A Division 2 update broke things so bad the game can’t be updated again until they fix the system for delivering updates



Massive Entertainment’s The Division 2 launched in 2019 and, while it’s not the type of game that makes headlines every week, it has since tootled along quite nicely thanks to regular seasonal updates, and the promise of more to come from the series. The most recent update, however, has been a disaster on a scale that is still not yet fully clear: Perhaps even to the developer.

In a perfect encapsulation of the butterfly effect in coding, the newest season had been delayed due to a localization issue. “This past Saturday, in the process of creating the update which would resolve the issue, we encountered an error that brought down the build generation system for the Division 2,” said the studio in a statement posted to Twitter. “As a result, we cannot update the game until this system has been rebuilt.”



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Final Fantasy 14 suspends automatic housing demolition following the Turkey-Syria earthquake



Final Fantasy 14’s housing demolition timer has once again been suspended by Square Enix, this time due to the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake that’s seen at least 21,000 people die. (opens in new tab)

The suspension only affects players on the Chaos and Light data centres, Europe’s collection of servers. Players on servers across the American, Japanese and Oceanic data centres still have the housing demolition timer in place.



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Sony accuses Microsoft of ‘obvious harassment’ in latest FTC court filing

You know, I’m not sure the console dads will ever share a stage again (opens in new tab). Mere days after Bobby Kotick accused Sony of “trying to sabotage” Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the pages of the Financial Times, Sony has come out and accused Microsoft of “obvious harassment” (via Axios (opens in new tab)) in a recent filing to the US Federal Trade Commission (opens in new tab) (FTC).

It’s not quite harassment in the way you or I would understand it: Microsoft hasn’t been spamming Sony with abusive texts. But as part of the lengthy and ongoing litigation between the two companies over the Activision acquisition, the Xbox maker has requested access to all sorts of normally-private internal Sony documents to help it make its case. In its filing to the FTC, Sony claimed that one particular request—a “demand for performance reviews for SIE’s leadership”—was so far outside the scope of the dispute that it was tantamount to “obvious harassment” of Sony by Microsoft. Won’t someone think of the Sony executives?

Sony pointed out that “Even in employment cases courts require a specific showing of relevance before requiring production of personnel files,” which it reckons Microsoft hasn’t done. It added that the litigation over Activision isn’t even an employment case anyway, so where does Microsoft get off subpoenaing documents that it “speculates […] may ‘candidly’ discuss the performance of SIE’s gaming business”?

The notion of one megacorp ‘harassing’ another—as if we were discussing people with fears and feelings and not titanic, globe-spanning empires—sounds faintly absurd to me, but Sony’s argument convinced the judge. Chief administrative law judge D. Michael Chappell said Sony had “demonstrated good cause for the requested relief” and gave a proposed order that document request 13, which is the one pertaining to executive performance reviews, be quashed. 

In the same section, Chappell also ordered that Microsoft limited itself to requesting documents from between January 1, 2019 and January 17, 2023, and specifically that its subpoena be limited to documents from a select few executives, among which are familiar names like Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst. In order to not have to write out the names of all seven execs every time they come up, the document refers to them as the “Seven Custodians,” which makes them sound like something you go up against in a Destiny raid.

It feels like the corporations involved are almost as tired of this process dragging out as the general public at this point. If it’s not Sony mithering about “harassment,” it’s Bobby Kotick foretelling economic doom (opens in new tab) for the UK or Microsoft lawyers accusing venerable government institutions of violating the US constitution (opens in new tab). We should probably wrap this thing up before it comes to blows in a supermarket parking lot.


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Asus TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX OC Edition




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You can grab a 2TB Steam Deck SSD from the makers of the most modular laptop



Framework, the makers of the modular Framework Laptop, is selling 2TB SSDs for the Steam Deck (opens in new tab). The company is all about offering upgradeability for its own products, so when the opportunity came to pick up a batch of small footprint SSDs suitable for the portable PC to sell on its own store, it took it.

Framework is selling the Western Digital 2TB SN740 2230 for $299 (opens in new tab) in its US store, and $399 CAD (opens in new tab) in Canada. The company says it’s looking into availability in Europe and Australia, too. 



