Technologies

Crisol is a BioShock-Like Cult Horror Shooter Using Your Blood For Bullets

At Summer Game Fest, I got to try out Blumhouse’s next game, a sanguiphilic first-person shooter set on a cursed island coming later this year.

One of the best things about Summer Game Fest is discovering games that blend some of your favorite classics into something wholly new. Crisol: Theater of Idols is a game with clear BioShock influence in its first-person shooter exploration, but melds some cult horror from games like Resident Evil 4 into the mix. On top of it all, to reload your gun, you’ve gotta sacrifice your own blood — and take a chunk from your own health bar.

It’s a novel mechanic that combines with the gothic, nautical setting for a promising approach to horror action games. Crisol is being developed by Vermila Studios, which was acquired by Embracer Group in 2020, but the game is being published by Blumhouse Games. After playing through a 20-minute demo of his new game, the studio’s CEO David Carrasco explained how its game is a course correction for horror games.

«We’ve thought for a long time that survival horror was getting to where you didn’t have that survival element so much,» Carrasco said. «We wanted to give it an extra layer of tension by using your blood, your holy blood, to defeat these unholy monsters.»

I certainly felt it in the demo. As I stalked the moonlit cobblestone streets of an island teeming with unholy, creepy marionette creatures, knowing every missed shot was a bit of lost life. Survival horror games give players weapons to quench fear (or in their absence, amplify it, as with the Amnesia series), but tying my guns’ efficacy to my health made me slow down and pick my shots, amping up the fear as enemies closed in — «keeping that tension constantly in the back of your head,» as Carrasco put it.

While I felt the slightest concern for players with poor aim, there are health-restoring syringes sitting in the corners of abandoned shops and buildings. Crisol also has a mechanic where players can harvest blood (and thus, chunks of life) from dead animals lying around. Tying weapons to health is a twist on another survival horror game trope of saving heavy weapons ammo for dangerous bosses later on, Carrasco noted — in Crisol, you’ll always be able to use your big guns…for a price.

In Crisol, players take on the role of Gabriel, captain of the Tercios Del Sol, a command of soldiers under a sun-worshiping religion that takes on holy missions. He receives a divine order to go to an old island that’s spun off into its own sea religion, Tormentosa, and deal with idol statues that have come alive and begun rampaging around.

When I asked what inspired Crisol, Carrasco was up-front that Bioshock and a number of Resident Evil games (4, 7 and 8 specifically) had the right mix of artistic design and gameplay Vermila Studios was looking for. Dishonored was another source for its heavy emphasis on art.

«Sprinkle in Spanish folklore, religious undertones, and in the end, with all of those fantastic and crazy and brutal inspirations make something that will be unique and memorable,» Carrasco said.

Spanish folklore is underutilized compared to the Japanese, Nordic and American mythology that appears in many games, Carrasco said. Vermila Studios, based in the Spanish city of Madrid, drew on its home country’s history and culture — and though the island players visit in Crisol doesn’t explicitly take place in Spain, players will be able to connect the dots with the cathedrals, old architecture, polychromatic statues and stained-glass windows that make up the game’s visual language.

That blend applies to religion, too: players will run into a faith following on Crisol’s island that follows religions of the sea and sun, which I saw a bit of in the demo, with deification of mermaids and other pseudo-pagan effects. But Carrasco acknowledges the Catholic influence in the game, too.

«We’ve taken a lot of religious inspiration from different religious, like the Catholic Church, which has a lot of deeply rooted components in the Spanish culture, but [also] some other, older religions, even cults from very old history,» Carrasco said, affirming that there’s no explicit connection to the Catholic church or Christianity. «We do have holy blood, but it’s not like a Christ or any connection to the reality of religions nowadays.»

As I wander the cobbled streets of the demo, I see how all these elements blend into Crisol’s visual language. Vermila Studio has a larger-than-usual art department, Carrasco noted, with around 20 people working for five years scribbling out drafts of enemies and locations to give the game a look and feel that felt familiar, fantastical and plausible at the same time — that it really could be on an island out to sea.

