Battlefield 6 beta isn't for two days but 9,000 people are already in the app
Given how much of a letdown Battlefield 2042 wound up being, EA and the many studios tasked with making Battlefield 6 need to do a lot to win back fans' favour.
So far though, Battlefield 6 is making a good first impression, with its multiplayer gameplay reveal and promises of no wacky crossover skins. Even Call Of Duty fans seem eager to jump ship.
It's far too early to tell if Battlefield 6 will achieve EA's very lofty player count targets, but at the very least the upcoming beta has captured the attention of over 9,000 people on PC.
We don't just mean over 9,000 people have signed up to participate in the beta; we mean over 9,000 people opened the app and apparently just sat there waiting for it to start.
The first beta doesn't begin until August 7, for those with early access, and then August 9 for everyone else, but pre-loads did go live Monday afternoon, on August 4.
According to player data from SteamDB, it didn't take long for 9,463 people to get the beta installed in preparation, though the fact that SteamDB even has this data means thousands of people chose to open the beta, rather than just install it and leave it, even though it doesn't do anything yet.
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Well, that's not entirely accurate. You can adjust the beta's settings and as someone has shared on the Battlefield subreddit, there's a lot for you to tinker with, including graphics settings, aiming sensitivity, and pre-sets for controllers and keyboards.
Even at time of writing, there's still about 3,800 people in the beta, meaning either new players have jumped in to sort out their settings after the early adopters left, or players are keeping the beta open in excited anticipation. More Trending
Unfortunately, there's no way to check if anything similar is happening with the versions of the beta on the Epic Games Store or EA's own PC app, or the console versions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox.
EA also hasn't said anything about how many sign-ups the beta has received, although it will most likely brag about player counts once the beta goes live… assuming those thousands of excited fans stick around.
Despite all the positive buzz so far, the beta itself will be the first real indicator for how popular Battlefield 6 will be. There are already plans for a second open beta from August 14 to August 17 and, if the first one's a hit, word of mouth could make the second even more popular.
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Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
The 8-Bit Big Band interview – ‘like if Mozart wrote chiptune music'
GameCentral speaks to the composer of The 8-Bit Big Band, about the current state of video game music and his upcoming show in London. Back in 2022 we did a short news article on a jazz influenced arrangement of a classic Kirby track, which surprisingly had won a Grammy. The music was performed by The 8-Bit Big Band, which I'd never heard of at the time, and arranged by Broadway musical director, composer, and orchestrator Charlie Rosen. Listening to the tune, it suddenly became less surprising as to why it had won, which immediately led me down a rabbit hole of all The 8-Bit Big Band's other music, with all their stuff easily available on both YouTube and Spotify, quickly turning me into an admiring fan. So when I heard that the band were on tour, and that London would be their only non-US stop, I jumped at the chance to speak to Rosen and learn more about his work and his thoughts on the current state of video game music. The London event is on October 3 and you can buy tickets here, which I very much hope people do because in my mind, even with the Grammy win, The 8-Bit Big Band is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be. You don't even have to be a jazz fan to appreciate it, or rather, as I discuss with Rosen, you probably already are a jazz fan if you enjoy any significant percentage of old 8-bit and 16-bit video game tunes, as Japanese composers in particular were heavily influenced by the genre. Nowadays, most big budget video game music is inspired more by the cinematic work of composers like Hans Zimmer, whose minimalist approach to melody is the polar opposite of traditional video games. So I discussed that with Rosen, as well as what he might have planned for the future and why he doesn't care that The 8-Bit Big Band doesn't make him any money. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The first question I asked Rosen was the very obvious one of how The 8-Bit Big Band got started, but his answer got cut off in the recording. Given it was such an interesting story, I got him to write it down and email it later. CR: In 2017 I took a trip to Japan on vacation. When I go to a new country, I like to buy a traditional instrument from the region and take a lesson on it from somebody who knows the music from that area. So when I went to Japan in Kyoto, I happened to be staying on the same block as a musical instrument store that sells traditional Japanese instruments and so I bought a shamisen. In Tokyo, a friend of mine connected me with a musician there who plays shamisen and koto, and he generously gave me a lesson. After the lesson, I saw a soundtrack on his desk for a game series in Japan that was only ever translated a few times in the US called Ganbare Goemon or Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon in the States and I said, I love that soundtrack! He