Technologies

Love ‘Black Mirror’? You Can Play the Actual Game From the Episode ‘Plaything’ Now

The throng needs you.

Netflix launched the seventh season of Black Mirror on Thursday, and alongside it the streaming giant released a mobile game called Thronglets, a tie-in game for the episode Plaything. Thronglets is different from other Netflix tie-in games, like Too Hot to Handle. Thronglets is a game within the Black Mirror universe that’s central to the plot of Plaything, not just a game based on Black Mirror.

By letting people play the game that characters in the series play, Netflix has opened up a new avenue for people to interact with and experience the stories the service is telling. After I watched the episode Plaything and played the game, I thought, «Is this a joke? Where are the cameras?»

The whole experience made me feel uneasy. Surely that’s the point, because I can see myself getting lost in Thronglets. Not to the extent that the main character in Plaything does, but enough to make me heed the push alerts the game sends to my iPhone when the Thronglets ask for help.

Thronglets is a game within Black Mirror that you can actually play

Black Mirror’s episode Plaything is a tragedy that follows the yearslong downward spiral of game journalist Cameron Walker (played by Lewis Gribben and Peter Capaldi). In his younger years, he becomes engrossed with an in-universe, yet-to-be-released game called — you guessed it — Thronglets. We meet Walker years later when he’s recounting to the police how he’s dedicated his life to the game.

The in-episode game was developed by the fictitious game developer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) and the company Tuckersoft, from the interactive Black Mirror: Bandersnatch movie Netflix released in 2018.

Ritman describes the Thronglets as the first creatures in history whose biology is entirely digital, and these creatures are capable of learning and expanding. This leads to devastating consequences for Walker and those around him.

Netflix’s game mimics that experience, letting you play it and raise a single Thronglet to a vast and expanding society. Thus, you can become engrossed with the digital creatures like Walker does in the show. And the game and episode work together to deliver a deeper storytelling experience.

Here’s how to get started with Thronglets on Netflix Games, and what you should know about the game.

What are Thronglets?

In the game, they’re yellow creatures with a single antenna and large ears who reproduce by mitosis — they split into two whole and complete Thronglets. However, the very first Thronglet is hatched from an egg, and in the game, you have to tap the egg to get it to hatch.

Can you control the Thronglets?

You can’t. As Ritman says in Plaything, «They’re not some obscene puppets like Sonic the Hedgehog.» The Thronglets wander around and interact with things on their own, but you aren’t just watching them in the game.

Thronglets are kind of like Tamagotchis in that they require food, amusement and cleanliness. You provide these things to the Thronglets by dropping digital apples and beach balls onto the screen or scrubbing a Thronglet with virtual soap and sponge.

You can tap on individual Thronglets to see if they need food, amusement or a bath, as represented by three bars labeled Fed, Amused and Clean. If each of these bars is full, the Throng is happy. But if Fed is low, for instance, you can give the Thronglet an apple by dropping one near it, and it’ll eat the apple. Similarly, if Amused is low, drop a beach ball near the Thronglet and watch it kick the ball across the screen for fun.

Sometimes a Thronglet will display a speech bubble with an apple or a beach ball to tell you what it wants. Other times, the Thronglet will appear visibly dirty and in need of a bath. Occasionally, a Thronglet will squat down and seem to cry — which is sad to see, and I just want to give it a hug.

If you don’t meet a Thronglet’s needs, it’ll die, eventually decomposing till there’s nothing left but bones.

The Thronglets can also talk to you. They’ll ask you questions and suggest how you should proceed, such as using Thronglet bones to construct a bridge to another landmass.

Wait… what?

Yeah, it’s a pretty gruesome suggestion. But this leads into another aspect of the game. You’re not only caring for the Thronglets’ basic needs, you’re also teaching them how to behave toward one another.

The Thronglets will ask you questions like, What is power? and, What is love? and you’ll be presented with two responses to choose from. Later in the game, when the Thronglets are beginning to industrialize, they’ll ask you whether they should sleep in their homes as much, or work more. You can respond however you want, but it’s important to remember the Thronglets see you as an all-powerful entity and will do whatever you say.