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2022 market downturn the worst in PC processor history according to new data

The tech sector is suffering a bit of a down. This much we already knew, what with Intel bleeding cash (opens in new tab) and Google (opens in new tab), Dell (opens in new tab) and others bleeding, well, people. But according to Mercury Research (opens in new tab) when it comes to the CPU market specifically, things aren’t just bad, they’re likely the “worst in PC market history on both a unit and revenue basis.” Ouch.

In its latest market report, Mercury says PC unit sales in 2022 excluding systems running ARM chips totalled 374 million, down 21% on the previous year. That’s the worst performance in the 30-year period that Mercury Research has been tracking PC sales volumes.

Mercury says that Intel’s desktop sales fell particularly precipitously at the end of 2022, leading AMD to pick up market share, which is something of a surprise given the broader narrative that Ryzen 7000 series (opens in new tab) hasn’t been a huge success.

Overall, Mercury reckons AMD gained 2.8 points of market share including server CPUs and IoT chips in the fourth quarter of 2022 to reach 31.3 percent. For the year as a whole, AMD achieved 29.6% market share. Intel is still the bigger fish, then. But no longer is AMD a minnow in comparison. 

That said, Intel is still pretty dominant in some segments, with 81.4% of the desktop CPU market at the end of 2022 and 83.6% of the mobile market. Another surprise is that it’s the mobile market that has actually performed the worst, with the largest on-year decline of any segment as well as the largest on-year decline ever recorded.

Anyway, what Mercury doesn’t tease out in its numbers is the PC gaming market specifically. Roughly 10 years ago, the broader PC market looked pretty gloomy while the actual PC gaming market was going gang busters.

So, bad news for the PC generally doesn’t necessarily spell doom for PC gaming. But all indications are that the market is awfully slow. What implications this all has for the long term is hard to say.

Most analysts only see computing becoming more important over time, what with predictions of explosive growth in the use and impact of various AI systems adding to the ever more ubiquitous growth of connected devices.

But in the short to medium term, and apologies for banging the same old drum, we can only hope that poor market conditions help push prices down on that most critical of PC gaming components, the graphics card.


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Wordle hint and answer #601: Friday, February 10

Dive into our array of helpful clues, hints and tips, all designed to make solving today’s Wordle (opens in new tab) as quick and easy as you want it to be. If you just need the answer to the February 10 (601) Wordle before you run out of guesses, you’ll find that here too. Just passing the time? Then spend a while with our guides and archive of past answers.

I somehow went from a single yellow to almost the full answer in just one guess—just the sort of turnaround I like to see. Today’s answer followed immediately after, making for a shockingly simple game and the perfect way to end the working Wordle week.

Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Friday, February 10

Something with a strong or potent effect might be described as today’s answer: a distinctive perfume could have a _____ scent. This emotive sensation also describes the feeling of being a little over-excited, perhaps even pleasantly overwhelmed, by a situation. There are two vowels to find today. 

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

There are no repeat letters in today’s Wordle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path: 

  • A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels. 
  • Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
  • Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares. 

Today’s Wordle answer

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

What is the Wordle 594 answer?

Finish the week with a win. The answer to the February 10 (601) Wordle is HEADY.

Previous answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated. 

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

  • February 9: STAGE
  • February 8: FLAIL
  • February 7: APPLE
  • February 6: NINTH
  • February 5: DANCE
  • February 4: UNLIT
  • February 3: TASTY
  • February 2: SHIRK
  • February 1: SCOLD
  • January 31: CROSS

Learn more about Wordle 

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word (opens in new tab) like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips (opens in new tab), and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above. 

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle (opens in new tab), as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle (opens in new tab), refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures (opens in new tab). Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. 


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TF2 is getting an ‘update-sized update’ this summer, but the community has to make it themselves



Valve has put out a blog post (opens in new tab) revealing that Team Fortress 2 will be getting a “major update” this summer⁠, which is to say that it won’t just be getting the usual injection of new cosmetic items, but a whole smorgasbord of “items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paints and who knows what else?”