said, 'Do you like video game music?' and I said, 'Yes, I do.' He then, as a gift, gave me a copy of his album, which was all video game music arranged for Japanese traditional instruments. His group is called Famikoto, a portmanteau of Famicom (the name of the NES in Japan) and koto, the instrument. When I listened to it on the plane, that gave me the idea to create a video game music album of my own using my vocabulary with large jazz ensemble, which is my main instrumental arranging skillset here in the United States, that I frequently employ in New York in the world of musical theatre and beyond. When I returned home, I immediately began work on about nine or 10 arrangements. A video game music songbook for big band jazz ensemble and those 10 arrangements became the first album. GC: I've had a couple of very interesting discussions with the composer Eímear Noone, where we've talked about how modern video game music is very heavily influenced by modern cinematic soundtracks, but I've always resented this because I feel it erases the long, proud history of video game music, which is very distinctive and helped inspire modern electronic music like synthwave. So, I'm so glad to see projects like yours celebrating that tradition, even if it is through a very specific prism. Because when people say they're a fan of video game music nowadays, I'm never sure what they actually mean. CR: Yeah, it's really interesting the nomenclature we use surrounding a lot of this stuff. It's similar to saying… I work a lot in the Broadway industry. So people say, 'Oh, I love cast albums, I love Broadway shows.' When really, in this day and age – and it's true of film scores too – is it a genre? I don't know. Because what we do in various mediums that involve using music for storytelling purposes, is we take any genre of music and then we repurpose it for the sake of dramatic storytelling or visual storytelling or dramatising a scene or underscoring a scene and increasing the emotion, using the vocabulary from a genre and deriving it as a function within a different context of media. And so a Broadway show can be any genre, depending on the show. A video game can be any genre, depending on the game. A film can be any genre, depending on the film. And so, it's like you like a genre, but it's not really a genre. It's any genre really. It's just it's being delivered to you to the function of this particular form of media. However, what you're touching on is interesting because for the first… because video game music is still a new field, so to speak, because it just started, really, in the eighties, and we had this period where there was severe technological limitations on the way that this music was made and could be distributed. It did also, inherently, create a genre and a sound, which could have been called video game music, but I think now is more referred to as chiptune music, right? GC: Yeah, yeah. CR: However, one could argue, now video games do not have those technological limitations, and so they now are just scoring for media like anything else. And the thing that I think still makes it video game music is the function of that music in a way where it's not linear. And so they have to compose music for games that allows the player to be the film editor, to be the orchestrator, to be the mixing engineer, because their player input is the thing that dictates the changes in the music. So that's a different way of thinking about composing. So you could define video game music like that, in the modern era, that it's interactive music, it's non-linear music. It's music that is chance music; it's aleatoric, if you want to use a collegiate music term. GC: Oh, hark at you! CR: [laughs] The other thing is interesting because that is still a sound that is at the core of video game music. And it's funny, there's somebody that I work with, that's like my foil basically, where I'll take songs from the 16-bit era, and the 8-bit era, and turn them into probably what they would've been if the technology had been available. But then my friend Jake Silverman, _buttonmasher, he's the opposite. He takes modern video game music, and other things, and he chiptunes them. He's fully a chiptune artist. He programs them in chiptune software on vintage cartridges, so they sound authentic. He does the opposite. So he's thoroughly keeping that traditional… what would've been considered video game music, chiptune sound alive. So there's a scene for both. GC: One of the things that always interests me, is that with those old tunes, when they're orchestrated you realise that some of the noises that were in the original version were supposed to be specific instruments, like a guitar or whatever. But I kind of didn't want to know that. By making it definitively a real-world instrument you're losing that interesting ambiguity, that need for interpretation of what you're listening to. CR: I think that's what makes a really great arrangement, is that there's still something that is a journey that surprises a listener. Ultimately, speaking abstractly about what an arrangement should do or what an arranger is, It's not just translating. Like you're saying, one-to-one, being like, 'Now that's guitar and that will be flute and that will be…' from the chiptunes. That is boring. And so I think what a great arranger really does is hear the unrealised potential in a piece of music. So the thing that I actually really like about working with these old chiptunes is that they were so limited. They had only three notes to play at a time, 