So when I told the Thronglets not to work so hard and to sleep as much as they needed, they took my advice to heart, resulting in slower resource growth. But they appeared happier.

And that seems to be the result involved with many of the choices the Thronglets present you with — whether you accumulate resources more or less quickly. Most of the options I chose were more peaceful, like not using bones to construct a bridge, and thus resulted in slower production. But those choices never stopped or stalled the game. I tried to pick the kinder approach every chance I got — I can’t bring myself to do an evil run of any game.

Your actions also influence how the Thronglets see you. Once, I accidentally killed a Thronglet with a chain saw when I was cutting down some trees. From that action, a box appeared on the screen to let me know this taught the Thronglets that tools can be dangerous. It’s unclear whether these instances have any effect on the game other than some comic relief, but I still tried to minimize future accidental deaths or workplace mishaps.

After each stage, you’ll see a screen with different stats, like how many Thronglets died. You’ll also see observations the Thronglets made about you during the stage. Once, the Thronglets noted that I taught them Shakespeare — which made my English-major heart very proud.

What’s the goal of Thronglets?

That’s a great question. For me, my goal was to help the Thronglets in whatever way I could. Sometimes that meant building them a theater for entertainment or cleaning up toxic waste and pollution to keep them healthy. Other times, it meant shooting them into the abyss of space or nuking their land so they could progress — I swear, they insisted these were the right things to do.

But since it’s unclear how my choices affected the game and the upbringing of the Thronglets, it’s possible the goal is to get the Thronglets to progress as fast as possible. That would potentially mean making far more Thronglet sacrifices for the greater good.

But like Ritman asks in Plaything, «Why do you need a goal?»

Anything else interesting about the game?

The most interesting thing about Thronglets doesn’t have anything to do with the game itself, but with how Netflix is using different forms of media to tell intertwining stories.

When Netflix released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in 2018, that was the service’s first step into interactive films — which some people consider video games. The streaming service then pushed into gaming in 2021, and since then it’s turned some of its most popular series, like Squid Game, into mobile games.

But Thronglets isn’t just a game based on a series. Characters in Black Mirror interact with this game, and then we can put ourselves in the characters’ shoes by playing the same game in the real world. The game represents another step in Netflix’s creation of more immersive storytelling through games and other media, not just films and TV series.

When I started playing Thronglets after watching the Black Mirror episode Plaything, I felt weirded out. Interacting with this piece of media that has dire consequences in the show tricked me into thinking I was playing with fire. I know the game is just a game, but it felt like playing was in some way dangerous. I know how irrational that sounds.

I also couldn’t help but feel that while I was playing this game, I was isolating myself from others, like Walker does in the show. Walker begins to neglect the world around him to care for the Thronglets, and I’d spend time playing the game and ignoring the world around me, too. Granted, I didn’t get arrested for the little yellow guys — but I also didn’t take drugs to communicate with them.

The game didn’t make me more sympathetic toward Walker. He was scared of the world and said early in the episode that games are a kind of escapism. Maybe the game and episode are working in tandem to refute that. Maybe they’re trying to say that even if we find solace in games like Thronglets because the outside world is scary, we still might encounter something just as grisly in games, like a bridge made of bones.

I can see Netflix making more game tie-ins like this in the future to deepen the level of storytelling the service offers. And I’m looking forward to whatever the next tie-in is — maybe one of the arcade games from Stranger Things?

Here’s how to access this game, and more

Accessing Netflix Games on iOS and Android devices is a little different. But you have to subscribe to Netflix ($8 a month) for each.

Here’s how to access games on iOS if you’re a subscriber.

1. Download the Netflix app onto your iPhone or iPad.
2. Open the Netflix app.
3. Tap your profile and sign in to your account.
4. Tap Home at the bottom of your screen.
5. Scroll down your homepage until you see the Mobile Games carousel.
6. Tap into a game to learn more about it.
7. Tap Get Game to download a game you’re interested in.

Here’s how to access Netflix Games on Android if you’re a subscriber.

1. Download the Netflix app onto your Android device.
2. Open the Netflix app.
3. Tap your profile and sign in to your account.
4. Tap Games at the bottom of your screen.
5. Tap into a game to learn more about it.
6. Tap Get Game to download a game you’re interested in.

