The team working on the next BioShock game is losing a third of its staff. According to Bloomberg, Take-Two is laying off more than 80 people at Cloud Chamber, which has been working on a new BioShock title, and the game has been delayed from a planned launch in late 2026 or early 2027.The game has already had a rocky development, and the changes likely mean that the new title may still be years away. The last game in the series, BioShock Infinite, was released in 2013.To help get this new entry back on track, 2K Games, the division of Take-Two that oversees Cloud Chamber, has hired Rod Fergusson, formerly the head of the Diablo team at Blizzard and helped get BioShock Infinite over the finish line, to lead the Cloud Chamber team. “I’m deeply grateful for the work the studio has done so far, and I’m committed to building a BioShock game we’ll be proud of and that our players will love,” Fergusson wrote yesterday.In an internal memo announcing the Cloud Chamber layoffs, 2K Games president David Ismailer said that “while we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development,” per a memo published by Variety.Take-Two didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge.

Framework, the modular computer company, just released its first delightful tiny desktop PC, on top of its smallest laptop yet. But it’s already teasing its next big live announcement on YouTube for August 26th at 8am PT / 11am ET, saying it’ll reveal how “something big just got better.”While that may seem like a vague phrase, it might narrow things down quite a bit! Framework only has one existing “big” product other than the Framework Desktop, the one that mysteriously didn’t get an update at its last event in February. I’m talking, of course, about the Framework Laptop 16, the most ambitious and most modular laptop ever made. When I tracked down Framework CEO Nirav Patel in February, he told me that the company was “nowhere near done” with the laptop just yet. Or, maybe Framework will help fisherman change how they catch fish in New England? That’s what Google Search tells me, anyhow:I think the Framework Laptop 16 is a safer bet, though.I’ve been quietly frustrated that I haven’t been able to give the Laptop 16 my full recommendation yet — because I want products like this to exist! — partly because of early cooling and build quality deficiencies, and partly because Framework has never truly promised that you’ll be able to actually upgrade its GPU to a more powerful one down the road. But with Framework’s Laptop 13, the company has proved again and again that truly modular and upgradable laptops can be a reality, and it’s ironed out many issues along the way. Here’s hoping August 26th is the day it fulfills the promise of modular gaming / creator laptops as well.BTW, in case you missed it: We had Nirav on The Vergecast in March to chat all things Framework.

Despite Notion being one of the most well-known personal knowledge management (PKM) tools out there, it's far from perfect. It still lacks functionality that many users have been begging for over the years, and that competing apps already offer. This is one of the biggest reasons why many people keep looking for Notion alternatives.

Who doesn't love a good bout of multiplayer gaming with friends? Trading stories and taunts over K/D ratios sure is enjoyable, but it's the single-player experiences that really show us what this platform is capable of when it comes to storytelling. And from those stories, we develop bonds with some unforgettable few characters, but what's surprising is that a lot of times, they're antagonists, too.

Things just keep going wrong for Analogue’s take on the Nintendo 64. The company announced today that the shipping date for its next console, the Analogue 3D, has been delayed until sometime in Q4 of this year. The announcement comes a little over a month after the console’s previous delay, which would’ve seen it ship at the end of August.While the July announcement cited the ongoing mess around tariffs as the reason for that delay, the cause for the current delay is less clear.“Analogue has been moving at maximum pace, processing shipping to everyone who has been patiently waiting,” the company wrote in a statement. “Unexpected, uncommon issues are rare. Especially in a negligible degree under esoteric circumstances. We’re ensuring every detail meets our standard.” The statement added that the launch is “at 99% percent. Hardware, system, packaging — the full kit — been set for months. The last one percent is where we’re focused.”The company also says that the currently vague Q4 timing is “intentionally set conservatively,” presumably to avoid having to announce another delay. Full refunds are available for those who pre-ordered.The Analogue 3D was first announced in 2023 with plans to launch the following year, and was delayed multiple times since then. The 3D — which promises to render N64 games in 4K and boasts 100 percent compatibility with the console’s library — is the latest project from the company, which has previously made high-end versions of the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy.

Over the past decade, AMD GPUs have earned a reputation as the alternative choice for PC gamers who wanted more bang for their buck, provided they were willing to accept some compromises. For years, PC enthusiasts repeated the same lines about poor driver support, subpar upscaling implementation, and just falling short in performance compared to Nvidia's offerings. Sure, AMD may not have a GPU to compete against the likes of the RTX 4090 and 5090, but that doesn't mean the entire Radeon lineup has fallen behind.

Earlier, like many, I relied on the convenience of browser-based password managers. They were easy, but the thought of trusting a third party with the keys to my entire digital life soon became a major concern. The more I wrote about technology, the more I realized the importance of safeguarding my passwords with a solution I could fully control. That’s when I made the complete move to a self-hosted password manager.

A Raspberry Pi doesn’t need a screen, keyboard, or even a desktop environment to be useful. In my home lab, one of the most critical machines is a Pi that runs completely headless. It serves multiple roles at once, quietly handling services I can access through a web browser.

In case you didn't notice, the 2020s have been tough for the PC community. The GPU pricing crisis that started in 2020 gave rise to the permanent inflation we suffer from today. PC hardware companies forgot the budget segment existed, resorted to shady tactics to offer less for more money, and got in bed with AI instead of working on real generational gains. The era of paper launches and fake MSRPs became all too real, and components across the board started coming out unfinished. There was legitimate outrage, but I feel we let all of this slide way easier than we should have.

If you've read my past articles on Microsoft's Settings-related patches, you'd have noticed that I described the Redmond giant's progress of moving everything over from the Control Panel as "slow." But can you blame me? It has essentially been one whole year since Microsoft confirmed that the Control Panel's days were numbered, and since then, we've seen a little trickle here, a little tweak there. It hasn't really been very quick.

Linux has a reputation for being complex, but not all distributions require you to be a power user. In fact, the difference between many Linux distributions is like night and day. Some are designed with beginners in mind, focusing on stability, user-friendliness, and a smooth out-of-the-box experience. If you are new to Linux and looking for a distro that feels comfortable yet powerful, here are five beginner-friendly options that just work.

Google is set to reveal its new flagship Pixel hardware at a Made by Google event today at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, when we’ll find out exactly what the company has in store with its expected Pixel 10 phones, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Buds 2A.Will they include Qi2 magnetic charging? Is the 10 Pro Fold going to be the first IP68-rated foldable phone? And why on Earth has Google seemingly changed the Pixel Watch 4 to charge on its side?I’ve already run through everything we expect Google to launch at the event, along with a deep dive on the most convincing leaks and rumors about the Pixel 10 phones. My colleague Allison has argued that Google has to convince us to actually care about all the AI appearing on our phones. All that’s left is to watch the show.Thanks to a recent ad, we know the event will feature appearances from celebrity guests, including Jimmy Fallon, Steph Curry, Lando Norris, and the Jonas Brothers, so it sounds like Google won’t just be rattling through hardware specs the whole time.We’ve embedded the stream right at the top of the page, though you can always watch it directly on YouTube. Google is also providing official streams in German, Spanish, and American Sign Language.