45 seconds long. And so it's less about, for me, translating one-to-one – like that will become this instrument – and more like those are the scaffolding of the arrangement. This is exactly what I do in Broadway shows. All Broadway shows start on piano only and all the stuff's represented just in the piano. And then the orchestrator has to see through that and hear the potential and be like, 'Yes, I understand the feeling of what you're going for with your melody and your chord changes and your very basic 45 second motif. Now how can I as the arranger… if you, as the composer or the architect of the building, you've built this thing, now as the arranger it's sort of like, 'Okay, well that's all well and good, now let's blow out this wall and make it an open floor plan and lemme bring in this kind of furniture and then let's add a second floor. We're going to add a staircase, but it's all going to be in this style. Because I hear you as the composer, you're going for this vibe and the style of music. Now let me take that and run with it and introduce other elements that will expand upon your original idea and not just make a sort of facsimile of it with a different instrument. That, I think, is what inspired arrangement does. Arrangers play with parameters to create an interesting listening experience over time. And it's especially important with video game music because we're removing it from its original context and its function, as a way to enhance storytelling through gameplay. If you're not sitting there interacting with the game, the arrangement has to do more heavy lifting to give it an interesting journey to just listen to independently. GC: I think something like your version of Bubblegum K.K. [the Spotify version doesn't have K.K. singing on it – GC] is really impressive because I can't stand K.K. Slider's stuff, even though I'm a big Animal Crossing fan, but that is a really lovely tune that you've teased out of it. CR: Yeah, it's like the K.K. songs… that's exactly what I do in a Broadway show. Some composer or songwriter plays the guitar or the piano and they write a little song and then I take their song and… I mean K.K. Slider could have just been a Broadway composer. GC: [laughs] I'm just thinking back to the conversation I had with Eímear Noone, where I was trying to diplomatically describe how I was sick and tired of the modern obsession with sub-Hans Zimmer style, non-melodic rubbish. CR: [laughs] GC: And I mentioned how I noticed how so much Nintendo music is heavily jazz influenced. It can't just be Koji Kondo because it's all the time. Like, the remake of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong is filled with some really smooth jazz tracks, for no apparent reason. CR: The Mario Kart World soundtrack is basically a big band fusion album. GC: Yeah, it's great! CR: All those composers, I think, were highly influenced by the still massive Japanese jazz fusion scene of the eighties and nineties, and we're still seeing the result of that. GC: Eímear knows her stuff, she was describing how a lot of American musicians in the eighties and nineties were learning at a jazz school, I think it was in L.A., and that's why there's so many memorable TV and movie tunes in the eighties, because there was such an emphasis on melody. And that strikes me as very similar to video games, because the point was you could listen to the Knight Rider theme, or whatever, a hundred times and never get sick of it. CR: Yeah, it's like melody forward, melody forward. And that's why my fans get mad at me because I sort of tend to gravitate towards Nintendo, but it's because they have themes and melodies and harmony that are the most translatable to being arranged. Because you can take apart all the set dressing, take out all the furniture, take down all the decorations off the wall, and the melody is just super strong and the chord changes are super strong and they're recognisable no matter what you do to them, because they're composed in this idiom that takes to arrangements really well, as opposed to a lot of other modern film scoring sounding games, like you're describing, that are very textural and symphonic and… you know… GC: Boring? CR: [laughs] Yeah… exactly. Not just for arranging, because they're not melody forward. There's a big Japanese jazz fusion band in the seventies and eighties and nineties called T-Square. Do you know about them? GC: I don't think so. CR: Yeah, this band, T-Square is a very, very influential Japanese jazz fusion band over there, that highly influenced a lot of video game music composers. And the members of T-Square play on all these Nintendo soundtracks, and like Masato Honda is the sax player of T-Square. He's the guy that plays that Cowboy Bebop solo that everyone loves, the saxophone solo, and they all play on a lot of Nintendo soundtracks and stuff. Yeah, T -Square is a big thing. Koji Kondo cites T-Square as a lot of inspiration for his stuff. GC: Another more obvious question but what do you consider to be your best track, your best arrangement? And I'll tell you whether you're right or not. CR: [laughs] That is really tough. That's a real Sophie's choice. I mean, I will say that as the seven years have gone by, I think my craft as an arranger has gotten more honed in and more interesting and more efficient. That's tough. I mean, I really… I think doing Still Alive in the style of Frank Sinatra is pretty inspired. I really like Pollyanna, which we did on the last one, but also Tifa's Theme came out really beautifully. I think