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This is the decades-old Gmail trick I still use every day
This small change completely cleans up your inbox
Google just unlocked 'Agent Mode' for Gemini 3.1 — here are 7 things it can now do for you
From "inbox zero" to full trip planning, here is how to unlock Google’s powerful new agentic workflows
A sports blitz starts tonight, plus a WNBA Draft surprise
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I hope your TV is in working order. Coming up: 📆 A busy stretch begins 1️⃣ Dallas’ surprise at No. 1 🏆 Rory’s family win One of the busiest stretches of important pro sporting events begins tonight, and I mean that in quite a positive way. The NBA playoffs tip off in a few hours, with two Play-In games. This weekend, the NHL playoffs will join. Both sports will crown winners by the third week of June … which is when the...
Microsoft Plans to Bring Copilot Into the Agentic AI Age
An always-on Copilot could sort out your inbox and calendar.
Avec's Tinder-styled email app allows you to swipe through your inbox
Users can use the in-built voice transcription tool to reply to emails
‘The Beast’ is here, plus a base-brawl
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I hope you have a favorite fact about yourself ready. Inside: 📘 600 pages of NFL Draft 🥊 Base-brawl 🐘 Behold the Zammoth I come to you this morning with a confession. I find most pre-draft content, for any sport, exhausting. Not because of the specific article or mock draft or report, but because of the cycle itself. We are yammering about the infinite possibilities of something that has not happened yet. At a certain point,...
Even Artemis II Astronauts Have Microsoft Outlook Problems
The mission commander’s email inbox failed during the journey to the moon. Have they tried turning the computer off and back on again?
Previewing the NHL and NBA stretch run, plus Puka’s rehab trip
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Maybe I’m too online, but I think all April Fools’ Day content should be banned. Sorry. Real news coming up: 🏒 NHL playoff picture 🏀 NBA playoff picture, too 🗳️ Goal versus hoop, let’s finish this Two of our major sports share the same calendar schedule and number of games. Today, we are table-setting each of their stretch runs as the playoffs near. I had a hard time choosing between metaphorical children to cover first,...
Inbox: It’s time to get back to football business
Compensatory picks are the game within the draft game
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe 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!]
Gen Z really, really loves China's trains
This is a condensed version of Business Insider Today, a newsletter that gives you a look at the week’s top stories. Sign up here to get the full Business Insider Today in your inbox every day for the top stories in markets, tech, and business.
Now everyone in the US is getting Google’s personalized Gemini AI
Suggestions based on what’s in your Gmail inbox or YouTube viewing history.
The brains behind BI's new must-read newsletter explains why every marketer needs it in their inbox
In this Sunday edition of Business Insider Today, Lara O'Reilly, the anchor of BI's CMO Insider, discusses the newest Business Insider newsletter.
What We Hate About International Women’s Day. Plus: The $200 Million Business Fueling The Ozempic Generation
Welcome to this week’s ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world’s top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox.
The best freshman class ever? Plus, another big NIL lawsuit
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I’d retire your number. Inside: 💪 Historic newcomers 🏅 U.S. women want peace 🏀 NBA hip-hop ranks Just take a look at the NBA rookie class, and you’ll know how good last year’s men’s college basketball freshmen were. Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, is averaging 20 points a game after winning college player of the year last year. His Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel, is second behind Flagg in Rookie of the...
Renewed health top of mind for Aranda after switch to new number
This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
A Meta AI security researcher said an OpenClaw agent ran amok on her inbox
The viral X post from an AI security researcher reads like satire. But it's really a word of warning about what can go wrong when handing tasks to an AI agent.
Meta employee shares OpenClaw email-deletion nightmare
Meta alignment director Summer Yue hooked OpenClaw up to her inbox. Then, the bot tried to delete her emails. Yue chalked it up to a "rookie mistake."
Meta Director of AI Safety Allows AI Agent to Accidentally Delete Her Inbox
Meta Superintelligence Labs’ director of alignment called it a “rookie mistake.”
The NBA’s yucky tanking problem, plus an American speedskating gold
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Protect your hamate bone today. Inside: 📉 Tanking, everywhere 📧 Tisch’s Epstein emails exposed 🏅 Another packed Olympic day Tanking has always been a part of the modern NBA, because the math is too simple: forfeit a season now for a better return (an elite draft prospect) later. Elite players win championships and bring about every form of success this league has to offer. At its base, the logic is flawless. The product,...
