before Overwatch 2 even debuted and long before Marvel Rivals siphoned away a chunk of the player base. Still, it's hard not to make the comparison.

Blizzard Entertainment

There's a lot to drink in here. Ahead of my hands-on time with Stadium, I asked game director Aaron Keller how the Overwatch 2 team designed the mode to avoid making it feel too overwhelming and how the developers hoped to ease players into Stadium.

The team has done a few things with the aim of making the transition "a little less intimidating" for both long-time players and newcomers to the game, such as having a tab with example builds in the Armory, the pre-round shop where you select your upgrades. "If you want to, when you're playing a hero for the first time, you can just click through a custom, designer-built set of powers and items that you can unlock over the course of that match," Keller said. "It takes a little bit of what can be an overwhelming decision-making process out of your first-time experience, but you'll still be able to feel yourself grow in power."

Restricting the initial roster of heroes to 17 out of 43 can help players get to grips with Stadium, Keller suggested, though Blizzard will add more characters to the mode each season (newcomer Freja will join Stadium after the midseason update). The lack of hero swapping could also be a boon here. "All you're really gonna have to focus on is what your hero, your team's heroes and the enemy team can do over the course of that match," Keller said.

The lack of hero swaps did seem odd at first. One of the things that initially drew me to Overwatch was that each character had a defined set of abilities. The idea of being able to switch to a different hero to counter a particular menace on the enemy team was such a core part of the Overwatch experience for so long, but that faded over time. The switch to role locks (which restricts each player to only picking a hero in a certain class) and the new perks system, which incentivizes sticking with one character over the course of a match to unlock useful upgrades, have diminished the freedom of swapping to any other hero at any time.

In Stadium, rather than hero swaps, the answer to countering a pesky opponent is optimizing your build. "A lot of Stadium takes place during combat, but it's just as important to be able to put a strategy together around what you're unlocking in the Armory," Keller said. "It becomes much, much harder to do that if you can't predict what the heroes are going to be on the enemy team from round to round."

To help players from feeling like they're unable to deal with a certain enemy (such as having a D.Va that couldn't normally block a Zarya's beam), players will be able to put together counter builds in the Armory.

"We've got anti-barrier builds you can use. We've even got anti-beam builds that are available to different heroes," Keller said. "If you're going up against a Zarya, there are some things that you, or people on your team, are going to be able to do to counter that."

Through the Armory, you can unlock up to four powers. These are powerful and/or ridiculous abilities that you can pick from every other round. These are locked in for the duration of a match.

One power sees Ashe's ultimate cost slashed in half, but when she deploys B.O.B., he's just a little guy with lower attack speed and durability. Mini B.O.B. is just far too adorable for words. Another power lets Kiriko players spawn an AI-controlled clone of the support for a few seconds after she teleports.

Along with powers, there are items. These are purchased with earnable currency and can be swapped out before each round. You get some currency at the beginning of a match and earn more by playing well — dealing damage, scoring eliminations, healing allies, collecting a bounty by taking out an enemy who's crushing it and so on. Common and rare items boost your stats, but epic items are the ones you want. These are the more expensive upgrades that you unlock more of the longer a Stadium match goes.

Mei has some really great tweaks, such as the ability to move faster if on ground that she freezes, being able to remove a burn effect with her chilling primary fire and turning into a rolling ice ball that damages opponents. One enemy I faced used a combo of Mei's ice ball and ice wall to trap me, with both abilities damaging my hero at the same time. I'm stealing that strategy.

Blizzard Entertainment

Orisa, meanwhile, can use her javelin spin to fly a short distance. Ana (the best hero in the game) can cast her powerful Nano Boost through walls and to multiple allies. Soldier: 76 can get a short burst of his auto-aiming ultimate after damaging an enemy with his Helix Rockets. This is just scratching the surface of the items on offer, and the options can compound on each other to make abilities wildly powerful.

"I mostly just want to present a space for players where they feel like they can take the elements they really love about the other core modes that we have and just push them. Find that character that speaks to them and just push it as far as they can," senior game designer Dylan Snyder said when asked what would make the team's work on Stadium feel like it paid off.

"If we start seeing people sharing builds around and saying 'guys, I found this, this is the answer in this scenario, check this out.' They do write-ups on that, to me that's a win. Any numbers or metrics aside, to me, that's the mark of something that has landed with people."

Overwatch 2's practice range is there for a reason

I'm glad I took some time to play around with all of the heroes in the Stadium version of the practice range before hopping into a match. I started to get a feel for what each hero could do with maxed-out example builds. Certain abilities can quickly become very powerful if you pick powers and items that complement each other. When I hopped into matches, I made a conscious choice to stop worrying about understanding everything and to embrace the side of Overwatch 2 that I love the most: full-blown chaos.