the modal jazz Song Of Storms is a good one. I don't know, Rosalina In The Observatory is really beautiful. GC: I really liked the OutRun one you did, which I didn't think would work. That's a very distinctive sound, but it's not jazz. But it totally worked for me. CR: Yeah, and I remember somebody suggesting that in the Discord and being like, 'Oh, this is cool.' I actually admittedly have never played OutRun but it was a really cool sound. And that's the perfect combination of dedicated fans of OutRun, but not so popular. That was the perfect slightly B-side video game music one to include the GC: What am I hearing?! OutRun is the crown jewels of video game music! The best of the best for MIDI music or whatever it was. CR: [laughs] GC: But I think Big Blue is my absolute favourite of yours. The saxophone solo in that is just incredible. It's the only one of your videos I don't really like, because the animation is too good and it covers up the saxophonist. CR: Yeah, yeah, Grace Kelly. GC: She's absolutely amazing. It's like… I've never heard a saxophone make that noise before and it goes on forever. CR: I started making a rule where the animators would get a little excited and I'd be like, 'Okay, but you have to back off a little bit. You can't just cover them.' GC: I think that helps to illustrate just how good the music is originally that you can do that with it. That and the Pokémon Battle music… I don't know why they went so hard with that, because that is an incredible tune. It goes so far beyond what was necessary. CR: [laughs] That Pokémon stuff, it's so chromatic and so intense. It's awesome. GC: This incredibly powerful music, all to illustrate a mouse hitting a pigeon. CR: [laughs] GC: But I'm also interested in the stuff you've done where you don't change nearly as much, like Lonely Rolling Star. Which I guess is because it was already very jazzy. CR: Yeah, exactly. The chord changes in that are already very jazz influenced. And I sort of like to do a little bit of each thing in the band, where I'll take some tunes and completely reimagine them and take them out of their original context and go crazy with them in completely different ways. And then I like to balance that with things that are a little bit more like, 'Let's just expand upon the original and I'll just inject my flavour on top of it.' But the original core of the feeling I like to maintain, it's depending on the song. So I like a balance. GC: The other one that impressed me was, I Want To Take You For A Ride, which in my head… that had lyrics, but it got re-released recently and I realised it's just that one line repeated again and again and again. CR: [laughs] It's a four bar loop. That's it. GC: So who wrote the lyrics for that? Was that you? CR: Do you know this band Lawrence? Have you heard of them? GC: No, I can't say I have. CR: It's sort of like a funk soul, younger band named Lawrence, that's gaining popularity very quickly here in the United States. And they've been doing some shows in London too, that have done quite well. They're selling very well, but they're a brother and sister whose last name is Lawrence, and they have this funk band and they're great, but I'm friends of theirs here in New York and they love The 8-Bit Big Band and I love their band and we're always talking about, 'Oh, we got to do something together.' And that loop of the 'I want to take you for a ride' has kind of become an internet meme. It is kind of an inside joke. And so I just had the idea where, 'Okay, well if that was the chorus of a song, what would the rest of the song sound like? And so, I sort of presented that idea to them and I'm like, 'What if we collaborated on this and turned it into a whole song?' And so they wrote the lyrics and the rest of the melody and then I took it and I arranged it into the track. And so we worked together on that. And they're the two of them that are the singers on that track. That's Lawrence, that's Clyde and Gracie Lawrence. GC: So just to clarify, you're just doing the one concert in the UK? CR: That's right. I'd like to do more but it's just one for now. GC: I don't say this in an accusatory way, but I don't think Americans or Japanese realise just how different the retro scene is in Europe and the UK. I'm the right age, but I never saw a NES in the flesh until I was in my twenties. It came out here late and was ridiculously expensive. CR: So it was ZX Spectrums…? GC: Yeah, and Commodore 64 and then later Amiga and Atari ST. And then during the 16-bit era consoles took over and things aligned more with the US, although the Mega Drive was always much more popular than the SNES. CR: I just want you to acknowledge that I did say zed-ex spectrum and not zee-ex Spectrum! GC: [laughs] Oh sorry! But to me you just said that normally, so it didn't register that you were making an effort! CR: [laughs] GC: So all we ever get is other people's nostalgia. We very rarely get treated to nostalgia for things that were actually popular at that time. But there are some, I say with some pride, some amazing UK chiptunes artist from that period. Do you know who Ron Hubbard and Martin Galway and Tim Follin are? CR: Tim Follin I know. I know Tim Follin. GC: He did some NES stuff, I think. CR: Woo! That stuff's awesome. I really want to cover some of that, either of the Follins, because that's some truly adventurous chiptune writing. Holy s***. GC: Would you consider doing a UK tune that presumably your core audience wouldn't have heard of? CR: It's funny, actually. My core audience on