Technology - Google News

WhatsApp’s New Communities Feature Is Group Messaging on Steroids - Gizmodo
CDPR Says ‘Vast Part’ Of Fixing Cyberpunk 2077 Is Done, Focused On Other Projects - Kotaku
Kingdom Hearts 4 gives Sora a new look, Tetsuya Nomura explains why - Polygon

WhatsApp’s New Communities Feature Is Group Messaging on Steroids - Gizmodo

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 12:30 PM PDT

WhatsApp is getting new features that will let users grow their circle of friends or grow to hate their circle of friends. Dealer's choice, really.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the planned feature, called Communities, in a Facebook post Thursday, saying that "for a deeper level of interaction, messaging has become the center of our digital lives." Communities rolls out to some Whatsapp users as a test today and will be fully available to all users in the coming months, Zuckerberg said.

The new app feature allows users to post in select group chats dedicated to specific organizations or communities. Unlike a regular WhatsApp conversation, phone numbers won't be accessible to everyone in a chat, and as The Verge noted in an interview with WhatsApp head Will Cathcart, all communications are encrypted save for the name of the chat and its overarching community.

The new feature is like Nextdoor, Slack, and Facebook Messenger rolled into one. Examples shown by Meta in its announcement post include multiple different chats based in the same apartment building. Another shows work-related chats for different teams under the umbrella of a humanitarian aid group. One picture showed a group for school parents, including chat rooms for those with kids in different grades.

"We think Communities will make it easier for a school principal to bring all the parents of the school together to share must-read updates and set up groups about specific classes, extracurricular activities, or volunteer needs," the post reads.

Examples of WhatsApp's new Communities feature with umbrellas of different communities plus their different group chats — Graphic: Meta

And for anybody who has spent time on Facebook parents' groups, you can probably expect just as much vitriol, name calling, and misinformation as you might find on any online community where someone's kids are involved.

"I think community messaging will take the basic protocols behind one-to-one messaging and extend them so you can communicate more easily with groups of people to get things done together," Zuckerberg said in his Facebook post. He added that the features shown on WhatsApp will likely be transferred to Facebook and Instagram.

The post also showed that further updates will allow up to 2GB of file sharing, 32-person audio calls, added emoji reactions to individual posts, and the ability for an admin to delete posts. The new features will be rolled out over time. Neither the post nor Zuckerberg gave a full timeline for how the feature will be incorporated into existing apps or if they will allow existing group chats to become Communities chats.

Adblock test (Why?)

CDPR Says ‘Vast Part’ Of Fixing Cyberpunk 2077 Is Done, Focused On Other Projects - Kotaku

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 12:40 PM PDT

It's not surprising that the company is eager, in the meantime, to move on to other things, especially more Witcher. CDPR revealed today The Witcher 3 has shipped over 40 million copies, with the series as a whole selling over 65 million. As it buckles down on developing the next game in that series, it also has plans for more updates to Gwent and The Witcher: Monster Slayer, a new Gwent spin-off, an unannounced project at the recently acquired Boston studio, The Molasses Flood, and the next-gen version of The Witcher 3.That last release slipped out of this summer after CDPR revealed yesterday it was taking development away from Russia-based Saber Interactive and finishing it in-house. Despite the lack of a new release window, the company said it was unfair to describe it as "indefinitely delayed," saying it simply needed more time to evaluate what work was left. "Nobody is saying the game is delayed in some monumental sort of time gap ahead of us," said Michal Nowakowski, SVP of business development.

Adblock test (Why?)

Kingdom Hearts 4 gives Sora a new look, Tetsuya Nomura explains why - Polygon

Posted: 14 Apr 2022 11:20 AM PDT

Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura offered fresh insight into the world of his next game, Kingdom Hearts 4, in an interview with Japan's Famitsu, explaining how the Tokyo-like game world of Quadratum is connected to other worlds in the series and why protagonist Sora looks much more realistic than fans are used to. Nomura also confirmed that, yes, Sora's fancy new apartment, his base of operations in Kingdom Hearts 4, is located in Tokyo's swish Aoyama neighborhood.

In the interview, which was translated by Kingdom Hearts superfan and streamer Audrey (aka aitaikimochi), Nomura says that Kingdom Hearts 4 will explore the "contrast" of the real world known as Quadratum and the fictional worlds of Kingdom Hearts.

"From Sora's perspective, Quadratum is a world that exists in the background, a fictional world that is different from his reality," Nomura told Famitsu. "However, for the people living in Quadratum, the world that Sora and the others live in is a world that exists in the background, a fictional world for them. [In Kingdom Hearts 4], we will explore the theme of the contrast between the two perspectives."

Nomura said that Donald and Goofy are looking for clues to Sora's whereabouts in "the normal world" in Kingdom Hearts 4's debut trailer. "Sora also looks more realistic due to him being in that world," Nomura said. "However, if he were to return to his own world, his appearance would look similar to [how he would look with] the shaders used for Donald and Goofy."

Elsewhere in the interview, Nomura teased that a series character will be voiced — he's heard in the trailers for both Kingdom Hearts 4 and Missing Link — for the first time in Kingdom Hearts 4.

Square Enix has not revealed a release window or platforms for Kingdom Hearts 4, but based on previous entries in the franchise, fans shouldn't expect it to arrive any time soon.

Adblock test (Why?)