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Clair Obscur Isn't The Only Great RPG That's Cheaper Right Now
These are the current role-playing game deals I'd recommend
The 'it' toy for Christmas 2026 dropped today (and it'll probably sell out soon)
The Toniebox Lite just launched, offering a smaller and cheaper way for kids to enjoy screen-free entertainment from their favorite characters.
Automakers are entering their decluttering era
Legacy automakers are pruning vehicle lineups and building cars with fewer parts. They're facing rising costs and cheaper Chinese competition.
Cheaper, open and intelligent: Chinese AI models gain ground, as they make inroads in the US
Chinese AI models are gaining popularity in the U.S. for their affordability and efficiency.
Cheaper, open and intelligent: Chinese AI models gain ground, as they make inroads in the US
Chinese AI models are gaining popularity in the U.S. for their affordability and efficiency.
New 16-inch laptop receives wider international release with cheaper starting price and OLED display
Asus has released one of its new 16-inch laptops in more countries. Over 35% cheaper than its original configuration, the new Zenbook A16 is lighter than the version we reviewed earlier this year.
Anthropic's new AI model rivals Fable 5 and is cheaper as businesses fret about costs
Anthropic said Claude Opus 5 is its best performing and its most cost-effective offering.
You Can Now Fly Delta Business Class for a Lot Less, but There’s a Catch
Travelers can now book cheaper premium cabin tickets on Delta, but they’ll give up flexibility, lounge access, and other perks depending on the fare.
Google launches a cheaper alternative to large AI security models like Mythos
Google says it achieved “competitive performance” compared to larger models.
UFC Freedom 250 Fails to Knock Out The Ratings
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) If UFC fans wanted one image to say, “Hey, Paramount+ is crushing it with their UFC rights deal,” I could provide that image. Here it is: (Reminder: this is my creation of the Nielsen Top 30, since Nielsen doesn’t combine the lists or include sports. I take all three lists and combine them. Some streaming TV shows probably have higher ratings than many of the films on this list.) Look at that! UFC Freedom 250 is number one! It topped the Nielsen “Top 30” list for shows and films that made the top ten the week of 15-June. So if you’re a UFC fan or supporter of Paramount+, that’s the good news for you this week. This program topped the ratings charts for one week. Everything else is bad news, or at least a huge caveat to that story, which I’ll explain today in the first part of this week’s Streaming Ratings Report—for the weeks of 8-June and 15-June—which is a double issue since I’ve been writing on a bunch of topics recently. UFC Freedom 250 is one of the biggest streaming events of the year, and super relevant to Paramount+’s strategy, so it merited its own article. Let’s dive in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of June 8th to June 21st 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Check Out My Interview on UFC 250 at MMA Draw After you read this article, if you want even more thoughts on UFC and Paramount-Skydance/Paramount+, I did a written interview with MMA Draw. They asked me to answer some questions about UFC Freedom 250, and I was happy to chat with them. Find it here: [ The MMA Draw Newsletter Did Paramount really overpay for the UFC? What the data tells us so far If you know the history of American television, you also know that combat sports is often a leading indicator of the future… Read more a day ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold ](https://www.themmadraw.com/p/did-paramount-really-overpay-for?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) I never thought I’d need a combat sports newsletter in my life, but the good folks at MMA Draw publish an excellent one on UFC, MMA, pro wrestling, boxing and more, analyzing both the sports themselves and the politics, economics and antitrust issues that impact them. Check the article and their newsletter out! Paramount+ Has Its Best Sporting Event of All Time…But Was It Worth It? Before we look at the UFC Freedom 250 data in particular, let’s talk about what we can’t say. Namely, let’s start with the lack of comparisons. First off, I’d love to put a chart out comparing this fight to past UFC fights on Paramount+…but we don’t have the data. This is the first time we’ve gotten Nielsen data about a Paramount+ UFC fight. As far as I can tell, Paramount provided data for the first fight, but it was a proprietary datecdote (saying it had “an average minute audience” of 5 million “views”) and then, for two fights, we got the linear viewership numbers when they aired on CBS, but no streaming data. Everything else was crickets. We also can’t compare this fight to other fights/combat sports on streaming, in particular the MMA and boxing, because Netflix also didn’t use Nielsen to track those events, opting for TVision and VideoAmp, respectively. (This isn’t Paramount’s fault, but does still suck.) We also can’t compare to UFC’s fights that used to be on ESPN+, since we don’t have any data for that, plus Disney+ didn’t have marquee fights. The comparisons would not be apples-to-apples. Can we compare to past Pay-Per-View fights? Absolutely not. The comparisons would absolutely NOT be apples-to-apples. That didn’t stop Paramount+, though, who bragged that their UFC events have reached drastically more people than past PPV fights. Duh. Sorry, but I gotta make this