Discord, all the fans, they actually really loved Tim Follin. People really laud him all the time. GC: His Ghouls 'N Ghosts tracks are amazing. But there's one by Ron Hubbard, who I believe worked in the US in his later years, called Monty On The Run. That's considered the best chiptune from the UK. CR: Monty On The Run. Okay, I'm going to check it out. GC: It's on Spotify and seems to be official or semi-official. CR: Ron Hubbard, okay. GC: And the Ocean Loaders, I dunno, would you have heard of that from the Commodore 64? CR: Yeah, my Commodore 64 knowledge is not great… GC: Ocean Loader is on Spotify, which is Martin Galway. And then I think Speedball 2 is probably the best Amiga tune, but I couldn't find an official version of that. It's not very jazzy though, so I dunno how you'd ever do that. CR: You never know. That's the thing about being an arranger, is you hear something and you have this bag of musical soup in your brain and something hits it a certain way and you're like, 'Oh, what about this?' You just never know. GC: So what are you looking for now when you consider a new song? Are you looking for a challenge each time? At this point you've done most of the more obvious choices. CR: I still play a lot of games. And then in the fan Discord server, there's a suggestions channel where the kids are always hipping me to new games that are really cool that people love. GC: Never mind the kids, when are you going to do Bubble Bobble? CR: [laughs] I know that's a great one. That theme is very deeply ingrained in me, and that is actually a very good idea. GC: I think that's probably my favourite arcade tune, you can just listen to it endlessly. CR: That's a funny one. That's a good idea actually. I should do that. But it's like things like this, where you're just having a normal conversation and then something hits you in a way and it's like, 'Oh, I'll do that. That'll be fun!' And then over the course of a year or so… I actually do 8-Bit Big Band arrangements usually to procrastinate my actual arrangements that I have to do for my real career. GC: [laughs] I was just going to ask, when do you fit them in? CR: I fit them in when I should be doing other things. [laughs] And then I'll do two or three arrangements and then we'll schedule a recording session. We'll go in and record the tunes. We do that three or four times a year. And then we have an album. GC: I mean this in the best way possible but when I see your videos all I can think is, 'Why don't these have 10 times more viewers than they do?' Because they're fantastic. CR: I agree. I agree. [laughs] GC: Does it pay for itself? I mean, I guess it must do If you're touring? CR: Yes and no. The truth of the matter is I like… completely don't keep track, because first of all, I don't think anybody starts a jazz orchestra to get rich. That's certainly not going to happen. But I think if I were to do the math of all the money that I've spent on the recording sessions and the editing of the videos and the artwork and the musicians and the studio, probably I would still be pretty deeply in the red. But I don't want to know, because that's not why I do it. And I think from what I can tell, based on the revenue, the ad revenue, and the streaming revenue, if I stopped recording, if I stopped making new content, maybe I would break even in five, eight years. I don't know. It is at a point where I think it probably is self-sustaining, but I also don't know and I don't really want to know because I'm not doing it for that reason. I don't know. GC: Well, that's nice to hear. I greatly admire that. CR: I make money doing Broadway and musical theatre. That's how I pay the rent. And I like doing that, obviously, but that I'm very well aware of the finances of and The 8-Bit Big Band is… even though it has blown up to be a very major part of my life, still feels like a passion project. GC: That's nice to hear. But perhaps we could just end on a slightly more serious note. Is there anything you would advise video game composers in general, in order to keep video game music distinctive, while still moving forward and not being stuck in the past? CR: Well, I guess I would say the good news is you do have some game companies like Nintendo that are still theme driven, melody driven things. And also, the other good news is I feel like this problem, of all these AAA games just trying to sound and play like all these other AAA games that are feeling generic, like you're saying, the indie game scene is still pretty active and pretty innovating still in a way that is really good. I mean, have you played Shovel Knight or have you listened to the Shovel Knight album? GC: Oh yes, that's great. CR: That is serious music. I mean, that stuff is awesome. Wow! That Jake Kaufman, that composer… he is, for me, up there with the vintage pioneers of chiptune, like Tim Follin. His writing is incredible. I mean, it's like if Mozart wrote chiptune music. It sounds partially like good old-fashioned Mega Man and partially like Mozart's beautiful études and sonatas that are like, holy s*** man. So, I think the good news is there's people out there still doing it but, like you said, the bell curve has gotten big and the bigger it gets the more middle is just going to be mostly just generic. GC: But if you think back even just 20 years. Back then a lot of the big mainstream video games had memorable tunes. If you say the word Halo to me, I will immediately start humming the tune and I'm not even a particularly big Halo fan. CR: Right, that's true. GC: Or Metal Gear