The only catch is that it will all have to be provided by the community: Valve has put out a call for Steam Workshop submissions to be made by May 1 for this “as-yet unnamed, un-themed, but still very exciting summer-situated (but not summer-themed) (unless you want to develop summer-themed stuff) update.”



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World of Warcraft is ditching Twitter integration

Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft’s Twitter integration, which enabled players to tweet about achievements, rare finds, and other activities directly from within the game, is being disabled.

“Over the next two days, we will update World of Warcraft to remove the integrated Twitter posting feature,” community manager Kaivax posted on the WoW forums (opens in new tab). “After this small update, the function to Tweet from in-game will no longer be available, and the settings which store your Twitter credentials will no longer appear. This will not require any action by players.”

Kaivax’s message was posted on February 7, which means the function should be disabled now.

World of Warcraft got Twitter integration (opens in new tab) way back in 2015 as part of the 6.1 update. Going by the responses to the shutdown announcement, it doesn’t seem to be a particularly popular feature, although some users in the replies say they tweeted from within the game at least occasionally.

Blizzard didn’t say why it’s cutting the feature, but a widely held assumption is that it was caused by planned changes to the Twitter API. Access to the API, which enables things like those Twitter bots (opens in new tab) we all like so much, has previously been free, but Twitter announced on February 2 that it was ending free access to the API (opens in new tab) in favor of “a paid basic tier.” That change was due to take place on February 9, which also happens to be the due date for the removal of Twitter support in WoW.

Twitter unexpectedly changed direction on that plan yesterday, announcing that access to the current free API will be extended to February 13 (opens in new tab), and that “a new form of free access” will subsequently be rolled out. But it will be extremely restrictive, “limited to Tweet creation of up to 1,500 Tweets per month for a single authenticated user token.” I don’t know how much traffic WoW’s integrated tweet function generates but as one user noted, it works out to roughly “two tweets per hour, per application, per user.” That might be enough for a mid-tier novelty bot but I doubt it’s going to satisfy the requirements of a massive MMO.

Blizzard could pay for access to the API, but even if there was interest in doing so, there doesn’t seem to be much point. Twitter itself is a complete gong show these days—the entire platform was broken for hours last night, for reasons that remain a mystery—and utterly rudderless: After walking back the decision to eliminate free access to the API, Twitter announced a “low level” access program for $100 per month (opens in new tab). It’s also winding down the Premium Twitter API on February 13, but subscribers can apply for access to the higher-tier (and much more expensive) Enterprise API instead. 

See more

Twitter itself, meanwhile, has shed a non-insignificant amount of users (opens in new tab), a pattern that’s predicted to grow (opens in new tab) over the next two years. Which ultimately leads to a very simple question: Why would Blizzard (or, frankly, anyone) pay for that?

I’ve reached out to Blizzard to ask if the removal of WoW’s Twitter integration is connected to the coming API changes and will update if I receive a reply.



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Magic’s new set has the only interesting poison mechanic I’ve seen in a game

I’ve mentioned before that when I started playing Magic I leaned on a “white weenie” deck, the kind that’s full of low-cost creatures who, if not dealt with, become an overwhelming horde by the midgame. Playing my first game with cards from Magic’s new expansion Phyrexia: All Will Be One, I found myself back in familiar territory. 

On turn two I played Skrelv’s Hive (opens in new tab), which pumps out a tiny 1/1 creature called a mite every turn at the cost of a life point. When you’re riding high on 20 life, an easy price to pay. Over the next few turns I powered up those mites, giving my first little dude a sword called Infested Fleshcutter—how the tyke carries it I leave to the imagination—which gave it +2/+0 and summoned another mite when used to attack. Then I plonked down a Mite Overseer, which gave them all another +1, and Porcelain Zealot, which gives one creature +1/+1 for a turn, unless it has the “toxic” keyword, in which case it becomes +2/+2.

Mites, wouldn’t you know it, all have the toxic keyword. My original mite could swing the Infested Fleshcutter for six points of damage by then, or at least would have if my opponent didn’t shut that nonsense down with a roll of his eyes. But by then it was too late, and I had an army of the poisonous bugs I could ride to victory.

