As fans of the vinyl revival, we’re excited when record players of any kind get their moment in the sun. So when watching the Olympics over the weekend, I was quite surprised and pleased to see a very distinctive looking turntable featured in a car commercial. The turntable was VPI’s flagship Titan Direct and the car is the first all-electric vehicle from Lexus, the RZ SUV.
While I’m happy to see this well-regarded luxury auto-maker take the plunge into fully electric vehicles — and delighted to see them highlighting a high-end Hi-Fi system in the ad — I was struck by the irony that the turntable featured in the ad, the VPI Titan Direct ($95,000), sells for approximately twice the cost of the Lexus EV ($47,295). Even if you load up the premium trim of the Lexus RZ with its top of the line “Mark Levinson” (powered by Harman) 13-speaker 1,800-Watt sound system, you’re still out the door for under $60,000. Though sadly, you won’t get Dolby Atmos with that.
Meanwhile, for $95,000, the VPI Titan Direct doesn’t even come with a cartridge. It does, however, come with the company’s 12-inch 3D-printed Fatboy Gimbal tonearm, known for its rigidity and its unique triangular-to-circular taper, which is said to reduce resonance and improve tracking. The tonearm features precision gimbal bearings, upgraded Nordost Reference wiring, and a micrometer-style counterweight for simple and accurate tracking force adjustment.
The VPI Titan Direct supports up to three tonearms for quick swaps among cartridges. Shown here with two tonearms installed (image from manufacturer).
The Titan Direct turntable itself features a high mass magnetic direct drive design, pneumatic air-suspension isolation, and a gorgeous triple-stack chassis designed for maximum resonance control. While the version shown in the ad only had a single tonearm installed, the ‘table supports up to three tonearms of virtually any length or manufacturer. This gives audiophiles the option to switch among different tonearm/cartridge combinations instantly, without lengthy set-up for the swaps.
Lexus RZ: Is It a Souped Up Toyota?
As for the car, if it looks a bit familiar, that’s because it shares the chassis, wheelbase, e-TNGA platform and basic silhouette of its Toyota sibling, the BZ4x. But the Lexus version features more distinctive styling including a more aggressive “spindle body” front end, a rear spoiler, more refined interior and higher overall performance. With up to 402 total system horsepower and 0–60 MPH times as quick as 4.1 seconds (on the 550e F SPORT trim), the RZ offers a sporty feel for a little fun after dropping off the little tykes at soccer practice.
The RZ’s built-in 71.4 kWh battery offers 228 to 302 miles of range, depending on configuration, and its integrated DC fast-charging system can recharge from roughly 10% to 80% capacity in around 30 minutes at a high speed DC charger. U.S. versions of the RZ feature the NACS charging port, making it compatible with a wide range of DC fast chargers (including most chargers in the Tesla supercharger network).
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The Lexus RZ EV features a nicely appointed interior with central infotainment screen.
Unlike Ford and GM (and, of course, Tesla), Lexus is very late to the EV game, thanks to its parent company Toyota dragging its feet on full electric vehicles and betting the farm on hybrid vehicles instead. While popular hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius can get higher fuel efficiency than their ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) counterparts, their combustion engines still require regular maintenance like oil changes, tune-ups, belt changes and more, leading to overall higher cost of ownership, compared to EVs.
A modern EV drive train includes only a few dozen moving parts, from battery to motor to linkage to wheels. Meanwhile modern ICE engines can include over 2,000 moving parts, each of which is a potential point of failure over time. Also, even a highly efficient hybrid vehicle’s on-board combustion engine produces local emissions at the tailpipe, which contribute toward local air pollution (particularly in cities) while an ICE contributes zero local emissions and can be powered by green energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power.
While modern EVs still rarely exceed 300 miles of range, the build-out of DC fast charging stations is making long distance road trips more feasible, and the lower NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) of an EV leads to less driver fatigue over long distances.
The Bottom Line
We’re happy to see distinctive high-end audio gear used to promote EV technology. And while you could buy two of the cars for the cost of one of the turntables, there’s nothing to say you can’t buy one of each if you’ve got the means. Just don’t try installing the turntable in the car. That would not end well. You might scratch a record.