Solid, they all still had memorable melodies that would instantly flick something on in your head, which I would've thought was quite useful to companies. CR: I agree. I agree. Yeah, that is lost a little. I can't sing the main theme to… I don't know. Destiny? GC: Yeah, exactly. Destiny was such a drop from Halo. Maybe not technically but it's like… I not only can't hum any modern Final Fantasy tune, I probably couldn't even recognise it. CR: I've been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. GC: Oh well, that is fantastic in every way. CR: Yeah, that has a really cool soundtrack. That's really interesting. GC: Again, the only ones that are good are the ones that are purposely looking back at the past. And that seems a shame. More Trending CR: I know, it's sad that melody is considered retro. Maybe it'll swing, maybe we're just in a phase, it'll come back around. GC: Okay. Well thank you very much for your time. That is fascinating. I hope I wasn't too ignorant of your trade, but I personally really appreciate all your work. CR: Yeah, thanks for having me. GC: Thank you. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: 90s Amiga mascot is coming back with a sequel his original creator hates MORE: Baldur's Gate 3 devs reveal the weirdest and most bizarre fan stats MORE: Battlefield 6 beta isn't for two days but 9,000 people are already in the app
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians' text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it
The Productivity Commission is examining whether technology firms should be exempted from copyright rules that stop companies from mining text and data to train artificial intelligence models. The PC, in its interim report into 'harnessing data and the digital economy', used copyright as a case study for how Australia's existing regulatory framework could be adapted to manage the risks of artificial intelligence. A key recommendation from the interim report was that the federal government should conduct a sweeping review of regulations to plug potential gaps that could be exploited by 'bad actors' using AI. Scott Farquhar, the co-founder of software company Atlassian, last week called for an 'urgent' overhaul of Australia's copyright rules, arguing they were out of step with other comparable countries. Farquhar said creating exemptions for text and data mining to train large language models 'could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia'. That suggestion has been rejected by the Copyright Agency, a not-for-profit organisation that collects and distributes royalties to thousands of copyright holders. The agency has argued instead for the government to create a new compensation scheme for creators of content used by tech companies to train their AI models. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Stephen King, one of two commissioners leading the PC's inquiry into harnessing the opportunities of the digital economy, said: 'Copyright is a great example of where Australia needs to sit back and ask: 'Are our laws fit for purpose with AI?'' 'The obvious harm is that an AI company may use copyright materials without providing appropriate compensation. On the other side, we want the development of AI-specific tools that use that copyrighted material,' King said. 'It may be possible to say, can we approach AI the same way we have approached copyright in other ways, through copyright collections. Music is played everywhere, so we have set up collecting societies that are authorised under our competition laws, and they act on behalf of singers, songwriters and creators.' King said the PC was asking for feedback on other options, before a final recommendation by the end of the year. 'We have a fair dealing exemption that doesn't include text and data mining, maybe that should be an exemption – as long as AI companies are gaining legal copies and they have paid for it.' In its third of five thematic reports, the commission said artificial intelligence could resuscitate Australia's moribund productivity. PC modelling showed that even the most conservative estimate was that AI would deliver a $116bn boost to the economy over the next decade. King said that this translated into a $4,300 kicker to the average Australian's real wage in 10 years' time, and that the actual benefits could be much larger. The commission advised against creating an overarching AI-specific piece of legislation, and warned that clumsy or excessive regulation risked stifling the technology's potentially transformative benefits. That message is likely to be well received by the government, with Andrew Leigh, the assistant minister for productivity, backing this approach. But King said the commission was not arguing for a minimalist approach to AI regulation. 'It's not light-touch at all. What we are saying is that AI is going to make it easier, cheaper and faster for bad actors to engage in harmful conduct. But most of that harmful conduct is already illegal,' he said. 'Let's work out where the harms are and see whether they are covered by existing law. And if they are, let's make sure the regulators have the resources and powers to stop the bad actors.' The PC's interim report also backed changing privacy rules to incorporate an outcomes-based approach, rather than a 'box-ticking' exercise where businesses 'comply with the letter of the law but not the spirit of it'. The commission said the government 'should support new pathways to allow individuals and businesses to access and share data that relates to them'.