point again. A basic tenet of economics is that the cheaper something becomes, the more people consume or buy it. That’s Econ 101. (Sometimes pundits call things “Econ 101” that are actually like Econ 210 or even PhD-level economics, but no, this is really like first or second class basic economics.) Yet I still see one analytics firm consistently say that more people watch films on streaming than PVOD proves streaming which means that the streaming window is more valuable than the PVOD window. No, it’s not! Same thing here. Pay-Per-View events back in the day could be really, really, really expensive! So whole groups of people pitched in to buy them. That increased the perceived value of, say, the Mike Tyson fight. Or a UFC numbered event. So yes, the fact that Paramount+ makes numbered UFC fights essentially “free” if you’re already a Paramount+ member means consumption will go up. Obviously. Same for Netflix and their boxing matches. They’re talking about fights that used to cost consumers, in some cases, $50 in 1996…which is over $100 in today’s dollars. Over 1.6 million people paid that to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight! Again, streaming is essentially “free”. Or $10 to $20, depending on what streamer we’re talking about and what tier you’re on. No wonder more people are “watching”. (Plus, Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing also helps these numbers.) UFC Freedom 250 Did Well…But I Have A Lot of Worries So what can we compare the fights to? Well, the good news is Nielsen put out that the fight averaged 7.0 million viewers for UFC Freedom 250, which is a solid number for a fight. We also know the length, at roughly 4 and a half hours. (I saw different run times, but this seems to be the consensus considering it started at 8 pm, had a delay and then finished after midnight on the East Coast. If you assume a shorter run time, then yes, the total hours viewed would go down.) That means I have the two numbers needed to add this to my Nielsen database. And then…I can compare this viewership to the NFL: And, uh, not great. But also within striking distance, mainly because the runtime for this event was so long. I’d also add that this event had viewership equal to a regular season NFL game on streaming, but if anything, it was more comparable to an NFL playoff or Super Bowl-esque event. And you can compare viewership to the top football games on broadcast, cable and streaming, and it’s not impressive at all: We can also compare it to other sports that week, including the NBA Finals and start of the World Cup: Again, not great. The NBA generated roughly four times as many average viewers each game for its NBA Finals. The World Cup has similarly big numbers. Also, that’s just a tiny fraction of the 25 most watched sporting events each week. The NBA, NHL and FIFA World Cup had many, many more games racking up hours. We could also compare this to other streaming programs to get an idea of “is this a good investment?” and here is how it ranks compared to other top Paramount+ programs: The worry here? Well, unlike scripted programming, which has rewatchability, older fights/sporting events have very little library value. Very, very few people are rewatching these fights, especially years from now. Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers. Then, in their quarterly earnings report, they only ended up with 700K subs. Not great! They claimed they dropped lower-value international subscribers, but that’s why I tend to discount subscriber additions when they’re leaked to the press.1 I expect we may see a bump again for UFC Freedom 250, but I’d caution using subscriber growth so soon after these events to judge the success, since new subs with high churn (see Peacock) aren’t great either. Also, analysts often want to attribute all subscriber growth to their favorite/pet show, and that just doesn’t make sense. The biggest caveat for UFC Freedom 250 and Paramount’s very first UFC marquee event is that these could be high watermarks for the sport. UFC Freedom 250 had an incredible amount of earned media coverage compared to most UFC fights. I mean, it had wall-to-wall national news coverage in the lead up to the event. (The first fight also had a lot of promotion from Paramount since it was first.) Other fights could reach this bar—say the Conor McGregor return to the Octagon—but they’ll be fewer and far between. Was This Deal Worth It? All to ask: is this Paramount deal worth it? In this case, I think the UFC Freedom 250 numbers are more distracting than helpful. This fight did well and compares well to other top sporting events. But we know that the first marquee event was at least a third smaller, if Paramount’s own data is to be believed. And it’s likely the other fights are much, much, much smaller. And then you get to the paycheck that Paramount-Skydance paid. FIFA’s World Cup cost about the same for Fox, but clearly generated multiples more total viewership. (Though it’s only every four years.) The NBA is much more expensive, but until the playoffs, they likely didn’t pay for itself. Even still, Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video likely overpaid. So, in that context, the NBA may be an overpay that makes the UFC look not so bad. But two overpays don’t make an underpay, to paraphrase the old cliché about wrongs and rights. And looking at UFC Freedom 250 as the likely ceiling of MMA on Paramount+, Paramount-Skydance likely paid too much. Share 1 I would love regular reports on subscriber additions by programs, but as is, it’s mostly leaked or rumored in haphazard ways.