Today, Meta went to trial in the state of New Mexico for allegedly failing to protect minors from sexual exploitation on its apps, including Facebook and Instagram. The state claims that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by implementing design features and algorithms that created dangerous conditions for users. Now, more than two years after the case was filed, opening arguments have begun in Santa Fe.
It’s a big week for Meta in court: A landmark social media trial kicks off in California today as well, the nation’s first legal test of social media addiction. That case is part of a “JCCP”, or judicial council coordinated proceedings, that brings together many civil suits that focus on similar issues.
The plaintiffs in that case allege that social media companies designed their products in a negligent manner and caused various harms to minors using their apps. Snap, TikTok, and Google were named as defendants alongside Meta; Snap and TikTok have already settled. The fact that Meta has not means that some of the company’s top executives may be called to the witness stand in the coming weeks.
Meta executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, are not likely to testify live in the New Mexico trial. But the proceedings may still be noteworthy for a few reasons. It’s the first standalone, state-led case against Meta that has actually gone to trial in the US. It’s also a highly charged case alleging child sexual exploitation that will ultimately lean on very technical arguments, including what it means to “mislead” the public, how algorithmic amplification works on social media, and what protections Meta and other social media platforms have through Section 230.
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And, while Meta’s top brass might not be required to appear in person, executive depositions and testimonies from other witnesses could still offer an interesting look at the inner workings of the company as it established policies around underage users and responded to complaints that claim it wasn’t doing enough to protect them.
Meta has so far given no indication that it plans to settle. The company has denied the allegations, and Meta spokesperson Aaron Simpson told WIRED previously, “While New Mexico makes sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments, we’re focused on demonstrating our longstanding commitment to supporting young people…We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”
Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, a tech industry watchdog, said in an emailed statement that these two trials represent “the split screen of Mark Zuckerberg’s nightmares: a landmark trial in Los Angeles over addicting children to Facebook and Instagram, and a trial in New Mexico exposing how Meta enabled predators to use social media to exploit and abuse kids.”
“These are the trials of a generation,” Haworth added. “Just as the world watched courtrooms hold Big Tobacco and Big Pharma accountable, we will, for the first time, see Big Tech CEOs like Zuckerberg take the stand.”
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The Cost of Doing Business
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed his complaint against Meta in December 2023. In it, he alleged that Meta proactively served underage users explicit content, enabled adults to exploit children on the platform, allowed Facebook and Instagram users to easily find child pornography, and allowed an investigator on the case, purporting to be a mother, to offer her underage daughter to sex traffickers.
The trial is expected to take place over seven weeks. Last week jurors were selected, a panel of 10 women and eight men (12 jurors and six alternates). New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid is presiding over the case.
Seedance 2.0 says it generates ‘cinematic content’ with ‘seamless video extension and natural language control’.
TikTok parent company ByteDance launched the pre-release version of its new AI video model, called Seedance 2.0, over the weekend, sparking value growth of shares in Chinese AI firms.
Seedance 2.0 markets itself as a “true” multi-modal AI creator, allowing users to combine images, videos, audio and text to generate “cinematic content” with “precise reference capabilities, seamless video extension and natural language control”. The model is currently available to select users of Jimeng AI, ByteDance’s AI video platform.
The new Seedance model allows exporting in 2k with 30pc faster generation than the previous version 1.5, the company’s website read.
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Swiss-based consultancy CTOL called it the “most advanced AI video generation model available”, “surpassing OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3.1 in practical testing”.
Positive response to the Seedance 2.0 launch drove up shares in Chinese AI firms.
Data compiled by Bloomberg earlier today (9 February) showed publishing company COL Group Co hit its 20pc daily price ceiling, while Shanghai Film Co and gaming and entertainment firm Perfect World Co rose by 10pc. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index is up by 1.63pc at the time of publishing.
Consumer AI video generators have made leaps in advances in just a short period of time. The usual tells – blurry fingers, overly smooth and unrealistic skin and inexplainable changes from frame to frame – in AI videos are all becoming extremely hard to notice.
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While rivalling AI video generator Sora 2 by OpenAI produces results with watermarks (although, there’s no shortage of tutorials on how to remove them), and Google’s Veo 3.1 comes with a metadata watermark called SynthID, Seedance boasts that its results are “completely watermark-free”.
