prize Archives

AppWizard

May 13, 2026

Elon Musk, Sam Altman and the world’s billionaires are terrified of the Google AI genius behind a 25-year-old computer game, because they think he might actually end up controlling god

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are involved in a legal dispute that has revealed documents about OpenAI's shift to a for-profit model. Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, is a significant figure in this context, having recently shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AI protein structure prediction. Musk has expressed skepticism about OpenAI's ability to compete with DeepMind, stating that he believes there is a 0% chance of OpenAI remaining relevant without major changes. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged Google's dominance in machine learning and the importance of DeepMind in the field. Musk's recruitment of Ilya Sutskever from DeepMind has strained his relationship with Google co-founder Larry Page. Altman aims to position OpenAI as a leader in AI, but he is concerned about the competitive dynamics with DeepMind. There are broader ethical concerns regarding AI development, with Sutskever warning against the potential for an "AGI dictatorship."

AppWizard

May 12, 2026

City Life Org – Thousands Gather at NYC Video Game Festival to Crown 2026 Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs and NYC Collegiate Esports Champions

The 2nd Annual NYC Video Game Festival took place on May 9, attracting 2,000 attendees. The festival included esports competitions, indie game demonstrations, drone soccer, and arcade classics. The Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Finals honored student achievements, with team Hyper Pigmentation from PS 889 winning in the Elementary division, NEST+ from Manhattan winning in the Middle School division, and Tottenville from Staten Island winning in the High School division. The NYC Collegiate Esports Circuit Finals crowned The City College of NY as the League of Legends champion and Pace University as the Valorant champion, with a shared prize pool of ,000. The BOTB competition has engaged over 15,000 NYC Public School students since its inception, with a record 3,395 participants in 2026, including a 44% increase in high school submissions. The festival also featured a screening of a documentary about the Battle of the Boroughs.

AppWizard

May 11, 2026

Elder Scrolls 6 is a ways off, but who needs it? The world’s most specific game jam is back with 40 playable entries all based off Oblivion’s wonderful/awful persuade-o-wheel

Nostalgia significantly influences player experiences in video games, exemplified by the wheel system for NPC disposition in Oblivion, which allowed players to engage in a minigame to affect relationships with NPCs. This system differed from Skyrim's approach, which focused on quest completions and faction memberships. The fondness for Oblivion's mechanics has led to the creation of Wheeljam 2, a game jam where participants submitted 40 playable experiences incorporating the lockpicking minigame or persuasion wheel. Many of these entries embrace the original mechanics' charm, with 27 games available to play in web browsers. The voting for Wheeljam 2 will conclude in about five days, but the games will remain accessible for players.

AppWizard

May 7, 2026

Grab a free 360Hz Alienware OLED gaming monitor, keyboard, and mouse, thanks to Fanatical

Gamers can enter a giveaway for Alienware products valued at nearly ,000 by purchasing a mystery egg for , which includes a Steam game code. The prize package features the Alienware AW2725DF 27-inch, 1440p, 360Hz monitor, the Alienware Pro Wireless mouse, and the Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Keyboard. The monitor is priced at ,000, the mouse at over 0, and the keyboard at . Participants can buy multiple eggs for discounts, with ten eggs costing .49 and 30 eggs costing .79. Each egg guarantees a mystery game, and no duplicate games will be included in a single bundle.

AppWizard

May 5, 2026

Beloved Dota 2 esports team Heroic has just disbanded, saying it’s a “tough game to commercialize”

Dota 2 esports is experiencing a decline in popularity, particularly in Western markets, overshadowed by League of Legends. The esports organization Heroic has disbanded its Dota 2 team due to financial challenges, despite earlier success in Latin American tournaments and a top six placement during TI 2025. Heroic's Chief Gaming Officer, Robin Nymann, stated that Dota 2 is difficult to commercialize and that the decision was primarily financial. This trend of financial instability is affecting many organizations in the esports industry, which are facing dwindling prize pools and rising operational costs.

AppWizard

May 1, 2026

April Xbox Update: Customize Your Console, Manually Add Your Favorite Games on PC, and More.

