Technologies

The Outer Worlds 2 Walks Back $80 Price, Now Launching at $70

The game’s lower price is here to stay, for now.

The Outer Worlds 2 from Obsidian Entertainment was set to be the third game to follow the trend started by Mario Kart World of having a launch price of $80. Instead, it’s another game that saw a price reduction after the initial announcement.

Last month, The Outer Worlds 2 was one of the big titles shown at the Xbox Games Showcase and even had its own dedicated show after the event. Obisidan revealed the release date of Oct. 29 and the hefty price tag of $80, but the developer has since changed its mind, deciding to go to the standard price of $70 for AAA games.

«We have received your SOS via skip drone about the pricing. As an organization devoted to making sure that corporations do not go unfettered, we at the Earth Directorate have worked with [REDACTED] to revise the price of The Outer Worlds 2,» the developer said in a Bluesky post Wednesday.

The $80 price tag for new games caused quite an uproar when Nintendo revealed the pricing for Mario Kart World for the Switch 2 in April. There were questions on whether this was company greed or maybe a side effect of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

In May, Borderlands 4 from Gearbox Entertainment followed suit with the $80 price point after it was announced to be coming to the Switch 2. Publisher 2K Games updated the price to $70 last month.

Whether the outrage over the $80 price was too much for 2K Games and Obsidian Entertainment is debatable, but the price of games will have to increase again across the board. It’s just a matter of when. The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI from Rockstar Games is one title that some experts are expecting not only to surpass the $80 price tag but to jump to possibly $100. The open-world crime game was set to release this year but it has since been pushed to May 2026. GTA 6 has a reported budget of more than $1 billion, which could make a higher price tag necessary to recoup the cost of development.

Technologies

Starlink Restored After Hours-Long Outage Took Down Elon Musk’s Satellite Internet Service

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 25 #509

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 25 No. 509.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a mix of easy words to find and unscramble and one whopping long one. But if you know the theme, that word is easy to decipher. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Step to it!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Boogie shoes.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

HOGS, RICE, RICER, MUSE, CHAT, CHATS, GRAM, PANT, COAT, COATS, PARS, CARS, LASS, CLASS, CLASSY

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

MUSIC, COSTUME, RECITAL, TEACHER, CHOREOGRAPHY

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is DANCECLASS. To find it, start with the D that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind up and over.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 25, #305

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 25, No. 305.

Looking for the most recent regular 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 and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition tested my breadth of sports knowledge. The blue category pays tribute to one of the greatest players of all time. See if you can figure it out. We’ve got hints and the answers in case you get stuck.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

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

Yellow group hint: Rink-related.

Green group hint: The lower end of the Golden State.

Blue group hint: NFL G.O.A.T.

Purple group hint: You can also do this to your hair.