As players explore the 10- to 14-hour game, they’ll experience the creeping horror of the cult’s presence, but Vermila isn’t relying on a lot of jump scares, Carrasco said, which can lose their impact if overused. Rather, the game will rely on the tension of enemies behind and pursuing you, from those you run out of blood bullets (and health) to defeat, to those unaffected by your weapons.

In the second half of the demo, I ran into what Carrasco was talking about: a tall, hulking marionette monster with an impossibly wide smile that called out to me, shrugging off my bullets as I darted into buildings to evade its pursuit. Like other invulnerable pursuit bosses (Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, Jack Baker in Resident Evil 7), I had to sneak around while finding bolt cutters to clip chained-off doors. I also had to roll up a gate agonizingly slowly, expecting my stalker to close in on me at any second.

I escaped into a mermaid-themed restaurant and the demo ended, but the vibes of the game stuck with me. They clearly appealed to Blumhouse, too, who were interested in Crisol’s dramatic art style and its blood mechanics. For Vermila Studios, Blumhouse was a good fit for its track record of bringing in new artists and projects that may be smaller but bring something new to the table.

«For us, being a part of this Blumhouse lineup is just like a partnership made in heaven — or hell, maybe — where they understand horror and what tickles that,» Carrasco said.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox later in 2025.

Technologies

Investors Favor Alphabet’s AI Spending Over Meta’s Despite Both Beating Earnings Expectations

Despite both Meta and Alphabet surpassing earnings expectations and raising AI spending forecasts, investors reacted differently, with Alphabet’s stock rising 7% while Meta’s fell 7%, highlighting the market’s preference for companies with cloud infrastructure that can monetize AI investments.

On Wednesday, both Meta and Alphabet surpassed analyst expectations in their quarterly earnings, marking their most robust growth in several years. The companies also raised their annual capital expenditure projections, signaling a continued commitment to investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

However, Wall Street responded differently to the two tech giants. Alphabet’s stock surged 7% in after-hours trading, whereas Meta’s shares dropped by 7%.

This divergence continues a pattern that has weighed on Meta during much of the generative AI expansion. Unlike Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon, which operate vast cloud infrastructure businesses that convert AI investments into revenue, Meta lacks such a division.

Consequently, convincing investors of the return on AI spending is more challenging for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as the benefits must primarily manifest through higher ad revenue and improved profitability.

All four major tech firms released their quarterly results on Wednesday. While Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon reported cloud divisions that outperformed expectations, Meta was the only one among them to see its stock decline.

Leading up to the earnings releases, Alphabet’s stock had climbed 118% over the past year, significantly outpacing Meta’s 21% gain. Amazon rose 40%, and Microsoft increased by approximately 8%.

«Google is outperforming its peers which is well reflected in the current valuation,» analysts at D.A. Davidson wrote in a report after the results, maintaining their neutral rating.

The capital expenditure figures across the board are staggering and continue to grow, partly because companies are spending more on memory due to a global shortage driven by surging AI demand.

Alphabet updated its 2026 capex guidance range to $180 billion to $190 billion, up from its previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion. CFO Anat Ashkenazi said the company’s 2027 capex is expected to «significantly increase» from this year’s figure.

The spending forecast was coupled with revenue growth of 20%, the fastest for any quarter since 2022. Cloud revenue soared 63%, and Alphabet said it has a backlog of $460 billion, nearly double where it was last quarter, because of demand for AI infrastructure.

Defending the Spending

Meta upped its capex guidance for the year to between $125 billion and $145 billion, from a prior range of $115 billion to $135 billion, a move the company said, «reflects our expectations for higher component pricing this year and, to a lesser extent, additional data center costs to support future year capacity.»

Similar to when Meta raised its capex forecast in October, Zuckerberg spent time on the earnings call defending the company’s hefty AI spending, pitching it as necessary for future growth while bolstering the core online ad business.

