Russian brothers top Gaming Rich List, Google kills Fitbit smart watches
The Sunday Times has revealed the UK’s top 30 richest game developers and players. The inaugural edition of the Gaming Rich List – a video game themed version of its long-running Rich List – leads with Russian-born brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, with an estimated fortune of £12.5 billion. The pair, who were also placed 27th in the overall Sunday Times Rich List 2024, are the co-founders of Playrix, creators of popular mobile games Township, Fishdom, and Homescapes. Video Games Chronicle
Performers working in the games industry have spoken of their distress at being asked to work on explicit content without notice, including a scene featuring a sexual assault. Sex scenes are common in modern games – and are often made by filming human actors who are then digitised into game characters. But performers have told the BBC a culture of secrecy around projects – where scripts are often not shared until the last moment – means they frequently do not know in advance that scenes may involve intimate acts. BBC
The writing was on the wall for Fitbit’s smartwatches as soon as Google came out with its first Pixel Watch back in October 2022. You didn’t need to be clairvoyant to see Google needed a first-party rival to the best Apple Watch and wanted to use Fitbit tech to do it. And while the company has continued to turn out smartwatches as some of the best Fitbit devices alongside Pixel, those days look to be done. Google has quietly confirmed it has ceased production on the Fitbit Sense and Versa smartwatches. From now on, the only Fitbit devices from the company will be fitness trackers like the Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Inspire. Tom’s Guide
A song about immigrants whose music, vocals and artwork were entirely generated using artificial intelligence has made the Top 50 most listened to songs in Germany, in what may be a first for a leading music market. Verknallt in einen Talahon is a parody song that weaves modern lyrics – many of them based around racial stereotypes about immigrants – with 60s schlager pop. The song is No 48 in Germany, the world’s fourth largest music market. The Guardian
British technology tycoon Mike Lynch is missing after a British-flagged luxury superyacht sank in bad weather off the coast of Sicily, sources have said. The Independent understands that Mr Lynch is among six people missing after the sailboat, named Bayesian, sank in the early hours of Monday near the Sicilian capital Palermo, with 22 foreign tourists on board. The 56-metre (184-foot) yacht had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, representing British, American and Canadian nationalities, the Italian coast guard said. Independent
A blue supermoon will appear on the horizon tonight, kicking off a series of astronomical events. Supermoons occur when a full moon rises during its closest point in its orbit to Earth. A blue moon happens when there are two full moons within a single calendar month or four full moons within a season. They’re fairly rare – hence the saying, “once in a blue moon” – and occur once every two to three years. Sky News
“Superhighway” has an impressive ring to it. It sounds like a definitive solution that will put bottlenecks firmly in the rear-view mirror. Yet the UK’s new electricity superhighway, approved by the energy regulator this week, is a more contained undertaking. The £3.4bn Eastern Green Link 2 does mean a significant step-up in electricity transport capacity. When operational in 2029, it will provide 2 gigawatt of capacity over 436km, from Scotland to Yorkshire, a near-30 per cent increase compared with peak availability across the border today. FT.com