Relying on the example builds was a big help at the outset. By focusing on those — and selecting the items that I felt would be the most effective at any given time — I didn't have to overthink anything. Just quickly pick a power and some items and try to enjoy myself, before switching to more powerful items as soon as I had a chance. That was my strategy.

Because of that, I've been having an absolute blast with Stadium so far. Playing around with all the new stuff you can do as all of the heroes is far more engaging than I've expected. Piling every resource into survivability as a tank or weapon upgrades as a damage hero makes sense, but each hero has a ton of flexibility.

For instance, I could have gone all in on upgrading Ashe's Dynamite. But having a second Coach Gun charge to simultaneously blow up a trio of additional sticky explosives that can spawn when Ashe's Dynamite detonates was very impactful. I picked up quite a few kills with that trick.

Blizzard Entertainment

My favorite upgraded ability so far is being able to fly while using Reinhardt's charge. He can soar across nearly half a map in a few seconds. It's absurd. Not even flying heroes are safe from Reinhardt barreling them into a wall.

I'm a bit more mixed on the third-person view. It does have a lot of advantages, such as a wider field of view and peeking around walls. Until now, I've often had to use a dance emote to secretly peer around a corner. A lot of players will also appreciate being able to get a better look at the skins they've worked so hard (or spent so much) to unlock.

But I think some of the game's tactility is lost in third-person mode. In that perspective, Reinhardt feels a little slower and the satisfying smack of his hammer when it clatters an enemy feels less impactful. It's also a little jarring to switch from a third-person view to aiming down a rifle's sights with Ashe or Ana. So, although the third-person perspective works well for heroes like D.Va, Kiriko and Lucio, I'm glad the first-person mode is still an option.

Meanwhile, Soldier: 76 feels completely overpowered as things stand. He's been an ever-present in my matches and those playing as him usually ended up with the most currency out of everyone in the lobby. But that's the kind of thing the developers will be keeping a close eye on. It'll be even tougher to balance Stadium than the other modes, and doing so will be an ongoing process.

When I first started playing Overwatch in 2016, it took me several weeks to get my head around all of the heroes' abilities and how they could be combined or countered. It's going to take me a while to fully understand all of the new stuff here given the multiple layers of complexity, but I'm happy to just relax and have fun, and passively absorb all of the information instead of poring over it like I'm studying for a test.

Despite my initial reservations, I can see myself sticking with Stadium for a while. I've seen some wild stuff already, and things are going to get more bananas in the coming months as Blizzard folds more heroes into the mode. Plus, the Overwatch 2 I know and love is still there. If I ever feel too overwhelmed in Stadium, I can always retreat to the comfort of my beloved Mystery Heroes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/overwatch-2s-frenetic-stadium-mode-is-a-new-lease-on-life-for-my-go-to-game-165053113.html?src=rss

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© Blizzard Entertainment

Riot Games has unveiled details about the next season for League of Legends. This chapter of the MOBA is themed Spirit Blossom Beyond, and it will bring a temporary new look to Summoner's Rift and several floral cosmetics for the champions. Season 2 will also involve some notable gameplay changes, as well as introducing an all-new game mode called Brawl.

LoL is a perpetual balancing act, and the team at Riot have pared back the emphasis on early- and mid-game objectives this season so players can focus more on laning at the start of a match. Void Grubs are getting nerfed, with only one trio of grubs spawning per game. The reward for securing all three will be a single Void Mite to aid in your tower takes. Rift Herald has been slightly retuned, removing the Shelly's Gaze debuff to make the camp easier to solo.

Atakhan is getting overhauled for Season 2. With this streamlined approach, he will only have one form that expands on the Bloody Petals mechanic introduced in Season 1. Killing the new Thornbound Atakhan will grant a team all remaining Bloody Petals that have spawned on the map with an increased buff amount. The team will also get a permanent buff for the rest of the match called Spiritual Purification: when an enemy is killed, opponents in the surrounding area will be slowed and take damage. Riot intended this Atakhan design to match the seasonal theme as well as nixing the unpopular mechanics like the team-wide Withdraw buff from the Voracious version of this new neutral camp.

Riot Games

As the name implies, the new Brawl mode for LoL is all about fighting. It's a 5v5 matchup that removes much of the strategic burden from typical bouts, with no towers and only a handful of neutral buffs available to claim. Instead, teams score points by taking down enemy champions and by shepherding minions into the rival gate on a new map designed just for this mode. Riot is positioning these bite-sized, 10-minute matches as on-ramps for newer players still building their basic skills or as a mental break from the regular solo queue grind.

