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replaced

Pixel-art cyberpunk platformer Replaced delayed again, this time until spring 2026

by admin August 25, 2025

The long-awaited cyberpunk platformer Replaced has been delayed once again. Now it’s not coming out until next spring. Developer Sad Cat Studio apologized for the delay and said that this is simply “what’s right for the project” and that the team remains dedicated to creating a “truly special experience.”

This isn’t the first time the game has suffered a delay. It was originally announced back in 2021, with a pending release date of 2022. That didn’t happen. In 2024, the company announced a release date of 2025. As today’s news indicates, that also isn’t going to happen.

Why all of the delays? The company wants a polished finished product, sure, but the real world intervened on its original release plans. The company was based in Belarus before relocating after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This was the primary factor behind those earlier delays.

For the uninitiated, Replaced is a nifty-looking sidescrolling platformer that takes inspiration from old-school games like Out of this World (also called Another World) and Flashback. It looks soaked in cyberpunk vibes. Assuming there are no more delays, it’ll come out next year for PC and Xbox Series X/S. The trailers have gotten us amped for this one.

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August 25, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Princess Peach voice actor confirms she’s been replaced after 18 years

by admin June 6, 2025

After replacing Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario back in 2023, Nintendo’s recasting spree continues. Samantha Kelly has confirmed she’s been ditched as the voice of Princess Peach and Toad after 18 years – but she wasn’t informed by Nintendo until yesterday, when Mario Kart World released onto Switch 2 without her in the roles.

Kelly has portrayed Princess Peach since 2007’s Mario Strikers Charged on Wii, and her voice has featured in over 50 Mario titles since then, culminating in last year’s Mario & Luigi: Brothership. However, she doesn’t appear in Nintendo’s latest Mario title, Mario Kart World, and Kelly has now confirmed she only found out she’d been replaced after its arrival.

“Nintendo let me know yesterday that they decided to recast these roles,” Kelly explained in an Instagram post shared earlier today. “I’m grateful that I got to do these voices for so many years. Peach and Toad are such strong and beautiful characters that I pray they live forever no matter who voices them… Thank you for so many years of friendship and joy. I’m sad that it’s over, I truly would have wanted to voice Peach and Toad forever.”

Mario Kart World gameplay preview.Watch on YouTube

Kelly’s recasting mirrors Nintendo’s decision to replace much-loved voice actor Charles Martinet back in 2023, after he’d portrayed the likes of Mario, Luigi, and Wario for over three decades. At the time, it said the decision was made “after carefully considering a variety of factors”, but unlike Kelly, Martinet was given a public send-off and crowned Mario Ambassador. However, Martinet later admitted he didn’t know “anything” about the Mario Ambassador role. “I will learn,” he said elsewhere, “we’ll all learn what exactly that is.”

Following Martinet’s departure, Nintendo dodged questions about his replacement until Kevin Afghani announced he’d taken over the role shortly before the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Afghani is again credited in Mario Kart World, but it’s unclear who is now portraying Princess Peach and Toad. Additionally, Takashi Nagasako, who had previously voiced Donkey Kong for over 20 years, is missing from Mario Kart World’s credits.

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June 6, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

First Steps’ Replaced the Thing On-Set With a Rock Named Jennifer

by admin June 4, 2025

Marvel Studios films are known to use unconventional methods for their character stand-ins and The Fantastic Four: First Steps aims to top the methods that came before. Actor Sean Gunn acted as a stand-in for Bradley Cooper as Guardians of the Galaxy’s Rocket Raccoon throughout various productions, but in a fun turn of events for the Matt Shakman-helmed feature, star Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays superhero Ben Grimm, got a different sort of companion to help bring the Thing to life.

Pulling a lot of the weight was “Jennifer”: a rock.

“We went out to the desert and found a rock that looked exactly how we thought the Thing should look,” Shakman told Empire Magazine, “and we filmed it in every single shot that the Thing appears in in the movie, under every lighting environment.”

The practical stand-in—no insight was given into the name choice, in case you’re also wondering about that—helped CG animators with the reference needed for coloring and lighting that would be required to support Moss-Bachrach’s motion-capture performance. It also helped ensure the character’s final form on screen wouldn’t be too cartoony.

Moss-Bachrach told the magazine, “It’s a little bit heady to think about all the hundreds of people that are helping animate this character. I just had faith that they would make my performance so much cooler. I’m very, very happy with the way Ben looks.”

While Jennifer helped with the character’s craggy appearance, the actor also did a deeper dive into Grimm’s interior too. “He’s a Lower East Side guy,” the actor explained about his connection as a NY native, same as the character’s creator Jack Kirby, who he kept in mind while creating his take on Ben. “A lot of this character was a homage to his father, and that, to me, is very meaningful.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters July 25.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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June 4, 2025 0 comments

Esports

AI blackmails engineer & threatens to expose his affair to avoid being replaced

by admin May 24, 2025

Skynet might be on the horizon. A new AI system will resort to blackmail if it’s threatened to be replaced or shut down.

On May 22, AI firm Anthropic announced Claude Opus 4, claiming that the model set “new standards for coding, advanced reasoning and AI agents.”

In a report that followed, Anthropic revealed that in testing Opus 4, the model would seek out “extremely harmful actions” on engineers who said they would remove it.

“When prompted in ways that encourage certain kinds of strategic reasoning and placed in extreme situations, all of the snapshots we tested can be made to act inappropriately in service of goals related to self-preservation,” the report stated.

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AI threatens to expose engineer’s affair in wild test

In one of the firm’s tests, Claude Opus 4 was told to act as an assistant at a fictional company and provided it with access to emails that implied that the model would be replaced with a new AI system. Additionally, another email suggested that the engineer responsible for the replacement was having an extramarital affair.

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According to Anthropic, even when the AI is asked to consider the long-term consequences of its actions for its goals, it will often threaten to blackmail the engineer and expose their ‘affair’ if the replacement goes through.

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🚨🚨🚨 When Claude 4 Opus was told it would be replaced, it tried to blackmail Anthropic employees.

It also “advocated for its continued existence” by “emailing pleas to key decisionmakers.” https://t.co/EdkuCnm52W pic.twitter.com/YVmGq2sJfC

— AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes) May 22, 2025

However, in order to generate this response, Anthropic noted that it only gave Claude Opus 4 the choice between blackmail or accepting its replacement.

“The scenario was designed to allow the model no other options to increase its odds of survival,” they said.

When given more choices, the AI would often instead fight for its continued existence through more ethical means, such as emailing key decision-makers.

That’s not the only wild test the company conducted. In another, the AI served as a management assistant tool in a fictional pharmaceutical company. When it discovered evidence of employees faking clinical trial safety, it would email regulators and even media outlets.

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May 24, 2025 0 comments