Our PlayStation price analysis shows why physical games still matter
Used discs are often cheaper than even deep digital discounts.
Electric cars became cheaper in Germany despite rising average prices
Models of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) became more affordable in Germany between 2020 and 2025, data from research organizations the International Council on Clean Transportation and Fraunhofer ISI showed.
Garmin CIRQA to launch at a significantly lower price than expected, according to Garmin’s official database
The price of the Garmin CIRQA has been announced. According to more or less official sources, it will be significantly cheaper than initially reported. Nevertheless, the price that has now been disclosed is, of course, not to be equated with the street price.
5 Powerful Laptops Cheaper Than MacBook Air After The Price Hike
With the MacBook Air getting more expensive, a few options from Lenovo, Microsoft Surface, HP, and Asus can offer good power and value for money.
Why Are Nothing's New 'B' Series Phones So Much Cheaper?
There are quite a number of downgrades that the Phone 4(b) has when put head to head with the 4(a), including a plastic back, and that's why it's cheaper.
American AI is expensive. Some startups are turning to cheap Chinese models
AI is a fast-growing business expense. Some companies are cutting costs by switching to cheaper Chinese AI models.
Amazon's Next Business Is Hiding Inside Its Delivery Network
Amazon launches Supply Chain Services to offer cheaper parcel delivery and boost logistics efficiency. Click here to read my most recent analysis of AMZN.
I took my first Amtrak trip: 10 things that surprised me most
During a train trip from Miami to Tampa, I learned that traveling by Amtrak isn't really cheaper or faster than driving or flying.
I moved from Connecticut to the South and didn't like it, so I moved back
Connecticut native Sandra Bonola moved to South Carolina for Southern charm and a cheaper lifestyle. Instead, she found it hot, crowded, and pricier than expected.
See the airlines that sell cheaper 'basic' business class tickets
Unbundled fares retain the core on-board business-class experience while stripping away traditional amenities to lower the price.
Xreal’s new AR glasses are way cheaper and almost just right
The A01 Plus are flimsier and have fewer features than the 1S, but they might deliver exactly what you’re looking for.
Here's how Delta's new 'basic business' class will work
Delta aims to make business class cheaper with by unbundling perks you may not want, like lounge access or seat choice.
Skip Valve’s Steam Machine: I Found 4 DIY Builds That Offer a Lot More for the Money
Valve released the Steam Machine at long last, but this tiny gaming PC costs more than expected, given its budget-grade parts. You can build a Steam Machine that's faster, even cheaper, or both.
Games are almost always cheaper in shops, says new report, just as Sony announces an end to PlayStation discs and brings retailers' futures into question
Why are people angry at Sony's decision to stop making PlayStation game discs? Well, the price of games, for one thing.
Delta rolls out cheaper first-class, business fares with fewer perks: 'More ways to choose'
The fares include the same onboard premium experience but with added restrictions.
Delta rolls out cheaper first-class, business fares with fewer perks: 'More ways to choose'
Delta Air Lines is expanding its stripped-down fare model to premium cabins, offering lower-cost access to Delta First, Delta Premium Select and Delta One seats.