The prevalence of advanced AI tools coupled with ease of access has opened the gates to a new wave of AI deepfakes, with the likes of xAI’s Grok at the centre of the issue.
Last month, the EU launched a new investigation into X to probe whether the Elon Musk-owned social media site properly assessed and mitigated risks stemming from its in-platform AI chatbot Grok after it was outfitted with the ability to edit images.
Users on the social media site quickly prompted the tool to undress people – generally women and children – in images and videos. Millions of such pieces of content were generated on X, The New York Times found.
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A Moscow-based startup has taken a big move into the area of animal-machine hybrids. Neiry, a Moscow-based neurotech company, claims to have already made progress on remotely operated pigeons by inserting electrodes into their brains.
In late 2025, there were reports of early flying tests in the city, in which the modified birds flew controlled routes before returning to base. The project is known as PJN-1, and while the company promotes it as a valuable tool for civilian occupations, this type of technology is gaining traction due to its potential for surveillance purposes.
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The surgeons utilize a specialized frame to delicately place these microscopic electrodes into specific areas of the pigeon’s brain. The electrodes are then linked to a mini-stimulator on the bird’s head. All of the bird’s electronics and navigation system are housed inside a lightweight backpack and powered by solar panels. A tiny camera is mounted on the bird’s chest to capture video. The operators can direct the bird to fly left or right by giving electrical signals to its brain. GPS devices, like a standard drone, track the bird’s location and control its trajectory. According to Neiry, the bird does not require training and may be operated immediately after the process, and the surgery has been reported to be 100% successful in terms of survival rate.
Pigeons have some significant advantages over regular drones in certain scenarios. For starters, they can fly hundreds of miles, perhaps 300 or more in a single day, without having to replace batteries or land frequently. They can simply navigate difficult environments, handle anything the weather throws at them, and even fit into small spaces. Neiry believes they can use pigeons to inspect pipelines or electrical lines, survey industrial regions, or assist with search and rescue efforts in difficult-to-reach areas. According to the company’s inventor, Alexander Panov, the same technology may be used with various birds, such as ravens for coastal monitoring, seagulls, or even albatrosses for operations over the ocean, as long as they can carry the burden and fly the distance required. [Source]
A team of researchers led by Nvidia has released DreamDojo, a new AI system designed to teach robots how to interact with the physical world by watching tens of thousands of hours of human video — a development that could significantly reduce the time and cost required to train the next generation of humanoid machines.
The research, published this month and involving collaborators from UC Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Texas at Austin, and several other institutions, introduces what the team calls “the first robot world model of its kind that demonstrates strong generalization to diverse objects and environments after post-training.”
At the core of DreamDojo is what the researchers describe as “a large-scale video dataset” comprising “44k hours of diverse human egocentric videos, the largest dataset to date for world model pretraining.” The dataset, called DreamDojo-HV, is a dramatic leap in scale — “15x longer duration, 96x more skills, and 2,000x more scenes than the previously largest dataset for world model training,” according to the project documentation.
A simulated robot places a cup into a cardboard box in a workshop setting, one of thousands of scenarios DreamDojo can model after training on 44,000 hours of human video. (Credit: Nvidia)
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Inside the two-phase training system that teaches robots to see like humans
The system operates in two distinct phases. First, DreamDojo “acquires comprehensive physical knowledge from large-scale human datasets by pre-training with latent actions.” Then it undergoes “post-training on the target embodiment with continuous robot actions” — essentially learning general physics from watching humans, then fine-tuning that knowledge for specific robot hardware.
For enterprises considering humanoid robots, this approach addresses a stubborn bottleneck. Teaching a robot to manipulate objects in unstructured environments traditionally requires massive amounts of robot-specific demonstration data — expensive and time-consuming to collect. DreamDojo sidesteps this problem by leveraging existing human video, allowing robots to learn from observation before ever touching a physical object.
