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A Plane Full Of Southwest Passengers Got A Free Switch And Mario Maker 2 - GameSpot
Slack resets thousands of user passwords four years after hack - The Verge
Atari founder's Alexa-powered board game is out now - Engadget

A Plane Full Of Southwest Passengers Got A Free Switch And Mario Maker 2 - GameSpot

Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:35 AM PDT

A plane full of lucky passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight got more than a bag of pretzels on their trip to San Diego. They received a free Nintendo Switch system and a copy of the recently released Super Mario Maker 2, perfect for staying occupied while hurtling above the earth in a metal tube.

The first indication of the giveaway came from Nicholas Friedman, a social media manager at Funimation, who posted about it on Twitter. GameSpot confirmed the giveaway with Southwest Airlines, which said it partnered with Nintendo for the promotion. An image shared by Friedman shows a voucher, which he said could be redeemed for the system and game when the passengers land.

This isn't Nintendo's first cross-promotion with Southwest. The airline also gave away Wii U consoles, and the original Super Mario Maker added a special airline-inspired course, complete with a special costume to unlock.

The Southwest promotion was well-timed. It came just as Nintendo made a flurry of other announcements regarding upcoming hardware and software. A revised Nintendo Switch with better battery life is coming in mid-August in the U.S., new Joy-Con colors were announced, and Luigi's Mansion 3 got a holiday release date. Plus this is all coming shortly after the announcement of the portable-only Switch Lite.

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Slack resets thousands of user passwords four years after hack - The Verge

Posted: 18 Jul 2019 06:56 AM PDT

Slack says it is resetting the passwords of some of its users after new information has come to light about a security breach from March 2015. Any users who created their account before this date, who have not changed their passwords since, and who do not use single-sign-on can expect to have their passwords reset by the company if it hasn't happened already. Slack says that around one percent of its users fall into all three of these categories, which ZDNet reports amounts to around 65,000 users.

The company chose to reset the passwords after it learned that a collection of user email addresses and password combinations had been compromised. After an investigation, the company linked the credentials to a hack it suffered in 2015 when hackers were able to insert keylogging code into its software that was capable of reading user's passwords as they entered them. The hackers also accessed a database of usernames and hashed passwords.

Slack says that it is notifying any affected users directly if it is resetting their passwords, and recommends that all users turn on two-factor authentication. If you're worried you might be affected, you can download a complete log of your account as a CSV file by visiting this page on Slack's website.

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Atari founder's Alexa-powered board game is out now - Engadget

Posted: 18 Jul 2019 07:19 AM PDT

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Alexa could add color and suspense to your murder mystery game nights if it's getting a bit stale lately. X2 Games, created by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and Hollywood creative director Zai Ortiz, has released an Alexa-powered board game entitled St. Noire. And, yes, it's exclusively available through Amazon. To be clear, you won't be hearing Alexa's robotic voice when you play the game, so you don't have to worry about the assistant ruining your immersion. The technology simply powers the game's immersive background sounds and cinematic voice performances, which are made up of over 2,500 lines of dialogue performed by actors portraying 12 different characters.

The game randomizes the identity of the killer and the victim every playthrough to keep things fresh. As the hard-boiled detective solving the mystery, you'll have to visit various locations (including seedy bars, of course) in the game to talk to characters. Not everyone will be telling you the truth, obviously, so you'll have to find inconsistencies in their statement and piece clues together to find the culprit.

Ortiz said they were really excited with the prospect of "gamifying voice technology by fusing cinematic storytelling with board games." He added: "By incorporating voice-control mechanics into the traditional tabletop format, we are transforming the board game landscape, as well as pushing the boundaries of what Smart Speaker gaming means."

St. Noire is now available on Amazon for $40, but that doesn't include the Alexa device itself. We hope you got an Alexa device during Prime Day if you're a murder mystery fan looking to give this a try. In the coming days, the game will also debut at San Diego Comic Con, where Bushnell and Ortiz will be speaking about it and "gamification technology' as the future of gaming.