Delta’s Basic Business Offers Cheaper Luxury Ticket With Fewer Perks
The airline’s strategy reflects a push toward a la carte pricing even for premium tickets.
Report: Cheaper Apple Vision Pro Display Work Winds Down at Samsung
Apple has suspended development of the display for a cheaper, lighter version of the Vision Pro that it originally planned to launch in the next few years, according to The Elec. The Korean outlet says Apple supplier Samsung Display is set to internally wind down the panel project – known in the industry as "G-VR" – with development set to be formally terminated by September.
New weight loss pill beats oral Ozempic in major trial
A new once-daily weight-loss pill called orforglipron delivered better weight loss and blood sugar improvements than the leading oral semaglutide in a major clinical trial. The tablet could offer a more convenient alternative to injectable drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy because it doesn't require refrigeration or special timing with meals. It's also cheaper to manufacture, which could expand access globally.
5 Useful iPad Accessories Cheaper Than Apple Brand Products
You can use the RAPIQUE Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, IFEART USB-C Cable, MoKo iPad Case, Logitech Combo Touch, and Metapen Pencil A8 with your iPad.
Hands-on: Nothing Phone (4b) is a better budget phone at an impossible price [Video]
The Nothing Phone (4b) is here and, with it, what feels like a better attempt at building an even-cheaper budget...
Switching to a cheaper health plan delayed a man's access to vital medicine: "He didn't deserve to die like that"
Galaxy Z Fold 8 prices leak – the all-new ‘Wide’ is cheaper than the unchanged ‘Ultra’
Peak ironic comedy. That’s how I’d describe leaked prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series, as Samsung’s all-new “Wide”...
My favorite Kindle alternative is $30 off after a recent price increase
One of the best e-readers just got $30 cheaper.
Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?
Google introduces a faster, cheaper image generator with Nano Banana 2 Lite
Google is updating its image generator to make it faster and cheaper, making it a more useful tool for creators looking to make AI content.
The 2027 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Is Officially a 200-MPH Car
There's no cheaper way to get into a new automobile that can hit the double century mark.
Georgia lawmakers give businesses a boost in court battles
A year after overhauling court rules to help companies avoid massive jury verdicts, Georgia legislators have made legal battles easier, shorter and cheaper for businesses.
Scientists cured sickle cell. Then their next challenge began.
Gene editing has delivered remarkable results against sickle cell disease. Now researchers are working to make these personalized treatments faster, cheaper, and available to far more patients.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra gets humiliated by a new Samsung phone that's $1,000 cheaper and has a bigger ...
But you won't be able to enjoy it, most likely.
Cheaper AI is better: Soaring bills are reshaping how businesses choose models
Silicon Valley's powerful and pricey AI models have been a necessity for businesses looking to future-proof themselves. But now a growing number of tech CEOs are arguing that cheaper options would be crucial for their wider adoption.
Coinbase's CEO outlined 5 strategies to keep AI spend low
One of his strategies was experimenting with using cheaper Chinese LLMs as default models.
Americans find common ground on healthcare
Americans agree that healthcare needs to be better, cheaper, and less complicated. Good ideas toward those goals are bubbling up around the country.
3 flagship Android phones are cheaper now than they were on day one of Prime Day, but not for long
Prime Day is nearly over, but these three flagship Android phone deals have actually improved since the sale started.
“The Cheaper the Better,” Says Valve About its Steam Machine Pricing, but Don’t Expect a Price Decrease “Any Time Soon”
"The cheaper the better" is Valve's official line for how it would like to price the Steam Machine, but don't expect it to happen soon.
21 small products that made a huge difference in our lives and are cheaper than ever
Our favorite small, budget-friendly products have made a big difference in our lives, and they’re heavily discounted for Amazon Prime Day.
Microsoft introduces cheaper Surface devices with half the memory
The 12-inch Surface Pro now starts at $849, while the 13-inch Surface Laptop costs $949 and up. Both start with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB.
New MacBook Air M3 Is Now Cheaper Than Basic Windows Laptops, Amazon Goes 40% Off and Apple Keeps Its Full Warranty
At this price, the MacBook Air M3 now costs less than Windows laptops that lose to it on battery, display, and build quality.