One of the technical breakthroughs is speed. Through a distillation process, the researchers achieved “real-time interactions at 10 FPS for over 1 minute” — a capability that enables practical applications like live teleoperation and on-the-fly planning. The team demonstrated the system working across multiple robot platforms, including the GR-1, G1, AgiBot, and YAM humanoid robots, showing what they call “realistic action-conditioned rollouts” across “a wide range of environments and object interactions.”
Why Nvidia is betting big on robotics as AI infrastructure spending soars
The release comes at a pivotal moment for Nvidia’s robotics ambitions — and for the broader AI industry. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, CEO Jensen Huang declared that AI robotics represents a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity, particularly for regions with strong manufacturing bases. According to Digitimes, Huang has also stated that the next decade will be “a critical period of accelerated development for robotics technology.”
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The financial stakes are enormous. Huang told CNBC’s “Halftime Report” on February 6 that the tech industry’s capital expenditures — potentially reaching $660 billion this year from major hyperscalers — are “justified, appropriate and sustainable.” He characterized the current moment as “the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” with companies like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft dramatically increasing their AI spending.
That infrastructure push is already reshaping the robotics landscape. Robotics startups raised a record $26.5 billion in 2025, according to data from Dealroom. European industrial giants including Siemens, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo have announced robotics partnerships in the past year, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed that 80 percent of his company’s future value will come from its Optimus humanoid robots.
How DreamDojo could transform enterprise robot deployment and testing
For technical decision-makers evaluating humanoid robots, DreamDojo’s most immediate value may lie in its simulation capabilities. The researchers highlight downstream applications including “reliable policy evaluation without real-world deployment and model-based planning for test-time improvement” — capabilities that could let companies simulate robot behavior extensively before committing to costly physical trials.
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This matters because the gap between laboratory demonstrations and factory floors remains significant. A robot that performs flawlessly in controlled conditions often struggles with the unpredictable variations of real-world environments — different lighting, unfamiliar objects, unexpected obstacles. By training on 44,000 hours of diverse human video spanning thousands of scenes and nearly 100 distinct skills, DreamDojo aims to build the kind of general physical intuition that makes robots adaptable rather than brittle.
The research team, led by Linxi “Jim” Fan, Joel Jang, and Yuke Zhu, with Shenyuan Gao and William Liang as co-first authors, has indicated that code will be released publicly, though a timeline was not specified.
The bigger picture: Nvidia’s transformation from gaming giant to robotics powerhouse
Whether DreamDojo translates into commercial robotics products remains to be seen. But the research signals where Nvidia’s ambitions are heading as the company increasingly positions itself beyond its gaming roots. As Kyle Barr observed at Gizmodo earlier this month, Nvidia now views “anything related to gaming and the ‘personal computer’” as “outliers on Nvidia’s quarterly spreadsheets.”
The shift reflects a calculated bet: that the future of computing is physical, not just digital. Nvidia has already invested $10 billion in Anthropic and signaled plans to invest heavily in OpenAI’s next funding round. DreamDojo suggests the company sees humanoid robots as the next frontier where its AI expertise and chip dominance can converge.
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For now, the 44,000 hours of human video at the heart of DreamDojo represent something more fundamental than a technical benchmark. They represent a theory — that robots can learn to navigate our world by watching us live in it. The machines, it turns out, have been taking notes.
Waymo has pulled the human safety driver from its autonomous test vehicles in Nashville, as the Alphabet-owned company moves closer to launching a robotaxi service in the city.
Waymo, which has been testing in Nashville for months, is slated to launch a robotaxi service there this year in partnership with Lyft. Riders will initially hail rides directly through the Waymo app. Once the service expands, Waymo will also make its self-driving vehicles available through the Lyft app. Lyft has said it will handle fleet services, such as vehicle readiness and maintenance, charging infrastructure, and depot operations, through its wholly owned subsidiary Flexdrive.
Waymo has accelerated its robotaxi expansion and today operates commercial services in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Phoenix. It also has driverless test fleets in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando.
The company tends to follow the same rollout strategy in every new market, starting with a small fleet of vehicles that are manually driven to map the city. The autonomous vehicles are then tested with a human safety operator in the driver’s seat. Eventually, the company conducts driverless testing, often allowing employees to hail rides, before launching a robotaxi service.