You can also search for games in the Netflix app by tapping the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the app and entering the game’s name.

After you tap Get Game, a pop-up from either Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store will open, asking if you want to download the game. After you confirm that action, the game will download on your device, like other apps.

For more on Netflix Games, here’s what to know about the first MMO coming to the service, and what to know about playing Hades and the Grand Theft Auto series on Netflix.

Technologies

Reddit’s AI Answers Are About to Get Faster and More Accurate

The AI-powered Reddit Answers service will be using Google Cloud, including Gemini for search.

Reddit has expanded a partnership with Google to use the tech giant’s Gemini tool and tap artificial intelligence for Reddit Answers. Google is helping Reddit manage information from 100,000 online communities and more than 400 million weekly active users, making their online conversations more searchable for Reddit Answers, Google said on Wednesday.

It could mean faster and more accurate search in addition to summaries, follow-up questions and the ability to have an AI conversation about the content, not unlike what users of AI chatbot services such as ChatGPT would expect.

Reddit unveiled Answers in late 2024, telling its users that it would be easier to search for content from Reddit — more often than not, answers to questions — without the need to go to Google and use its search function. Reddit already had a $60 million deal with Google to help train generative AI models on its content.

The company has also been expanding its translation services across its communities with the help of AI.

Reddit’s unique position in tech and AI

Although Reddit’s AI efforts may be much more visible to people lately, the company has been positioning itself with the technology for a while, said Rowan Curran, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

«Reddit’s AI efforts have been ongoing for a number of years across a number of fronts,» Curran said. «For example, they were one of the early companies to develop their own model for code generation and assistance to support Reddit’s developers.»

While the company is getting some outside assistance with AI, it’s also attractive to companies such as Google and OpenAI because of how much content it owns and generates.

«Reddit’s position as both a provider as well as a well of information puts them in a somewhat unique position to attempt to capitalize heavily both on the ingestion and preparation of data for AI use cases, as well as the serving of answers and information created from that data,» he said.

Reddit’s position as an ongoing generator of deeply human discussion is something that shouldn’t be lost in the rush to implement AI, says author Christine Lagorio, who wrote about the company in her book We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet’s Culture Laboratory.

«I certainly hope it doesn’t diminish Reddit’s strength, which is increasingly its ecosystem of real human answers to real human questions, a welcome contrast from the rest of the increasingly artificial (and artificial-sounding, and artificial-looking) web,» Lagorio said.

Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On: My Verdict After Playing All the Games

I got to spend a day playing all the new games for Nintendo’s upcoming $450 Switch 2 and came away with plenty of opinions.

It sounds like a dream to spend an entire day with the brand new Nintendo Switch 2 playing all the new games Nintendo threw at me during a special press preview. Believe me, it was an unforgettable experience, particularly now that because of tariffs, pre-orders in the US and Canada are on hold, while the initial batch in the UK sold out quickly. I just didn’t expect it to be a workout using the controllers in ways I’d never anticipated.

For example, pushing my hands around a fabric-covered table while holding two mouse controllers is surprisingly tiring. I was playing Drag x Drive, a new wheelchair sports game coming for the Nintendo Switch 2 that uses one of the console’s new features: Joy-Cons, which work like computer mice. I felt vibrations under my hands as though I was spinning my wheels. But I wondered: Who will play the Switch 2 while seated at a table? I realized later that you can also rub them on your pants legs to make them work. So I did that, too. It was a little less tiring.

This was just one weird part of a long day playing the Nintendo Switch 2, the $450 sequel to one of Nintendo’s most popular game consoles ever, arriving June 5, with preorders opening soon. I’ve loved playing games on the Switch, like many people. However, the Switch 2, while being a new console, feels a lot like an updated version of a system many people already own.

Much like the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X, it’s betting that playing games that look a little better matters enough to upgrade. But Nintendo’s also laying down some side bets on new features that could make a difference: in-game voice chat with friends at the press of a button, a plug-in camera that can work with wacky party games and, yeah, new controllers that double as mice.

So here’s the question: Is this more fun than the existing Switch and its games? I’d say the Switch 2 is a better piece of hardware, no doubt, but the upgrade proposition feels pretty uncertain until Nintendo shows many more games that make it worth it.