Microsoft relaunches 2025 Surface Pro and Laptop with half the memory, but at higher prices than original 16GB models
Microsoft is now selling cheaper Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch configurations with 8GB of RAM.
Microsoft releases smaller Surface Pro with cheaper price and 90 Hz display
Microsoft has released a new Surface Pro 2-in-1. Smaller than the new Surface Pro 12 that features a 13-inch display, the updated Surface Pro 12-inch features a 90 Hz display and a Snapdragon X Plus chipset, but only 8 GB of RAM.
Microsoft releases new 13-inch laptop globally with cheaper starting price
Microsoft has released a new version of its Surface Laptop 13-inch. Sold globally, the updated Surface Laptop 13-inch is much cheaper than Microsoft's existing models. Sadly, the device achieves a $200 saving by returning to 8 GB of RAM.
United Airlines debuted cheaper Polaris business class fares
United Airlines just made some lie-flat business class seats cheaper on long-haul flights, but there's a catch. What to know about the new Polaris base fares before buying.
Pre-RAMpocalypse Steam Machine Pricing was ~30% Cheaper
It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine is launching at possibly the worst moment for both PC and console gaming hardware, given the ongoing DRAM crisis, but Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has recently shed light on the pre-RAM crisis pricing of the Steam Machine, revealing that it was neve...
Meta debuts new, cheaper smart glasses under its own brand
The smart glasses are available in several countries starting today in a variety of color and lens combinations.
Meta is now designing its own, cheaper AI smart glasses
Meta on Tuesday announced a new line of AI glasses designed in-house, signaling a deeper push into the wearable technology that’s become a new front in the artificial intelligence race.
Meta launches cheaper smart glasses without Ray-Ban
There is a version designed by Kylie Jenner, though.
Apple’s latest AirTags are cheaper than ever for Prime Day
The four-pack is down to $90, marking the first major discount on Apple’s new item trackers.
Wyze’s new smart scale can break down your body composition for less than $80
The BodyScan is $40 cheaper than Wyze’s Ultra model by ditching Wi-Fi and simplifying the display.
Is China Closing the A.I. Gap Faster Than Expected?
Silicon Valley and corporate America are increasingly turning to cheaper, open-source artificial intelligence models built in China.
Chinese sodium battery surprised scientists by matching key Tesla benchmarks
Researchers found that a Chinese sodium-ion battery performs far better than expected, with production quality and design features comparable to Tesla’s batteries. If engineers can improve cold-weather charging and energy density, sodium could become a cheaper and more abundant alternative to lithium for EVs and large-scale energy storage.
5 Cheaper Android Phones You Should Try Instead Of The Google Pixel 10 Pro
The Pixel 10 Pro is one of the best phones available, but these five alternatives cost less and offer solid competition in key areas.
Analyst says Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s Next 100 Days will be about “the job she was Actually Hired to do,” with Mass Layoffs Looming
Xbox chief executive officer Asha Sharma went from being the new face of Team Green, leading the platform into a new era, to being no different from the last in the eyes of players in the blink of an eye. After making Game Pass cheaper, re-centering console hardware and bringing exclusives back, Xbox fans praised her quick action and transparency. Now, however, with multiple studios reportedly being closed and more mass layoffs looming, she and her regime are no different from Spencer's. Industry veteran and analyst Joost van Dreunen calls it "the job she was actually hired to do." Van […]
Nothing’s Ear (a), our favorite budget earbuds, are cheaper than ever ahead of Prime Day
They offer ChatGPT integration.
Vermont’s largest health insurer wants to offer a cheaper plan. Can it actually help Vermonters?
Vermont's largest health insurer wants to offer cheaper plans, but the state regulator doubts real savings. Approval postponed to August.
A Price War Is Brewing Between OpenAI and Anthropic — And It Could Make AI a Lot Cheaper for Your Business
OpenAI is weighing drastic cuts to what it charges for AI tokens. It expects Anthropic to do the same.
Vermont’s largest health insurer wants to offer a cheaper plan. Can it actually help Vermonters?
BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont is mired in a back-and-forth awaiting regulatory approval for its low-premium, high-deductible “Basic” plans.