An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds has confirmed the next major kernel series as Linux 7.0, reports Linux news website 9to5Linux.com: “So there you have it, the Linux 6.x era has ended with today’s Linux 6.19 kernel release, and a new one will begin with Linux 7.0, which is expected in mid-April 2026. The merge window for Linux 7.0 will open tomorrow, February 9th, and the first Release Candidate (RC) milestone is expected on February 22nd, 2026.”
This cutaway view shows the interior of the Starlab space station’s laboratory. (Starlab Illustration)
How do you design a living space where there’s no up or down? That’s one of the challenges facing Teague, a Seattle-based design and innovation firm that advises space companies such as Blue Origin, Axiom Space and Voyager Technologies on how to lay out their orbital outposts.
Mike Mahoney, Teague’s senior director of space and defense programs, says the zero-gravity environment is the most interesting element to consider in space station design.
“You can’t put things on surfaces, right? You’re not going to have tables, necessarily, unless you can attach things to them, and they could be on any surface,” he told GeekWire. “So, directionality is a big factor. And knowing that opens up new opportunities. … You could have, let’s say, two scientists working in different orientations in the same area.”
Mike Mahoney is senior director of space and defense programs at Teague. (Photo via LinkedIn)
Over the next few years, NASA and its partners are expected to make the transition from the aging International Space Station to an array of commercial space stations — and Teague is helping space station builders get ready for the shift.
In the 1980s, Teague helped Boeing and NASA with their plans for Space Station Freedom, an orbital project that never got off the ground but eventually evolved into the International Space Station. Teague also partnered with NASA on a 3D-printed mockup for a Mars habitat, known as the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog.
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Nowadays, Teague is focusing on interior designs for commercial spacecraft, a business opportunity that capitalizes on the company’s traditional expertise in airplane design.
Mahoney said Teague has been working with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture on a variety of projects for more than a decade. The first project was the New Shepard suborbital rocket ship, which made its debut in 2015.
“We partnered with their engineering team to design for the astronaut experience within the New Shepard space capsule,” Mahoney said. “It’s all the interior components that you see that come together, from the linings to the lighting. We created a user experience vision for the displays as well.”
GeekWire’s Alan Boyle sits in one of the padded seats inside a mockup of the crew capsule for Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceship, on display at a space conference in 2017. The door of the capsule’s hatch is just to the right of Boyle’s head. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Teague also worked with Blue Origin on design elements for the Orbital Reef space station and the Blue Moon lunar lander. “We were involved in initial concepting for the look and feel of the vehicles,” Mahoney said. “In other cases, we designed and built mockups that were used for astronaut operations and testing. How do we navigate around the lunar lander legs? How do we optimize toolboxes on the surface of the moon?”
Other space station ventures that have benefited from Teague’s input include Axiom Space (which also brought in Philippe Starck as a big-name designer) and Starlab Space, a joint venture founded by Voyager Technologies and Airbus.
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Starlab recently unveiled a three-story mockup of its space station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. The mockup is built so that it can be reconfigured to reflect tweaks that designers want to make in the space station’s layout, before launch or even years after launch.
“One of the things that’s been very helpful along this development path has been working with Teague, because you have to have a really good idea on how you lay out this very large volume so that you can optimize the efficiency of the crew,” said Tim Kopra, a former NASA astronaut who now serves as chief human exploration officer at Voyager Technologies.
Kopra compared the Starlab station to a three-story condo. “The first floor is essentially like the basement of a large building that has the infrastructure,” he said, “It has our life support systems, avionics and software, the toilets, the hygiene station — which encompasses both the toilet and a cleaning station — and the workout equipment.”
The second floor serves as a laboratory and workspace, with a glovebox, freezer, centrifuge, microscope and plenty of racks and lockers for storage. “We are very focused on four different industries: semiconductors, life sciences, pharmaceuticals and materials science,” Kopra said.
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He said the third floor will be a “place that people will enjoy … because Deck 3 has our crew quarters, our galley table, our windows and a little bit more experiment capacity.”