That being said, the Switch 2, as a bigger, better version of the existing Switch, could make a lot of sense for those who can afford it, especially because there’s still nothing quite like it out there. At $450 (£395, AU$699), plus $70 or $80 for its two biggest launch-window games, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, this is an expensive proposition for any family right now. A CNET survey recently found that affordability is the top concern for US gamers considering the purchase. Then again, as a handheld game console with its own included dock that can also play games in 4K on a TV, it’s actually competitively priced versus the Steam Deck and Windows gaming handhelds.

I played Mario Kart World. I played Donkey Kong Bananza. I played remastered versions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I played Cyberpunk 2077 and Split Fiction. And I played Mario Party Jamboree with new mouse-Joy-Con and camera-optional modes that projected me onto the TV. It was all fun and the Switch 2 is the handheld I’d prefer to play my library of Switch games on. But I don’t think it’s a necessary upgrade for anyone right now. That said, your kids will probably ask for Mario Kart World and a Switch 2.

Hands-on with the handheld: Nice screen, larger feel, similar buttons

The Switch 2 is big and feels dense. It’s not that much bigger than the Switch OLED, to me, but that larger 7.9-inch screen feels welcome. I play on a large Steam Deck a lot lately and the Switch 2 feels sort of like that but actually thinner. It’s about the same thickness as the Switch in casual holding-and-looking comparisons.

The Switch 2 has an LCD, not OLED, like the last iteration of the Switch, which went on sale in 2021. But honestly, it looked great to me in the hours I tried it. The 1080p resolution, HDR capabilities and refresh rate that can go up to 120Hz, depending on the game, stood out while playing. I’d take this over the Switch OLED display right now.

The larger Joy-Cons now magnetically snap in and out but have little release buttons on the back. They snap in smoothly and then you eject them with the trigger release and remove them. It’s a smooth action and a lot easier than pressing that small button on the current Switch Joy-Cons. The controllers, although feeling sturdy, have a surprisingly similar feel. The analog sticks felt like existing Joy-Cons and the buttons clicked similarly. I’m bummed that there’s no analog rear trigger.

Instead, these triggers click just like the older Switch — something that the Switch 2’s producers and directors, in a roundtable chat during my New York demo day, said was decided upon because they offer a more immediate response in games. I think it’s a miss because every other console I’ve played has analog triggers and they work well. Putting analog triggers on a Switch 2 would have made previous Switch games feel different on the Switch 2, though, and maybe that’s where the challenge lay.

The C button on the right Joy-Con launches Game Chat, a new mode that allows four-player audio chats with trusted Switch friends (that can be parent-approved). These chats can also become grainy video chats with an optional plug-in camera that can be used with the Switch when docked. Nintendo sells its own stand-like camera for $50 but you could also use a third-party camera (mileage may vary, according to Nintendo).

I didn’t get to try Game Chat during the demo day but I’m curious about how good the audio quality and noise cancellation are. Nintendo says it’s good enough to filter around room noise while talking from across the room. The Switch 2 has a microphone but the Joy-Cons don’t. A new $80 Switch 2 Pro Controller, which feels similar to the previous Switch Pro Controller with two added rear paddle buttons, does have a headphone jack that can be used to connect a microphone-enabled headset.

The new Switch 2 dock has its own fan system and looks chunky. It’ll sit near a TV so you probably won’t mind but it’s a bigger unit than before and, like several accessories, won’t work with the first-gen Switch. It enables 4K gaming modes on TVs, though, so that’s the reason.

There’s a new Switch 2 kickstand, which tilts at a wider range of angles. But it’s made of plastic and feels a bit flimsier than I expected, although it holds its position well. And there are two USB-C ports now — one on top, one on bottom — but it turns out the top port won’t do video-out. Nintendo’s creative team told me at a developer roundtable that there are no plans to support plug-in display glasses such as the Xreal One, a trick the Steam Deck and Windows handhelds can pull off.

I like the way the Switch 2 feels, though. It seems like it’ll be easier to travel with than Windows handhelds and the Steam Deck, which have bulky side grips that add to the system’s case size needs. The Switch 2 rides somewhat flat, although it’s bigger and longer.