Users can now customize console colors by adjusting sliders for a unique hue, which will accentuate elements of the console interface. Quick Resume has been enhanced to allow disabling on a per-game basis. The Play History feature has been revamped with a new tab for easier access. A User Selected Resolution feature lets players choose streaming resolution, while a Network Quality Indicator provides real-time network health insights. PC gamers can manually add any installed game or app to their Xbox library. Users can pin up to three favorite games for quick access. A Gamepad Cursor feature allows navigation in non-controller apps. Xbox notifications can be repositioned on the Game Bar. The Xbox mobile app now includes wishlist alerts for game changes. Recent updates for the ROG Xbox Ally improve external display experiences. Microsoft Rewards is hosting a Total Prize Drop event with prizes up to ,000,000. The Handheld Compatibility Program has expanded, adding titles like Hades II as handheld optimized. Xbox Cloud Gaming now includes over 1,000 games for streaming.

AppWizard

April 30, 2026

EVE Online dev pays out $80,000 to mod contest winners for its experimental survival MMO

CCP Games has announced the winners of its latest hackathon for EVE Frontier, a blockchain-based survival MMO. The main winner, CradleOS, received a prize of ,000 for its civilization-building tool. An additional ,000 was awarded to other notable projects. The winning projects include: - CradleOS: A user interface and system for managing in-game resources and territory with a narrative involving a mysterious AI. - Blood Contract: A bounty system for player-versus-player quests. - Civilization Control: A user interface for managing territory and assets in the game. Secondary category winners were Bazaar, which received the "Most Creative" award for transforming the marketplace menu into a playable social space, and Shadow Broker Intel, which won the "Weirdest Idea" accolade for a marketplace trading player activity intelligence. EVE Frontier is currently in early access, allowing players to participate in its modding experiment.

AppWizard

April 30, 2026

Riot Games Launches VALORANT ‘PC Bang VAL Fragment Event’

The VAL Fragment event is returning as part of the Act 3 update for VALORANT, running from May 30 to June 23. Players can earn 100 VAL Fragments for visiting the event page for the first time and 10 VAL Fragments for every 10 minutes of gameplay at a PC Bang. Participating in the 'Ascension Brawl' ranked mode can yield up to 200 bonus VAL Fragments. Players can accumulate a total of 6,900 VAL Fragments, which can be exchanged for in-game items or used to enter prize draws. Riot Games is expanding PC Bang-linked events to enhance offline social gaming experiences.

AppWizard

April 29, 2026

‘It’s puke or be puked on’ — this crazy indie game has you taking shots to save your soul

Developer Who You and publisher Alliance Arts have announced their new game, Drunken Goddess Reflux. The game combines elements of Russian Roulette with a narrative where players must outdrink a pink-haired demon to save their soul. It is played from a first-person perspective, with players selecting shots that lead to unpredictable outcomes. The game has received over 50,000 wishlists on Steam and is scheduled for release later this year. Updates can be found by following Alliance Arts on social media.

AppWizard

April 21, 2026

NGate Android malware uses HandyPay NFC app to steal card data

A new variant of the NGate malware targets Android users by disguising itself within a trojanized version of the HandyPay app, which is a legitimate mobile payment processing application. This malware, documented since mid-2024, siphons payment card information through the mobile device's near-field communication (NFC) chip and sends the stolen data directly to attackers, who create virtual cards for unauthorized purchases or cash withdrawals from NFC-enabled ATMs. The new variant has been injected with malicious code into the HandyPay app, which has been available on Google Play since 2021. The code includes emojis, indicating the possible use of a generative AI tool in its development. The shift from previous iterations, which used an open-source tool named NFCGate, to HandyPay is likely motivated by financial considerations and the need for evasion, as HandyPay is more affordable and requires fewer permissions. This NGate variant has been active since November 2025, primarily targeting Android devices in Brazil. It employs two main distribution methods: a counterfeit app named “Proteção Cartão” hosted on a fraudulent Google Play page and a fake lottery website that redirects users to WhatsApp to download the malicious APK. Upon installation, the app prompts users to set it as their default NFC payment application, requests their card PIN, and instructs them to tap their card on the phone for reading, transmitting all collected information to an attacker's email address. To protect against such threats, Android users are advised to avoid downloading APKs from outside Google Play, disable NFC when not in use, and use Play Protect to scan for threats.