As with any big new content release, there are plenty of other tweaks to balance and quality of life that will be fully detailed in the patch notes. Season 2 for League of Legends kicks off on April 30.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/league-of-legends-season-2-hello-brawls-bye-bye-voracious-atakhan-150028605.html?src=rss

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© Riot Games

Slocap’s next game Rematch will be available on June 19. It’ll cost $30 and will be playable on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The announcement was made at the The Triple-i Initiative indie showcase.

Rematch is a soccer title, which may seem surprising for the company that made the brawlers Sifu and Absolver. However, it looks to be an arcade-focused affair instead of a serious sim. There are both 5v5 and 4v4 matches and the action looks fast-paced.

There are no fouls, offsides or anything like that, as the title has been “designed for nonstop competitive play.” The game even has a Rocket League-style boundary wall, so the ball never goes out of play. Rematch offers a number of quickplay modes to get started with and a variety of backdrops for matches. There's even an underwater field. 

Preorders are already online and there’s an open beta set to kick off (get it?) on April 18. Players can register for this two-day event right now. There are also a couple of other editions of the game that cost extra. The Pro Edition costs $40, but allows people to play the game a few days early and offers cosmetic and gameplay upgrades. The Elite Edition includes the contents of the Pro Edition, but offers even more upgrades. These include sneakers to “give your footwork the dazzle it deserves." This version costs $50.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sifu-devs-soccer-game-rematch-arrives-june-19-170031959.html?src=rss

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© Slocap

Bungie is set to take the wrappers off Marathon this Saturday and reveal gameplay from its first non-Destiny project in many years (and its first new one since joining Sony in 2022). Before that though, the studio has confirmed one detail about the multi-platform extraction shooter that PC and Xbox gamers may like to hear. The game won’t force players to log in with a PlayStation account on those platforms.

The Marathon team confirmed on the game’s official Discord server that "Marathon will not require a PlayStation Account for players on PC and Xbox." The developers said this in response to a user who was concerned that they might not be able to play Marathon on PC, since PSN wasn’t supported in their country.

This is relevant considering the Helldivers 2 mess from last year. The PC version of that Sony-published game was going to require players to connect to a PSN account. That wasn’t enforced during the first three-ish months Helldivers 2 was available on Steam due to network issues, but it was later going to come into effect. The shift would have locked out players who had already bought the game in countries where PSN wasn’t available.

Sony quickly backtracked on the PSN requirement for Helldivers 2 following a backlash but the situation tarnished the reputation of a great game. The company later dropped mandatory PSN logins for many of its single-player games on PC, though it tried to incentivize players for linking their Steam account to PSN by offering in-game goodies.

Bungie hasn't said much about Marathon since announcing its revival two years ago, but the gameplay showcase this weekend will shed much more light on what the game's all about. For what it's worth, streamer DrLupo claims to have been playtesting Marathon through various iterations over the last six years, and said it's gotten better each time he's tried it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bungies-marathon-wont-force-xbox-and-pc-players-to-log-in-with-a-playstation-account-144127907.html?src=rss

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© Bungie

By now, your brackets were likely busted a long time ago. The 2025 NCAA Tournaments, affectionately known to many as March Madness, are coming to a close. Both the men's and women's Final Four — the semifinal games — are happening this weekend, with the championship to follow in subsequent days. Different broadcasters own the rights to each tournament, so streaming both installments of the Final Four can be confusing. I’ve broken down the best, most affordable way to access each one so that you'll be ready when the games begin on Friday.

When is the Final Four?

The women's NCAA basketball Final Four is Friday, April 4. 1-seed Texas takes on fellow 1-seed South Carolina at 7:00PM ET, then 2-seed UConn will battle 1-seed UCLA in the other semifinal match up at 9:30PM ET. The winners to play for the national championship on Sunday, April 6 at 3:00PM ET. All three of these games will be on ESPN and ESPN+.

The men's NCAA basketball Final Four is Saturday, April 5. The 1-seed Auburn takes on familiar SEC foe and fellow 1-seed Florida at 6:09PM ET. Following that game at 8:49PM ET, 1-seed Houston will face 1-seed Duke. The winners will play for the national championship on Monday, April 7 at 8:50PM ET. All three of these games will be on CBS.

How to watch the Final Four and championship games

All of the women's games will be available on ESPN and ESPN+, which means you can watch via a live TV streaming service or in the ESPN app (with a TV log-in or ESPN+ subscription). The most affordable way to watch these games is with a $12/month ESPN+ plan. All men's games will air on CBS, where you have the option of streaming on a live TV service or via Paramount+. The most affordable way to watch these games is with a $13/month Paramount+ with Showtime plan. 