OK, at this point, you’re probably saying, «Scott, please, just talk about the games.» So, I played each game in roughly 20-minute sessions as we were shuttled around different stations in the New York exhibition space that will host the public Switch 2 Experience. It’ll work similarly at other Switch 2 Experience locations, too.

Mario Kart World: Open-world Mario Kart madness

I have no idea how big Mario Kart World is. I drove around freely for a few minutes before a race mode started and I madly rambled from a town to a farm to an arena to mountain roads, jumped on train tracks, hopped on a power line and rode it up in the air, knocked down a lot of fences and found some sinister Bowser-ish castle. The newest Mario Kart game, a Switch 2 exclusive and launch title, is clearly the «game to get.» What I love is the sense that this racing game could be as full of surprises as an open-world Mario game.

It’s Grand Theft Mario or Mario Horizon or whatever you want to call it. This open expanse game’s real estate makes it far vaster than existing Mario Karts. But I played two races, mostly. I don’t even remember exactly what the course looked like because I was so busy navigating against 23 other players. The 24-player gameplay is new and, combined with wider, more expansive-feeling tracks, it’s a lot to take in. There are a lot of new characters to choose from — I picked Luigi with a gondolier outfit and later a hamburger-hatted Toad and Donkey Kong with battle armor. There are bikes, cars and all sorts of other familiar vehicles.

A new knockout tournament mode has players racing across multiple tracks in a world-spanning rally to win. You’re eliminated if you’re in the bottom four. I thought I came in first and got way too excited but I was one lap short of the actual end. I came in 16th. Competitiveness in a field full of this many cars reaches total absurdity.

I want to play more. The game looks great and handles like classic Mario Kart but it’s the extras that make me curious.

Donkey Kong Bananza: Showcase for smashing stuff

Nintendo doesn’t have a new 3D Mario game for the Switch 2 yet but Donkey Kong Bananza looks like a solid replacement. It’s the first open-world (sensing a theme here?) Donkey Kong game in years. It’s also a Switch 2 exclusive, coming July 17. Nobody saw this game coming (well, almost nobody) and I liked what I tried.

The game’s biggest mechanic is digging and destroying nearly everything. Donkey Kong can burrow through walls or the ground and, depending on the level, you can burrow far. I started digging into a wall in my first cave-like level, got lost in my tunneling, then burst out again. Some areas have you digging all the way down to new depths, almost like Tears of the Kingdom (but not really). Where does the madness end?

Donkey Kong is full of goofy expressions and enemies look dynamic in a way that feels almost like Sony’s Ratchet and Clank games. It’s a loud and fun action adventure but I have no idea how long the game actually is. It did showcase a lot more particles of stuff flying around than the older Switch has pulled off and the graphics kept a crisp frame rate.

Metroid Prime 4 Beyond: A technical showcase for graphics (and the mouse mode)

My 20 minutes or so with Metroid Prime 4 made me realize how good Switch 2 games could look. Running at 1080p and 120Hz on a big TV, it moved extremely smoothly and was as impressive a shooter as I’ve ever seen on a Nintendo console. From landing on a barren planet to firing through waves of creatures, rolling around in ball mode and losing a tough battle against a big ugly boss, it won me over.

I played on TV mode only, using the Joy-Cons in standard controller mode and then a mouse-and-controller mode. You can put one Joy-Con down at any time and make it a mouse for controlling movement, just like on a PC. I loved the fast reaction feel of it and I also liked that I could just lift my hand up and go back to analog stick controls if I changed my mind midstream.

Switch 2 Welcome Tour: Why isn’t this free?

I was expecting a dose of the weird at Nintendo’s Switch 2 event but this wasn’t it. Still, the idea of a Welcome Tour isn’t bad. Much like Valve’s Aperture Desk Job and the PlayStation 5’s Astro’s Playroom (or several tutorial apps for the Meta Quest), this looks like a guided tour of the Switch 2’s features, complete with insights from Nintendo and mini-games. I played a few, some of which were more like glorified demos at best.