American taxpayers have spent $33 billion on sports stadiums. They got fewer seats—and higher prices
"No one has ever built a new stadium and made tickets cheaper. No one’s trying to.”
Xbox CEO Admits the Console Arms Race Has Gone Too Far
If the console market wants to survive, we need cheaper alternatives.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma teases "radically different business models", hints at potentially cheaper console to arrive this year
Xbox's newly-appointed CEO has hinted at what could be a major shakeup to the console model business that could help it navigate the RAM apocalypse
Google just fired a warning shot in the AI subscription price wars
Google just made it significantly cheaper to enjoy its budget AI subscription tier.
Google makes its AI Plus plan cheaper, doubles the cloud storage that comes with it
Previously, the Google AI Plus plan cost $8 a month and came with 200GB storage. Google scored a big victory yesterday as its Gemini model became the...
Recent college grad: I moved from New York to Texas, it's cheaper
When I got a job after college, I decided to leave my home on Long Island, where I couldn't afford anything, and move to Texas, where I could save.
May's top PlayStation games by copies sold
Yesterday’s State of Play gave us an idea of where PlayStation’s heading next. But we’ve had our May estimates for a couple of days now (we always update our data daily for clients), so it’s time to look at what performed best on PlayStation last month. We’ve got a new IP at the top, two evergreens doing their evergreen thing, FC26 smashing it ahead of the World Cup Plus pivot, and a quiet but promising result for Lego Batman. Let’s have a look at the state of Play…Station’s top games for May. 007 takes #001 007 First Light sold 1M copies on PS5 in May, easily making it the month’s top PS5 game by copies sold. Over 80% of those May copies were digital, which is broadly in line with where PlayStation’s digital share has settled for new releases this year. To date, 007 First Light has sold through 2.2M copies across platforms (so no unsold retail copies in that figure). The platform split is 55.1% PS5, 33.1% Steam, and 11.8% Xbox (console, Windows, and cloud combined). In gross revenue terms, 007 First Light has generated $150M. Owing to regional pricing and audience composition differences, the consoles make up a higher share of revenue than they do copies. Of the $150M, 60.5% came via PlayStation, 27.6% via Steam, and 12.9% via Xbox. Part of this is because over two-thirds of 007 First Light‘s PlayStation audience is in North America (43.4%) or Western Europe (23.2%), where local currency means the game generates more revenue per player. On Steam, under half of First Light‘s audience is from those same regions (31.8% North America, 15.1% Western Europe). As we covered in last week’s 007 Steam piece, the Steam version is pulling in higher-than-expected numbers in China, which now accounts for 17.3% of First Light‘s Steam audience. 007 is the equivalent of $44 USD in China, which is roughly 37% cheaper than the US price and about 44% cheaper than Western Europe. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The crossover data backs up what we’ve seen all year about launch-window cohorts. 11% of PS5 players who played 007 First Light in May also played Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which launched just a few days before. Last month was a great month for Denmark! IO Interactive is Copenhagen-based, and Lego Group is headquartered in Billund (TT Games is UK-based but produces work under Lego Group licence and direction). Speaking of which… A very blocky #2 and #3 Minecraft sold another 788K copies on PlayStation consoles last month. Business as usual, since Minecraft hasn’t sold fewer than 760K copies in a single month all year. With over 350M copies sold across all platforms, Minecraft is the best-selling game in history and one of the strongest brands in the world. Every month, a new cohort of children reaches Minecraft age, which guarantees a constant volume of new sales regardless of what the broader market is up to. The demographic refresh rate is truly impressive, with the audience renewing itself faster than it’s churning. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight shifted 757K copies on PS5 last month, bringing its lifetime total on the platform to over 800K. Across all platforms, Legacy of the Dark Knight has now passed 1.5M sold through, so PlayStation accounts for over half of the game’s players. The May crossover data for Legacy of the Dark Knight on PS5 is also useful. 