«The trend over the last few years seems clear, that we are seeing an increasing return on the amount that we can improve engagement for people and value for advertisers,» Zuckerberg said. «This encourages us to continue investing heavily in what we expect will provide increasing value over the coming years as well.»

On the revenue side, growth is more impressive than at Google. Sales jumped 33% from a year earlier, marking the strongest period for expansion since 2021.

Zuckerberg said the company is «very focused on increasing the efficiency of our investments,» and is developing custom silicon with Broadcom while investing in a «significant amount of AMD chips to complement the new Nvidia systems that we’re rolling out as well.»

Meta CFO Susan Li told analysts that the company needs to spend big on AI in order to «meet our infrastructure needs and ensure we maximize our strategic flexibility over the coming years.» The company also has to ensure it has enough computing resources to train more AI models, build more products and help its AI agent push for consumers and businesses worldwide, Li said.

She added that Meta’s recent «multi-year cloud deals and our infrastructure purchase agreements» contributed to a $107 billion jump in contractual commitments during the quarter.

Still, investors are waiting to see new revenue streams come to fruition after Zuckerberg spent the past 10 months overhauling his company’s AI strategy and bringing in high-priced talent. Earlier this month, Meta debuted Muse Spark as its first proprietary foundation model.

Alphabet, meanwhile, has been cashing in on its bets, including on homegrown chips called tensor processing units (TPUs), which are increasingly competing with Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs).

CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the momentum in the chip side of the business several times on Wednesday’s call.

«There’s tremendous demand for both AI solutions as well as AI infrastructure, including massive interest in our GPU offerings, as well as TPUs,» he said.

WATCH: Meta shares sliding

Technologies

Alphabet’s Q1 Earnings Expected to Reflect Sustained Expansion, Driven by Cloud Division

Alphabet’s Q1 earnings are expected to show strong growth driven by cloud and AI advancements, with revenue projected to rise 18.7% year-over-year. The company’s stock has surged 118% over the past year, supported by Gemini AI integration and expanding cloud infrastructure investments.

Alphabet is scheduled to release its first-quarter financial results after market close on Wednesday. Below are the key metrics Wall Street anticipates, based on analyst estimates from LSEG: — Earnings per share: $2.63 — Revenue: $107.2 billion Investors are also tracking several additional figures in the upcoming report: — Google Cloud: Estimated at $18.05 billion, per StreetAccount — YouTube advertising: Estimated at $9.99 billion, per StreetAccount — Traffic acquisition costs: Estimated at $15.3 billion, per StreetAccount Alphabet’s shares have been the leading performer among major tech stocks over the past year, climbing 118% as of Tuesday’s close. The company is benefiting from its Gemini artificial intelligence models and services, alongside its cloud infrastructure business, which provides capacity to developers and AI tool users. Analysts forecast an 18.7% increase in revenue from $90.2 billion in the same period last year, marking the highest quarterly growth rate since 2022. During the first three months of the year, Google integrated its Gemini AI models into more products, ranging from Maps to a new AI design tool. Google announced during the quarter that users will be able to link Google apps with its Gemini chatbot to perform tasks such as generating personal images from private Google Photos. Google is experiencing significant growth from its cloud division, which competes with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Revenue is projected to surge 47% from $12.26 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Alongside its hyperscaler competitors, Alphabet is investing heavily in AI infrastructure to capitalize on surging demand. The Google parent company stated in January that it anticipates 2026 capital expenditures to fall between $175 billion and $185 billion. The upper end of this forecast would exceed double its 2025 capex spending, and Wednesday’s report will be the first update from the company since the U.S.-Iran conflict began in February, causing oil prices to spike. Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are also set to release quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday. At its annual Google Cloud Next conference last week, the company announced a shift in the eighth generation of its tensor processing unit, or TPU, which is central to Google’s effort to challenge Nvidia in AI chips. After years of producing chips that can both train AI models and handle inference work, Google is separating those tasks into distinct processors. Alphabet’s investments may also be a focus for investors. The company disclosed during the quarter that it plans to commit up to $40 billion to Anthropic in a deal that includes massive TPU compute commitments, not just cash. Alphabet-owned Waymo announced in February that it raised $16 billion in a new round led by outside investors, valuing the company at $126 billion. Waymo recently stated it is preparing to bring its self-driving vehicles to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company has already launched fully autonomous operations in Nashville, ahead of a planned commercial launch with Lyft later this year. The company also reduced some equity stakes. Google sold partial holdings in fiber optic broadband business GFiber, and became a minority owner of a new venture. Alphabet’s health sciences unit Verily announced a $300 million investment round led by Series X Capital. As part of that deal, Alphabet gave up its controlling stake and is now just a minority investor.