I dodged asteroids using a Joy-Con in mouse mode, played the first level of Super Mario Bros. in pixel-accurate mode on a 4K TV setting to show how much screen real estate is available and played a guessing game for what frame rate a bouncing ball was moving at. One «game» showed me HDR on and off while launching fireworks. The problem is, this is a paid digital game, instead of the freebie it clearly should have been. I can’t understand why this probably helpful system tutorial isn’t just included on the Switch 2 and I never will.

Drag x Drive: Nintendo’s wild-card game

Somewhere between Arms and Rocket League, Drag x Drive is a Switch 2 exclusive that uses the Joy-Cons in mouse mode to control wheelchair-using players in an intense hoop-shooting sports game. Moving each wheel requires pushing one Joy-Con forward and backward. It gets intense fast.

The feeling ends up being a bit like rowing and my arms tired out; you have to keep wheeling around and moving your arms rapidly, pretty much nonstop. One neat thing is you can feel rumbling haptic clicks beneath your controllers as you «wheel,» making it feel more convincing. Racing to the ball, hitting other players and shooting baskets felt as chaotic as a game of Rocket League. I’m not sure if I’ll ever find this game fun to play because of its seemingly high exertion requirements but I enjoyed trying it for a while.

Mario Party Jamboree flexes camera, mouse modes

The most wacky stuff I tried were probably the new mini-games for the Switch 2 update of Mario Party Jamboree, which add mini-games that work with the Joy-Cons’ new mouse features and a game mode that uses the optional plug-in camera.

Bridget Carey and I revved little wind-up cars by pulling back on the Joy-Con mouse and releasing it to launch forward, with vibrating haptics to add clicking feedback. We played air hockey by pushing our Mouse-Cons around the table to hit the Koopa shells flying back and forth. And then we screamed and danced and balanced shells on our heads in camera mini-games that made us look like we were transported into Mario Party, popping out of warp pipes.

The camera-based games were flashbacks to the days when the PlayStation had a TV camera and the Xbox had the Kinect, which both did similar things. It was definitely fun and it makes Mario Party Jamboree even better but I don’t know how much I’d feel compelled to play the new modes long-term.

Updated Switch games look better — for a price

I played a handful of games optimized for the Switch 2, which will be sold in Switch 2 Editions at a higher price or existing game owners can buy a digital upgrade. The upgrades can be free in some cases if you have the Nintendo Switch Online Plus membership, while others will cost you extra, regardless.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the Switch’s two epic Zeldas, both have Switch 2 upgrades I briefly played. For sure, they look better, with better frame rates. I’d prefer to play them this way but the difference wasn’t massive. The Switch 2 versions also gain compatibility with a new phone app companion called Zelda Notes that we didn’t get to demo.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land has a new story mode and better-looking graphics on Switch 2. I had fun playing a bit of the new storyline, which involved a lot of freezing-up landscapes. Is it worth the upgrade price? Maybe, because it also has some DLC extras.

GameCube Mode … activated!

Nintendo is adding another bonus to the Switch 2 equation with a Nintendo GameCube virtual console library. It’s part of the Switch Online Plus Expansion Pack subscription but Switch owners cannot play those GameCube games.

There are only a few GameCube games expected at the Switch 2 launch but I gave a few a quick play to remind myself of when I played them back in my own GameCube days: Wind Waker and F-Zero GX. Wind Waker is a classic Zelda and I loved F-Zero GX, which was co-developed by Sega. It still feels ridiculously fast. Nintendo’s selling a GameCube wireless controller, which I also tried out. The buttons and sticks feel just like they used to.

Ports of new third-party games: Are they good enough?

Part of the Switch 2’s appeal to other non-Nintendo gamers is its ability to play games that PC, Xbox and PlayStation folks could play but Switch owners couldn’t. Elden Ring, Madden, Cyberpunk 2077 and Split Fiction are some of the biggest newcomers. The performance, from my quick early plays, was a mixed bag. Split Fiction is a hit co-op game that debuted this year and I love it on the Switch but the split-screen gameplay I tried had less than stellar frame rates and graphics quality. It was fun but didn’t look beautiful.

Cyberpunk 2077 shows off sprawling cityscapes but again, on a big TV, it was clearly not as good as what you could get from a PS5 or Xbox. Madden and Elden Ring weren’t there.