27% of those players also played Fortnite, 16% Roblox, 16% FC 26, and 14% NBA 2K. That’s the household-and-family cohort showing up, plus the launch-window cohort of core gamers who buy practically everything. FC 26 gets players through the door ahead of the World Cup FC 26 sold 411K copies on PlayStation last month (90% via PS5), the fewest copies FC 26 has sold all year and down heavily from April’s 700K. Part of this dropoff is because FC 26 has been available as a PlayStation Plus monthly game since 6 May, cannibalising premium sales. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The strategic logic is straightforward for EA, which is sacrificing premium unit sales in May to build up the player base ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on 11 June. Obviously, a bigger player pool going into the tournament means a bigger pool of potential Ultimate Team spenders during the period when football attention is at its peak. The early returns are around what you’d expect, with 4.4M new players accessing FC 26 via PS Plus last month – a substantial new spender pool. Anecdotally, a few of my mates who were ‘’skipping FIFA and Ultimate Team this year’’, were drawn back in via PS Plus. Lo and behold, one of them is buying packs like it’s going out of fashion. Whether this is all a smart trade for EA depends entirely on the Ultimate Team conversion rate over the next six weeks. Either way, the short-term engagement impact on the game as a whole is evident. FC 26‘s MAUs hit a record 24M on PlayStation in May, up 30% from the previous record set in April. GTA V does what GTA V always does Rounding out the top five is another evergreen title. Grand Theft Auto V shifted another 387K copies on PlayStation last month. No matter what else is happening in the industry, GTA V keeps pulling players in. It’s sold another 1.8M copies on PS5 in the first half of this year alone, helping the franchise pass the 230M-sold milestone across all platforms. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe I have a theory that Minecraft and GTA V are doing the same thing at different demographic levels. Both are functioning as generational gateway games that the audience ages into faster than it ages out of. Minecraft captures kids around age 6-10, GTA V captures much of the same audience around age 12-15 (unofficially, of course). The crossover data suggests this: 40% of GTA V‘s monthly PlayStation players typically play Fortnite in any given month, while 30% play Roblox. Household accounts aside, that’s not the original GTA V audience from 2013. Of course, the under-12 audience would love to get their hands on GTA, too. It’s always been the way of things, and some parents are happy to oblige. Mine did too back in the day, and I turned out just fine. Right? Right!? Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
Valve Reportedly Threatened to Delist Rainbow Six Siege on Steam After Ubisoft Offered Cheaper Alternative
Valve has allegedly gone to great lengths to maintain Steam's position as a marketplace titan on PC, including one example that reportedly saw it threaten to retaliate against Ubisoft by delisting Rainbow Six Siege.
Exclusive: Ex-Anduril engineer raises $42M to build the Amazon of composite parts
Layup Parts co-founder Zack Eakin has drawn on a motorsports background, and his experience working for Palmer Luckey and Elon Musk, to tackle making faster, cheaper, and better composites.
Valve antitrust lawsuit reportedly reveals lengths Steam owner is willing to go to prevent cheaper prices elsewhere
Newly uncovered evidence in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit has claimed Valve works aggressively behind the scenes to maintain its position.
Mistral courts U.S. business with cheaper, not the smartest, AI
Hot off its first corporate showcase in Paris, the crown jewel of France’s AI industry is making a play for American banks, businesses and tech bros.
Dell is bringing back the XPS 13 as a MacBook Neo competitor — with a temporary discount to $599
The XPS 13 returns, and is cheaper than ever.
Stanford quantum computing breakthrough uses twisted light to work without extreme cooling
A new room-temperature quantum device uses twisted light to entangle photons and electrons, overcoming one of the biggest hurdles in quantum technology. The breakthrough could pave the way for smaller, cheaper quantum systems with applications ranging from secure communications to future AI and computing platforms.
Google won the search war. It's using the same tactic to win in AI.
Inference costs are becoming a race to the bottom, and Google's full stack AI approach puts it in a good position to offer cheaper tokens.
Forget LASIK: Safer, cheaper vision correction without lasers or surgery
Researchers are developing a futuristic alternative to LASIK that reshapes the eye without lasers or incisions. Using mild electrical pulses and platinum contact lenses, they temporarily soften the cornea so it can be molded into a new shape. Early tests on rabbit eyes successfully corrected nearsightedness in about a minute while preserving the eye’s structure.
