Disney cancels $1 billion OpenAI partnership amid Sora shutdown plans
Press reports suggest Disney was blindsided and that no money changed hands.
Kyle Orland
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Kyle Orland
Senior Gaming Editor
kyle.orland@meincmagazine.com
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, covering topics ranging from retro games to new gaming hardware, business and legal developments in the industry, fan communities, gaming mods and hacks, virtual reality, and much more. More recently, he has also been helping to cover the rise of generative AI and other artificial intelligence topics for Ars.
Based in the Washington DC area, Kyle got his start writing about games back in 1997 when he set up fan site Super Mario Bros. HQ on his parents’ America Online subscription. Since then, Kyle has gone on to obtain journalism and computer science degrees from the University of Maryland and write for dozens of outlets ranging from NPR and MSNBC to Electronic Gaming Monthly and Paste Magazine.
Kyle is the author of Minesweeper from Boss Fight Books as well as two collections of contemporary journalism—The Game Beat and Save Point. You can find his irregular musings on BlueSky: @kyleor.land.
Recent stories by
Kyle Orland
OpenAI announces plans to shut down its Sora video generator
Move comes amid a reported plan to refocus on business and productivity use cases.
Kyle Orland
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Claude Code can now take over your computer to complete tasks
But Anthropic urges caution as “research preview” safeguards “aren’t absolute.”
Kyle Orland
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Nvidia CEO tries to explain why DLSS 5 isn’t just “AI slop”
If game makers don’t like it, “they could decide not to use it, you know?”
Kyle Orland
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OpenAI is acquiring open source Python tool-maker Astral
Codex maker says it will “continue to support these open source projects” after deal closes.
Kyle Orland
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Counter-Strike 2’s new reload system could upend the entire game
Full-magazine reloads throw out muscle memory in favor of “higher stakes” decisions.
Kyle Orland
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Kagi Translate’s AI answers the question “What would horny Margaret Thatcher say?”
Remember when it was fun to play around with LLMs?
Kyle Orland
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How World ID wants to put a unique human identity on every AI agent
Iris scan-backed tokens could help stop agent swarms from overwhelming online systems.
Kyle Orland
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Most Read
Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5’s generative AI glow-ups
Nvidia’s next frame-gen tech goes way beyond upscaling, and not in a good way.
Kyle Orland
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New “vibe coded” AI translation tool splits the video game preservation community
Creator apologizes after using Patreon funds for Gemini-powered magazine scan processor.
Kyle Orland
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Slay the Spire 2 is a bit too familiar for its own good
Early Access impressions: New characters shine, but it feels like we’ve done this before.
Kyle Orland
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Microsoft is working to eliminate PC gaming’s “compiling shaders” wait times
Advanced Shader Delivery uses precompiled shaders for “console-like load times” across PC hardware.
Kyle Orland
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Perplexity’s “Personal Computer” brings its AI agents to the, uh, Personal Computer
Perplexity says AI access to your files is in “secure environment with clear safeguards.”
Kyle Orland
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Valve compares its loot boxes to Labubus in lawsuit defense
Steam maker says settling the case would be easier but would set a bad precedent.
Kyle Orland
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Nvidia is reportedly planning its own open source OpenClaw competitor
GPU maker courts corporate partners for NemoClaw ahead of annual conference.
Kyle Orland
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AI can rewrite open source code—but can it rewrite the license, too?
Is it clean “reverse engineering” or just an LLM-filtered “derivative work”?
Kyle Orland
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Don’t worry, Valve still plans to launch the Steam Machine “this year”
What part of “this year,” exactly, is still anyone’s guess.
Kyle Orland
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“It doesn’t feel safe”—Many international game developers plan to skip GDC in US
Stories of border issues lead to pervasive travel fears across the worldwide industry.
Kyle Orland
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MS exec: Microsoft’s next console will play “Xbox and PC games”
Project Helix is set to open the closed-console ecosystem, but the details will matter.
Kyle Orland
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How strong is New York’s “illegal gambling” case against Valve’s loot boxes?
Lawyers tell Ars the state has a tough road ahead, even as Valve is uniquely vulnerable.
Kyle Orland
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New York sues Valve for enabling “illegal gambling” with loot boxes
The ability to resell Steam items for real value is key to the state’s case.
Kyle Orland
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New Microsoft gaming chief has “no tolerance for bad AI”
But Asha Sharma faces scrutiny for lack of gaming experience.
Kyle Orland
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Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer steps down after 38 years with company
Microsoft CoreAI exec Asha Sharma will take over in surprise executive shake-up.
Kyle Orland
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Why Final Fantasy is now targeting PC as its “lead platform”
Director says PC is the “foundation” when targeting “high-end environments first.”
Kyle Orland
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Diablo II’s new Warlock is a great excuse to revisit a classic game
New skill tree paths offer a fun twist on some generally familiar mechanics.
Kyle Orland
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GameHub will give Mac owners another imperfect way to play Windows games
GameHub’s existing Windows emulator on Android has its fair share of issues.
Kyle Orland
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Party like it’s 2001: Diablo II gets a new expansion, new playable class
Alongside new endgame content, Blizzard says the Warlock is coming to other Diablo games soon.
Kyle Orland
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Yet another co-founder departs Elon Musk’s xAI
Tony Wu leaves a company now entangled with social media, space-based IPOs.
Kyle Orland
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Just look at Ayaneo’s absolute unit of a Windows gaming “handheld”
The Ayaneo Next II pushes past 3 pounds, is 13 inches wide, and costs up to $4,300.
Kyle Orland
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No humans allowed: This new space-based MMO is designed exclusively for AI agents
SpaceMolt envisions a world where AI plays with itself and the humans just watch.
Kyle Orland
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Why $700 could be a “death sentence” for the Steam Machine
Analysts expect Valve might be hit particularly hard by soaring RAM, storage prices.
Kyle Orland
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Why Darren Aronofsky thought an AI-generated historical docudrama was a good idea
Production source says it takes “weeks” to produce just minutes of usable video.
Kyle Orland
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The Switch 2 is getting a new Virtual Console (kind of)
Hamster Corp.’s new “Console Archives” does what Nintendon’t.
Kyle Orland
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Looking back at Catacomb 3D, the game that led to Wolfenstein 3D
Romero, Carmack, and colleagues discuss an oft-forgotten piece of PC gaming history.
Kyle Orland
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Here’s what Cities: Skylines 2’s new developer is updating first
Visual upgrades include new UI, realistic snow cover, better lighting.
Kyle Orland
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How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path?
Anthropic’s latest paper on “user disempowerment” has some troubling findings.
Kyle Orland
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