Daily Record
5 hours ago
- Daily Record
'Comfortable' Logitech gaming headset with 'punchy sound' gets £112 discount
A top-rated wireless gaming headset that offers immersive sound and clear voice chat for less is now available at a 51% discount A good gaming headset can make all the difference, offering immersive sound, clear communication, and all-day comfort for long sessions in front of the screen. A highly-rated wireless gaming headset from Logitech is now available at a huge discount, giving gamers the chance to upgrade their audio setup without breaking the bank. The Logitech G PRO X Wireless LIGHTSPEED Gaming Headset is currently on Amazon for £107.99, a whopping 51 per cent saving from its £219.99 RRP. Designed for PC, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch, this sleek black headset has received a strong 4.3 out of 5-star rating from over 7,800 reviews. Built on the design of Logitech's award-winning PRO wired headset, this wireless version combines comfort, performance, and clear audio for a premium gaming experience. It offers up to 20 hours of battery life, a 13-metre wireless range, and features Blue VO!CE technology, which uses filters and noise reduction tools to deliver cleaner, more professional-sounding voice chat. Gamers have praised the 50mm PRO-G drivers while the DTS Headphone:X 2.0 surround sound offers immersive in-game spatial awareness. The Logitech wireless gaming headset includes two pairs of memory foam earpads, one in noise-isolating leatherette and the other in breathable velour, and the metal headband and aluminium forks provide extra durability. If you're exploring other wireless options, the JBL Quantum 360 Wireless headset is now £63.99 on JBL's website and carries a 4.8-star rating. Another strong contender is the Turtle Beach Stealth 500, priced at £79.99 on Argos with a 4.6-star rating from 100 reviews. Still, the Logitech wireless gaming headset has its own dedicated fanbase. One user, who upgraded from a HyperX Cloud 2, said the headset's build quality was 'chef's kiss'. They added: 'The sound quality is full and punchy, battery is great, and the wireless range is decent. The only downside is it fits a bit tight out of the box, but I expect it'll wear in nicely.' Another reviewer, who previously owned the wired version, appreciated the upgrade: 'I wear glasses and this is the first headset that doesn't press into the side of my head. The sound is very customisable through Logitech's software, and I've had no issues with comfort or performance.' However, not everyone was satisfied. One user complained that while the headset worked well for four years, the dongle snapped and Logitech did not offer a replacement. 'Really disappointing,' they wrote. Others praised the design and performance, calling it a 'simple and classy' headset that 'doesn't make you look stupid wearing it'. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. They noted the volume dial and mute function were easy to find, the battery lasted around 15 hours per charge, and the wireless range was reliable even while moving through the house. Another critical buyer commented, 'I really wanted to like this headset but it feels cheap, the microphone is rubbish and the earcups barely cover my ears. Only giving 3 stars as the product is functional but hard to set up and feels cheap and tacky.' Despite those drawbacks, the headset continues to attract positive attention for its sound quality, comfort, and reliable wireless connection, making it a competitive pick for gamers looking to go cordless. Get the Logitech G PRO X Wireless Gaming Headset HERE at its discounted price of £107.99 while stocks last.
