From $80 Popcorn Buckets To Wikipedia Revolts, Here’s The Week’s Biggest (And Weirdest) News
It’s a little funny to consider the following stories “news” given the state of the world right now. I’m tempted to explain what I mean by that, but I’m just as happy to let that sentence be an inkblot test, revealing just what type of person you are based on the first thing that pops into your mind. (If the thought of that angers you, then I guess you have your answer.)
Nevertheless, read on for very important information about expensive popcorn buckets, Switch 2 settings (and astronomical sales), a disastrous launch week for MindsEye, an editorial revolt at Wikipedia over AI (okay, that one actually is kind of important), and more.
The Switch 2 has a ton of new features and a much more detailed list of settings you can tinker with than its predecessor. Here are four you should change right from the jump to improve your overall experience with Nintendo’s new Mario Kart World machine. Just go into the settings menu inside the gear icon near the bottom right of the home screen to get started. – Ethan Gach
MindsEye is the first new game from longtime Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies and his studio Build A Rocket Boy, and it’s not going well. After tons of pre-launch red flags, the techno thriller shooter is now out in the wild and suffering all the day-one woes: bugs, poor optimization on PC, and underlying gameplay that early players say is barely passable for a big release in 2025. “Build A Rocket Boy, I genuinely wanted you to pull this off,” wrote one Steam user. “Sadly, this game plays like crap.” – Ethan Gach
We already knew the Nintendo Switch 2 was going to sell well. Demand has been feisty, and pre-orders sold out extraordinarily quickly. Nintendo now reports that it was even more popular than bad been expected, selling 3.5 million consoles in the first four days. For context, the original Switch took a month to sell 2.75 million units. – John Walker
An unusual email hit my inbox earlier today. It was from PR for the makers of Splitgate 2, a free-to-play portal shooter that released just a few days ago and stirred up drama with a MAGA-infused meme at Summer Game Fest from studio head Ian Proulx. “The CEO of 1047 Games has issued a video statement and apology to the community and gaming fans for his ‘Make FPS Great Again’ hat during Summer Games Fest,” the email read. It offered interviews. – Ethan Gach
The Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit group that hosts, develops, and controls Wikipedia, has announced that it won’t be moving forward with plans to add AI-generated summaries to articles after it received an overwhelmingly negative reaction from its army of dedicated (and unpaid) human editors. – Zack Zwiezen