I know what playing games like these feels like on handhelds, though. The Steam Deck already has Elden Ring, Split Fiction and Cyberpunk 2077 support. The Switch 2 looks like a strong competitor to the Steam Deck and current Windows gaming handhelds for a wave of third-party games that’ll finally play decently. Still, I’m not sure how much it’ll convince Steam Deck owners or Windows handheld owners as the whole appeal of those systems is they’ll play PC games you already own.

It shows some promise for the Switch 2 being a step up for playing current-gen games but Nintendo didn’t share any details on how powerful the Nvidia processor onboard is. It’s capable of ray tracing and can upscale game graphics but what are the limits?

Verdict for now: The best Switch, but not yet a necessary one

I wanted more from the Switch 2. More surprises, more wow factor. That being said, it looks like easily the best Switch upgrade since 2017. And yet why do I feel like it’s not a must-buy yet? Because the games, as fun as they were, weren’t doing anything totally new. Because Nintendo raised prices for a lot of things, including more expensive games, Switch 2 Edition modes and even that tutorial game. And because, well, the world’s not in a great economic place right now.

I still want one and want to play Nintendo’s new games, though. Nintendo brings joy and unique experiences. In 2025, it’s the biggest thing gaming has. And the improved Steam Deck-ishness of this Switch 2 is slotting right into my recent handheld gaming habits. I can’t wait to try more when it arrives June 5.

Technologies

iPhone 20th-Anniversary Edition Could Bring Major Design Overhaul

Apple’s iPhone will turn 20 in 2027. Bold changes may be ahead.

Apple is reportedly planning a significant redesign for the 20th-anniversary edition of its iPhone lineup, expected to launch in September 2027.

A special Pro model featuring more glass elements to mark the iPhone’s two decades of existence is in development for the anniversary, says a Bloomberg report. Apple is also expected to launch a foldable iPhone alongside the redesigned Pro, but it’s unclear if this would be the first or second iteration. (Reports currently point to a 2026 launch for a foldable iPhone.) Apple remains the only major smartphone manufacturer without a foldable device.

This 20th anniversary-focused strategy could also help reinvigorate iPhone sales, which have been sluggish in recent months and may suffer under the Trump administration’s new 125% tariff on China, where most components and iPhones are imported from.

In the meantime, the upcoming iPhone 17 is now expected to more closely resemble previous Pro models. The iPhone Pro lineup has looked largely the same since the iPhone 12’s debut in 2020, when Apple introduced 5G compatibility, with changes over time mostly limited to color updates and a metal switch to titanium on the iPhone 15 Pro.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg said that although the iPhone 17 Pro will still resemble the 16 Pro, it will likely feature a redesigned rear camera layout. The camera module is expected to maintain its three-lens setup but be placed on a new panel that spans the entire width of the device with a single-tone finish.

Apple is also expected to introduce a notably thinner model, rumored to be called the iPhone 17 Air.

What will the 20th-anniversary iPhone be named?

It’s unclear how Apple will name its 20th-anniversary iPhone, given that the 2027 release would technically fall in line with an iPhone 19 label. The cadence of the numbers shifted over time as Apple experimented with the names, such as launching the iPhone 4S in 2011, rather than calling it the iPhone 5 (the iPhone 5 launched in 2012).

The company has previously adjusted naming conventions for milestone moments, such as skipping the iPhone 9 and unveiling the iPhone X to mark its 10th anniversary — so in keeping with Roman numerals, the 20th-anniversary model could potentially be called the iPhone XX.

The risk in waiting to redesign the iPhone

Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at market research firm Forrester, called a redesign a «double-edged sword,» considering the iPhone’s design hasn’t undergone any meaningful change for awhile.

«A bold redesign for its anniversary model sounds like a wonderful idea until you realize that it is still two years away and Apple has struggled to trigger the upgrade supercycle that will revive the stagnant iPhone growth the company has experienced lately,» he said.

Chatterjee acknowledged Apple Intelligence still hasn’t fulfilled its promise of converting older iPhone owners into later compatible hardware.

«The temptation to wait even longer for a vastly improved 2027 design is likely to further extend the upgrade cycle,» he added.

The other risk, he said, is that some customers might go for the cheaper iPhone 16E now and wait a few years to buy the premium phone they really want.