You could also try a streaming trial this weekend if one is available. Hulu + Live TV, for example, gives you three days to test its service, while DirecTV Stream gives five — both of them have both CBS and ESPN. The Hulu plan is available to both new and returning customers, so it might be an option to watch most of the action from both tournaments. Since all of the games are spread over four days, you won't get everything, but if you're only watching one or the other, this is a viable way to save some money. 

The rest of this story includes a more complete March Madness overview, including content that was originally published prior to the start of the tournaments.

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When does March Madness start?

The men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 18 with two of the so-called First Four matchups. These are the four games that are used to determine the final four teams in the main 64-team bracket. To some, they’re known as the “play-in games” although they’ve officially been part of the men's tournament since 2011. The first game on March 18 begins at 6:40PM ET with another to follow at 9:10PM ET. The same schedule is expected for the second slate of games on Wednesday, March 19.

On the women’s side, March Madness is offset from the men’s tournament by a day. The first two of the First Four games are Wednesday, March 19 at 7PM ET and 9PM ET. The second pair of matchups follows on Thursday, March 20 in the same two time slots.

The 64-team bracket kicks off in earnest for the men at 12:15PM ET on Thursday, March 20. For the women, the main action begins at 11:30AM ET on Friday, March 21st. Here’s the full schedule for each tournament:

2025 Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 18-19

• First round: March 20-21

• Second round: March 22-23

• Sweet 16: March 27-28

• Elite Eight: March 29-30

• Final Four: April 5

• Championship game: April 7

2025 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 19-20

• First round: March 21-22

• Second round: March 23-24

• Sweet 16: March 28-29

• Elite Eight: March 30-31

• Final Four: April 4

• Championship game: April 6

How to stream the 2025 Men’s NCAA Tournament

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery share the broadcast rights to the men’s tournament, and as they have in years past, TV coverage will be spread across four networks. During the course of March Madness, games will air on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, with the final rounds and championship game landing on CBS.

If you already have a paid TV plan (such as traditional cable), a good way to watch the men’s tournament is with the March Madness Live app or website. There's a big catch though: CBS games aren't available in the app. That means this is really only a good option through the Elite Eight. Once you log in with your TV provider credentials, you can watch games on the other networks in one spot with features like multiview (up to four games at once), “excitement alerts” that let you know when there’s a close game and a Fast Break stream that covers of all the in-progress games in one spot. 

The app also offers ways to follow your bracket, if you filled it out on MarchMadness.com. And when you’re watching on desktop, the crucial Boss Button will throw up a fake work screen when you need it. March Madness Live is also available on Amazon, Fire TV, Apple TV, iOS, macOS, Google Play, LG smart TVs, Roku and Xbox devices.

Your most affordable option to watch every game is to actually use two services. It’s not ideal, I know, but it will save you a lot of money. Max’s Basic plan is $10/month and gives you access to live games from TNT, TBS and truTV with three-game multiview. B/R Sports, which powers all of the live coverage on Max, will only be available on the pricier Standard and Premium levels starting March 30. That's not a problem since games after that date will only air on CBS. For the CBS games, you’ll need a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription that costs $13/month. So, in total, your best option to stream all of the men’s tournament is $23 spread across two apps. 

A live TV service like YouTube TV or Hulu plus Live TV is over $50 more per month at full price, but they would offer you “one-stop shopping” for all the games in the men’s tournament. YouTube TV is currently on sale for $70/month for the first six months you use it. 

How to stream the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament

ASSOCIATED PRESS

While Warner Brothers Discovery owns the rights to the men’s NCAA Tournament, ESPN has the women’s bracket locked down. Every game of the women’s tournament will be spread across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS, including the First Four matchups. The Final Four will be on ESPN, but the championship game will air on ABC. All three of those culminating games will stream on ESPN+.

Since ESPN+ won’t get every game, it’s not an option if you want to watch the entire tournament. You will be able to watch “select matchups” on both ESPN+ and Disney+, but ESPN hasn’t announced what those will be. So, unfortunately, your best bet is a live-TV streaming service like Sling, YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV for a comprehensive experience. Sling is the cheapest avenue here, with the requisite Orange and Sports Extra plans costing $34 (Sling is currently offering a discount on the first month of Orange). YouTube and Hulu live TV options are both the same price at $83/month (YouTube TV currently discounted to $70 for the first six months), so it’s a matter of which set of content and features you like best. YouTube TV offers a handy multiview tool so you can watch up to four games at once, but Hulu + Live TV comes with Disney+ and ESPN+ (both with ads) for that cost. (Opting for Hulu + Live TV only saves you one whole dollar per month if you don’t include the Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu bundling.)