Surprise COVID test bills from Rume Health? Here’s why they’re showing up—and what to do
If you’ve opened your inbox lately to find a surprise COVID test bill from Rume Health—you’re not alone.
An incredible sports week arrives with Olympics, Super Bowl. Plus: NFL coaching carousel wraps up
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! It’s the start of a brilliant sports week. Coming up: 🏅 Olympic stars to know 🏈 Super Bowl week, baby ✍️ Coaching carousel problem We often talk about the unmatched glory of a great sports weekend, whether that’s the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, MLB’s Opening Day blitz, Thanksgiving weekend in the football world, whatever. We have arrived at one of those junctures — and it’s a full week. Let’s start...
Cloud storage payment scam floods inboxes with fake renewals
Over the past few months, a large-scale cloud storage subscription scam campaign has been targeting users worldwide with repeated emails falsely warning recipients that their photos, files, and accounts are about to be blocked or deleted due to an alleged payment failure.
AI has arrived in Gmail. Here’s how to make it work for you
If the new AI technology becomes adopted by Gmail users, this could be the biggest change to email in decades. It may transform the way people check their inboxes into a more streamlined experience.
Confusion swells as Trump administration abruptly halts public health funding to cities and states, then reverses course
As public health departments across the country prepared for a massive winter storm this weekend, notice landed in their inboxes that pivotal grant funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was paused. No more money could be spent.
Google says it's working to fix Gmail issue that's led to flooded inboxes and increased spam warnings
Gmail users have reported problems with their automatic filters that typically separate promotional emails from the main inbox.
Gmail’s spam filter and automatic sorting are broken
Gmail’s spam filter is broken, leading to inboxes flooded with promotional emails and warnings to “be careful.”
Gmail Glitch Appears to Break Email Filtering, Tabbed Inboxes
Marketing emails that should appear in the Promotions tab are flooding people's Primary inboxes.
Google's AI Mode can now tap into your Gmail and Photos to provide tailored responses
The company notes that AI Mode doesn’t train directly on your Gmail inbox or Google Photos library. Instead, it trains on specific prompts and the model’s responses.
Google’s AI Inbox could be a glimpse of Gmail’s future
It’s more AI than I need right now.
Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off
: Love Google AI Overviews? Now they're in your inbox
Google announces AI Overviews in Gmail search, experimental AI-organized inbox
Last year's premium Gmail AI features are also rolling out to free users.
Gmail debuts a personalized AI Inbox, AI Overviews in search, and more
Gmail is also bringing several AI features that were previously available only to paid users to all users.
Google Is Adding an ‘AI Inbox’ to Gmail That Summarizes Emails
New Gmail features, powered by the Gemini model, are part of Google’s continued push for users to incorporate AI into their daily life and conversations.
NFL Christmas clunkers and NBA kryptonite, plus a holiday streaming guide
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Today: We present a cornucopia of viewing options, and you can find all the latest sports news here. When the NFL handed the Christmas streaming keys to Netflix and Prime last offseason, it initially looked like a must-watch crusade. Put on your August expectations hat and consider these teams: Dallas! Washington! Detroit! Minnesota! Denver! Kansas City! We refuse to apologize for the excessive exclamation points. Those six teams...
More of our favorite 2025 GIFs, plus a Christmas Day watch guide
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. We’re having fun below. For the latest news, check here. We’re back for the real thing this morning on actual Christmas Day. I hope you’re all having a merry time. More GIF gifts, from us to you: The Bounce’s Zach Harper checks in with one of the more aesthetically funny GIFs of the season. That’s Desmond Bane pelting OG Anunoby with a basketball. I’m still laughing. Zach told me this is...
The best moments of the sports year (in GIFs), plus a landmark NIL lawsuit
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! We are in full holiday mode today. Inside: 🎁 GIF gifts, Part 1 ⚖️ Huge NIL lawsuit 🫘 Beans ⛳ Hickory clubs are delightful We’ve done a form of Gifmas the last two years in Pulse territory, so I decided to ask all of our newsletter writers to join the fun this year. The prompt was simple: What is the best gif gift your sport has given you in 2025? We’re starting today because some people open the majority of gifts on...