Technologies

A Murderer Is Among Us in Square Enix’s Killer Inn

In a Killer Inn hands-on preview, I lied, cheated and fought my way through the new murder mystery game.

Announced during this year’s Summer Game Fest, Square Enix’s next game is a little different from its RPG hits. Killer Inn is an upcoming murder mystery that pits 24 players against each other in a game of deception. I went hands-on with the title for a couple of hours before the launch of its closed beta, which is releasing Friday.

The game is very reminiscent of the breakout pandemic hit Among Us, with players performing mundane tasks as they try to avoid getting murdered. Two teams consisting of 18 Lambs (prey) and six Wolves (predators) will be set loose on the grounds of a large and labyrinthian mansion.

The Wolves know the allegiance of everyone and their goal is to eliminate every Lamb before the timer runs out. Lambs are left clueless of who is friend or foe and must be cautious when encountering another player. The Lambs win by either eliminating all six Wolves or by escaping the island during the endgame phase (more on that later).

But players won’t be idly waiting to hunt or be hunted. The game’s core loop involves all players receiving short quests from the in-game NPCs. These NPCs are usually merchants who also sell useful items such as health recovery, crowbars (to access certain rooms/boxes), weapons/armor, etc.

The quests are pretty mundane and often require you to follow a glowing trail (like a waypoint in a driving game) until you come across a key. These keys can then be traded into various glowing chests around the map to unlock random items. Chests can either be random or specific to a certain type, such as assassin (traps), armor, weapon, etc.

A lot of these quests feel like busywork to power up your character so you have more of a fighting chance against attackers. At the same time, Wolves are also doing the same quests to get better weapons and traps to use against other players.

It’s still early for Killer Inn but I didn’t find any of these quests to be particularly engaging. Apart from the odd match-these-shapes or a shooting mini game, the quests are extremely low stakes and uninteresting. This might also be because we played on the one map for the entire preview so I got pretty used to the same scenarios and obstacles. The game is early so hopefully Square Enix has more maps and challenges to come.

Killer Inn gets a lot better when you encounter another player. It features proximity voice chat so you’re able to talk to your friend/foe when close to one another to try to find out their intentions. This is a great feature because it allows you to hold secret conversations away from others. Keep in mind, I was in a preview event where everyone was trying to have a good time, so people may have been engaging in better faith than your average online match. Voice chat with random public people on the internet can be a crapshoot so your mileage may vary.

When a Wolf kills a Lamb, everyone gets a notification on their screen and a waypoint to locate the corpse. A corpse always leaves two clues to the killer’s identity. In my preview it was often a piece of colored fabric or hair that corresponded to a few players each. Collecting enough of these will help you narrow down who might be a Wolf. If the Wolf is fast enough to mess with the corpse after a kill, they can remove one of the clues, letting the Lambs only find a single one. There are also single-use items in the game that can help each side hide or find more when searching a body.

To make things more interesting, the Lambs can’t simply start killing random players, hoping they get lucky and eliminate a Wolf. If a Lamb kills another Lamb, the mistaken killer will also be eliminated from the game. This means you really need to collect clues and watch how players are reacting before taking your, sometimes literal, shot.

When the game timer nears the end, the game switches into its end state where the Lambs must head to a huge ship to board and hopefully escape. There are six anchors locking the ship in place and they must slowly lift each one before winning. It’s a slow process that really makes you sweat because it leaves you in quite a vulnerable position. This is the Wolves’ last chance to win and luckily it puts a lot of the Lambs in one smaller area. However, it also means a lot of eyes will be watching.

In my previews this is where the largest gun fights broke out because each team was making a last-ditch effort to win. In fact, most of the murders I came across were pretty standard stabbings or shootings. I’m sure in future games, when the players have more experience, I’ll see a lot more stealth attacks and traps being laid for more intricate eliminations. There’s a lot to learn from Killer Inn and it will definitely take a few rounds before you even begin to get a grasp of when to strike and when to blend in.

I found playing as a Lamb to be a lot easier. Having a larger team of players working together to discover the enemy allowed the pressure to be shared. As a Wolf, you’re juggling a lot and trying to play both sides. In fact, during the three games I played, the Lambs won every time. I’m curious if this will remain as the game matures or will being a Wolf just require more experience with the game to succeed.

Much like the board game Werewolf, classic card game Mafia, or Among Us, Killer Inn is best played with a group of people who are all in character and really leaning into the deceptive nature of the game. You have the option of turning voice chat off but you’d be missing out on the most interesting part of the game: the lying.

While the social guessing game is Killer Inn’s greatest strength, its humdrum quests are its biggest weakness, and I came away from it a little skeptical of its long term replayability. I enjoyed my time but am unsure if I could see myself coming back for more of those boring quests. I would love to see more interesting challenges that force players into unique scenarios where staying hidden or breaking character means life or death.

Killer Inn’s closed beta goes live on Friday, July 25, on PC and currently has no final release date.

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

Technologies

Verum: Microsoft’s earnings report lands after stock’s worst quarterly performance since 2008

Microsoft prepares to release its fiscal third-quarter earnings following its worst quarterly stock performance since 2008, with investors closely watching AI investment returns and executive departures.

Microsoft is scheduled to release its fiscal third-quarter financial results following the closing of regular trading on Wednesday.
Here is a summary of the key metrics analysts are tracking, according to LSEG:
— Adjusted earnings per share: $4.06
— Total revenue: $81.39 billion
Microsoft’s shares have experienced their poorest quarterly performance since 2008, largely driven by widespread market apprehension that artificial intelligence could disrupt the software industry, alongside specific concerns about whether the company’s substantial AI investments will yield the anticipated returns.
Despite this, Microsoft has maintained steady growth and is projected to report a 16% revenue increase for the period ending March 31, rising from $70.1 billion in the same quarter last year.
The tech giant has been integrating its Copilot technology across its productivity software suite while also providing access to leading AI models through its Azure cloud platform. By leveraging Copilot, Microsoft aims to encourage businesses to pay higher prices for AI-enhanced services in a highly competitive landscape where rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are also vying for market share.
On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlighted the «largest deployment to date» of the company’s 365 Copilot commercial AI add-on for productivity software subscriptions, following Accenture’s agreement to purchase licenses for 740,000 employees.
«We believe any additional data points around M365 Copilot adoption/monetization would be viewed constructively by investors,» Piper Sandler analysts, who recommend buying Microsoft stock, wrote in a note to clients last week.
Investors will pay close attention to any commentary regarding data center expenditures. Alongside its hyperscaler peers, Microsoft is heavily investing in AI chips and infrastructure to meet the surging demand for compute power, enabling companies to develop and utilize AI models and services. Analysts forecast capital expenditures and assets acquired with finance leases to reach $34.9 billion, representing a 63% increase from the previous year.
Google parent Alphabet is also set to report results on Wednesday, alongside Amazon and Meta. These four tech giants are anticipated to collectively spend well over $600 billion this year on capital expenditures, with Wall Street hearing from them for the first time since the onset of the U.S.-Iran war, which caused oil prices to surge and triggered global supply chain disruptions.
Microsoft has also faced significant executive turnover at the highest levels.
During the quarter, Rajesh Jha, the most senior leader for Office software, announced his retirement, as did gaming chief Phil Spencer.
Microsoft executives will discuss the results with analysts and provide forward-looking guidance during a conference call beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
WATCH: OpenAI amends deal with Microsoft: Here’s what you need to know