Technologies

Best Game Subscription Services

Every gaming platform has monthly game subscriptions, from Xbox Game Pass to PlayStation Plus.

Gaming subscriptions are here to stay, and there’s no denying it. Every gaming platform has at least one, with Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo building their gaming subscription servicesaround basic features like online multiplayer.

That’s right, even if you’re not interested in a digital gaming library, it might be more cost-effective to subscribe to one just to access things like multiplayer — and you might even find a new favorite game along the way.

With cloud gaming and the PC version of Xbox Game Pass, subscriptions are a big part of PC gaming, but not yet the default. It helps that PC gamers can buy games a la carte from a variety of shops (Steam, GOG and so on), which means that individual games are often discounted.

And if content subscriptions are the future of gaming, then cloud gaming subscriptions are the future of that future, as they require almost no specialized hardware, and generally work anywhere from an iPad to a cheap Chromebook. For this roundup, we’re including both download and cloud-based subscription services.

That said, the road to cloud gaming is not always a smooth one. Google just announced that its Stadia service is going to end this month. Similarly, the very first cloud-gaming service, On Live, started in 2010 and shut down in 2015.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate remains the gold standard, offering a catalog of games across console, PC and cloud (which works on practically any device). But Sony has revamped its PlayStation Plus service to be much closer to what Microsoft offers.

The top tier of services includes:

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
PlayStation Plus
Nintendo Switch Online
GeForce Now
Apple Arcade

Other players include:

EA Play
Ubisoft Plus
Google Play Pass
Amazon Luna
Amazon Prime Gaming

Also tested

EA Play

For $5 to $15 a month, you get access to a catalog of EA games, but EA Play is also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Ubisoft Plus

For $15 a month, you get access to Ubisoft games as a stand-alone PC subscription, or as a paid add-on to Stadia or Luna, and eventually Xbox.

Google Play Pass

Like Apple Arcade, the Google version for Android phones includes lots of games, but also other apps. It works on Android devices only.

Amazon Luna/Prime Gaming

Luna is Amazon’s cloud-based service, like Stadia, that offers different catalogs for between $5 and $18 a month. Prime members can stream some games at no additional cost, and also get access to «a rotating selection» of full downloadable games. Amazon also owns Twitch, so there’s deep built-in integration for streamers.

Stadia

Google’s cloud-based service is shutting down later this month, but you can still go back and read our launch review of Google Stadia.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, April 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 18

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the super-long one as always on Saturdays, and a few of the clues are tricky. But if you play all the other New York Times games, 13-Across will be easy. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: What people pay Extra for?
Answer: GUM

4A clue: Pre-meal prayer
Answer: GRACE

6A clue: Physicist Bohr
Answer: NIELS

7A clue: Line up a shot
Answer: AIM

8A clue: Photo ___ (P.R. events)
Answer: OPS

10A clue: «Zootopia,» but not «Zoolander»
Answer: PGMOVIE

12A clue: TV show with the initials «TV»
Answer: THEVIEW

13A clue: New York Times game with weaving, interconnected answers
Answer: STRANDS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: More bleak
Answer: GRIMMER

2D clue: Dubai’s country, for short
Answer: UAE

3D clue: Nickname of Seth and Evan’s friend in «Superbad»
Answer: MCLOVIN

4D clue: «See you in the mornin’!»
Answer: GNIGHT

5D clue: Fancy term for «noticed»
Answer: ESPIED

7D clue: Many N.Y.C. addresses: Abbr.
Answer: APTS

9D clue: Uses a needle and thread
Answer: SEWS

11D clue: Egg cells
Answer: OVA

Technologies

AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says

More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.

Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.

In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.

Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.

Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.

The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.

Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.

Disconnect between AI adoption and perception

While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.

21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»

These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.

It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.

Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Wow!

Green group hint: Plug it in.

Blue group hint: Cinderella team.

Purple group hint: Drink up.