If you’re a more casual fan who can afford to roll the dice on the “select” options on ESPN+, you can save some money. That service only costs $12/month. And if you already have a TV plan that includes the ESPN family of networks, the ESPN app is the best place to watch the tournament. The mix of scores and info, along with multiview streaming for up to four games at a time on Apple TV and Xbox, make the app a well-equipped conduit for the women’s tournament.

The March Madness website only shows scores and news for the women’s tournament. There are no live games available on the website.

What if I want to stream both the men’s and women’s tournaments?

ASSOCIATED PRESS

If you’re hoping to stream all of both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, I hope you ordered Samsung’s eight-TV bundle. In terms of streaming services, just jump straight to a live-TV option like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. I prefer the former because of its multiview feature – a tool that Hulu doesn’t offer. At times when there are multiple games that you want to watch, especially during the first two rounds, you’ll want multiview in order to keep tabs on all of the action.

Are any of the March Madness games available to stream for free?

You can watch all of the games broadcast on CBS on the March Madness website and mobile apps without a TV provider. Sure, it’s a small sample of the tournament, but it’s completely free and a good option for casual fans who don’t have a paid TV plan they can exploit for more of the action. It’s also a good option for watching the first round at work, if your company hasn’t blocked streaming sites, or if you can discreetly watch on your phone.

For the women’s tournament, there aren’t any games available for free. Unless you have an old-school OTA antenna, in which case you can watch men’s games on CBS and women’s games on ABC without any kind of streaming plan. Of course, this is a streaming guide so I’d consider an antenna an extraordinary move in 2025.

If you were hoping to use a free trial period to watch March Madness, I’ve got bad news. None of them will be long enough to watch an entire tournament. Some of them don’t offer them at all, but the longest is YouTube TV at 10 days which wouldn’t get you through the second weekend.

Update, March 20, 2025 12:19PM ET: This guide has been updated to clarify the games available on March Madness Live and to update game availability and pricing for Max.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-stream-march-madness-2025-watch-the-final-four-games-on-april-4-and-5-181552477.html?src=rss

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© Greg Nelson via Getty Images

England's top-tier soccer league will soon use optical tracking to automate portions of offside calls. The Premier League said on Tuesday it will adopt semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) in live matches beginning on April 12. The league said the new tech won't change the accuracy of offside calls, but it will make them 30 seconds faster on average.

SAOT uses sensors from up to 30 cameras mounted high above the field in each Premier League stadium. They track the ball's precise location and up to 10,000 surface data points for each player. The sports tech company Genius Sports explains that the tech "provides more efficient placement of the virtual offside line, using optical player tracking, and generates virtual graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for fans."

Premier League

For the uninitiated, offsides is called in soccer when the attacking team's lead player is closer to the opponent's goal line than both the ball and the second-last defender. (The last defender is usually the goalie.) In recent years, the Premier League defaulted to the offsite Video Assistant Referee (VAR) team, which would determine the kick-point (the moment the lead attacker's teammate passes it) and add calibrated lines with a crosshair for the attacker and defender's locations at that time.

SAOT cuts a big chunk out of this (often lengthy) process by suggesting the kick-point and automatically creating offside lines based on the relevant defender and attacker's positions. The VAR team still has a chance to review the algorithm's suggestion before approving it.

At that point, a "decision visual" like the one below will roll for the fans in the stadium and those watching the broadcast at home to help clarify the call. The animation shows a white vertical wall representing the offside line, with a red (offside) or green (onside) line indicating whether the player crossed it.

Premier League

VAR will still be available as a backup for offside calls. "Most offside decisions will be quicker, but VAR will still have the option to draw crosshairs as a backup to the SAOT system if required," the Premier League explained. "This process may be necessary in 'edge cases' where several players block the view of the ball or other players for the system's cameras."

This isn't the first use of the tech. The Premier League has tested it in non-live matches and in live FA Cup games. The BBC notes that SAOT was also used in the 2022 World Cup, Serie A, La Liga and the Champions League. The Premier League's version is a custom offshoot that Genius Sports developed with PGMOL (the referees' organization) and the league itself. Unlike previous adaptations, the Premier League's version doesn't put a chip inside the ball.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-premier-league-will-speed-up-offside-calls-with-optical-tracking-tech-starting-next-week-163327195.html?src=rss

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© Premier League