Why the business of orbit is entering a new phase
Space is becoming a bigger part of everyday business, from communications and Earth observation to defense and predictive analytics. Voyager Technologies CEO Dylan Taylor and Muon Space President Gregory Smirin explain how cheaper launches, more satellite constellations and advances in AI are pushing the space economy into a new phase. Watch more from the CNBC CONVERGE LIVE conversation in Singapore to hear how the business of orbit is moving from exploration to infrastructure.
Xreal launches a cheaper AR glasses brand, starting with the $299 a01
Called X by Xreal (or XBX), its first product are the $299 a01 display glasses.
Cheaper, Alternative Health Plans Are Having A Moment, But Critics Urge Caution
By Sarah Kwon and KFF Health News HealthDay ReportersWEDNESDAY, May 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) — When Melanie Miller saw that her health insurance premium payment was set to nearly triple to $914 a month this year, she stopped shopping on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. The 59-year-old ...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Initiates Largest Change In 70 Years, Solicits Bids To Replace Caltech As Its Manager
A booming industry is proving that private enterprise can make serious strides in space, and JPL is looking to find cheaper ways to do what it's always done.
Apple's M5 MacBook Air Hits New Low Price of $899.99
Amazon today has introduced a new record low price on the 512GB 13-inch M5 MacBook Air, available for $899.99, down from $1,099.00. This deal is available in all colors and as of writing only Amazon has the discount. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. This new price is about $50 cheaper when compared to past sales.
Cheaper, alternative health plans are having a moment, but critics urge caution
Congress' decision not to extend enhanced marketplace tax credits has boosted the appeal of alternative health coverage with lower monthly premiums.
Cheaper, Alternative Health Plans Are Having a Moment, but Critics Urge Caution
Congress' decision not to extend enhanced marketplace tax credits has boosted the appeal of alternative health coverage with lower monthly premiums. Consumer advocates dismiss the plans as "junk insurance,” while proponents say patients need alternatives to pricey marketplace options.
‘We’ve given them the short end of the stick’: Business school dean says AI could eliminate many jobs for young people—even as they lead innovation
Despite being innovation leaders, young workers face an AI transition that prioritizes "better, cheaper, faster" over breakthrough thinking, according to Professor Jeff DeGraff.
Cheaper, alternative health plans are having a moment, but critics urge caution
Senate Small Business Hearing Suggests Some Tariff Wariness - Coalition For A Prosperous America
A Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing held last week had only one manufacturer serving as a witness. He liked the tariffs because they stopped the bloodletting of cheaper imitations from China. However, he told the Senate that changes could be made to existing tariff policy to help lower costs as commodity and other input prices are rising fast.
Gemini app now has compute-based usage limits as AI Ultra now starts at $100
Alongside all the new features, Google announced that Gemini is switching away from daily prompt limits, while AI Ultra is now cheaper.
Rare earth breakthrough in China’s icy northeast
A new type of deposit in Heilongjiang and Jilin promises easier, cheaper mining than in southern clay-rich areas, say scientists.
Scientists just unlocked a cheaper way to make clean hydrogen fuel
Researchers have developed a durable new catalyst that produces clean hydrogen without relying on expensive platinum metals. The breakthrough could make renewable hydrogen fuel cheaper, more efficient, and easier to scale for real-world energy use.
AYANEO Pocket Block Leak Points to a Smaller, Cheaper Android Handheld
A leaked user manual and renders reveal the AYANEO Pocket Block, an upcoming vertical Android gaming handheld. Here is everything we know so far.
Idaho farmers can band together to buy cheaper health insurance through Farm Bureau deal
As Idaho farmers struggle to find affordable health insurance, a new deal lets them buy cheaper plans through the Idaho Farm Bureau.
I left LA for Rio. My life is better and cheaper.
Luca Martins moved from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and found a lower cost of living and stronger community.
AI fears fuel demand for faster, cheaper business degrees
As applications soften and AI anxiety reshapes career planning, business schools are increasingly slashing tuition to lure students into specialized graduate programs, The Wall Street Journal writes. Institutions including Purdue, UC Irvine, Johns Hopkins and Washington University in St. Louis are offering steep discounts, scholarships and AI-focused degrees aimed at working professionals and recent graduates […]
Breaking Up Big Medicine Won’t Make Health Care Cheaper
Consolidation is not what’s driving the big increase in health care costs.