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The free-to-play mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is going the way of the dodo on November 28. However, its being replaced by a paid, (mostly) offline version called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. This refresh drops on December 3, giving mobile Animal Crossing players just a few days without access to their beloved campsites. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete wont be cheap. Itll be $10 from December 2 until January 25. After that, the price doubles to $20. Tom Nook doesnt mess around. However, it will allow existing players to transfer save data and progress via their Nintendo accounts. This should be a boon for those who have been on board with the title since 2017. These players have until June 1 to transfer data from the old version to the new game. The paid version will be different from the original in some ways. First of all, Leaf Tickets are being replaced by Leaf Tokens, likely because the tickets were purchased using real money and this is no longer a freemium game. Theres also something called Camper Cards, which Nintendo calls customizable in-game cards that each player can create and trade through a QR Code, and that includes information like your personal favorite animal pal. QR codes? Everyone loves those. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is also losing gift-sharing and the Market Box. There are a couple of other caveats for pre-existing players. First of all, there are no discounts available for current campers, even those who have regularly paid a monthly subscription fee. Some people have been paying those subs for years. Finally, it looks like Nintendo plans on discontinuing support for the game next October, according to Kotaku. Im no economist, but spending $20 on a mobile title that will likely stop receiving updates in less than a year doesnt sound like fiscal responsibility. In any event, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will be available for both iOS and Android come December.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-paid-version-of-animal-crossing-pocket-camp-arrives-on-december-3-175248073.html?src=rss
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In a blog post today, Google said it will make AI Overviews in Google Search available to users living in more than 100 countries. Google says people like AI Overviews, so the company plans to reach 1 billion users each month. Additionally, Google is expanding language support now, users in any country where AI Overviews can get them in any available language. For example users in Japan are no longer limited to Japanese. If you arent familiar with AI Overviews by now, its a feature found in Google Search. Googles Gemini AI model will generate a summary for most things people search for, or at least when Google's systems detect a query where generative AI can be useful. This summary appears at the top of the page. Besides answering questions, it can also act as a meal planner, vacation organizer and brainstorming tool, among many other things. This update follows several released over the last few months since the introduction of AI Overviews in May. The most recent update before this one allowed users to visit websites by clicking on links within the AI Overview text. Google says that this has resulted in a traffic increase to supporting websites. However, some publishers and sites fear that the overviews are destroying their traffic by being the first thing people see. News like this isnt surprising, as Google has been stuffing as much AI into Search as it can. AI Overviews have also generated some controversy after the AI gave people inaccurate information for searches for example, it recommended putting glue on pizza for a bit. In response to those issues, Google put some protections and guardrails on AI overviews to avoid similar strange issues. Correction, October 28 2024, 1:30PM ET: This story originally stated that Google was adding local language support to AI Overviews. That feature was already available, so we've clarified that any supported language can be displayed in any country where AI Overviews are available. We apologize for the error.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-expanding-ai-overviews-in-search-to-more-than-100-countries-170925933.html?src=rss
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Stung from the hit it took from an Apple privacy feature three years ago, Meta is reportedly looking to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft. The Information said on Monday that Meta is developing a search engine for its chatbot. The company also recently partnered with Reuters to help its AI answer news-related questions. Meta has reportedly been working on indexing the web for at least eight months. The companys goal is said to be to integrate the indexes into Meta AI, giving the chatbot an alternative to Google Search and Microsoft Bing. Meta publicly disclosed its web crawler tech this summer, only saying it was for training AI models or improving products without stating outright that it was building a search backend. Senior engineering manager Xueyuan Su is reportedly leading the search engine project. The Information says the move directly results from dependence on other Big Tech companies that have stung the company in the past, like Apples App Tracking Transparency (ATT). Meta previously said the iPhone privacy feature introduced in 2021 would cost over $10 billion in lost ad revenue. (It was so concerned about the feature it was sued for allegedly evading its rules.) The thinking is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta to be as autonomous as possible to avoid a repeat of that if Google or Microsoft were to cut off its access to web searches. Its unknown if Meta currently pays either company for that access. Engadget reached out to Meta for comment. Well update this story if we hear back. The companys AI investments appear to be paying off. Zuckerberg posted on Threads in August that Meta AI has over 185 million weekly active users and more than 400 million monthly. Growing quickly, and we havent even rolled out in UK, Brazil, or EU yet, the Facebook founder wrote. OpenAI said early this month that ChatGPT had 250 million weekly users.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-reportedly-developing-a-search-engine-for-its-chatbot-172505704.html?src=rss
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