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A few years ago, Microsoft offered some of the best deals in gaming. The spartan Xbox Series S was well-priced at $300 (and you could often find it even cheaper if you hunted for deals). A $15 monthly subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offered a vast catalog of games new and old. But my, how things have changed in 2025.

YouTube TV has announced that it has reached a "short-term extension" agreement with NBCUniversal so that it can continue offering its programs while they negotiate a new long-term deal. The service warned customers last week that its partnership with NBCUniversal was going to expire on September 30 and that they haven't signed a new deal yet.

Disney has demanded that Character.AI stop using its copyrighted characters. Axios reports that the entertainment juggernaut sent a cease and desist letter to Character.AI, claiming that it has chatbots based on its franchises, including Pixar films, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The survival climbing game Cairn has been delayed until the first quarter of 2026. Development studio The Game Bakers had previously announced a release date for November 5 of this year.

Martin Shkreli, better known as Pharma Bro for his price-gouging antics with AIDS medication Daraprim, is going to have to defend against claims of misappropriating trade secrets with the unique Wu-Tang Clan album, On

Escape from Tarkov players may finally get the chance to escape from the fictional war-torn city in northwest Russia, but it won't be easy.

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. It's been a packed week, with tons of new releases worth highlighting and Tokyo Game Show taking place.

Google is expanding access to YouTube Premium features like faster playback speeds and high-quality audio to more types of devices. Most people subscribe to YouTube Premium to remove ads from YouTube and access to YouTube Music, but Google also includes a variety of "power-user" features that give subscribers more granular control over their viewing or listening experience.

The long-awaited sequel to The Social Network will hit theaters next fall, according to a report by Deadline. The official release date is set for October 9, 2026, which is just about 16 years after the first film dropped.

YouTube just announced YouTube Labs, which is being described as a "new way for users to take our cutting edge AI experiments for a test drive." This looks like a YouTube-centric version of the pre-existing Google Labs, which is another place for folks to test out experimental AI tools.