We’re back to talking technology and running through the many updates from the world of gadgets, gaming, and ever-evolving innovation. The gaming category in particular has had some standout moments these last few months, most of which have been particularly polarizing. 

The much-awaited release of the PlayStation 5 Pro has largely seen a negative reception from consumers who are of the opinion that the gaming console doesn’t provide much of an upgrade from its predecessors. Sony’s decision to price the device at $700 while skipping a disc drive has many fans frustrated and unwilling to give the upgraded GPU and advanced ray tracing a shot. 

Some developers have spoken up in favor of the console’s capabilities, but considering the extremely limited number of exclusive games coming up to maximize its full potential in the near future, fans are not impressed. 

Setting the controller down for a moment, we’ve also seen some big changes in the trending games themselves. We’ll dive into the extremely different fates of games like Black Myth: Wukong and Concord in just a moment, but in other news, Nintendo has finally done what many had expected from the start and moved to unleash a lawsuit against the uber-popular, limited release game, Palworld.

Ever since Palworld first arrived through Steam early access and Xbox game previews, gamers have drawn comparisons between the new game and everyone’s favorite monster-collecting series, Pokemon. There was considerable ongoing debate on how much credibility a lawsuit by Nintendo would hold. 

The discussion was met with a surprise twist as the company cited infringement of multiple patent rights concerning gameplay mechanics instead of accusing Palworld creator Pocketpair of duplicating the game’s aesthetics and concept design. The result of the lawsuit and the evolutions of this tech news could leave a lasting impact on the gaming industry. 

Speaking of legal action, the antitrust case against Google also took a very serious turn for the worse. In an attempt to dial down the company’s monopoly over several different markets, the US Department of Justice is considering breaking up some of the company’s business wings to address how much power the company holds.

 This would mean a separation of Android, Google Play, and Chrome from Google, which the tech company has said could cause the price of devices to go up and Apple’s own monopoly to solidify further.

In addition to all this, Epic has also brought out another lawsuit against Samsung and Google. The company believes that Samsung has added too many steps to the process of downloading an app store other that the ones offered by Google and Samsung. 21 steps are too many steps in their books and while they don’t have any proof of collusion, they believe that the investigation during the lawsuit will show that Google encouraged Samsung to make this move. 

All of these news reports might be cause for stress, but things haven’t been entirely negative in the universe of technology and gaming. The release of multiple smartphone models like the iPhone 16 series and Google Pixel 9 series have delighted their respective fan bases, and the iconic game Flappy Bird is being revived for smartphones. 

Deck-building roguelite game Balatro was released for smartphone users recently and the Samsung Galaxy ring has made its debut for fans of wearable smart technology. There have been some highs and some lows when it comes to tech news but the change has been good to see.