First ever look inside Voyager Space's Starlab Space Station mockup. The space station is 17m tall & 7.7m wide, essentially a 3-story tall building, and can host 4 astronauts continuously & 8 astronauts briefly. The company hopes to launch Starlab by 2029, to replace the ISS. pic.twitter.com/BzwfjUwkmZ
The galley table is a prime example of how zero-gravity interior design differs from the earthly variety. “No chairs,” Kopra said. “Just like on the ISS, all you need is a place to hook your feet. There are little design features, like where do you put a handrail, and how tall is the table?” (He said the designers haven’t yet decided whether the table should be round or square.)
Kopra said one of his top design priorities is to use the station’s volume, and the astronauts’ time, as efficiently as possible. “Time is extremely valuable on the ISS. They calculate that crew time is worth about $135,000 per hour,” he said. “Ours will be a fraction of that, but it really illustrates how important it is to be efficient with the time on board.”
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Starlab is laid out to maximize efficiency. “We have a really cool design where the middle has a hatchway that goes all the way through the three stories,” he said. “So, imagine if it were a fire station, you’d have a pole that went from floor to floor. We don’t need a fire pole. We can just translate through that area.”
Mahoney said human-centered design will be more important for commercial space stations than it was for the ISS.
“In the past, space stations have been primarily designed for professionally trained, military background astronauts,” he said. “Now we’ll have different folks in there. … How do we think about how researchers and scientists will be using these spaces? How do we think about non-professional private astronauts? As the International Space Station gets retired, how do these companies step in to fill the void, serving NASA but also a lot of these new customers?”
A three-story mockup of the Starlab space station has been installed inside a building at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. (Starlab Photo)
An interior view of the Starlab mockup highlights the large observation windows and emergency equipment. (Starlab Photo)
The Internal Payload Laboratory inside the Starlab mockup features a glovebox, cold stowage, an optical bench and a workbench. (Starlab Photo)
Level 3 of the Starlab mockup includes the crew quarters, galley and Earth viewing areas. Starlab Space’s partners include Hilton and Journey, the team behind the Sphere in Las Vegas. (Starlab Photo)
When will commercial space stations step in? The answer to that question is up in the air.
But NASA has been slow to follow through on the revised plan, sparking concern in Congress. Late last month, the space agency said it was still working to “align acquisition timelines with national space policy and broader operational objectives.” Now some lawmakers are calling on NASA to reconsider its plan to deorbit the ISS in the 2030-2031 time frame.
The timetable for the space station transition may be in flux, but Mahoney and other space station designers are staying the course — and taking the long view.
“We may not know right now how the space station is going to be used 20 years from now,” Mahoney said. “How do we start to future-proof and create a system within that’s modular and flexible, so that we can add technologies and add systems, or we can configure in different ways? … Those are the kinds of things that we’re thinking about designing for.”
House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has asked the US Department of Justice to turn over all its communications with both Apple and Google regarding the companies’ decisions to remove apps that shared information about sightings of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. Several apps that allowed people to share information about where they had seen ICE members were removed from both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store in October. Politicoreported that Raskin has contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue and also questioned the agency’s use of force against protestors as it executes the immigration policy set by President Donald Trump.
“The coercion and censorship campaign, which ultimately targets the users of ICE-monitoring applications, is a clear effort to silence this Administration’s critics and suppress any evidence that would expose the Administration’s lies, including its Orwellian attempts to cover up the murders of Renee and Alex,” Raskin wrote to Bondi. He refers to Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by ICE agents. In the two separate incidents, claims made by federal leaders about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were contradicted by eyewitnesses or camera footage, echoing violent interactions and lies about them that occurred while ICE conducted raids in Chicago several months ago.
Another day, another wave of gaming layoffs. Today it’s Riot Games with the announcement that it’s cutting jobs on its pair-based fighting game 2XKO. For context, a representative from Riot confirmed to Game Developer that about 80 people are being cut, or roughly half of 2XKO’s global development team.
“As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO,” according to the blog post from executive producer Tom Cannon. “The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.”
The console launch for 2XKO happened last month. Cannon said the company’s plans for its 2026 competitive season have not altered with the layoffs. He added that Riot will attempt to place the impacted people at new positions within the company where possible.
Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is all about the Winter Olympics. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Elegant ice sport.
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Green group hint: Sports cinema.
Blue group hint: Five for fighting.
Purple group hint: Unusual Olympic sport.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