Technologies

Amazon to Release First-Quarter Financials Following Market Close

Amazon is set to release its first-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, with Wall Street anticipating a 14% revenue increase to $177.3 billion.

Amazon is set to release its first-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday.

Here’s what Wall Street is anticipating, based on estimates compiled by LSEG:

— Earnings per share: $1.64

— Revenue: $177.3 billion

Wall Street is also tracking other key revenue figures:

— Amazon Web Services: $36.92 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

— Advertising: $16.87 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

Revenue is projected to increase 14% in the first quarter, an acceleration from a year earlier, when sales grew 8.6% to $155.7 billion, and roughly in line with last quarter’s 13.6% growth.

Investors will be closely watching Amazon’s cloud business, where revenue is expected to jump roughly 26% from a year ago. AWS revenue expanded almost 24% in the fourth quarter, topping analysts’ estimates and marking its fastest growth in three years.

Amazon and other big tech companies have been trying to justify their hefty artificial intelligence spending, which could approach $700 billion in 2026. Fellow hyperscalers Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are also scheduled to report results after the bell on Wednesday, the first time the group will be updating Wall Street on capex since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in February.

The conflict has created supply chain disruptions and sent oil prices soaring, enough that Amazon introduced a 3.5% fuel surcharge for some of its third-party sellers.

Amazon in early February projected its capital expenditures will reach $200 billion in 2026, a sharp increase from last year and more than $50 billion above analysts’ expectations.

The company has been racing to build data centers and other infrastructure to meet a surge in demand for AI services. Last quarter Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS could be growing even faster if it had more capacity, noting there’s “very high demand” from customers for both core and AI workloads.

Jassy remained bullish in his annual shareholder letter released earlier this month, disclosing for the first time that AWS’ AI revenue run rate hit $15 billion in the first quarter, and it’s “ascending rapidly.”

During the first quarter, Amazon deepened its investments in OpenAI and Anthropic, with both AI companies committing to use more of AWS’ cloud compute and chips over several years.

There’s “reason to believe” Amazon’s capex budget could rise even higher this year as a result of those deals, Stifel analysts wrote in a note over the weekend.

“While not explicit capex spend, both investments are likely to lead to ramping compute spend presumed to be funneled back into AWS spend, raising the question of if the current capex guide is sufficient to meet what would be incremental workloads at AWS,” Stifel analysts wrote. The firm has a buy rating on Amazon’s shares.

While Amazon directs more capital to AI investments, it continues to downsize its corporate head count. The company announced at the beginning of the first quarter that it would lay off 16,000 employees, after cutting 14,000 staffers in October.

Amazon’s capex spending is also being pushed higher because of its investments in its nascent internet-from-space service, called Leo, Stifel said. The company is aiming to begin commercial service in mid-2026.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced it plans to acquire satellite company Globalstar in a deal valued at roughly $11.57 billion, the second-largest acquisition, behind its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

The company has been working to produce enough satellites and launch more of them into space as it gets closer to a Federal Communications Commission deadline in July requiring it to have about half of its 3,236-satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.

Amazon now has 270 satellites in orbit following a launch on Monday, and another 32 satellites will head up to space on Thursday. The company has asked the FCC for an extension, but has yet to receive approval, while its primary satellite internet rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, urged the agency to reject Amazon’s request.

WATCH: Amazon needs to spend more to keep AWS as premier AI play