Different versions of Magic’s poison mechanic showed up in a couple of older sets, but it’s back with a central role in Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Every time a toxic creature damages a player, they get a number of poison counters—usually one, but up to three—and once you hit 10 it’s game over, red rover. Doesn’t matter how many life points you’ve got left, or that you only just brought out Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

Normally I’m not a fan of poison. In games like Diablo 2, where it’s a constant embuggerance throughout the second act, poison is just a test of your ability to budget a stock of potions. If you run out of antidotes before you run out of scorpions to kill, you’re screwed and have to portal back to town. That’s not an exciting challenge.

When you’re given poisoned weapons to use as a player, it often feels pointless to slowly drain the health of enemies over time because you could achieve the same effect faster by simply hitting them some more. The chip damage poison added to the equation is usually miniscule, a real supervisor’s contribution.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

In the couple of days I’ve been playing Arena since the new set arrived in Magic’s digital version, I’ve seen plenty of toxic cards in play, but it’s almost always easier to win the old-fashioned way. I’ve only seen one game end in death by poisoning. That doesn’t mean it’s worthless, though. It changes how you prioritize threats, adding another layer of tension, and it plays into the new “corrupted” keyword.

Corrupted abilities kick in when an opponent has three or more poison counters. Skrelv’s Hive, the thing that started churning out my mite army? Against a corrupted opponent, it gives your toxic creatures lifelink, meaning they heal you for every point of damage they cause. Other cards get cheaper to play once corruption kicks in, or have existing abilities enhanced.

It’s a nice escalation that plays into the themes of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, a set that’s about biomechanical S&M weirdos transforming the multiverse to suit their whims. Existing planeswalker cards return in twisted new forms, the angels look like they’ve been skinned and sandpapered smooth, and even the lands look alien and wrong. Once corruption effects begin it feels like everything’s getting slightly worse, you’re on a downhill slide to an inevitable doom, and you never know if the next play will hit harder because of it.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

Another returning mechanic, proliferation, enhances that. Cards that proliferate let you choose to add an extra copy of a counter to anything that already has counters on it. That means more poison, but also more +1/+1 counters, more blood counters, more experience counters, more loyalty for planeswalkers, and more oil (newly added, oil counters can be spent by some Phyrexians to power their abilities).

There are less obvious uses too. One that didn’t occur to me at all until someone pointed it out is saga cards. These cards have a different effect each turn as they tell chapters of their stories, and mark that progress with lore counters. By proliferating, you can have multiple chapters take effect in the same turn. Looking at the full list of counters (opens in new tab) on the Magic wiki makes my head kind of spin with the possibilities.

It’s the kind of mechanic that’ll have unexpected consequences, and it’ll be fun to see how players take advantage of it. In paper Magic, the most immediate effect is that you’ll need even more tokens to represent this stuff. A d10 is handy to keep track of poison if you’re not using the MTG Companion app (opens in new tab), especially if you’ve got one in a nice sickly green. In Arena, toxic cards splash down in a puddle of steamy, bubbling mucosal goo, while oil counters drip slickly into place. It’s all very goopy.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

What’s made poison an interesting mechanic in Magic is that it has corruption and proliferation to interact with. It’s not just a timer punishing you for leaving the antidote in your other trousers, it’s an amplification of other threats, a tweaking of the overall volume and pace of a match.

I haven’t even mentioned “For Mirrodin!”, a keyword which gives you a free rebel token to represent the natives of New Phyrexia fighting back, or Phyrexian mana costs, which can be paid with two life points if you don’t want to pay the regular colored mana. There’s a lot going on basically.

We’ll see how much all this shakes up the meta. Decks full of soldiers have been having an easy time of it since The Brothers’ War, and it’s high time for someone else to have a turn. Bring on the mite meta, I say.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One (opens in new tab) will be available in tabletop Magic: The Gathering from February 10, and is available in Magic: The Gathering Arena now. Digital boosters for this set count toward free golden packs, just like they did with The Brothers’ War. Which is nice.


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